Sometimes it can be more frustrating to read a book that just misses the mark than one that is just OK. I can’t help thinking, “this would be perfect if the author just changed this one thing…”
Don’t Tempt Me by Loretta Chase
(2009, Regency Historical) 9/7/10
Grade: 4
After 12 years as a prisoner in a harem, Zoe Lexham has returned to England. She’s an immediate sensation and knows more about sensuality than a proper English lady should. She has no idea how to fit into society, so Lucien, her childhood friend and now the Duke or Marchmont, agrees to help. No one can penetrate his cool demeanor… except Zoe.
This was a difficult book to rate. It was well written and interesting. The characters were likeable and (mostly) consistently written. I enjoyed reading it. But there was something off about the pacing. The book seemed to be going in one direction, then it would head off in another one. Just when the romance was developing and building to a climax, the story would stop and the plot would focus on something totally different. Zoe, in particular, didn’t always behave in a consistent way, especially in the first half of the book. (She’s supposed to be impulsive but she verges on TSTL in a few places.) This makes the book sound worse than it was – I never wanted to put it down, and it was very enjoyable to read. I just found it frustrating in places and wished it was a little more coherent. Good, but not one of Chase’s best.
I also had two more DNF books along the way – Loving a Lost Lord by Mary Jo Putney and A One-of-a-Kind Family by Holly Jacobs. Both had the same flaw – not enough focus on the hero and heroine. The Putney book spent far too much time on the secondary characters and their future books than on the ostensible hero and heroine. The Jacobs book was a very nice book about very nice people, but the romance felt like an afterthought. In both cases, a disappointment, since both books sounded so appealing.
Karen Wheless
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