Melbourne House Book

2.5 I might be at the end of my binge Stars

I occasionally go on a romance run and binge read romance novels back to back until they start to seem silly and tedious…I think I'm there. It isn't necessarily that this is a bad Historical Romance….but it isn't a great one either. I LONG for a really good HR story where both the romance and the plot line up and are both good. For me this had a decent plot that I liked the revelation of at the end and the romance had moments but that was about it. Most of the time it was just blah for me.

First the Plot:

I actually liked this most about the book. Sebastian killed his best friend in a Duel, was disowned by his family and had to leave the country. That all happens in the prologue so not a spoiler. He is working as a type of mercenary when Maggie finds him quite accidentally and convinces him to return to solve the mystery of who is trying to kill his father.

Okay so I really wasn't impressed at first because I thought I had figured out the mystery really early, in fact I was sure of it. But in the last 30% I found out I totally misjudged the mystery and then the plot became infinitely more interesting to me. A book that had been just ho hum was now, way more interesting and I did very much enjoy how the mystery played out.

Second the Romance:

I wanted desperately to like it but I didn't. I liked the bad boy persona of 'The Raven' but it came and went too easy and one minute Sebastian was a devilish rogue with ambiguous morals and the next a perfect gentleman. I much preferred the rogue, I admit it I sometimes like it when the hero is a bit of a jerk.

Then there is Maggie who is all prim properness. I liked her for the most part, she was headstrong and stubborn and a little bit wild. What I didn't like is the initial sex scene. Sebastian asks her to say "yes" before going all the way and she says "no". Okay it is very clear from what is happening that she is into the pre love making but she still said "no". He says "okay as long as we both know you mean yes." I am a huge proponent of No means No, no matter what the signals say. So that definitely ruined the initial smexy times for me. I would have enjoyed it better if he left her wanting what she said she didn't want.

The romance ended up turning out cute in the end but some of it just really left a sour taste in my mouth.

So overall I liked the mystery, but wasn't sold on the romance (which is really what I read this for).