Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Release Date: July 1, 2011
More Info: Amazon The Book Depository
Book Blurb (from goodreads):
When Lady Julianne Gatewick realizes the rake of her dreams thinks of her as practically his sister, she decides it's time to get even. The charming Marc Darcett, Earl of Hawkfield, is every lady's fantasy, but he's determined to evade virgins and their matrimonial traps - especially his best friend's sister.
Hawk reluctantly agrees to be Julianne's guardian for the season, but he's having trouble resisting his gorgeous ward. Worse still, she's taunting him by flirting with every scoundrel in London - and he's sworn to protect her! Certain she's learned her tricks from the authoress of that scandalous publication "The Secrets of Seduction", Hawk sets out to uncover the writer's identity. But he never expects to find the formerly angelic Julianne behind the mask - and between his sheets.
My Thoughts:
The book description is slightly misleading, which always annoys the heck out of me. The publication of the scandalous document occurs late in the book, well after Julianne's "shenanigans" nor does Hawk set out to uncover the writer's identity. I did like the idea of the publication and would have enjoyed seeing it as even larger part of the story than it was.
Lady Julianne has had a crush, as we modern folks would put it, on her older brother's good friend, Hawk, since she was a small girl. For years, she has dreamed that he would fall in love with her and propose, despite all evidence to the contrary. She made her debut in society four years ago and has rejected a dozen marriage proposals, holding out for Hawk, the man she thinks that she loves. He, on the other hand, for reasons that take Dreiling far too long to reveal, has no desire to marry.
Hawk treats her as his friend's baby sister, and not as a woman. As the book goes on, his thinking changes and he views her physically as a woman but gives little or no credence to her thoughts or feelings. That changes slowly over the course of the book, but even so, he's not an enlightened male. I know that women being treated as adults and reasoning, thinking beings is a relatively recent development in world history but I really could have done without that particular bit of historical accuracy. At one point, after Julie gets drunk, Hawk was so arrogant and condescending that I wanted to throw the book out my window. To be fair, Julie spends much of the book acting immaturely and childishly and she was surprisingly naive. I found it hard at times to believe that she was 21, she acted more like a modern-day 15 year old. I also found it unlikely that her family would have tolerated her still being unmarried at her age; that was unusual back then and we aren't given any reason to believe that her family is progressive, or even just eccentric.
Most of the book is a dance; Julie and Hawk circle around each other, flirting, teasing, enraging, tantruming, but always coming back to each other in some fashion. There are secrets, which Dreiling takes too much time to reveal and by the time they were revealed, I didn't really care. The book could easily have had a third of it cut and been the better for it. It meandered, drifted, repeated, and took forever to tell what was really a simple love story. It gets dressed up in family issues and societal morals but it really boils down to can these two individuals grow up, accept responsibility, and convince each other of their love.
It's not a bad book but definitely not one I'll read again.
I received a print ARC for review.
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Giveaway!!!
I am giving away my ARC of this book to one commenter. Please leave a comment about either the book or the review and make sure that I have a way to contact you - Blogger profile, email, Twitter handle, etc.
I'm sorry but this is open only to readers in the US and Canada.
The giveaway runs through 11:59PM EST of Friday July 15, 2011.
Please read my giveaway policy and rules here.
Thank you and good luck. :)
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Some fun links that the author and her publisher provided as part of the blog tour. Look for yourself and see what you think.
