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mastersal 's review for:
Enchanting Pleasures
by Eloisa James
Sigh - this book - it started off with such promise and went downhill .. so I averaged my enjoyment in the beginning with the disappointment and came to 1.5 stars in the end.
In this last book in the Pleasures Trilogy, we follow our heroine who is supposed to marry one brother but falls in love with another. She is an heiress from India which was interesting (which made me bump up some books on the East India Company up my TBR so win there) but her hero is pretty bland.
Quill, despite being the older brother, cannot marry our heroine because he is suffering from debilitating headaches following a riding accident.This premise and the promise of some generally strong writing from Ms. James was originally my interest in the book.
Even though the writing isn’t bad here the premise of Quill having a disability is wasted. His headaches hardly make an appearance in the first half which works as a pretty standard romance. He is attracted to Gabby from the beginning - “enchanted” by her spirit (or some such thing - I think he just liked that she was voluptuous) - but he never explains why he is not the prospective groom. It’s not like they don't spend time together or his disability is a state secret. It was just avoided for plot reasons.
All in all I found him a pretty dull character with little personality.
Gabby was thankfully better - I liked her unaffected manners and even her clumsiness (though a little OTT) charmed me. I could see this being a fun romance - and then in the second half her character took a nose dive into imbecility.
Basically, there is an introduction of a miracle Indian cure which gets rid of Quill’s headaches. Ignoring the whole stereotype of mysterious eastern medicine here - Quill clearly doesn’t consent to the treatment - so of course, his loving wife doses him anyway.
Sigh ….
They have a fight and then she drinks the medicine herself and almost dies. And I was wondering if I could just stop reading during her coma because I wanted to kill her. This resolution to their legitimate right about consent and medical treatment was so ham fisted that I screamed - much to the displeasure of my family.
I was also thoroughly annoyed at the lost opportunity here - Ms. James does use this specific plot device to much greater success in her later books so I would chalk this up to her being a new writer. Still I was quite irked at this twist.
For a better historical romance hero with a disability caused by injury see [b:The Sum of All Kisses|15702268|The Sum of All Kisses (Smythe-Smith Quartet, #3)|Julia Quinn|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1356091342l/15702268._SY75_.jpg|21362590] instead (which has its own plotting issues but at least the hero’s injury didn’t get only lip service till it was needed to cause a fight between the couple).
There are also some other issues with the book which were so minor in irksome comparison that I am just listing them here:
- like the side plot with the Maratha prince which just disappeared,
- the fact that our couple were kissing when she was still betrothed to his brother - no no no
- a side romance which got too little page time in the end and was probably more interesting than the main plot
All in all - give this one a pass. Ms. James has done much better in her later works. .This is only for people who are interesting in seeing this author evolution of her craft.
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Sept 27 2019 update:
I just downloaded the audiobook from the library and could not get past 2 sentences. Public service announcement - avoid the audiobook.
I tried about 2% and I now have a headache. I think I'm going to switch to something else to get this out of my head.
In this last book in the Pleasures Trilogy, we follow our heroine who is supposed to marry one brother but falls in love with another. She is an heiress from India which was interesting (which made me bump up some books on the East India Company up my TBR so win there) but her hero is pretty bland.
Quill, despite being the older brother, cannot marry our heroine because he is suffering from debilitating headaches following a riding accident.This premise and the promise of some generally strong writing from Ms. James was originally my interest in the book.
Even though the writing isn’t bad here the premise of Quill having a disability is wasted. His headaches hardly make an appearance in the first half which works as a pretty standard romance. He is attracted to Gabby from the beginning - “enchanted” by her spirit (or some such thing - I think he just liked that she was voluptuous) - but he never explains why he is not the prospective groom. It’s not like they don't spend time together or his disability is a state secret. It was just avoided for plot reasons.
All in all I found him a pretty dull character with little personality.
Gabby was thankfully better - I liked her unaffected manners and even her clumsiness (though a little OTT) charmed me. I could see this being a fun romance - and then in the second half her character took a nose dive into imbecility.
Sigh ….
They have a fight and then she drinks the medicine herself and almost dies. And I was wondering if I could just stop reading during her coma because I wanted to kill her. This resolution to their legitimate right about consent and medical treatment was so ham fisted that I screamed - much to the displeasure of my family.
I was also thoroughly annoyed at the lost opportunity here - Ms. James does use this specific plot device to much greater success in her later books so I would chalk this up to her being a new writer. Still I was quite irked at this twist.
For a better historical romance hero with a disability caused by injury see [b:The Sum of All Kisses|15702268|The Sum of All Kisses (Smythe-Smith Quartet, #3)|Julia Quinn|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1356091342l/15702268._SY75_.jpg|21362590] instead (which has its own plotting issues but at least the hero’s injury didn’t get only lip service till it was needed to cause a fight between the couple).
There are also some other issues with the book which were so minor in irksome comparison that I am just listing them here:
- like the side plot with the Maratha prince which just disappeared,
- the fact that our couple were kissing when she was still betrothed to his brother - no no no
- a side romance which got too little page time in the end and was probably more interesting than the main plot
All in all - give this one a pass. Ms. James has done much better in her later works. .This is only for people who are interesting in seeing this author evolution of her craft.
----------
Sept 27 2019 update:
I just downloaded the audiobook from the library and could not get past 2 sentences. Public service announcement - avoid the audiobook.
I tried about 2% and I now have a headache. I think I'm going to switch to something else to get this out of my head.