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A review by bracketedromance
The Art of Sinning by Sabrina Jeffries
2.0
The Art of Sinning is a decent romance that follows a well worn path but doesn't contain much originality or chemistry.
As an avid romance reader, I'm well aware of the tried and true formulas and tropes and I enjoy them, but the characters have to be interesting or funny or exciting, the chemistry and banter amusing and entertaining. Unfortunately, there wasn't much about this book that I hadn't read before, and the characters were so cliche as to offer almost nothing new.
Jeremy is the hero and is haunted by his past. In his first sexual encounter with a widow they conceived a child and he did the honorable thing and married her, agreeing to give up his dreams of becoming an artist. His wife and child died during a difficult birth and he blamed his father, ran from home, and has been roaming and avoiding emotional attachments ever since. Yvette is the heroine, a tall dark haired woman with an unusual hobby of writing slang dictionaries and due to a brush with a blackmailing fortune hunter in her past, is very wary of rogues. Her height and demeanor do not invite many suitors and she's deeply insecure about it while being prideful enough to bristle should anyone point this out to her.
My biggest problem with the book is that I just had no idea why Jeremy or Yvette liked each other beyond wanting to sleep together. There is so little about there conversation that develops emotional intimacy, friendship, or warmth. After a kiss, Jeremy completely shuts down emotionally and they spend most of their time together with him deflecting her inquiries about him and she seems not to confide in him much either. Which made it difficult to believe that after two weeks they were in love. How could they be? It was also rather frustrating that the author kept adding in commentary about how they were so good at banter and parrying each other, but there was very little evidence in the dialogue.
It was also annoying that Yvette was so insecure. The first half of the book every conversation they had revolved around her wanting to be pretty and be "more than just a model" and have Jeremy constantly prove to her that he wanted to have sex with her and then her being disappointed that he didn't desire her enough to marry her. Which, of course not, they met two days ago! Her neediness and insecurity were frustrating when she was also painted as being an incredibly strong, self-assured person who managed the men around her. I know those things can go side by side, but I wanted her to have a little more self respect, or I wanted a higher percentage of their conversations not to involve her saying "no man wants a woman like me" or fishing for compliments. It got very tedious.
It was also a little strange that the obstacle at the end was Jeremy realizing that he was still hung up on the death of his wife and child....duh. The first scene of the book is him being nearly incapable of coping at a wedding because it reminded him of these bad memories. He's admitted throughout the book he's been running from his past and it's the reason he didn't want to marry and didn't think he was capable of loving anyone. How can that possibly be a huge reveal for himself? It was well done in terms of how it was shown to him, but since his internal monologue had been telling us this revelation the ENTIRE book, and he actually said it out loud to Yvette several times, I was just put off by the fact that it was treated like some sort of surprise. I wish it had been written as not a surprise to him, but exclusively as Yvette realizing the depth of his issue and deciding she needed more from him. This is half of how it was written, but I wish this had been the main focus. The issue was then resolved in less than 24 hours, which begs the question, how? He spent 12 years incapable of getting past it and just like that someone says "you're not over it" and he just figures his shit out emotionally in 12 hours??? I mean I think the idea was that his love for Yvette and his fear of losing her fixed everything, but it wasn't convincing since I didn't really understand what it is they loved about each other. And all he did was paint over something on a painting and that was it. Hello? What revelation did he have that got him past his guilt? What got him past his fear? Touching up a painting? Really?
I also didn't love that the hero and Yvette's brother were putting together a club to investigate then male suitors chasing their sisters. I think it was supposed to be protective and ~sweet~ but in the book it felt very condescending.
All in all, the book is fine, but not compelling. There was nothing egregiously off putting about the characters or plot, there just wasn't much to it either.
As an avid romance reader, I'm well aware of the tried and true formulas and tropes and I enjoy them, but the characters have to be interesting or funny or exciting, the chemistry and banter amusing and entertaining. Unfortunately, there wasn't much about this book that I hadn't read before, and the characters were so cliche as to offer almost nothing new.
Jeremy is the hero and is haunted by his past. In his first sexual encounter with a widow they conceived a child and he did the honorable thing and married her, agreeing to give up his dreams of becoming an artist. His wife and child died during a difficult birth and he blamed his father, ran from home, and has been roaming and avoiding emotional attachments ever since. Yvette is the heroine, a tall dark haired woman with an unusual hobby of writing slang dictionaries and due to a brush with a blackmailing fortune hunter in her past, is very wary of rogues. Her height and demeanor do not invite many suitors and she's deeply insecure about it while being prideful enough to bristle should anyone point this out to her.
My biggest problem with the book is that I just had no idea why Jeremy or Yvette liked each other beyond wanting to sleep together. There is so little about there conversation that develops emotional intimacy, friendship, or warmth. After a kiss, Jeremy completely shuts down emotionally and they spend most of their time together with him deflecting her inquiries about him and she seems not to confide in him much either. Which made it difficult to believe that after two weeks they were in love. How could they be? It was also rather frustrating that the author kept adding in commentary about how they were so good at banter and parrying each other, but there was very little evidence in the dialogue.
It was also annoying that Yvette was so insecure. The first half of the book every conversation they had revolved around her wanting to be pretty and be "more than just a model" and have Jeremy constantly prove to her that he wanted to have sex with her and then her being disappointed that he didn't desire her enough to marry her. Which, of course not, they met two days ago! Her neediness and insecurity were frustrating when she was also painted as being an incredibly strong, self-assured person who managed the men around her. I know those things can go side by side, but I wanted her to have a little more self respect, or I wanted a higher percentage of their conversations not to involve her saying "no man wants a woman like me" or fishing for compliments. It got very tedious.
It was also a little strange that the obstacle at the end was Jeremy realizing that he was still hung up on the death of his wife and child....duh. The first scene of the book is him being nearly incapable of coping at a wedding because it reminded him of these bad memories. He's admitted throughout the book he's been running from his past and it's the reason he didn't want to marry and didn't think he was capable of loving anyone. How can that possibly be a huge reveal for himself? It was well done in terms of how it was shown to him, but since his internal monologue had been telling us this revelation the ENTIRE book, and he actually said it out loud to Yvette several times, I was just put off by the fact that it was treated like some sort of surprise. I wish it had been written as not a surprise to him, but exclusively as Yvette realizing the depth of his issue and deciding she needed more from him. This is half of how it was written, but I wish this had been the main focus. The issue was then resolved in less than 24 hours, which begs the question, how? He spent 12 years incapable of getting past it and just like that someone says "you're not over it" and he just figures his shit out emotionally in 12 hours??? I mean I think the idea was that his love for Yvette and his fear of losing her fixed everything, but it wasn't convincing since I didn't really understand what it is they loved about each other. And all he did was paint over something on a painting and that was it. Hello? What revelation did he have that got him past his guilt? What got him past his fear? Touching up a painting? Really?
I also didn't love that the hero and Yvette's brother were putting together a club to investigate then male suitors chasing their sisters. I think it was supposed to be protective and ~sweet~ but in the book it felt very condescending.
All in all, the book is fine, but not compelling. There was nothing egregiously off putting about the characters or plot, there just wasn't much to it either.