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Melissa Erin Jackson is one of my favorite authors and the second book of this series has only entrenched her place in my bookshelves. I love the way she fleshed out her characters and the setting was also clearly described. Her writing is fun and I really enjoyed the whole time I was reading it. The only bad thing from this series is that I have to wait 6 months for the next book.
I thought I had left a rant on this book but I guess it was all in my head. I was exhausted with all my inner rants and needed time to gather the energy to write them down. This series is a major letdown from the usual Penny Reid. I didn't really enjoy the first book but there were bright spots with Mona's wit making me chuckle time and again. The second book didn't even have Mona's wit to save it that I had a really hard time finishing the book. The book left me exhausted with all its blatant agenda with no rewarding romance development nor was it any fun that I have doubts the series is worth continuing. Even though it's rare for me to not finish a series.
I'm not sure the last book will be worth the money or the TIME.
3.5 stars. Essie Summers is my new favorite author. Modern harlequin authors should learn from Essie Summers on how to write a book without relying on trivial misunderstandings which could have been resolved if the MCs would just talk to each other. Unfortunately this book was not as good as her other books I've read. The drama near the end felt too contrived, what with landslide and miraculous survival.
3.5 stars. Love the beginning but then the story kind of dragged and the end was a bit too crowded with too many characters.
I don't usually write a review for books I didn't enjoy but this book is so much of a mess I decided to write a short one just to warn others off this book.
The setting of the era was superfluous at best, only the mentions of Almack's pointed to Regency era, otherwise it could have been set up whenever.
Characters were flat, villains coming and going as needed and there was no explanation on how the Martine thing was resolved. I suppose the author thought the H and h saying Iwuvyu to each other in the end will keep the reader happy and forgot other parts unfortunately it wasn't enough since there were so many things left dangling.
And to think I paid for this book a bit more than I did other books. Makes me mad just seeing the cover.
Note: I read the kindle version and I don't know how much it differed from the 1981 version.
3.5 stars. This book caters to fans of Sebastian-Evie and Kleypas spoil us with Challons galore every now and then I feel like this book's main objective is to please said fans above. New readers might find it a bit tedious to find the book focusing more on showing someone they do not know (Gabriel's family) than on Gabriel and Pandora. And Pandora was also a disappointment since in the previous books she was shown to be an independent-minded girl and her boardgame was referenced a lot that you expect to see it here. Instead it was merely used as a lead-in to a poor facsimile of the key plot in [b:Devil in Winter 114166 Devil in Winter (Wallflowers, #3) Lisa Kleypas http://images.gr-assets.com/books/1309220205s/114166.jpg 1823830], you can't help but feel it was forced as some sort of a homage. There was no part dedicated to describe how the boardgame venture was undertaken. The reader just gets told at the end of the book how successful Pandora's game was. I also found the character Nora Black pointless because Gabriel said the reason he had a married woman as a mistress was because she was the only one that can keep up with his "perversions". I had no idea what these perversions are since he didn't seem to be doing anything out of the ordinary with Pandora.I enjoyed this book for the appearances of Evie and Sebastian and their children but I could not identify with Pandora or Gabriel. On its own, the book feels just like a run-of-the-mill bodice ripper where a rake seduces an innocent. Also, you can't help feeling the book being used as a showcase for a whole new series of the Challons. Being Sebastian-Evie's fan I will surely be reading them though I'm worried the books will again be used merely as a peek to Sebastian and Evie's happily ever after and will not be able to stand on their own (assuming the books were actually written).
Changed 3 stars to 2 because even after finishing the book I still don't remember ever reading it until I saw my Goodreads list.