Undone (A Fiery Tale)

Undone (A Fiery Tale) by Lila DiPasqua

Simon Boulenger is working as a privateer for France during the war against Spain and hoping that one day he will earn a knighthood and become a member of the aristocracy. Growing up dirt poor and alone left him desirous of a better future and he has worked his entire life to achieve a peerage. While in Italy he spies a beautiful woman singing an enchanting song and when he follows her to a convent he sees the Mother Superior abusing her. He quickly grabs her and her friend and whisks them back to his ship, determined to save her. But Angelica has no desire to be saved and is horrified when she discovers that she is on a boat back to her homeland. For years she has hidden in the convent from her stepfather, a French aristocrat placed high in the court of Louis XIV, who abused her horribly while she was in his charge. When she wakes up onboard a ship she knows she must hide her identity from the handsome captain who has kidnapped her, but she cannot resist the attraction that flares between them. Simon is taken in by Angelica's charms, but knowing that she is a virgin means he keeps his hands off of her even though he has never felt this way about a woman before.

Simon and his crew own an island in the Caribbean, Marguerite, and have formed a kind of commune there with Simon as their leader, where everyone lives in freedom and equality away from the strict hierarchy of the French court. He takes Angelica there and she quickly becomes popular with everyone in the community by taking on the role of teacher and winning the island beauty pageant. She decides that she will take advantage of the freedom and this brief chance of happiness and decides to seduce/ give into Simon and his seduction. Simon cannot help but feel guilty, but is surprised to find that Angelica is keeping a secret from him and when it is revealed he knows that he must avenge her and the wrong that her step father did. Simon has his own score to settle back in France with the King's finance minister and in one final act of gallantry he sets aside his own desires for the good of France and to make Angelica happy. Angelica knows that the only thing that matters is a life with Simon, aristocracy be damned, and together they forge a future on their tropical island paradise.

Angelica was a hard character for me to explore because she seemed completely unable to make up her own mind about what she was like. She ran away from her horrible situation and France and escaped to a convent where she planned to stay, hidden away from the world for the rest of her life and I could really not get behind that. She, like many romance novel heroines, had a magical touch with children and fancied herself their savior and was apparently able to take over a school at a moment's notice and win the hearts of all the previous little kids. As a teacher this annoys me. Unfortunately Simon was equally hard to like as a pirate and as a person obsessed with gaining a title even while creating his own little commune type paradise island. He was, of course, a womanizer, but he immediately gave up his ways after laying eyes on Angelica once. Together there was an immense sexual attraction that burned up the pages with the sizzle but was a bit of a let down towards the end once the relationship had been consummated as the sex didn't live up to expectations.

Their relationship was also hard to truly get behind as there was a lot of misunderstanding, a lot of holding something back from each other, and just generally a lot of brooding and frustration. I admired how Angelica was able to move past her attack and lead a full life and that Simon helped her through this and supported her once he realized what had happened. And I enjoyed reading a little bit about French history in a romance novel and, although much is fiction, it still provided a nice variation from my usual English books. There was the small bit of intrigue involving revenge against her step father and Simon's determination to bring down those close to the King who were out to do harm against the people. It was not overwhelming, but did seem to come up at weird moments throughout the book before finally being solved quite neatly at the end. The island commune was absolutely laughable and I rolled my eyes every time the magical Marguerite was mentioned.

Rating: An interesting book but not for the romance or the characters, but for the historical information and back ground.

Silk is for Seduction

Silk is for Seduction by Loretta Chase 728

Marcelline Noirot is the daughter of a penniless French aristocrat and an equally penniless English rose, whose financial state led them to a traveling life tricking their targets out of money. This left little time for Marcelline and her two sisters who have since become the most talented, if not the most popular, modistes in London. The Noirot sisters are determined to lure clients away from their nemesis, Mrs. Downes, especially Lady Clara, the presumed future Duchess of Clevedon. The Duke of Clevedon knows he is supposed to marry Lady Clara, but he has been enjoying his years of raising hell in Paris and the other big cities of Europe. Then one day he is entranced by Mrs. Noirot at the opera and even when she admits to him that she is only after him to win the patronage of his future wife, he cannot get her out of his mind. She spars with him, she gambles with him and he ends up losing and escorting her to the most popular ball of the Paris season, bringing their relationship into the public eye and gaining her quite a bit of notoriety.

Fearing that her new reputation will harm her business she rushes back to London, unaware that Clevedon is following her. On the journey back he takes care of her while she is seasick and then discovers that she has a daughter; a beautiful and charming daughter who quickly wins him over. But things in London become complicated because she is concerned with building up her dress shop and finding the spy who is selling information to her rival, and he wonders if he will ever be ready to propose to the woman he has always regarded as a sister. When Mrs. Downes efforts to drive them out of business turn potentially deadly, it is Clavedon who is there to save the day and it sets the ton off in a whirlwind and Marcelline knows she has to end things with him as soon as possible. But he has proved himself so capable and helpful that it is impossible for her to pretend that she doesn't love him. And Clevedon has finally realized what he wants out of life and he doesn't care if it flies in the face of society; the only question is if he can convince Marcelline that love is worth risking everything.

Marcelline was an awesome character and I liked her from the very beginning because she was strong and ambitious, but she cared so deeply for her family and harbored hidden hurts from her parents. I liked that she worked for a living and had pride in what she did, not shame, and that she was comfortable with her sexuality and desires. She went after what she wanted, and while she could have done it in a more muted, or kinder, fashion, it was impossible not to respect her actions. I felt like her fear of getting close to Clavedon was realistic and I understood her motives for everything she did clearly which shows that Chase is just great at completely immersing her readers in her characters. Clavedon was also amazing because he also had his own hidden hurts and his position in life had prevented him from ever really figuring out what he wanted to accomplish, or what his sense of purpose was and it was only with Marcelline's help that he was able to. He was so caring about Marcelline and her daughter and I loved when they all interacted together, almost as a family.

Their relationship was a little rocky in my opinion, with seduction taking the form of "sparing" and them teasing each other, which I am not really a big fan of. I felt like they didn't spend enough time actually talking and getting to know each other, but I also believed that there was genuine love and emotion between them. They both had so much respect and trust in the other that they worked incredibly well together. There was some sex between them, not a lot, and, in keeping with both of their confidence in their desires, it was really hot and loving all at the same time. I loved reading about how Clavedon matured and how he came to realize that he wanted a different life then the one that had been prewritten for him. I also liked reading from different points of view, from the rival Mrs. Downes, to Lady Clara, who was especially fun and well written and I loved her. The rival dressmaker plot was interesting and important without being overwhelming and worked really well in the story. My biggest problem was the incredibly well spoken 6 year-old who was like no child I know and seemed incredibly unrealistic.

Rating: A very fun book with two incredible characters that worked so well together. The side plots and characters were interesting and I really enjoyed reading this book.

Swept Away by a Kiss

Swept Away by a Kiss by Katharine Ashe 1125

Lady Valerie Monroe was exiled to America by her father, the Earl of Alverton, for her flirtatious and scandalous behavior but upon his death she is called back to England. While at sea she meets Etienne, a French priest, whom she feels far from fatherly towards. When her ship is taken by pirates she and Etienne are brought on board the pirate ship by their crazy captain who wants her to be more experienced before he finally rapes her. He sets up scenarios that he thinks will test the religious man's will power and lead to Valerie's corruption, but Etienne has secrets of his own. He is in fact Viscount Stephen Ashford and the ship they are on is his own and he uses it to hunt slave traders and disrupt their business. He knows that Valerie is something special but he is destined to live his life alone so when he finally regains control of the ship he leaves her in London with no plans to see her ever again. Back in England Valerie tries to move on with her life but she cannot get the French priest out of her mind until a house party in the country.

Valerie attends a holiday party given by Lord and Lady March, Stephen's godparents, and the two once again come face to face. Both pretend that they do not know each other and watch with jealousy as they each flirty madly with the other members of their party. Valerie is horrified to think that Stephen was merely playing her and has no true feelings for her while Stephen regrets the way things has to be but thinks it is for Valerie's own good that he is doing all this. It isn't long before Valerie begins picking up on some of Stephen's going on and realizes that there is something that Stephen is hiding from her. When she discovers a servant rifling through her possessions she decides that she is going to take the initiative and discover for herself what is going on. She discovers what Stephen does and that he is attempted to dig up evidence on one of the other guests at the house party. Wanting to help him, Valerie puts her own safety at risk, angering Stephen, but also forcing him to realize that Valerie is something special and that, while he has always thought of himself as a lone wolf, she is worth taking a big risk and sharing himself with someone.

This book was incredibly gloomy. I cannot think of a single instance where either of these characters could be considered happy or excited. They both spent the entire time mired in depression and sad thoughts and it took no time at all for me to start completely hating this. Romance novels do not have to be endlessly cheery, but there is a limit to how much doom I can take in any book and this book definitely crossed it. And of course being constantly depressed made it impossible for me to figure how either of these two managed to fall in love with the other. Seriously, who falls in love with someone who never smiles? I will also say that the situation on board the pirate ship bordered on the ridiculous with an insane captain who tied her up and then left her for Stephen to untie, thinking that Stephen would eventually sleep with her. Supposedly they both were sexually excited by this and I just could not figure out how they could become aroused in such a horrific situation where both of them (should have been) worried for their lives. Both acted TSTL throughout the ordeal on the ship really.

I wanted to admire Valerie for her ability to use her feminine wiles to manipulate people, at least when it was for a good cause, but because she was so depressed and unhappy about the situation it went from admirable to blah. Stephen's drive to end slavery was only partly explained and I felt like it could have been done much better as obviously slavery is something that a person should have strong emotions about. The two spent barely any time together, less still when they weren't both worried about a madman, and absolutely no getting to know you or being happy together time. They were both very attracted to each other and there was gloomy sexual tension throughout the book but even the sex was overshadowed by depression and thoughts on the slavery plot so I really could not get into it. I was excited somewhat by the plot to stop the slave traders and I liked that Valerie was able to get involved in order to help the man she loved. There was some nice betrayal going on as well but the plot was not really developed enough to completely get into. There were no major side characters to distract from the lack of character coming from the two main protagonist.

Rating: Fairly obviously this book was a major failure on all levels and I was just completely overwhelmed by this downer of a book.