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A review by virgo_reader
Hell's Belle by Annabelle Anders
1.0
This book had a lot of potential, but that's where it ended — potential.
I liked the trope of a shy girl with a rake. I liked that they knew of each other due to their mutual married friends and he seemed to find her blunt honesty charming. I liked that she was a bit of an outcast and a wallflower who was interested in sex and bought books (worth one month of pin money) on just that topic. I even liked that she was caught in a mortifying situation of accidentally hiding in the library, where he walked in to have a tryst.
There was, again, so much potential. Her "experimentations" and scientific nature reminded me of Pippa from the far superior One Good Earl Deserves a Lover by Sarah MacLean.
Unfortunately, a lot of things didn't add up for me. The writing, the pacing, the dialogue — these are three things that count heavily to me, maybe more than character or plot development, because those three things will alter how much I enjoy the reading experience.
There were so many random bits thrown in that you thought may be important later but never came up again. Emily's bookish father or her flighty mother, who Marcus says is basically a harlot and who tried to come onto him. His whole "mystery" past with a woman who claimed to have been pregnant with his child. His relationship with his family — and his family's relationship with Emily, who they immediately looked down on.
I liked the trope of a shy girl with a rake. I liked that they knew of each other due to their mutual married friends and he seemed to find her blunt honesty charming. I liked that she was a bit of an outcast and a wallflower who was interested in sex and bought books (worth one month of pin money) on just that topic. I even liked that she was caught in a mortifying situation of accidentally hiding in the library, where he walked in to have a tryst.
There was, again, so much potential. Her "experimentations" and scientific nature reminded me of Pippa from the far superior One Good Earl Deserves a Lover by Sarah MacLean.
Unfortunately, a lot of things didn't add up for me. The writing, the pacing, the dialogue — these are three things that count heavily to me, maybe more than character or plot development, because those three things will alter how much I enjoy the reading experience.
There were so many random bits thrown in that you thought may be important later but never came up again. Emily's bookish father or her flighty mother, who Marcus says is basically a harlot and who tried to come onto him. His whole "mystery" past with a woman who claimed to have been pregnant with his child. His relationship with his family — and his family's relationship with Emily, who they immediately looked down on.