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3.64 AVERAGE
3.64 AVERAGE
So, so fun! Sympathetic characters who leap off the page, *funny* interactions mixed with a real sense of menace..loved it.
dark
funny
informative
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I tagged this as "himbo hero" but the hero is a FAKE himbo. Smart man pretending to be a himbo. Not even a himbo, but an outright dolt. It was extremely funny and I would have enjoyed more it if that lasted the whole book.
Vere is a marquess and agent of the Crown, and his cover is that he is... too stupid... to get up to shenanigans. This man literally goes on investigations and bumbles around spilling things and pretending he doesn't remember his mother's name. That is his disguise. I loved it.
Vere starts off the book investigating Douglas, who is likely a criminal forger and possibly a murderer, and the only way to get himself into Douglas's house is to finagle a forced house party while Douglas is away. His niece, Elissande, is the one that has to deal with the house party, and she sees it as her one shot to find a marriageable husband to escape Douglas's clutches.
This extremely fun setup gets more complicated when Vere gets thoroughly caught in Elissande's trap. Even after seeing her uncle's abuse of her first-hand, he's so angry with her for trapping him into marriage that he can't muster up any sympathy for the longest time. The last quarter of the book is all angst and I really missed some of silliness from the beginning.
Vere is a marquess and agent of the Crown, and his cover is that he is... too stupid... to get up to shenanigans. This man literally goes on investigations and bumbles around spilling things and pretending he doesn't remember his mother's name. That is his disguise. I loved it.
Vere starts off the book investigating Douglas, who is likely a criminal forger and possibly a murderer, and the only way to get himself into Douglas's house is to finagle a forced house party while Douglas is away. His niece, Elissande, is the one that has to deal with the house party, and she sees it as her one shot to find a marriageable husband to escape Douglas's clutches.
This extremely fun setup gets more complicated when Vere gets thoroughly caught in Elissande's trap. Even after seeing her uncle's abuse of her first-hand, he's so angry with her for trapping him into marriage that he can't muster up any sympathy for the longest time. The last quarter of the book is all angst and I really missed some of silliness from the beginning.
This is one of her best yet. Too bad this is only a one off, it would make a great series.
Not as good as [b:Not Quite a Husband|5841500|Not Quite a Husband|Sherry Thomas|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1347729201s/5841500.jpg|6013640] or [b:The Luckiest Lady in London|17290655|The Luckiest Lady in London|Sherry Thomas|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1365189080s/17290655.jpg|23912902] or [b:Ravishing the Heiress|13051602|Ravishing the Heiress (Fitzhugh Trilogy, #2)|Sherry Thomas|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1326225990s/13051602.jpg|18216417], which is my absolute favorite of hers so far. However, it's still damn good.
Not sure how I feel about this one. I struggled to become connected to the main characters and was honestly more intrigued by the romance of the secondary characters. All the mystery kept me intrigued, but it made it feel like less of a historical romance. There were a few things that I didn't predict, but a majority of the book seemed a little too far fetched to make sense.
The book is about two people who live their lives while playing out a role, 24 hours out of the day. Both Vere and Elissande have very good reasons for why they pretend to be someone that they are not. Vere does it to right wrongs, to exact vengeance when he could not save his mother so many years ago. Elissande does it for her survival. The story is about two damaged people who find each other and save each other. Lord Vere, a marquess, is some kind of spy or secret agent for the British Crown. He pretends to be a fool - a good-natured bumbling idiot, but hiding a sharp native intelligence beneath it.
Elissande is a prisoner in her own home, along with her frail aunt whom she tries her best to protect from the nastiness of Elissande's uncle. When the wicked uncle becomes implicated in a crime, Lord Vere and a group of others make their way into his house when he is away, to secretly suss out some clues about his past. And Elissande decides to seize her chance to escape, to save herself and her aunt from the clutches of the uncle. She finds a way to force Vere to marry her, but strangely, the marriage happens within a few days. It had to happen before the uncle returned from his trip. The timeline was just too short. It made the relationship feel rushed how they came together.
Vere and Elissande fall for each other, although this was a bit more believable in the way it was written. It was inevitable that it would happen Elissande needed to be saved. It takes some time and it's not all smooth sailing along the way. The dirty secrets of the past are gradually revealed, both for Vere and for Elissande. And their final coming together in honesty and love is quite touching.
Elissande is a prisoner in her own home, along with her frail aunt whom she tries her best to protect from the nastiness of Elissande's uncle. When the wicked uncle becomes implicated in a crime, Lord Vere and a group of others make their way into his house when he is away, to secretly suss out some clues about his past. And Elissande decides to seize her chance to escape, to save herself and her aunt from the clutches of the uncle. She finds a way to force Vere to marry her, but strangely, the marriage happens within a few days. It had to happen before the uncle returned from his trip. The timeline was just too short. It made the relationship feel rushed how they came together.
Vere and Elissande fall for each other, although this was a bit more believable in the way it was written. It was inevitable that it would happen Elissande needed to be saved. It takes some time and it's not all smooth sailing along the way. The dirty secrets of the past are gradually revealed, both for Vere and for Elissande. And their final coming together in honesty and love is quite touching.
adventurous
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I read this book right after reading Ravising the heriss, witch i looooved. But this one kind of disapointed me. I was expecting a loveable himbo, but got non of that. He was kind offensive at times. I didn´t find their story intresting or engaging after they got married. I expeted fot them to have a different conflict that the one they had, but it still didin´t satisfied me as a reader. I did really enjoyed the reflections that the haracter had about their behavour at the end. They were really insigtful and gave the charachteras another layer. It was ok, but kind of disapointhing after such a good read.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Domestic abuse
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No