Black Silk Book

The second book in the Hamilton Sisters series was a big ol' dud for me. I didn't like Maryanne the I'm-not-sure-if-I-should-be-doing-this-24/7 little bit dumb nympho and Dashiel's devil-may-care apathy about everything which just get on my nerves. I wanted to shake him and yell 'are you even alive buddy!!'

The story starts off well-enough and is similar in premise to the first book Sin. Maryanne is an editor for erotic novels. As she edits she imagines that she's the heroine and the dashing Lord Swansborough is the hero. She's a shy woman who no one ever notices. Dashiel Blackmore, Lord Swansborough, is her complete opposite. He's the incarnation of some sex god participating in wild orgies and has a reputation for being a screw 'em and leave 'em kind of kind of guy. Their paths cross at a masquerade and the romping sexfest ensues. Maryanne shouldn't have been there but she received a mysterious letter from her partner to meet her there to help her. When she can't find her associate she decides to throw caution to the wind and enjoy what a stone-drunk Dashiel has to offer. So everything is fine up to this point storywise. There's a sub-story about a murder that may involve the hero and he's trying to get to the bottom of it.

Once the party is over though the book takes a nosedive fast. Gone is the kinky sex/story that you saw throughout Sin and it's replaced by lots of introspection, hand-wringing, weirdo family members and a very stupid sub-story that turns into a kidnapping. I didn't feel much for the h/h who seemed like total strangers even when they hit the I-Love-You part. Sure they had their steam but she's in a particular situation that just didn't seem to lend itself to incessant sex-o-rama. Why Dashiel felt so insanely protective of Maryanne I didn't understand as I'm sure there were other women he left in that situation at some point. They really had nothing in common and their characters didn't particularly change making this one great true love believable -for me anyway. His brooding and flippancy were hardly good character traits and they remained throughout the novel. Usually the heroine 'helps' the hero face his true feelings, but I thought her help was all very superficial and I just kept expecting him to pay her off at some point because they weren't compatible. It's like he tried too hard to fall in love with her and managed to convince himself that he was.

The sub-story that inevitably involved the h/h bugged me and took away from the main story near the end. The violence was excessive even though the author was trying to portray a psychopath. What Page didn't write in vivid steam she made up for in vivid violence which just didn't add to the love story.

As for the writing style, it's good, it's just the story that's lacking oomph. It's written in a very austere kind of way that I enjoyed and I kept hoping that the 'good stuff' would come back but it never did. Page can be very "imaginative" and if you feel like reading that kind of book she did a fabulous job with Sin but not here. There was also too much trying to fit in the title "Black Silk" everywhere.

Good erotic historicals are very hard to find and this one unfortunately gets lumped in with the not so good ones. It just barely makes 3 stars for me. Hopefully the next one Hot Silk is better.