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3.51 AVERAGE
3.51 AVERAGE
No está mal, el final es divertido y todo. La historia no gira exclusivamente alrededor de Bea, sino más bien alrededor de Steven. La historia de Esme y la de Helene son igual de interesantes o más.
Ahora entiendo el porqué del título! Eloisa James ha vuelto a demostrar que es muy buena.
Ahora entiendo el porqué del título! Eloisa James ha vuelto a demostrar que es muy buena.
emotional
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The story between Esme and Sebastian captures the whole essence of the highs and lows pregnancy and early motherhood. The growing love and Sebastian’s solid ever-understanding presences is powerfully described and heart catching. The characters grow in each book coming to an amazing peak in this book.
The other characters in this book (Arabella, Helene, mrs Cable, the Marchioness, the goat) also offer a fun backdrop to this novel. I have nothing to say about Bea and Stephen’s story because it’s so non-descript apart from the whole fake-fiancé, fake-mistress triangle. If Bea wasn’t in this book no one would miss her
The other characters in this book (Arabella, Helene, mrs Cable, the Marchioness, the goat) also offer a fun backdrop to this novel. I have nothing to say about Bea and Stephen’s story because it’s so non-descript apart from the whole fake-fiancé, fake-mistress triangle. If Bea wasn’t in this book no one would miss her
This one didn't work all that well for me. Eloisa James is an excellent writer, but I just didn't like the characters, and I didn't find their antics entertaining.
I'll start out by saying this: The complexity of the relationships in this book were fun to follow-- there was a lot going on, and the intricacies were well constructed. I loved Arabella, even if I didn't agree with, well pretty much anything she did. I hated Esme's mother exactly as much as was intended. The writing was fantastic, as I expect from Eloisa James.
I love character-driven books. In particular, that's what i enjoy about romance novels-- the ones I enjoy give me a chance to explore the world of another person. For this to work for me I have to like or identify with the character. In a different sort of book, I can deal with an unpleasant heroine, but not in a romance.
As you can guess, I didn't like the main characters here.
I was almost completely neutral on the only real male character, Stephen Fairfax-Lacey. I didn't hate the other characters. They'd have been entertaining enough secondary characters, if I'd had a main character I could relate to. In fact, if you like a little more edge to your romance heroines, you might well love this one.
But Beatrix uses her sexuality as a weapon, and pursues an encounter that will undermine a friendship. Esme orders away the man she loves, and then pouts because he actually goes. So she undercuts the arrangements she made with a friend to salvage her own pride. And so on.
In the end, I'm certain it isn't a bad book, just one that didn't completely work for me. In the ways it didn't follow the usual structure of a romance novel, it may not appeal to some, where others may appreciate the way that it breaks out of the usual patterns.
I'll start out by saying this: The complexity of the relationships in this book were fun to follow-- there was a lot going on, and the intricacies were well constructed. I loved Arabella, even if I didn't agree with, well pretty much anything she did. I hated Esme's mother exactly as much as was intended. The writing was fantastic, as I expect from Eloisa James.
I love character-driven books. In particular, that's what i enjoy about romance novels-- the ones I enjoy give me a chance to explore the world of another person. For this to work for me I have to like or identify with the character. In a different sort of book, I can deal with an unpleasant heroine, but not in a romance.
As you can guess, I didn't like the main characters here.
I was almost completely neutral on the only real male character, Stephen Fairfax-Lacey. I didn't hate the other characters. They'd have been entertaining enough secondary characters, if I'd had a main character I could relate to. In fact, if you like a little more edge to your romance heroines, you might well love this one.
But Beatrix uses her sexuality as a weapon, and pursues an encounter that will undermine a friendship. Esme orders away the man she loves, and then pouts because he actually goes. So she undercuts the arrangements she made with a friend to salvage her own pride. And so on.
In the end, I'm certain it isn't a bad book, just one that didn't completely work for me. In the ways it didn't follow the usual structure of a romance novel, it may not appeal to some, where others may appreciate the way that it breaks out of the usual patterns.
Didn't really care about the ostensible "main couple" in this one. Still more interested in the relationship of Esme and Sebastian (and to a lesser degree Helene and Rees who are the focus of the next book).
So far this is the best book in the series. I loved Bea and Esme's aunt. I love how Esme and Sebastian's relationship has progressed through the series. Even the "villains", Esme's mother and Mrs. Cable, were fun to read about because they got their comeuppance in the end. And of course the presence of Esme throughout the books in this series is the glue that holds them together.
funny
medium-paced
This was my favourite novel so far in the Duchess Quartet. While Bea and Stephen weren't solely the main characters, their relationship was far more engaging than Cam and Gina's or Simon's and Henrietta's. I can't put my finger precisely on why - part of me thinks the goat and its nibbling tendencies was the clincher - but I would happily have read two hundred more pages of their dialogue and love scenes. When Bea is first introduced we see a young woman, dressed to the nines and revelling in her reputation as it reflects her true personality and she's reached the conclusion that she will not pretend to have a virtue she doesn't have. Straight off the bat she is a Marmite character -you either love her or you hate her. I appreciated her honesty and bluntness from the start and I think her attitude is applicable to modern views today surrounding make-up, clothes and the idea that a woman can't dress for her own benefit but only ever to attract a mate. Bea shoves that archaic belief down the water-closet and lets it drown. Even as her encounters with Stephen escalate and heat up, she doesn't give in to his criticism. In fact it is Stephen who realises that Bea is not the sultry, vulgar siren she's portrayed to be by society and thank God for that. His viewpoint in the first few chapters was infuriating. I had to grit my teeth when I read the part about him wanting a mistress who was virginal because the experienced ones just weren't clean and pure enough for his tender constitution. Gag. He came to his senses soon enough. He did redeem himself the slightest bit when he got excited about playing a character in his very own comedy play/opera. His giddiness was so like a child's that I couldn't help re-thinking my first impression of him just a tad. Then he made it impossible to hate him, what with his reaction to Helene's trouble and how sweet he was about the whole thing. Then he remained quiet when Esme put her foot in her mouth and played along with her deception too. Like Sebastian, Stephen change fundamentally as a character as the story continues. Not as much, that's true, and over a shorter space of time but that's only because Stephen doesn't have as far to go as Sebastian did. Nevertheless Bea and Stephen get their happily ever after when Stephen decks Sandhurst and locks himself in the library to ravish his new wife.
I'll give a quick account of my thoughts on Helene and Rees before I launch into Sebastian and Esme, my all-time favourite couple. Helene attempts to start an affair with Stephen and fails miserably. James kind of leads us to believe that it's because Helene hasn't felt pleasure and passion with the right man yet but I have high hopes for the next novel. I did not like Rees before this book, even with his slight redemption in the previous one when Henrietta confronted him, but there's something to be said for a man who launches himself into a carriage without a second thought for his state of dress because he's received a note saying his estranged wife is on her deathbed. Later on also, when they are in Helene's bedchamber and both fall to silence when their vulnerabilities are exposed...well, that opens us some territory in terms of rekindling their relationship. It leaves the door open just enough to make whatever happens in the final book plausible (or so I hope). I am looking forward to seeing Helene with more backbone and assertiveness because as she is at the moment, I'm a little bored. There's only so much mild-mannered, stay-out-the-way, yearning-for-a-child I can take.
But enough of that. Sebastian and Esme. Each novel puts them higher and higher on a pedestal as a couple. I hated the fact that Esme cheated with her best friend's fiance in the first book and I haven't forgotten that. Her guilt and reluctance to have a formal relationship with Sebastian in the second book was justified too but God, did it annoy me. It's obvious they're perfect together once Sebastian discarded his obsession with reputation and propriety and he worships the ground she walks on. 'A Wild Pursuit' takes this mistakes and reasons-not-to, screws them up into a ball and launches them into the nearest dustbin. The slate, as they say, is wiped clean. Esme, in her quest to become a respectable widow and mother, finally achieves all she's set her hopes on and realises it's stupid and unsatisfying. We knew it all along but it was damn satisfying to have Esme realise it too. I hated her mother - she was condescending, judgemental and she used her child's death as an excuse for deliberately hurting others. The book makes a half-hearted attempt to justify her grim personality but I don't care. She was a terrible character. Sebastian's mum, on the other hand, surprised me. I was expecting James to go the same way with her as she did with Fanny but that wasn't the case and I was pleasantly surprised. The engagement scene at the end, I will admit, left me disappointed. I was hoping for something more dramatic for the end of Esme and Sebastian's story after all the delicious scenes we were given but no mater. The first epilogue was rich with overbearing family cuteness and a promise of happily ever after. Making William Sebastian's little boy was the icing on the cake, even if the whole world will still see William as Miles's heir.
'A Wild Pursuit' deserves four stars and I've awarded them. It didn't quite have me on the edge of my seat but there was enough humour and naughtiness to push it ahead of its predecessors. As I said, the goat clinched it for me (although I wish James had included the scene immediately following the goat's theft of Bea's dress).
I'll give a quick account of my thoughts on Helene and Rees before I launch into Sebastian and Esme, my all-time favourite couple. Helene attempts to start an affair with Stephen and fails miserably. James kind of leads us to believe that it's because Helene hasn't felt pleasure and passion with the right man yet but I have high hopes for the next novel. I did not like Rees before this book, even with his slight redemption in the previous one when Henrietta confronted him, but there's something to be said for a man who launches himself into a carriage without a second thought for his state of dress because he's received a note saying his estranged wife is on her deathbed. Later on also, when they are in Helene's bedchamber and both fall to silence when their vulnerabilities are exposed...well, that opens us some territory in terms of rekindling their relationship. It leaves the door open just enough to make whatever happens in the final book plausible (or so I hope). I am looking forward to seeing Helene with more backbone and assertiveness because as she is at the moment, I'm a little bored. There's only so much mild-mannered, stay-out-the-way, yearning-for-a-child I can take.
But enough of that. Sebastian and Esme. Each novel puts them higher and higher on a pedestal as a couple. I hated the fact that Esme cheated with her best friend's fiance in the first book and I haven't forgotten that. Her guilt and reluctance to have a formal relationship with Sebastian in the second book was justified too but God, did it annoy me. It's obvious they're perfect together once Sebastian discarded his obsession with reputation and propriety and he worships the ground she walks on. 'A Wild Pursuit' takes this mistakes and reasons-not-to, screws them up into a ball and launches them into the nearest dustbin. The slate, as they say, is wiped clean. Esme, in her quest to become a respectable widow and mother, finally achieves all she's set her hopes on and realises it's stupid and unsatisfying. We knew it all along but it was damn satisfying to have Esme realise it too. I hated her mother - she was condescending, judgemental and she used her child's death as an excuse for deliberately hurting others. The book makes a half-hearted attempt to justify her grim personality but I don't care. She was a terrible character. Sebastian's mum, on the other hand, surprised me. I was expecting James to go the same way with her as she did with Fanny but that wasn't the case and I was pleasantly surprised. The engagement scene at the end, I will admit, left me disappointed. I was hoping for something more dramatic for the end of Esme and Sebastian's story after all the delicious scenes we were given but no mater. The first epilogue was rich with overbearing family cuteness and a promise of happily ever after. Making William Sebastian's little boy was the icing on the cake, even if the whole world will still see William as Miles's heir.
'A Wild Pursuit' deserves four stars and I've awarded them. It didn't quite have me on the edge of my seat but there was enough humour and naughtiness to push it ahead of its predecessors. As I said, the goat clinched it for me (although I wish James had included the scene immediately following the goat's theft of Bea's dress).
Esme is close to giving birth when her aunt decides to through a house party for her inviting Lord Stephen as a possible new husband for her. But Lady Beatrix decides she wants Stephen after she's already coached her friend Helene into trying to seduce him to tick off her estranged husband, at some point every woman in this story is after this man for something which was just to much in the long run.
We finally married off 2 characters that started in book one which was good because they were getting annoying. Honestly the 2 supposed MC's didn't seem that central to the story making this my least favorite of this series so far.
We finally married off 2 characters that started in book one which was good because they were getting annoying. Honestly the 2 supposed MC's didn't seem that central to the story making this my least favorite of this series so far.
funny
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes