Reviews for Victor

The average rating for Victor based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2010-07-07 00:00:00 William Burke A sexy, light-erotica historical romance served up cougar style...right up KarenH's proverbial alley! Lily Winthrop is a beautiful 38-year-old widow who has spent the majority of her adult life married to a man whose sexual appetite was sated exclusively by very young men. Lily knows nothing of true passion and sexual pleasures until she catches the eye of Victor Rayborne at a country party she is attending as chaperone to her 2 nieces. Victor, Lord Graston, is the second of three brothers who, together, are being forced into finding wives in order to claim their inheritance. Handsome beyond belief with long black hair, piercing blue eyes, muscular bods and jumbo-sized whowhos, the "Rakehells from Rochester" have more than lived up to their nickname by cutting an impressive swath through the fairer sex of the ton. For Victor, however, life as a rake quickly becomes history never to be repeated when he meets Lily. He is captivated by the prim and proper widow, and is relentless in his pursuit to win her heart. What can I say? Victor was not only heart-stopping sexy but was a refreshingly upbeat, fun-loving hero (no tortured souls here) as well. Lily was a mature, morally upright woman who, although sexually naive at first, was eager to trade innocence for experience in Victor's arms (and bed, and tub, and...) She also learned by Victor's lead that living for one's self brings far more happiness and contentment than adhering to a strict moral code dictated by general opinion. Of course, a true rake's road to monogamous bliss & an HEA would be rife with female roadblocks. Fortunately, Julia Templeton is well aware of this and the story is spiced up nicely by former lovers as well as future hopefuls. Being human, Victor does make a few mistakes but they are slight and Lily wisely reacts accordingly. There is a conniving ex-mistress that is ruthless in her pursuit of Victor; but, as in all good romances of this nature, she gets the permanent kick to the curb. I'm giving this book 5**. Although it wasn't one of the best books I've ever read, it was exactly the type of book I was in the mood to read and I thoroughly enjoyed it from beginning to end! *My only complaint is that I did not want to envision Victor looking like Nathan Kamp, but even that is a weak protest... Nathan looks damn fine in that cover shot.

Review # 2 was written on 2010-11-16 00:00:00 Sherri Lafrance I love this book and its predecessor so much that I actually held off reading this one until came out so I could enjoy a double-whammy, so-to-speak. The reasons why I liked this one are pretty similar to the reasons why I liked Sinjin's story. It's so refreshing to have rakes that are really naughty. These three gorgeous specimens of manhood have done some pretty interesting stuff sexually, which we, luckily, get to see little vignettes of. It really annoys me that in HRs every man is considered a rake, even if all he's done is lost his cherry before marriage or kept a mistress. I mean, check out the number of books with the word "rake" in the title! When most aristocratic marriages were arranged for money or prestige, I would be stunned if the majority didn't enjoy a bit-on-the-side, so it's nice to see that this series reflects more-or-less what I would envision a large number of very wealthy, very bored aristocrats actually would get up to. I also love the way secondary characters are more rounded than the purely one-dimensional individuals you sometimes see, although they still have that slightly cartoonish thing going, which I actually quite enjoy in HRs. I also actually like how these books, whilst entertainingly titillating reads, do actually include some less savory aspects of life in this era. This one included what happened in marriages in which the husband was homosexual, after all, aristocratic homosexuals did marry for the same reasons heterosexual aristocrats married (money, prestige, children). In this particular marriage, the husband is castigated not for his homosexuality but for the cruelty he inflicted on his wife, which is a rather 21st century attitude, but it's nice to see such a subject included nonetheless. So, I loved the well-endowed hero, and I loved the repressed, sad and rather lonely heroine, and I loved the whole age difference thing. There were some things which I didn't like so much, though. The writing quality diminished slightly after the halfway point, and this annoyed me, since it had such a great plot, such fabulous characters and great atmosphere. It all felt rather hurried, like the author couldn't wait to get on with the Extremely Naughty Rory's story (OK, who can blame her, but still). There was too much of the he-said-she-said style of writing, which I find incredibly boring, and also one character was introduced as Lady SomethingOrOther and the next she metamorphosed into "Betsy" with no warning. There were also some real clangers that jarred with me: the heroine would never, never be told where the hero's bedroom was in his parents house, when she makes the introductory visit, not in a million years, and she would certainly not be shown it. Now misbehavior at country houses is one thing, with sneaking around the corridors for illicit sex, as long as certain rules were obeyed, but the heroine would not be shown his room, and certainly not by the hero's mother. After all, this would be one of the jobs of the maid or valet - to know who would be sleeping in which room, to make it all much easier for their employers. Also, Sinjin's mother would not whoop for joy at the prospect of a baby conceived out of wedlock (not telling you who's baby). She might have been privately very happy (after all, this sort of thing has always gone on), but I really struggle to believe that she would have publicly shown how happy she was. So, it would have been 5 stars, but for the sloppiness halfway through and some of the out-of-period stuff.