Reviews for The Wicked Truth

The average rating for The Wicked Truth based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2017-09-21 00:00:00 Khary Bethea Not my cuppa, pretty annoyed towards the end to be honest and quite disappointed as I thought I like Stone's style before. Story is just way too long and draggy to me, and I just cannot connect with either protagonist well despite the right elements. I must also say that the synopsis seems a bit misleading. While at times a synopsis with a bit of vagueness or misdirection actually heightens our enjoyment of the book, it only applies to very few cases and specific type of plot. In this case, I felt more like I got duped into reading it and wasn't too happy with it to begin with. H should have been endearing as he is quite obviously besotted very early on and is determined to protect and later marry our h. However, I think this is an old one, with a slightly different set of values that when read now, seems pretty wrong. Our H is a passionate man, with emotions all over the place and oftentimes, quite unable to curp his more volatile emotions. Yet instead of endearing him to me as a man that feels deeply, I find his few outbursts here quite disturbing, as he tended to be quite insensible to what he is doing and how his actions might affect others. While I understand his protectiveness towards our h and why he went stir crazy at times of danger, his behaviour is still ott and I just cannot help but wonder at his control. Another huge no no for me is his disparaging our h time and again for her behavior before they met, and this continued more or less even after he got to know her and realised he loved her, and was eventually resolved unsatisfactorily by h being tripped with revealing the truth inadvertently. This really is a blatant double standard, granted he isn't a man ho, but still, it isn't as if he hasn't had relationships before either, and even if that is the case what happened before they meet is really none of his business. I would have felt better if he realised earlier on and definitively negated all these rumours, instead of him acting all graceful on the surface and kept gnawing at this point for pages till another pointed out to him his small mindedness (and even by then, he still seemed to struggle with acepting it). These 2 major issues with the H really make it v difficult for me to like him much, despite his protectiveness and devotion to our h. Our h is just as annoying, especially towards the end. I just find it odd for her to be so willing to settle and even aim for ruination, yet steadfastly ignores the basic facts of life. It especially is annoying when she didn't even seem to really consider what will happen to the future and how that might badly impact on others. Other than the annoyingly weepy and stubborn refusal to stay and solve that problem though, she is quite a cute h as she really seems to have a cheerful and fun loving nature and isn't too stuck up to laugh at herself or joke about things ladies her time would have been horrified of. The main issue here is the plot being so draggy, when over 80% of the book was about everyone running around with not much being revealed yet h kept being in danger left and right. It gets to be v frustrating and makes the characters quite stupid. It would have been a much better read if it is 100 or so pages shorter to me. The parts I do enjoy are the time they spent together, even as companions, as it just shows this couple definitely should have no problem staying together for years as they are also good friends that like doing the same thing. Plot actually is interesting with so many potential suspects and yet by midway, I more or less guessed what is going on and that is when the frustration sets in, when characters seem so blind to the blatant truth. The ending is also so so to me only and a bit anticlimatic also, considering the baddies got let off quite easily. Sexy times isn't really too sexy to me either as most of the time it seems pretty rushed and fumblingly done. All in all, just an ok read.

Review # 2 was written on 2008-10-30 00:00:00 Sean Hendricks I love this book. It has a heroine who has had her reputation slandered and an upright hero who ends up helping her and falling in love with her. This book really impressed me because of the transition of Neil from being a stuffed shirt to a man deeply in love with Elizabeth. Elizabeth really got a bad rap, and did what she could to extricate herself out of the situation, but in the minds of society, she was tarnished goods. Neil starts out looking down on her and believing the lies and the superficial gossip of what was seen on the fateful night that was the nail in the coffin of Elizabeth's reputation In fact she is an innocent and virtuous woman who is being preyed on by an unseen enemy out to ruin her. As Neil gets to know her, he comes to realize that she is a really good person. If you dislike the virginity proof is a sign of innocence plot, you would enjoy this book. Elizabeth seduces Neil while he's drunk, thinking he'll be more likely to have a sexual relationship with her if he doesn't believe she's a virgin. So his feelings for her and coming to love and respect her have nothing to do with her virginity because although he has a vague memory of having sex, he doesn't know it was with her. Fans of the woman dressed as a man theme would also like this book. Elizabeth doesn't quite make a very convincing man. Neil and his friend immediately know she's a woman, and Neil, feeling sorry for the runaway, takes her into his house for her protection until her situation can be resolved. Events unfold to reveal that although Neil is priggish (it's a Victorian, so that's fitting) he has a good heart and a good head on his shoulders. Although Elizabeth is rather young acting and somewhat impulsive, it doesn't ruin this book for me. I think she is a good match for Neil, who really needs to learn to relax, and slowly does unwind over the course of this book. This is another underrated gem from the Harlequin Historicals line, in my opinion.