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A review by quinn_0611
The Saint Who Stole My Heart by Stefanie Sloane
2.0
I have this absolute love of The Scarlet Pimpernel, particularly the 1982 movie starring Anthony Andrews, Ian McKellan and Jane Seymour. Because of this obsession, I can never resist books that are based or inspired by The Scarlet Pimpernel, which is why I picked up this book. Unfortunately the Scarlet-Pimpernel inspired books I’ve read rarely live up to my expectations. The Saint Who Stole My Heart by Stefanie Sloane just couldn’t live up to my expectations, and really left me quite disappointed.
The basic premise: Dash is gorgeous, so all of society thinks he’s an idiot and while Dash has never gone out of his way to correct these silly assumptions, he’s certainly never gone out of his way to play the fool either. He decides to investigate the murder of his friend’s mother (years after it happened) , which is very dangerous. At the same time. Elena has come to Dash’s home because his deceased father left all his books to Elena and her father. Because Dash worries about Elena’s safety, he decides to act the fool so she books it from his house quickly. Such a silly premise, really.
Here are my problems with this:
Why society things Dash is an idiot simply because he’s gorgeous is beyond me. I mean, this makes no sense, especially when the character is a man. Maybe I could have believed it if the character was a woman, because, let’s face it, it doesn’t take much for people to think less of women, especially in this time period. But for Dash, I just couldn’t buy it.
And then when Elena shows up. Elena is a smart, well-read young woman. She’s intelligent. She reads all the time. She shows up thinking that Dash in stupid, and although he attempts to act that way, he really does a terrible job. So I couldn’t understand why Elena kept thinking that Dash was a fool. I just didn’t understand that. There is even a time when Dash’s relative (who I really liked) told Elena that Dash was really intelligent, but she didn’t believe her. And all I could think was, “why not!? What has Dash done that would make you think he is such an idiot?” It was so frustrating.
Another issue was that I thought this book was down-right dull. I kept thinking that suspenseful things would happen, but really, it was such a slow story, and I never got really excited to read it.
The Saint Who Stole My Heart by Stefanie Sloane just didn’t work for me. The premise just wasn’t written well, in my opinion, and the story was really quite bland. And while I did actually like Dash, his aunt, and Elena, it wasn’t enough to make me invested in their lives. If you want a good Scarlet Pimpernel story, I recommend Across a Star-Swept Sea by Diana Peterfreund. It’s the best one out there, I think.This review was originally posted on Quinn's Book Nook
The basic premise: Dash is gorgeous, so all of society thinks he’s an idiot and while Dash has never gone out of his way to correct these silly assumptions, he’s certainly never gone out of his way to play the fool either. He decides to investigate the murder of his friend’s mother (years after it happened) , which is very dangerous. At the same time. Elena has come to Dash’s home because his deceased father left all his books to Elena and her father. Because Dash worries about Elena’s safety, he decides to act the fool so she books it from his house quickly. Such a silly premise, really.
Here are my problems with this:
Why society things Dash is an idiot simply because he’s gorgeous is beyond me. I mean, this makes no sense, especially when the character is a man. Maybe I could have believed it if the character was a woman, because, let’s face it, it doesn’t take much for people to think less of women, especially in this time period. But for Dash, I just couldn’t buy it.
And then when Elena shows up. Elena is a smart, well-read young woman. She’s intelligent. She reads all the time. She shows up thinking that Dash in stupid, and although he attempts to act that way, he really does a terrible job. So I couldn’t understand why Elena kept thinking that Dash was a fool. I just didn’t understand that. There is even a time when Dash’s relative (who I really liked) told Elena that Dash was really intelligent, but she didn’t believe her. And all I could think was, “why not!? What has Dash done that would make you think he is such an idiot?” It was so frustrating.
Another issue was that I thought this book was down-right dull. I kept thinking that suspenseful things would happen, but really, it was such a slow story, and I never got really excited to read it.
The Saint Who Stole My Heart by Stefanie Sloane just didn’t work for me. The premise just wasn’t written well, in my opinion, and the story was really quite bland. And while I did actually like Dash, his aunt, and Elena, it wasn’t enough to make me invested in their lives. If you want a good Scarlet Pimpernel story, I recommend Across a Star-Swept Sea by Diana Peterfreund. It’s the best one out there, I think.This review was originally posted on Quinn's Book Nook