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3.07 AVERAGE
3.07 AVERAGE
awkwardbookworm70's review
5.0
This was a delight to read! A true love story. I enjoyed every minute of Julia & James tale.
kerri_strikes_back's review
3.0
I read this series all out of order (Jane, then Louisa, then this) and this one is kind of long. Sure, that's a nice change from so many romance novels where they meet and are engaged in a week, but. Anyway I still enjoyed it and wanted to go back and read in order afterwards so I could enjoy Louisa knowing more exactly what she's coming from.
melodyplusplus's review
3.0
Very cute, very sweet, enormously blue eyed Christmas romance. Halfway into the book I wondered if I might've picked up a clean romance by mistake, that was the level of sugary naiveté this book delivers.
It's a good book, particularly for a debut novel, but it really wasn't my cup of tea. I'm more of a high stakes drama, give-me-all-the-weepyhorny-feels kind of a reader.
But I would totally recommend Season for Temptation to first time romance readers, particularly if they're just getting out of the angsty teen genres. The love scenes are nice, but not on the overly graphic side. Everything is super consensual. There's no ridiculous talk of hymens. The hero is a high quality beta-Gary Stu. There's every nuance of female friendship and fairy godmothering going on. Come to think of it, this is the book I wish I read when I was fourteen instead of that god awful translated Harlequin I found at a fleamarket for 2 kronor.
So yeah, go get it for your daughter/niece/neighbour's kid or something.
It's a good book, particularly for a debut novel, but it really wasn't my cup of tea. I'm more of a high stakes drama, give-me-all-the-weepyhorny-feels kind of a reader.
But I would totally recommend Season for Temptation to first time romance readers, particularly if they're just getting out of the angsty teen genres. The love scenes are nice, but not on the overly graphic side. Everything is super consensual. There's no ridiculous talk of hymens. The hero is a high quality beta-Gary Stu. There's every nuance of female friendship and fairy godmothering going on. Come to think of it, this is the book I wish I read when I was fourteen instead of that god awful translated Harlequin I found at a fleamarket for 2 kronor.
So yeah, go get it for your daughter/niece/neighbour's kid or something.
plaidsneaks's review
Delightful characters: both charming and amusing forced into unobservant behavior and a lack of communication making the read a bit more angsty than fit.
jelpel's review
2.0
I think this story would have worked better as a novella. After reaching the halfway point, the narration felt repetitive and I just wanted the characters to stop dancing around their feelings. Also the misunderstanding at the end seemed unnecessary, like it was added just to increase the page count.
However, I thought Louisa was cute and am willing to give this author another try.
However, I thought Louisa was cute and am willing to give this author another try.
landslide's review against another edition
emotional
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? Complicated
3.5
mommytaco's review against another edition
It's great writing but Julia just feels so YOUNG and it makes me uncomfortable
janellsutherland's review
4.0
I’ve had this book on my Kindle longer than I can remember; I think I bought it on Courtney Milan’s recommendation and let it linger for a while. Now that I’ve read it, I can understand its appeal: the characters are upstanding and whimsical, the plot is airy, and the finale is almost Shakespearian farce. Given that praise, I must admit that I found it a touch too lighthearted.
The main plot is this: James is a Viscount whose family is under a cloud of scandal. He decides to find a suitable bride and marry quickly in order to establish some respectability.
He finds a pretty woman at a ball, courts her in an expeditious and businesslike fashion, and becomes engaged. The story opens as he visits his fiancee’s house to meet her family.
Julia is not the fiancee, but the stepsister. She enters the parlor where James is waiting, shouting and cursing in an unladylike manner, and James is delighted by her actions. Julia is pleased to have someone smile at her rather than chastise her, especially since she is the talkative type (“She’d never yet found a conversation that couldn’t be diverted if you threw enough words into its flow.”) During tea, James even encourages Julia to eat more than her share of biscuits. I’ll admit that a man who likes to watch a woman eat biscuits is a man worth keeping.
The dilemma, of course, is that James is engaged to Julia’s stepsister Louisa. Added to that, Louisa isn’t even a wicked stepsister; she’s a very nice girl who simply loves books and hates socializing. She’s not necessarily excited about her engagement, but she sees it as something that must be done, and so she goes along with it. Out of propriety, James goes along with it, too.
The characters all interact during James’s house visit, and then later when the girls are in London to prepare for Julia’s season. Louisa remains polite yet withdrawn, Julia yearns for James’s attention, and James imagines licking Julia’s collarbone. It’s a tale of longing told with a comedic tone.
Louisa’s aunt, Lady Irving, lends a delightful touch as en elderly matron who seems rigid and frightening but underneath has a dry sense of humor. “It’s unladylike to talk about,” she admonishes Julia about prostitutes. “For a young miss, that is. I can say whatever I want.” Lady Irving wears giant ostrich feathers in her turban simply to get other women to dress like her, and she travels with a trunk full of rocks to test the household staff. She’s the type who knows the rules of propriety and knows exactly how to break them.
While James and Louisa mentally prepare for a loveless marriage, Julia enlists their help in finding a man for her. A man exactly like James who isn’t engaged to her sister. This leads to some comedic side characters (“There was nothing wrong with Pellington, after all, that a few more pounds of brains wouldn’t fix”) and an almost-scandal, followed by a real scandal, and then a climax of note-passing that manages to be suspenseful and heartbreaking.
I enjoyed the tone of this book, it was obviously written with care, each word precisely placed to elicit a raised eyebrow or a smothered giggle. It didn’t cause me great anxiety or despair, though, didn’t put my emotions through a gigantic wringer. So for a well-crafted, lighthearted tale, I give it a B+.
This review originally posted on Red Hot Books at: http://redhotbooks.com/2014/05/review-season-for-temptation-by-theresa-romain.html
The main plot is this: James is a Viscount whose family is under a cloud of scandal. He decides to find a suitable bride and marry quickly in order to establish some respectability.
He finds a pretty woman at a ball, courts her in an expeditious and businesslike fashion, and becomes engaged. The story opens as he visits his fiancee’s house to meet her family.
Julia is not the fiancee, but the stepsister. She enters the parlor where James is waiting, shouting and cursing in an unladylike manner, and James is delighted by her actions. Julia is pleased to have someone smile at her rather than chastise her, especially since she is the talkative type (“She’d never yet found a conversation that couldn’t be diverted if you threw enough words into its flow.”) During tea, James even encourages Julia to eat more than her share of biscuits. I’ll admit that a man who likes to watch a woman eat biscuits is a man worth keeping.
The dilemma, of course, is that James is engaged to Julia’s stepsister Louisa. Added to that, Louisa isn’t even a wicked stepsister; she’s a very nice girl who simply loves books and hates socializing. She’s not necessarily excited about her engagement, but she sees it as something that must be done, and so she goes along with it. Out of propriety, James goes along with it, too.
The characters all interact during James’s house visit, and then later when the girls are in London to prepare for Julia’s season. Louisa remains polite yet withdrawn, Julia yearns for James’s attention, and James imagines licking Julia’s collarbone. It’s a tale of longing told with a comedic tone.
Louisa’s aunt, Lady Irving, lends a delightful touch as en elderly matron who seems rigid and frightening but underneath has a dry sense of humor. “It’s unladylike to talk about,” she admonishes Julia about prostitutes. “For a young miss, that is. I can say whatever I want.” Lady Irving wears giant ostrich feathers in her turban simply to get other women to dress like her, and she travels with a trunk full of rocks to test the household staff. She’s the type who knows the rules of propriety and knows exactly how to break them.
While James and Louisa mentally prepare for a loveless marriage, Julia enlists their help in finding a man for her. A man exactly like James who isn’t engaged to her sister. This leads to some comedic side characters (“There was nothing wrong with Pellington, after all, that a few more pounds of brains wouldn’t fix”) and an almost-scandal, followed by a real scandal, and then a climax of note-passing that manages to be suspenseful and heartbreaking.
I enjoyed the tone of this book, it was obviously written with care, each word precisely placed to elicit a raised eyebrow or a smothered giggle. It didn’t cause me great anxiety or despair, though, didn’t put my emotions through a gigantic wringer. So for a well-crafted, lighthearted tale, I give it a B+.
This review originally posted on Red Hot Books at: http://redhotbooks.com/2014/05/review-season-for-temptation-by-theresa-romain.html
eleonarain08's review
2.0
I didn't really care for the characters and I had to skim the last chapters because it *dragged* on ; - ;