Reviews

I'm afraid I did not like this book. I don't know why but the predictability and characters annoyed me. the plot felt silly to me. I guess I have read too many historical romance books in a row and am now in need of a book in a different genre. I don't think I'll continue to read this series.

katyanaish's review

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3.0

***3.5***

I wanted to like this book, I really did. I liked the hero... most of the time. Sometimes he was kind of a prat.

But I didn't like Jane. I'd been watching her with a wary eye in the previous books, because I was worried that she was going to be the inevitable perfect, precious heroine. And of course, she was.

Jane's biggest problem in life is being beautiful. I'm sorry, but that's an eye-rolling problem. And yes, as with all the heroines in this series, Jane has had some terrible things in her past. But Jane has always, always, been rescued ... by the other heroines in this series. Because she's just so beautiful and precious and perfect, and everyone just dotes on her.

*sigh*

She's spoiled and headstrong and entitled. We open with her rescuing a stray ratty dog from the street, and when she brings it home, she informs Lady Beatrice - a truly wonderful woman who has been everything generous and loving - that she's not really asking permission to keep him. Props to her for rescuing a dog, but that encounter really sums up Jane. She's stupid - charging right into a group of street toughs, alone - arrogant, entitled, and always gets her way because she's just so precious.

She's tiresome and tedious... honestly, I just have no tolerance for this type of character.

It doesn't help that every single plotline plays out in a perfect, sunshine-y glitter rainbows way. I feel like I am drowning in a pool of rainbow-scented glitter Care Bear emotions.

The evil family that abandoned them to die?

Spoiler

Oh but of course, dear grandmother never ever ever even knew! And Jane was right to demand that Abby hear her out, of course she was! I'm sorry, but that's stupid, and overly 2-dimensional. At best, grandmother was a vacant idiot who never even TRIED to look for her daughter. At worst, she lied through her teeth about not knowing, because now she's all alone and can't bear it. No. Just no. It particularly pisses me off because this was a good plotline - this family who had abandoned their children and grandchildren to die, out of sheer stubborn pride - and it got tied up in a neat little bow. Oh look, everyone's dead, except poor old grandma who simply had no idea! All's forgiven, please come give me away at the wedding!

It was even more upsetting to me that the ACTUAL emotional arc of this SHOULD have been Abby's. She was the 12 year old who watched her father fall apart as her mother died horribly from a curable disease... if only they had money. She was the 12 year old who held things together, so she and her 6 year old sister could survived. She worked, and set aside herself and her needs ENTIRELY. And then her selfish, disloyal, bitch sister just demands that she let the past be in the past. Frankly, I wanted her to throw Jane out, in that scene.

Spoiler

Can't find the un-murdered lady? No worries, Jane to the rescue! Of course, our clever Jane can just hustle out there and solve the problem in, like, an afternoon... despite countless others trying for weeks. Because she's our precious, perfect super-heroine! Clearly, the government should give her a job immediately, because she'll bring about world peace over tea.

It's just so ridiculous.

Even worse was her inconsistency... which is a hallmark of precious heroines, because the author tries very hard to make them the best of all things.

Jane is clever enough to want to marry for stability, and so utterly determined to avoid love. I can respect that, actually, with her history. But then she's this utterly loving, wise fount of emotional wisdom.

Spoiler

Rescuing ugly dogs, taking in strays, lecturing her jilted fiance on his need for love, blah blah blah.

Look. If you are going to have her be jaded enough to insist that a marriage of convenience is the only acceptable option for her, then you can't have her also be some kind of emotional guru. That's ridiculous. Further, she was insanely disingenuous - she has the nerve to

Spoiler

bitch that Cambury doesn't trust her, when she's been meeting a man in the park daily and was LITERALLY caught kissing him (Cambury himself caught her). I'm sorry, but a person who is being disloyal to her betrothed doesn't get to gripe about his assumption that she'll be disloyal.

Again, ridiculous.

Ugh.

I probably should give it less than 3.5 stars, but I like this series.

And I'm looking forward to Daisy.

jackiehorne's review

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4.0

3.5 A fairly typical regency plotline, with a girl convinced she shouldn't marry for love falling for a seeming ne'er-do-well who, of course, is really a good guy underneath it all. But Gracie's strong writing adds a pleasing gloss to the conventional tale.

whatcaroread's review against another edition

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slow-paced

Strong character development? It's complicated

4.0

nellesnightstand1's review

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4.0

I just love Anne Gracie! Zach is scrumptiosly mysterious and Jane, she needed a man who was all "wrong" for her to fall for! Some might feel that Jane was cheating because she was bethrothed before they met but I didn't feel that her bethrothed had any emotion at al invested in her so it was easy to discount.

Loved every minute of it!! Can't believe I waited so long to read it!

addieray's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful lighthearted sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

nellesnightstand's review

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4.0

Loved every minute of it!! Can't believe I waited so long to read it!

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