Seduction Wears Sapphires Book

Rave reviews for this book and I can't understand why, apart from the old adage of "different strokes for different folks".

It starts off well-enough and with one of my favorite themes in romance: a blistering love/hate between a couple forced together . Caroline Townsend from Boston sets off to England to chaperone a notorious rake Ashe Blackwell at the request of his grandfather -I forget how she's related to the guy to come across this "opportunity" but she does. She's as poor as a church mouse and the old guy has promised to give her some serious cash if she chaperones his grandson who he thinks is nothing but a scoundrel and is ruining the family name. He tells Ashe that Caroline will be reporting on his comings and goings for about a month and during this time he's to prove that he's worthy not only of the family name but the inheritance that comes with it once granddaddy kicks the bucket. Ashe is livid but he's game because he loves his grandfather and hates his cousin who could inherit if he doesn't. Caroline's doing it because she wants to return to the US with money in her pocket to open a college entirely for women in search of an education so they can be independent. Right off the bat the two are at each other's throats and as much as I love that start to a story, this one just fell through because it was so stupidly predictable.

As far as characterization goes, Caroline is too much of a nails on the chalkboard harpy and then all of sudden she's this gushing sex goddess. Ashe is too in love with his wiener and overall sexual prowess to be likeable. The author starts things simmering with Caroline sleepwalking at night and running into Ashe. Ashe gets all hot and bothered. Unfortunately Bernard just drops that idea and goes back to the tired pattern of blah romance writing.

The h/h get together out of nowhere and suddenly they're going at it like they won't see tomorrow'oh yeah and she's still calling him "Mr Blackwell"---???? There are some icky scenes with all that too from the "slapping sounds of two bodies coming together", that I guess was supposed to sound romantic, and his "crème jetting into her" -ew.

The narrative is littered with purple prose, useless exclamation marks galore and an inconsistent tone that quickly becomes irritating. One minute it's this formal regency lingo and the next you feel like you're reading a contemporary novel with contemporary ideas. Granted women can have ideas for emancipation but the way the author had Caroline attack it made her sound like a 1960s feminist which didn't work with the period in the story. There's also the gag-me scene with the sticky-icky the-heroine-is-such-a-kind-and-generous-woman moment where she saves a courtesan from public humiliation when the courtesan had every intention of making her the laughing stock. Spare me the sainted women routine :-/ All that and don't forget to throw in the standard "he went to India and saw some horrible things that changed him". I don't know why the author bothered with this. There are a few explanations as to what sort of happened but it's all really a mystery and it felt like the character needed to be padded with something 'filler pure and simple.

The book is boring, the print is microscopic making it all the more tedious to get through, the h/h are stale and the love/hate theme is poorly done. Not an author I'll be picking up again soon if this is considered "oh so good!":-/