Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Second in series, 27 Jan 2009
A new Mary Balogh book is always something to look forward to, especially when a new series is released in consecutive months. 'Then Comes Seduction' follows 'First Comes Love' which focused on the middle sister of the Huxtable family, Vanessa, who found love after a marriage of convenience.
'Then Comes Seduction' has, in some aspects, a similar overall theme. In this story love comes after marriage, but the marriage isn't that of convenience but one that is required when a scandal brews. Katherine Huxtable knows that Jasper Finley, Baron Montford, is a rake, but he's an amusing conversation partner and rather handsome with it. However when he leads her into a side path at Vauxhall and introduces her to passion, he informs her it is all because of a wager - that he can seduce her within a fortnight. Something in Montford's conscience means that he doesn't go through with the seduction but they are both so embarrassed by the episode that they avoid each other for the next three years.
However, when they meet again and Jasper's young half sister Charlotte takes a shine to Katherine and her sister Meg, they are thrown together. Unfortunately, the social world knows that Montford is a rake who never shows any partiality for ladies of quality, and a scheming relative may see a way to hurt Jasper. When marriage is the only option, both Jasper and Katherine fear their future. Can she survive in a marriage with a man who will not love? Can he ever overcome his awful childhood with an unloving and cold stepfather?
As always with a Balogh book this is well written with in-depth characters, some moments of lightness as well as some of high emotion. Montford perhaps seemed fairly unrakish after the first few chapters, and Katherine's naïveté wasn't always that appealing. I also found the initial seduction scene unconvincing, I was sure that she would have put a stop to events before they got to the situation they were in, but this was a minor quibble within a book that otherwise I enjoyed, particularly the vignettes into life in the country and putting on a fête for local villagers.
Originally published for Curled Up With A Good Book © Helen Hancox 2009
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Second in series, 19 Jan 2009
A new Mary Balogh book is always something to look forward to, especially when a new series is released in consecutive months. 'Then Comes Seduction' follows 'First Comes Love' which focused on the middle sister of the Huxtable family, Vanessa, who found love after a marriage of convenience.
'Then Comes Seduction' has, in some aspects, a similar overall theme. In this story love comes after marriage, but the marriage isn't that of convenience but one that is required when a scandal brews. Katherine Huxtable knows that Jasper Finley, Baron Montford, is a rake, but he's an amusing conversation partner and rather handsome with it. However when he leads her into a side path at Vauxhall and introduces her to passion, he informs her it is all because of a wager - that he can seduce her within a fortnight. Something in Montford's conscience means that he doesn't go through with the seduction but they are both so embarrassed by the episode that they avoid each other for the next three years.
However, when they meet again and Jasper's young half sister Charlotte takes a shine to Katherine and her sister Meg, they are thrown together. Unfortunately, the social world knows that Montford is a rake who never shows any partiality for ladies of quality, and a scheming relative may see a way to hurt Jasper. When marriage is the only option, both Jasper and Katherine fear their future. Can she survive in a marriage with a man who will not love? Can he ever overcome his awful childhood with an unloving and cold stepfather?
As always with a Balogh book this is well written with in-depth characters, some moments of lightness as well as some of high emotion. Montford perhaps seemed fairly unrakish after the first few chapters, and Katherine's naïveté wasn't always that appealing. I also found the initial seduction scene unconvincing, I was sure that she would have put a stop to events before they got to the situation they were in, but this was a minor quibble within a book that otherwise I enjoyed, particularly the vignettes into life in the country and putting on a fête for local villagers.
Originally published for Curled Up With A Good Book © Helen Hancox 2009
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3.0 out of 5 stars
Contrived and not very gripping , 28 Mar 2009
I'm not sure about this one. As usual with Mary Balogh it was a well written tale but this time it didn't read as smoothly as usual for me and I'll try and analyze why....
I don't particularly mind that it was not action packed nor was it full of anguish and big misunderstandings. It was a gentle romance and I always love a story about a marriage of convenience that turns into a love match.
What I didn't like: The seduction scene in Vauxhall gardens at the beginning went far too far to be realistic. I found Katherine's constant preaching to the hero about love and the meaning of love irritating. In parts the book was far too wordy and I found myself skimming pages - it could have been edited down without losing too much of the main story and perhaps it would have benefitted and flowed better - it was all a bit laborious. "Dash it" and "By Jove" thought by the hero when he surprises himself by getting all sentimental about her - OK he's denying to himself that he could possibly have finer feelings but the point was stressed too much in my view and those phrases grated. There were too many Mary Balogh clichés - the naked swimming in the lake; the country fete for the locals at the hero's country house (the Plumed Bonnet and others - if it's not a summer fete then it's a Christmas party followed by a ball). In fact there generally too many obvious similarities and qualities reminiscent of characters and plots found in her other books. There was also too much re-capping of the background family story in case anyone hadn't read the previous book which I also found annoying and repetitive and clumsily done.
The love story was sweet but it didn't drag me along with it. There were too many annoyances for me to get very deeply involved. The overall feeling I had was that the writing was too contrived and too self-conscious. I'll still read all the rest of the books in this series but I do hope they get better.
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