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mrsbooknerd 's review for:
Enchanting Pleasures
by Eloisa James
I am not sure that I would characterise this novel as an ‘Enchanting Pleasure’ but more of a ‘Prolonged Torture.’ Perhaps ‘Torture’ is a tad too strong, maybe ‘Anguish’ is more suitable. Either way, my sense of relief when I turned the final page was swift and all-consuming. I feel annoyed that I have a negative view of this novel, because I have read other Eloisa James novels which I have given such high ratings, so felt all the more disappointed with this novel.
In general I would say that the main failing of this novel was its length, there was not nearly enough ‘action’ to pad out 400+ pages, and I believe that I would have been far more favourable had a hundred or two pages been cut. There was just a lot of faff and repetition which just bored and frustrated me – how many times would Quill and Gabby misunderstand each other during conversation? How many times would they be in situations where the chaperone caught them or failed to do her job? How many times did Gabby have to have rational conversations about how sinful and disgusting sex was?
I did love Quill, I thought his story was unique and he was the perfect Regency Hero. Attractive, powerful, moody yet an utter sweetheart beneath the scowls… A man of means who was possessive and lusty and just… Lovely.
Then there was Gabby…
I can’t think of another Regency Heroine that I have hated more. She was irritating and I felt that she wasn’t properly characterised. At the start of the novel she was clumsy and unkempt, yet by the middle of the novel these traits were never mentioned again beyond her hair falling constantly out of her clips. (I mean honestly, if her hair fell out of its clips once, it fell out a thousand times, by the end I was picturing it as strands of jelly it was supposedly so slippery)
In one chapter Gabby would reel off important facts regarding Indian Politics and in the next she couldn’t take a hint that she was tubby or that Peter didn’t like her, or that she wasn’t quite acting like an English Lady. On one hand she was running round kissing Quill - without a thought for Peter who she supposedly loved - and throwing herself at poor Peter in public, and then spent the rest of the novel screeching about how sinful and disgusting sex was.
I couldn’t stand how easily she fell in love with Peter, then how resolutely she stuck to these emotions despite kissing Quill and forming a bond with him, and then she just as easily fell out of love with Peter and into love with Quill… Gabby as a character was up and down more than one of Madame Careme’s bodices.
In truth I view Quill as our lead narrator and hero - swoon - and Gabby as a minor inconvenience in the telling of his story.
All of this seems very negative, I know but honestly, can I say that it is the worst Regency Romance novel that I have read? No. Was it with a sense of relief that I closed the book for the final time? Perhaps. Will I continue to read Eloisa James? Absolutely.
In general I would say that the main failing of this novel was its length, there was not nearly enough ‘action’ to pad out 400+ pages, and I believe that I would have been far more favourable had a hundred or two pages been cut. There was just a lot of faff and repetition which just bored and frustrated me – how many times would Quill and Gabby misunderstand each other during conversation? How many times would they be in situations where the chaperone caught them or failed to do her job? How many times did Gabby have to have rational conversations about how sinful and disgusting sex was?
I did love Quill, I thought his story was unique and he was the perfect Regency Hero. Attractive, powerful, moody yet an utter sweetheart beneath the scowls… A man of means who was possessive and lusty and just… Lovely.
Then there was Gabby…
I can’t think of another Regency Heroine that I have hated more. She was irritating and I felt that she wasn’t properly characterised. At the start of the novel she was clumsy and unkempt, yet by the middle of the novel these traits were never mentioned again beyond her hair falling constantly out of her clips. (I mean honestly, if her hair fell out of its clips once, it fell out a thousand times, by the end I was picturing it as strands of jelly it was supposedly so slippery)
In one chapter Gabby would reel off important facts regarding Indian Politics and in the next she couldn’t take a hint that she was tubby or that Peter didn’t like her, or that she wasn’t quite acting like an English Lady. On one hand she was running round kissing Quill - without a thought for Peter who she supposedly loved - and throwing herself at poor Peter in public, and then spent the rest of the novel screeching about how sinful and disgusting sex was.
I couldn’t stand how easily she fell in love with Peter, then how resolutely she stuck to these emotions despite kissing Quill and forming a bond with him, and then she just as easily fell out of love with Peter and into love with Quill… Gabby as a character was up and down more than one of Madame Careme’s bodices.
In truth I view Quill as our lead narrator and hero - swoon - and Gabby as a minor inconvenience in the telling of his story.
All of this seems very negative, I know but honestly, can I say that it is the worst Regency Romance novel that I have read? No. Was it with a sense of relief that I closed the book for the final time? Perhaps. Will I continue to read Eloisa James? Absolutely.