A witty story filled with love and wicked villains…An interesting read for historical genre fans.

I am not one to give out bad reviews. As a matter of fact, writing a less than stellar review – especially for a debut author – is a kin to pulling teeth for me. I am always afraid that my review will influence a potential reader too much and turn them off a great writer that may have just gotten off to a bad start. I make it a rule to always read at least two books by any author before I pass judgment on their writing style and imagination. So, regardless of the tone of this review, I do encourage readers to give this book a chance.

That being said, let the blood bath begin. I am a stickler for historical accuracy especially when writing period novels where the distinctive themes of a particular era play a heavy role in the enjoyment of a novel. Not only does it seem as if the author did little or no in-depth research when preparing to write this novel but her creativity seriously lacked in many areas. Her writing is not bad; I actually found that I liked her witty prose and the way she writes the perspective of her characters. But there are issues with the plot, inappropriate content, and a romance that missed its mark.

Melissa Goodly is a quiet beauty trapped in the shadow of her stunningly beautiful and promiscuous cousin. After a ball in her cousin's house, the man of her dreams, Anthony Earl of Wickham, compromises her by accident. They are caught and forced to marry. As Melissa falls deeper and deeper in love with her husband and he with her, they must battle his old demons and some very real threats that put Melissa’s life in danger. A white slave ring must be stopped just as the abolitionist movement becomes more and more main stream in 1808 England. Under laying that main plot item, we have Melissa who doesn’t realize that her husband is as attracted to her as she is to him so she attempts to entice him into her bed through any means necessary… including a rather racy courtesans how-to-guide.

The plot is filled with twists and turns, colourful characters and vicious villians. The conflict is too easily remedied and I didn’t feel it was really a good conflict to begin with. There are so many ways around Anthony’s issues that I found I didn’t really care when the conflict was resolved. But unfortunately the themes are so cliché and over done that I found myself bored. I can’t count the number of books where the heroine needs to resort to some dirty, scandalous book in order to attract her husband’s attention. If you like that theme then you may enjoy this book as the author does a good job of incorporating it into the plot. The major issue I had was the fact that the author did not do her research properly and made some serious mistakes when talking about characters and places.

As an example, at one point in the book, the characters go to the theatre. They, however, visit the Globe Theatre which was burnt to the ground in the 1640’s, rebuilt, and torn down again a few years later. It’s as if the author just picked a name of a theatre that she had heard of and used that. The other issue I had was with the naming of the characters. We have a Strathmore (the Queen Mum’s father) a Rothsay (Prince Charles’ title in Scotland), an Earl Spencer (Lady Diana’s family) as well as a Wickham (Austin characters from Pride and Prejudice). I could site a few more but my point is that is seems like the author went onto the royal family’s website and just picked a few names. It is almost an unwritten rule in romance not to use names of living people unless they are being used as themselves, which in this case, they were new characters created by the author. I big no-no for me.

I did not really like the two main characters, Melissa and Anthony, and I had a very hard time getting into their love story. I didn’t feel their love grow as I didn’t really see enough actual positive interaction between them that would have made me feel as if their love was justified. Anthony is dark, damaged, and only slightly attractive as a hero. His past is disgusting and totally turned me off of him, even if he was searching for redemption. Melissa is just too good, too flawless and sickly sweet. I like my heroine’s to be unique and qwerky but with an edge and some good old fashion flaws. The villain, Rothsay, is truly vile but I was disappointed that when he does get his in the end it was a little anti-climactic.

The love scenes between the main characters are tame and somewhat emotional but the rest of the book was filled with some graphic content that is totally inappropriate and took away from the book rather than added to it. There is heat but it is between random characters and in a bondage club. But it did work with the dark, sexual theme the author wanted to create in the book.

Overall, I would not say I greatly disliked this book but I have major issues with little things that some readers wouldn’t necessarily care all that much about. I did find the author to be a good story teller so I would still recommend giving this book a shot and I will read her next in this series when it comes out.

Reviewed by: Danielle