Jun 212013
Intentions of the Earl (Scandalous Sisters, Book 1)
Will he secure his future by ruining hers, or will she ruin his plans by securing him? A new twist on the old fortune hunter plot puts an impoverished earl in a position to gain his fortune only by ruining an innocent’s reputation without offering marriage. The innocent he’s selected, however, has no plans to settle for anything less than marriage and will go to almost any length to secure him.
With no other means for an income, the impoverished Andrew Black, Earl of Townson, m
List Price: $ 3.99
Price: $ 3.99
A Hero One Can Love,
I read the second book, Liberty for Paul, first, and it was hard to decide which book I enjoyed more. I finally decided this one is my favorite, so far, in the books Rose Gordon has written. I have yet to read book 3, so we’ll see if my opinion changes.
Anyway, this was a fun read. Andrew Black is not one of those rakes I often read about in regency romances, and that was a huge selling point for me. Instead, Andrew is coerced into agreeing to ruin the reputation of one of the daughters in the Banks family to get them to run back to America. What endeared me to Andrew right away was his reluctance to do it. This is a hero with a conscience who feels torn between doing what is right and doing what he knows is wrong. I really liked this hero. Rose Gordon’s heroes are men I’d fall in love with in real life, so it’s no wonder Brooke Banks fell in love with Andrew.
He shows up at the residence where Brooke and her family are staying, and when the two first meet, the chemistry is immediate. She fools him into believing she decorated a gaudy room, which was hilarious. From there, the two get to know each other, and they share a few kisses. I will say the kisses are some of the best scenes I’ve read. Rose Gordon has a way of making the chemistry between these two jump off the page.
Andrew does succeed in ruining Brooke’s reputation (and if anyone wonders, they didn’t go all the way but the scene was pretty hot), and yes, they were discovered. I won’t spoil the rest of the book except to say the end of this book had the most romantic ending I’ve ever read. All I can say is any woman would be thrilled to be married to a man like Andrew!
So if you like to laugh, love tender and sensual scenes, and want to read about heroes who are sweethearts, this book will fit perfectly.
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|Give the man a break, don’t play games, must be an inside joke,
I’m not going to summarize this book, others have done so better. This story was light reading and had a good concept, but did not measure up to the calibre of other published Regency romances. The main characters lacked a spark in their romance that other romance writers are able to show better, including in the sex scenes. I had a hard time trying to stay engaged enough to finish reading the book. I am assuming this is the writer’s first novel and it was largely unedited.
The title of my post shows only three of the modern day expressions that were riddled through this book. “10 minutes of his life he’d never get back,” “plead the fifth,” “higher than a kite,” “set him up,” “snap out of it,” were a few more I wrote down. I counted a dozen before I was 20% through. This would be okay if this book was a comedy set in the US anywhere after 1990, but it is a drama set in Regency England. There were also typos, run-on or incomplete sentences, out-of-place or missing words, improper verb tenses, and spelling mistakes, that an editor should have caught.
There are several scenes with good descriptions, especially the gaudy townhouse. There was some attention to Regency correctness in details such as games, furnishings, and the gentlemens’ grand tour, but there were errors in Regency etiquette, such as letter-writing between a couple not related or engaged, hand-kissing as a casual greeting, and errors in facts, such as the British Museum, and fashion: one could not wear her mother’s old dress without days of major re-working. The older styles had fully fitted bodices and bustles; Regency dress had empire waistlines and no sleeves for evening wear, thus no trim at the wrists; a corset would always have been worn and would have accentuated her breasts leaving no room to “stuff.”
Other readers have complained about the rumination in the book, but I thought there was a good balance of dialogue, thoughts, and description, and the author did a good job of changing different points of view from the two main characters. There are several very good dramatic themes in this book: the reference to the language of roses, and the mystery behind Andrew’s mother, among others. I also liked the humour around the gift of a picture from the townhouse.
The author was over-the-top in many areas: she was terribly unkind to Lady Olivia, using descriptions of her that were downright nasty and unecessary as we already knew her role was to try to be a usurper. She also used words like shrieked which were over-the-top for the context. Her villain was perfect though.
I think this book was overpriced for its quality; I have read a lot of 99cent Regency romances that were better. I will not be reading any more books by Rose Gordon.
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|New twist for a classic love story,
This book was witty and refreshing. I would recommend it to any who loves a good story. Agreeing on terms to ruin a young lady, the earl never imagined that he would develop feelings for the chit. When everything starts to unravel he has to make a decision and she has to over come her stubbornness. The characters are well written, the story is cleanly written and very enjoyable.
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