February 13th, 2009 — 2.5 Stars, Book Review, Dukes and Earls, G-I, Great Britain, Regency, Rogues and Rakehells, Spectacles, Virgin Heroine
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Guilty Pleasures by Laura Lee Guhrke is the tale of Lady Viola's brother and his duchess-to-be. Technically Guilty Pleasures is a prequel to The Marriage Bed where Viola and her husband John patch up their estranged marriage. On a whole this novel was much better than the Marriage Bed, but because I read the Marriage Bed first I was biased against this book from the beginning. Now before I started reading, I had no idea of Guilty Pleasures relation to the other novel, the backs of the novels do not give very much information. I picked both of them up in the store because their covers were wonderfully designed and drew me to them. It's too bad really.
So why am I prejudice against the book from the beginning? Daphne, happily married by the time Marriage Bed takes place, tells Viola some very negative things about her character and how it's possible that Viola was nearly wholly responsible for the estrangement between John and herself. Daphne is on John's side because she was poor and in desperate straights herself once. Honestly, I never really picked up on that at all in Guilty Pleasures. The novel started with Daphne having already secured a position and working five months at Tremore Hall under Anthony. If I don't like a heroine the novel goes downhill fast for me. I didn't like Daphne in Marriage Bed and I saw no reason to like her now.
It's too bad because I always liked Anthony from both MB and GP. He's an antiquarian and loves his history, hates evicting tenets and always has some way to allow them to stay while giving them self-worth, doesn't abuse his power over his female servants and employees, and champions his sister. He is hero worthy without a doubt. Of course his noble actions avoiding thinking of his female workers cause all the havoc in this story.
Daphne loved to spy on Anthony when he was shirtless and working outdoors excavating. Who wouldn't? When Viola comes to call on her brother, Daphne becomes Viola's number one choice for her brother to marry and cleverly sets them up. Daphne overhears a conversation between the siblings where Anthony describes her as a stick bug on a twig, a machine, and unlikely to marry. Just goes to show him later that he never should have opened his mouth, doesn't it? Having heard, Daphne decides to accept Viola's offer to help bring her out into society which makes Anthony panic as he'll be losing his best employee on the dig.
He devises ways to make her stay; she makes him fall in love with her. Overall a cute tale, but one I couldn't really get into because of Daphne.
Rating: 2.5 Stars.
Originally posted 2008-10-15 05:06:38. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
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February 4th, 2009 — 2.5 Stars, Baroness or Viscountess, Book Review, Counts, Marquis, Viscounts, Estranged, G-I, Great Britain, Heiress, Historical Romance
I generally liked this novel. It revolves around how a marriage once destroyed by infidelity can be healed. I have pretty strong views on this subject so I’ll talk about what ruffled my feathers. I’m like Viola, the heroine, at the start of the novel, looking at things in black and white. The author didn’t persuade me to think in gray matter, too bad Viola did. Luckily in the end she got what she deserved – a loving, devoted, adoring husband – but you could have fooled me. I still thought the hero was shy of truly learning how to love at the end of the book. However, you can be the judge.
Viola is the sister of a Duke and at the age of nineteen she knew she was in love with Viscount John Hammond. She also knew that despite the circumstances of his situation, he loved her, not the money she brought with her. How naïve she had been. John knew nothing of love; he was all empty words and passion.
“When unaccompanied by his love, a man’s desire was like the wind. It had no substance, and it was impossible to hold onto.” – pg 186
Now eight going on nine years after their vows, John has come to the decision to get himself an heir. For that, he will need to woo his way back into his wife’s bed. This task would prove impossible until he changed. But can a man like John, change his spots?
In the last ten pages he did. Until then the brute refused to take blame for more than half the novel and managed to in nearly every conversation lay the whole troubled affair at Viola’s feet. This is much like what happens in the movie Something to Talk About
starring Julia Roberts. This made me really mad and when it wasn’t John telling Viola how she made him break his marriage vows and slip into other women, it was the Duke’s wife that was telling her how she wasn’t looking at things from John’s point of view.
John broke his vows. Period. The end. Case closed. What kind of man has to hide his dirty deeds behind his innocent wife? In today’s world with all the diseases that can be caught, a man who cheats ought to be charged with attempted murder if he slips back into his wife’s bed (undetected or not) without first having himself checked out thoroughly.
Viola first turns John away from their marriage bed when she learns that he kept a mistress during the entire time he was courting her. All his words of love, adoration, devotion were lies. She might have forgiven him those if the other woman wasn’t involved. After all impoverished lords needed funds and heiresses to make them solvent – he could have learned to love her.
John waits a month and leaves Viola to live a separate life. There he has count them, five, mistresses in the space of the years prior to his most devout attempt at reconciling. He only does it because he needs a legitimate heir to the viscountcy. Viola is the only woman who can grant him this. So once again he plans to use false words to get her into bed and if that doesn’t work the law is on his side and he can force her there.
But in his own words the five mistresses were her own fault for being cold to him. Poor baby. Eventually he says he is sorry for his part in breaking their marriage by using his young nephew to be his buffer. I don’t think Viola had any part to breaking the marriage. Distraught as she was she stayed with him (granted making him take separate sleeping quarters and refusing to allow him to use passion against her to win his way back into her good graces) until he left.
Marriage vows are not a one way street. A man and his needs can be resolved with a hand not another woman or any of her body parts. Fidelity goes both ways. If he required it of her then it was not an unreasonable request for Viola to make of him. John said it was and refused to be sexually blackmailed. Well what the hell was he doing when he refused to promise fidelity but sexually blackmailing his wife?
Has anyone read this book? What do you think?
Rating: 2.5 Stars
Originally posted 2008-10-06 15:07:06. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
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