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3.35 AVERAGE
3.35 AVERAGE
A decent historical romance. Quite interesting. Lots of different POV's. Even from insignificant backgroud characters which can be annoying especially when all they're doing is pulling up their stockings. I'm kind of disappointed the chess obsessed duke didn’t suffer more.
Roberta falls in love with this duke who has done a number of terrible things to women before her and only cares for chess. Since her father has done nothing but embass her to the point the ton think her an ugly hunchback wrench she flees to her cousin's house for her assistance in ensnaring a husband. Her cousin, Jenna, is delighted at the challenge of catching a rake in marriage. But at the same time a friend of hers pleas for her help taking vengeance on the the Chess duke for humiliating her husband to the point of suicide. All while Jenna's brother is falling hopelessly in love with Roberta. While all these tangles made the plot interesting it also felt like there should have been more pages to accommodate it all. Roberta and Damon just barely came out as the main characters. I'm hoping the next book will be more focused on the main couple. Also that the chess duke gets syphilis.
Roberta falls in love with this duke who has done a number of terrible things to women before her and only cares for chess. Since her father has done nothing but embass her to the point the ton think her an ugly hunchback wrench she flees to her cousin's house for her assistance in ensnaring a husband. Her cousin, Jenna, is delighted at the challenge of catching a rake in marriage. But at the same time a friend of hers pleas for her help taking vengeance on the the Chess duke for humiliating her husband to the point of suicide. All while Jenna's brother is falling hopelessly in love with Roberta. While all these tangles made the plot interesting it also felt like there should have been more pages to accommodate it all. Roberta and Damon just barely came out as the main characters. I'm hoping the next book will be more focused on the main couple. Also that the chess duke gets syphilis.
It was entirely too hard to follow all the random characters that kept popping in and their sort of manic conversations
It just made me laugh, and the right people ended up together. It reminded me a little of one of Shakespeare’s comedies in its plot line.
I legitimately thought I was never going to finish this story. There was something about it that just bugged me relentlessly. I didn't feel any emotional depth from any character. I always stick up for the female lead of a story, but Roberta was just --- not remotely likable.
Then again, no one was particularly likable. The most interesting story was the side story about the cheating spouses. But even that was a bit of a farce. I had high hopes for my first Eloisa James book, but this was not a good jumping off point.
Then again, no one was particularly likable. The most interesting story was the side story about the cheating spouses. But even that was a bit of a farce. I had high hopes for my first Eloisa James book, but this was not a good jumping off point.
This was the July main book for the Vaginal Fantasy Book Club. It was a fun, quick read and might have kept me up until 3am tearing through the book. The first page put me off a little due to all the poetic words I had to look up (hooray for kindle's built in dictionaries!) but I decided to give the book a chance to see if that carried on throughout. Once Roberta made it to London the story really seemed to reach it's stride and I found myself compelled to know which suitor Roberta would end up with. The whole novel really read like a play to me which probably aided in it being a quick read. I particularly liked the chapters that were entirely made up of cards being sent from house to house. I found the ending satisfactory which was nice compared to the cliff hangers some of my other reads have been leaving me with lately.
I think this one suffers a little from first book-itis. So much time is spent on supporting characters because they'll be the protagonists of future books that we lose out a bit on Roberta and Damon's romance. That said, I think James did a good job on the characterizations of each of the characters whose perspectives we get to see, and I liked each of them.
I really liked Damon and Teddy and enjoyed seeing Roberta unwittingly become a stepmother. There could have been less talk about chess (though, of course, this is coming from someone who knows next to nothing about said game).
I really liked Damon and Teddy and enjoyed seeing Roberta unwittingly become a stepmother. There could have been less talk about chess (though, of course, this is coming from someone who knows next to nothing about said game).
I think I like Eloisa James Fairy Tale series better.
This one had a cute story and some witty banter. I liked the characters and how chess was all the rage.
Roberta was kind of ehh, but she had her moments where I found her to be funny.
Adored the Early of Gryffyn he was well written and he and his son where very entertaining.
I think I enjoyed Jemma and Elijah more than the other characters and I want to know how their story plays out.
I think the book seemed to do well in setting up the characters for the rest of the series.
Cute story, there were points where I felt I had to push myself to continue but it was worth the read and it seems to have set up the series nicely by introducing some intriguing characters that I’d like to read more about. I’m looking forward to continuing this series especially when I get to Jemma and Elijah’s story.
I have mixed feelings about this book. In the first half, the author introduces a number of characters and interesting threads, but in the second half of the story, many of these characters seem to have been abandoned. Disappointing!
Blah blah blah CHESS blah CHESS blah de blah. It wasn't the worst, but it's fairly rare that I skim over parts.
I'm glad this wasn't the first book I'd read by this author, because I might not have picked up another one. I'd say it's 3 1/2 stars - some good banter and entertaining secondary characters (some of which I know show up in later books), but the romance part felt unearned, and there was a character choice at the beginning that never seemed explained, and therefore I couldn't buy into the heroine's story.