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Available
Call number
Series
Collection
Publication
Berkley (2012), Edition: Original, Mass Market Paperback, 304 pages
Description
Fiction. Romance. Historical Fiction. HTML:When the Duke of Lexington meets the mysterious Baroness von Seidlitz-Hardenberg on a transatlantic liner, he is fascinated. She�s exactly what he�s been searching for�a beautiful woman who interests and entices him. He falls hard and fast�and soon proposes marriage. And then she disappears without a trace� For in reality, the �baroness� is Venetia Easterbrook�a proper young widow who had her own vengeful reasons for instigating an affair with the duke. But the plan has backfired. Venetia has fallen in love with the man she despised�and there�s no telling what might happen when she is finally unmasked�.
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LibraryThing member ReaderLas
I can't believe I'm giving a Sherry Thomas book two star (and really, the only reason it's not one star is because at least the grammar is good). This book lost me at the prologue, and it never got me back.
Christian sees Venetia once, from a distance, and falls instantly in love. Doesn't speak to
Ten years after not meeting her and falling in love with her anyway, he gives a lecture at Harvard about evolution. During the Q&A, in order to make a point about how dangerous beautiful women are, he, without revealing her name, recites a whole bunch of details about her life. Venetia, of course, is in the audience and is understandably horrified. Now, even though a lot of people in England would know who Christian was talking about, there's no reason for her to believe that anyone in audience would have any idea. So, as far as she knows, there are no consequences to Christian's indiscretion other than her justifiably hurt feelings. No matter, after a few days she decides she wants revenge, and the best revenge would be to get him to fall in love with her on the ship that will take them back to England. That sounds like an incredibly petty reason to seek out that level of revenge, but whatever, I'm always game for a good revenge plot. Except that doesn't happen, because after one night of hot lovin', Venetia (who's hiding her identity with a veil) is in love with Christian and now she's in a state because how can he ever forgive her?! Venetia girl, I sympathize with that long dry spell, but ain't no orgasm that great.
So, basically, what we have here is a romance between two immature people who are too stupid to know their own minds. A heartbroken Venetia disappears, intending to never let Christian know the truth. Christian is hopeful that she'd come to him like she promised, even though he's all conflicted when he sees Venetia and once again is in thrall, because he doesn't know that Venetia is his Baroness. And it turns out that a fellow Englishwoman was in that audience at Harvard, and she knew exactly who Christian was talking about, so she happily spread the word. And around this time, the presumed infertile Venetia finds out she's pregnant (I can't believe Sherry Thomas went there). Yada yada yada, Venetia confesses everything right after Christian figures it all out on his own. They get married. Christian's pissed and Venetia is heartbroken but hopeful.
And then, the most ridiculous resolution to the most asinine conflict occurs, in the form of the gossip who spread the word about Christian's badmouthing of Venetia. I seriously considered DNFing right there, but with 10 pages to go I carried on, with my eyes rolled way back into my head.
I wasn't crazy about His at Night...it just wasn't for me, but it wasn't a bad book by any means. But Beguiling the Beauty was just awful. The characters were dumb, the plot was weak, the conflict was nonsense. Not a good start to this trilogy, although the secondary characters were a hell of a lot more interesting than the "hero" and "heroine," so here's hoping for the kind of writing that made Sherry Thomas an autobuy for me in the next book.
Christian sees Venetia once, from a distance, and falls instantly in love. Doesn't speak to
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her at all, doesn't even make eye contact because she doesn't notice him, but that's it--she's so other-worldly beautiful that he falls in love and stays in love for 10 years, during which time she's widowed twice over and he grows resentful because the love of his life--whom he's never met--is just too beautiful for him to forget and he can't stand that she lives her life in a way he doesn't approve. Not that he knows how she lives her life, because, again, he doesn't know her and doesn't know anyone who's close enough to her to provide him with any details about her life. Ten years after not meeting her and falling in love with her anyway, he gives a lecture at Harvard about evolution. During the Q&A, in order to make a point about how dangerous beautiful women are, he, without revealing her name, recites a whole bunch of details about her life. Venetia, of course, is in the audience and is understandably horrified. Now, even though a lot of people in England would know who Christian was talking about, there's no reason for her to believe that anyone in audience would have any idea. So, as far as she knows, there are no consequences to Christian's indiscretion other than her justifiably hurt feelings. No matter, after a few days she decides she wants revenge, and the best revenge would be to get him to fall in love with her on the ship that will take them back to England. That sounds like an incredibly petty reason to seek out that level of revenge, but whatever, I'm always game for a good revenge plot. Except that doesn't happen, because after one night of hot lovin', Venetia (who's hiding her identity with a veil) is in love with Christian and now she's in a state because how can he ever forgive her?! Venetia girl, I sympathize with that long dry spell, but ain't no orgasm that great.
So, basically, what we have here is a romance between two immature people who are too stupid to know their own minds. A heartbroken Venetia disappears, intending to never let Christian know the truth. Christian is hopeful that she'd come to him like she promised, even though he's all conflicted when he sees Venetia and once again is in thrall, because he doesn't know that Venetia is his Baroness. And it turns out that a fellow Englishwoman was in that audience at Harvard, and she knew exactly who Christian was talking about, so she happily spread the word. And around this time, the presumed infertile Venetia finds out she's pregnant (I can't believe Sherry Thomas went there). Yada yada yada, Venetia confesses everything right after Christian figures it all out on his own. They get married. Christian's pissed and Venetia is heartbroken but hopeful.
And then, the most ridiculous resolution to the most asinine conflict occurs, in the form of the gossip who spread the word about Christian's badmouthing of Venetia. I seriously considered DNFing right there, but with 10 pages to go I carried on, with my eyes rolled way back into my head.
I wasn't crazy about His at Night...it just wasn't for me, but it wasn't a bad book by any means. But Beguiling the Beauty was just awful. The characters were dumb, the plot was weak, the conflict was nonsense. Not a good start to this trilogy, although the secondary characters were a hell of a lot more interesting than the "hero" and "heroine," so here's hoping for the kind of writing that made Sherry Thomas an autobuy for me in the next book.
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LibraryThing member Jaitai16
At first I had a hard time getting into this book. It jumped around way too much switching POV's many times in the beginning. I see the purpose for it. To set up the future books but I felt it could have been done a little more artfully. I actually ended up loving the books. It was so twisty, with
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deceptions and secrets that it keep me glued to the page. Oh and I met Sherry Thomas at a conference. She was so lovely I would buy her books just for that reason alone. Show Less
LibraryThing member Larou
I have been a fan of Sherry Thomas’ novels ever since reading Private Arrangements; she is one of my favourite authors of Historical Romance, even though I would classify her books as Wallpaper Historicals, as opposed to “deep” Historicals like Laura Kinsale’s. This is not due to any kind
However, her characters never feel quite contemporary to their period to me, but rather like people from the twenty-first century placed in front of an authentic background, intricately painted down to the last, historically accurate detail into which the never really merge. Reading her novels, I’m always reminded of pop-up books for children, where when you turn a page the main actors of the scene would fold out as upright cut-out figures standing out vertically from the horizontal background. In fact, this analogy can be carried even further - in pop-up books, neither characters nor background have any real depth in thenselves, but both combined result in a kind of three-dimensional effect that is more than just the sum of its parts.
This hopefully makes clear that I’m not at all averse to Wallpaper Historicals, especially not when they are done with such irresistable charm and beauty as those by Sherry Thomas. That her characters appear more modern than Victorian (and I should probably point out, just in case that it is not already obvious, that this assessment is very much subjective, and your own mileage may vary considerably) does not keep them from being well-rounded, likeable and fascinating to read about (it might even help the “likeable” part), and Sherry Thomas’ strongest asset is not her historical accuracy but her wonderful writing – her prose style is both lush and elegant, and to watch her spin out several interrelated extended metaphors over the course of a novel is a sheer delight.
While there were recurring characters in all her previous novels, Beguiling the Beauty is much more emphatically the first part of a trilogy – there are a sister and a brother of our current heroine that are quite blatantly being set up for the sequels, and in consequence they get quite a bit of narrative attention without any of their stories coming even close to a resolution. I am not decided yet on whether I like this or not – it does give author a bigger canvas to paint on, but it also leaves parts of the picture in the dark. I suppose it won’t be until I’ve read all three volumes of the trilogies that I’ll make my mind up on that, but for now it definitely gives this novel the feeling of being unfinished even as the heroine gets her Happily Ever After, but I will just have to see how it works out in the long run.
A second minor niggle is that events in Beguiling the Beauty stretch the limits of plausibility almost to tearing point. Of course, nobody reads Romance novels for their realistic plots, but even so the strings the author pulls are getting a bit too blatantly obvious when not only the hero and heroine (with her sister and sister and law) but also London’s chief rumour-monger all come together during the same lecture in Harvard, and for added implausibility the heroine is also the hero’s childhood love which he tries to get out of his system by denouncing her at, of all times, that very lecture. But those (and some similar things later on) are effectively nothing but slight distractions in what is otherwise a highly enjoyable novel. While not quite Sherry Thomas’ best (that is to me her second novel, Delicious), Beguiling the Beauty charms with its prose and enchants with its wit, it is far enough from common Romance clichés to be fresh and entertaining but stays close enough to true and trusted formulas to not throw the reader off – it is a fine line that Sherry Thomas (like every Romance author) treads, but she treads it with illimitable grace and effortless elegance, making Beguiling the Beauty a joy to read and me look forward to the remaining two novels in the trilogy.
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of sloppy research or glaring mistakes – while I am not an expert, I am quite confident that Sherry Thomas’ novels contain neither of those, that her research is extensive and immaculate and that she gets every detail right.However, her characters never feel quite contemporary to their period to me, but rather like people from the twenty-first century placed in front of an authentic background, intricately painted down to the last, historically accurate detail into which the never really merge. Reading her novels, I’m always reminded of pop-up books for children, where when you turn a page the main actors of the scene would fold out as upright cut-out figures standing out vertically from the horizontal background. In fact, this analogy can be carried even further - in pop-up books, neither characters nor background have any real depth in thenselves, but both combined result in a kind of three-dimensional effect that is more than just the sum of its parts.
This hopefully makes clear that I’m not at all averse to Wallpaper Historicals, especially not when they are done with such irresistable charm and beauty as those by Sherry Thomas. That her characters appear more modern than Victorian (and I should probably point out, just in case that it is not already obvious, that this assessment is very much subjective, and your own mileage may vary considerably) does not keep them from being well-rounded, likeable and fascinating to read about (it might even help the “likeable” part), and Sherry Thomas’ strongest asset is not her historical accuracy but her wonderful writing – her prose style is both lush and elegant, and to watch her spin out several interrelated extended metaphors over the course of a novel is a sheer delight.
While there were recurring characters in all her previous novels, Beguiling the Beauty is much more emphatically the first part of a trilogy – there are a sister and a brother of our current heroine that are quite blatantly being set up for the sequels, and in consequence they get quite a bit of narrative attention without any of their stories coming even close to a resolution. I am not decided yet on whether I like this or not – it does give author a bigger canvas to paint on, but it also leaves parts of the picture in the dark. I suppose it won’t be until I’ve read all three volumes of the trilogies that I’ll make my mind up on that, but for now it definitely gives this novel the feeling of being unfinished even as the heroine gets her Happily Ever After, but I will just have to see how it works out in the long run.
A second minor niggle is that events in Beguiling the Beauty stretch the limits of plausibility almost to tearing point. Of course, nobody reads Romance novels for their realistic plots, but even so the strings the author pulls are getting a bit too blatantly obvious when not only the hero and heroine (with her sister and sister and law) but also London’s chief rumour-monger all come together during the same lecture in Harvard, and for added implausibility the heroine is also the hero’s childhood love which he tries to get out of his system by denouncing her at, of all times, that very lecture. But those (and some similar things later on) are effectively nothing but slight distractions in what is otherwise a highly enjoyable novel. While not quite Sherry Thomas’ best (that is to me her second novel, Delicious), Beguiling the Beauty charms with its prose and enchants with its wit, it is far enough from common Romance clichés to be fresh and entertaining but stays close enough to true and trusted formulas to not throw the reader off – it is a fine line that Sherry Thomas (like every Romance author) treads, but she treads it with illimitable grace and effortless elegance, making Beguiling the Beauty a joy to read and me look forward to the remaining two novels in the trilogy.
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LibraryThing member Conkie
There are times when I have a difficult time picking up a new book released by one of my favorite authors. "Why?" you might ask, and I would respond "Because I don't want my feelings or expectations to be let down." This is an example of one of those times.
A couple of weeks ago I picked up a copy
Now to explain the deduction of a full star in this book's rating. Harsh, I believe, for a storyline and author as good as these are, but my only way to convey an important point.
Ms. Thomas is the real thing. She weals her writer's pencil with such grace, as to make the stories almost poetic in their cadence.
This story is no different, in theory. However, it didn't escape my notice that this book is only 304 pages long. Checking her next two "Fitzhugh" entries, resulted in noting each as being of the same 304 pages in length.
To date, her previous 4 novels were: 352 (being the shortest), 382, 432, and 432. I also noted that they were published by Bantam-Dell and easily found for months afterwards, for sale at the grocery store, etc. This new trilogy is published with Berkley Books (Penguin publishing group), and when I sought to buy the second in this trilogy "Ravishing the Heiress," I could not find it at any of the places I normally purchase paperbacks (grocery stores, Target, Walgreens, etc.). Yes, it was released 8 months ago, but I still occasionally find her earlier works from 2008-2010. Also, I noticed more printing errors and the binding to be of lesser quality. You're probably wondering what this all has to do with my review of Ms. Thomas' book "Beguiling the Beauty." Nothing, yet everything!
I realized from the first book read of Ms. Thomas' in 2008, that she was no ordinary writer. But I was willing to wait the year it took for her to release her next two books (2 were published in March and July of 2008, 1 in May 2009, 1 in May 2010). She never failed to remind me as to why I admire her writing.
With "Beguiling the Beauty," Ms. Thomas' imagination doesn't disappoint. I loved the storyline and the characters. But the lush, musicality of her writing was a bit diminished, making her offerings closer to some of my other favorite writers. She had been, far and away, better than all other historical romance writers.
I have not yet read her next two installments, but knowing that each is of the same shorter length, I imagine I might have the same complaint. Yes, after waiting two years for this story, the reader was able to purchase her next two books within 6 months of this one's release, but I think I prefer waiting for 1 year and receiving 1 book, rather than 3 after 2 years.
Publishers and Agents, don't be so greedy and short-sighted. When you have a gem, don't try to add additional facets. After all, adding more cuts, results in less of the product, and that is frequently not a good thing.
A couple of weeks ago I picked up a copy
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of "Tempting the Bride," the 3rd book in the Fitzhugh series, and after reading 4 chapters in, I quit. I fell so quickly into the storyline, that I couldn't bear to read further until I started back at book 1. NOTE: This is not to say that the reader must read these books in order, as Ms. Thomas has done an excellent job in the past of writing each book as if it stood alone.Now to explain the deduction of a full star in this book's rating. Harsh, I believe, for a storyline and author as good as these are, but my only way to convey an important point.
Ms. Thomas is the real thing. She weals her writer's pencil with such grace, as to make the stories almost poetic in their cadence.
This story is no different, in theory. However, it didn't escape my notice that this book is only 304 pages long. Checking her next two "Fitzhugh" entries, resulted in noting each as being of the same 304 pages in length.
To date, her previous 4 novels were: 352 (being the shortest), 382, 432, and 432. I also noted that they were published by Bantam-Dell and easily found for months afterwards, for sale at the grocery store, etc. This new trilogy is published with Berkley Books (Penguin publishing group), and when I sought to buy the second in this trilogy "Ravishing the Heiress," I could not find it at any of the places I normally purchase paperbacks (grocery stores, Target, Walgreens, etc.). Yes, it was released 8 months ago, but I still occasionally find her earlier works from 2008-2010. Also, I noticed more printing errors and the binding to be of lesser quality. You're probably wondering what this all has to do with my review of Ms. Thomas' book "Beguiling the Beauty." Nothing, yet everything!
I realized from the first book read of Ms. Thomas' in 2008, that she was no ordinary writer. But I was willing to wait the year it took for her to release her next two books (2 were published in March and July of 2008, 1 in May 2009, 1 in May 2010). She never failed to remind me as to why I admire her writing.
With "Beguiling the Beauty," Ms. Thomas' imagination doesn't disappoint. I loved the storyline and the characters. But the lush, musicality of her writing was a bit diminished, making her offerings closer to some of my other favorite writers. She had been, far and away, better than all other historical romance writers.
I have not yet read her next two installments, but knowing that each is of the same shorter length, I imagine I might have the same complaint. Yes, after waiting two years for this story, the reader was able to purchase her next two books within 6 months of this one's release, but I think I prefer waiting for 1 year and receiving 1 book, rather than 3 after 2 years.
Publishers and Agents, don't be so greedy and short-sighted. When you have a gem, don't try to add additional facets. After all, adding more cuts, results in less of the product, and that is frequently not a good thing.
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LibraryThing member MlleEhreen
I love Sherry Thomas, and I hate writing negative reviews of books written by authors I love, so I'm going to keep this short.
This story is so impossible that I think Sherry Thomas used up all her talent trying to hammer it into some workable form and had none left over to make it actually
Venetia, for her part, suffers from having to share page space with characters destined for future books. She has a complicated past herself, involving two previous marriages, which we discover right along with the backstories of Venetia's sister and her sister-in-law. Scenes that ought to have been devoted to shoring up the romantic connection between Venetia and Christian are devoted to the two sisters and their beaux-to-be.
Then there's the particular contrivance of this book: Venetia and Christian have an affair on a boat traveling from New York to London, while Venetia wears a veil at all times so Christian never sees her face (and thus never recognizes her as a person he's been obsessed with for ten years). She's motivated by revenge, because he's said some horrible things about her, but their time together is so special that they fall madly in love. There are just so many details that need explaining here - what does she do in the dining room while wearing a veil? When in Christian's room, are the lights off? Is he wearing a blindfold? What other steps are necessary to keep him from recognizing her? And where did she learn to speak German so well that she can pass AS a German? - that I constantly felt the author's hand forcing the story along and never, ever felt the magic.
I could go on, but it would be spoilery to discuss much more of the plot. There are more unlikely events and Sherry Thomas works really, really hard to make them seem plausible and she more or less succeeds, but that doesn't make the book itself a success. The ending, in particular, was a ridiculous letdown. Comic rather than moving.
This story is so impossible that I think Sherry Thomas used up all her talent trying to hammer it into some workable form and had none left over to make it actually
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romantic. The early chapters stutter forward oddly; we have the hero, Christian, who is obsessed with the heroine, Venetia, for upwards of ten years despite only having glimpsed her on two brief occasions. Sherry Thomas has to work hard to make us believe that this powerful, rational, scientific man could be subject to such an irrational passion and...she doesn't quite succeed. It doesn't fit with his character, not when he's had such minimal exposure to her. Venetia, for her part, suffers from having to share page space with characters destined for future books. She has a complicated past herself, involving two previous marriages, which we discover right along with the backstories of Venetia's sister and her sister-in-law. Scenes that ought to have been devoted to shoring up the romantic connection between Venetia and Christian are devoted to the two sisters and their beaux-to-be.
Then there's the particular contrivance of this book: Venetia and Christian have an affair on a boat traveling from New York to London, while Venetia wears a veil at all times so Christian never sees her face (and thus never recognizes her as a person he's been obsessed with for ten years). She's motivated by revenge, because he's said some horrible things about her, but their time together is so special that they fall madly in love. There are just so many details that need explaining here - what does she do in the dining room while wearing a veil? When in Christian's room, are the lights off? Is he wearing a blindfold? What other steps are necessary to keep him from recognizing her? And where did she learn to speak German so well that she can pass AS a German? - that I constantly felt the author's hand forcing the story along and never, ever felt the magic.
I could go on, but it would be spoilery to discuss much more of the plot. There are more unlikely events and Sherry Thomas works really, really hard to make them seem plausible and she more or less succeeds, but that doesn't make the book itself a success. The ending, in particular, was a ridiculous letdown. Comic rather than moving.
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LibraryThing member librarydanielle
tedious in some places, but not that bad overall.
LibraryThing member skirret
Reading my first Sherry Thomas book in twelve months brought home to me her astonishingly consistent excellence. Numerous authors are able to churn out consistently mediocre pulp fiction (and sometimes make a fortune in so doing), but truly original and inventive writers seem unable to avoid the
The narrative of Beguiling the Beauty is deceptively complex, which is perhaps why the Goodreads summary is so unsatisfactory, leaving out so many essential elements.
Christian, Duke of Lexington and the most eligible bachelor in Britain, is in no hurry to marry. Part of the reason is his scientific objectivity and passion for natural science. He's more interested in fossils than debutantes. But the main reason is a life-changing glimpse, when he was still in his teens, of a stunningly beautiful woman across the verdant pitch of the Eton-Harrow cricket match. He's completely entranced, even when he discovers she's married. Neither does his infatuation diminish when Venetia, the transcendental beauty, rips through marriage after marriage, leaving a trail of malicious and highly unflattering gossip in her wake.
While giving a lecture at Harvard, Christian is asked about the role of beauty in natural selection. Instead of his usual succinct answer, he finds himself describing, third-hand, the uncontrollable damaging effect of human beauty, using his cricket pitch experience as an example. Unfortunately for Christian, Venetia is sitting in the audience and promptly deduces that Christian is talking about her.
Her original plan of charming Christian and introducing him to Helena, her unmarried sister, turns into a plot of vengeance for outing her in public, even though most of the Harvard audience would not be able to make the connection.
She pursues him on his transatlantic voyage back to England and attempts to seduce him -- not an easy feat, as this requires maintaining her anonymity through the use of veils, darkened rooms, and blindfolds.
The gentle seduction works too well, leaving both Christian and Venetia in a limbo of frustrated passion.
After Christian realises that the mysteriously veiled shipboard siren is Venetia in disguise, the tension and stress between them escalates further.
At one point in the book, I found myself completely absorbed in the psychological tension generated by the stormy interaction of the pair and experienced intense discomfort -- an indication of the skill with which Ms Thomas handles the emotions of the characters and draws the sympathy of the reader.
The romantic episode on the transatlantic liner requires some suspension of disbelief, especially concerning the effectiveness of a veil or the darkness of an unlit room. But by this point in the story I was completely hooked and more than willing to give Ms Thomas the benefit of the doubt.
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occasional sour lemon among the juicy peaches.The narrative of Beguiling the Beauty is deceptively complex, which is perhaps why the Goodreads summary is so unsatisfactory, leaving out so many essential elements.
Christian, Duke of Lexington and the most eligible bachelor in Britain, is in no hurry to marry. Part of the reason is his scientific objectivity and passion for natural science. He's more interested in fossils than debutantes. But the main reason is a life-changing glimpse, when he was still in his teens, of a stunningly beautiful woman across the verdant pitch of the Eton-Harrow cricket match. He's completely entranced, even when he discovers she's married. Neither does his infatuation diminish when Venetia, the transcendental beauty, rips through marriage after marriage, leaving a trail of malicious and highly unflattering gossip in her wake.
While giving a lecture at Harvard, Christian is asked about the role of beauty in natural selection. Instead of his usual succinct answer, he finds himself describing, third-hand, the uncontrollable damaging effect of human beauty, using his cricket pitch experience as an example. Unfortunately for Christian, Venetia is sitting in the audience and promptly deduces that Christian is talking about her.
Her original plan of charming Christian and introducing him to Helena, her unmarried sister, turns into a plot of vengeance for outing her in public, even though most of the Harvard audience would not be able to make the connection.
She pursues him on his transatlantic voyage back to England and attempts to seduce him -- not an easy feat, as this requires maintaining her anonymity through the use of veils, darkened rooms, and blindfolds.
The gentle seduction works too well, leaving both Christian and Venetia in a limbo of frustrated passion.
After Christian realises that the mysteriously veiled shipboard siren is Venetia in disguise, the tension and stress between them escalates further.
At one point in the book, I found myself completely absorbed in the psychological tension generated by the stormy interaction of the pair and experienced intense discomfort -- an indication of the skill with which Ms Thomas handles the emotions of the characters and draws the sympathy of the reader.
The romantic episode on the transatlantic liner requires some suspension of disbelief, especially concerning the effectiveness of a veil or the darkness of an unlit room. But by this point in the story I was completely hooked and more than willing to give Ms Thomas the benefit of the doubt.
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LibraryThing member cmlloyd67
Beguiling the Beauty appears to be Thomas' twist on Judith Ivory's "Beast" story. Or at least according to the reviews and blurbs that I've read. Ivory's "Beast" is a retelling of Beauty and the Beast - with a beautiful young girl's notoriously ugly but roguish fiancee - deciding to seduce unawares
What Thomas does, and I haven't seen this done before - is the heroine has an overwhelmingly beautiful face. So beautiful that when the hero first glimpses her from afar he is "overcome" and each time he sees her, again from afar, he becomes more and more obsessed. Then he hears a malicious rumor about her from her husband - that her beauty is only skin deep, and how horrible she is. (It's not true - her husband was a jealous, insecure man and horrid to her. And never saw beneath the surface.) The hero doesn't believe it at first - that is until he reads about her husband's death, and how the husband was driven bankrupt buying her jewels. Then he reads even more malicious gossip about her remarriage, and the subsequent death of her second husband, who died when she was allegedly having an affair with his best friend. So the hero concludes that she's a beast and dismisses her beauty as a physical lure.
The hero is a naturalist - and is giving a lecture on naturalism at Harvard, which the heroine decides to attend with her sister and sister-inlaw - in the hopes of setting her sister up with him. During the lecture - he is asked a question about whether "beauty" is an inherited trait and its effects on evolution. For his response, he provides an example of how feminine beauty can be the downfall of most men, and how beautiful women are often "beastly" and shallow. The example he uses is the heroine, leaving her name out of it of course, but providing enough information - that she recognizes who he is talking about and is deeply wounded.
Her sister, Helena, suggests that when the opportunity arises the heroine should seek vengeance against him. Make the hero fall for her, then cut him. It does, the heroine wears a veiled hat...and takes on the identity of a German Baroness...he is not permitted to see her face. He falls in love with her, but never sees her face, and she with him. The only problem is that she is lying to him about who she is. And when he finds out - he will think the worst of her. Which of course he does.
The conflict is that the hero has to get past his own prejudices and the heroine past her pride, so that they can be honest with each other.
See the gender flip? Thomas not only grabs the concept from Ivory, she flips it. And instead of doing yet another take on the Beauty and the Beast fairy tale, Thomas sort of references the Greek myth - Cupid and Psyche, except the woman is cupid, and the male is psyche. Rather clever that.
My only quibble - which is why this is three stars and not four - is it took too long for the hero to come to his senses. By the time he did, I was ready to throttle him. This is a problem that I've had with a lot of Thomas' novels, the hero (sometimes its the heroine) becomes after a certain point not likable and it detracts from the romance - ie. I stop rooting quite so hard for them to end up together and just want to see the hero (sometimes the heroine) get a swift kick in the rumpus. The angst takes up most of the book. Also, as if the hero/heroine angst wasn't enough - we have to add in two other relationships, which are clearly being set up for the next two books in the series. But unfortunately, and unlike Courtney Milan's novels, don't quite sync with the main story as well. They distracted from the main plot and often felt quite jarring. I'd have edited them out.
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on a cruise ship before she meets him. They don't see each others faces. But it back-fires on him, he falls in love with her - and she falls for well, the alias or the person he is on the cruise ship. Thomas does something similar, except it's the heroine who fools the hero, and instead ugliness being her curse, it's her stunning beauty.What Thomas does, and I haven't seen this done before - is the heroine has an overwhelmingly beautiful face. So beautiful that when the hero first glimpses her from afar he is "overcome" and each time he sees her, again from afar, he becomes more and more obsessed. Then he hears a malicious rumor about her from her husband - that her beauty is only skin deep, and how horrible she is. (It's not true - her husband was a jealous, insecure man and horrid to her. And never saw beneath the surface.) The hero doesn't believe it at first - that is until he reads about her husband's death, and how the husband was driven bankrupt buying her jewels. Then he reads even more malicious gossip about her remarriage, and the subsequent death of her second husband, who died when she was allegedly having an affair with his best friend. So the hero concludes that she's a beast and dismisses her beauty as a physical lure.
The hero is a naturalist - and is giving a lecture on naturalism at Harvard, which the heroine decides to attend with her sister and sister-inlaw - in the hopes of setting her sister up with him. During the lecture - he is asked a question about whether "beauty" is an inherited trait and its effects on evolution. For his response, he provides an example of how feminine beauty can be the downfall of most men, and how beautiful women are often "beastly" and shallow. The example he uses is the heroine, leaving her name out of it of course, but providing enough information - that she recognizes who he is talking about and is deeply wounded.
Her sister, Helena, suggests that when the opportunity arises the heroine should seek vengeance against him. Make the hero fall for her, then cut him. It does, the heroine wears a veiled hat...and takes on the identity of a German Baroness...he is not permitted to see her face. He falls in love with her, but never sees her face, and she with him. The only problem is that she is lying to him about who she is. And when he finds out - he will think the worst of her. Which of course he does.
The conflict is that the hero has to get past his own prejudices and the heroine past her pride, so that they can be honest with each other.
See the gender flip? Thomas not only grabs the concept from Ivory, she flips it. And instead of doing yet another take on the Beauty and the Beast fairy tale, Thomas sort of references the Greek myth - Cupid and Psyche, except the woman is cupid, and the male is psyche. Rather clever that.
My only quibble - which is why this is three stars and not four - is it took too long for the hero to come to his senses. By the time he did, I was ready to throttle him. This is a problem that I've had with a lot of Thomas' novels, the hero (sometimes its the heroine) becomes after a certain point not likable and it detracts from the romance - ie. I stop rooting quite so hard for them to end up together and just want to see the hero (sometimes the heroine) get a swift kick in the rumpus. The angst takes up most of the book. Also, as if the hero/heroine angst wasn't enough - we have to add in two other relationships, which are clearly being set up for the next two books in the series. But unfortunately, and unlike Courtney Milan's novels, don't quite sync with the main story as well. They distracted from the main plot and often felt quite jarring. I'd have edited them out.
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LibraryThing member samnreader
RTC. Cause that was a binge read and it’s bedtime.
The review hasn't written itself, but I did so appreciate the conversation and intimacy built between these characters. I HATE mistaken or hidden identity plots, but this one did work for me. The hero makes a mistake and is punished in a singular
There's some sexy hairpin action (aka sexy consent) and what results is a sweet, convincing relationship. When it all falls apart--less a big misunderstanding and more a big understanding--it is also dealt with in a convincing way and all character vulnerabilities melt away in favor of their regular defensive modes. The secondary characters play a large role here and have set this series up so I'm almost reluctant to step away from it now.
Last night, because I enjoyed it and binged it to no end, I might have given it a 5. This morning, I think it's not quite that, perhaps the rush to the end and the device employed, so I'll leave it at 4 for now. Probably.
The review hasn't written itself, but I did so appreciate the conversation and intimacy built between these characters. I HATE mistaken or hidden identity plots, but this one did work for me. The hero makes a mistake and is punished in a singular
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fashion for it, but of course that goes awry because he's also a really decent guy. There's some sexy hairpin action (aka sexy consent) and what results is a sweet, convincing relationship. When it all falls apart--less a big misunderstanding and more a big understanding--it is also dealt with in a convincing way and all character vulnerabilities melt away in favor of their regular defensive modes. The secondary characters play a large role here and have set this series up so I'm almost reluctant to step away from it now.
Last night, because I enjoyed it and binged it to no end, I might have given it a 5. This morning, I think it's not quite that, perhaps the rush to the end and the device employed, so I'll leave it at 4 for now. Probably.
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LibraryThing member spinsterrevival
Loved everything about this. Christian and Venetia falling in love was amazing, and then we had to go through some pretty great angst for them to get their HEA. Looking beneath the surface is the lesson here, and it’s an important one.
LibraryThing member JorgeousJotts
I've enjoyed previous books by this author, so repeatedly I considered reading this one, but the blurb, with mistaken identity and revenge, they're not my favorite tropes and combined they seemed so hokey, and I'd set it aside for another book. I finally decided that even if I didn't care for this
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book I might still enjoy the next two in the series and I like to read in order, so I'd go ahead and tackle it. Well do I feel silly now. The characters get themselves tangled up in a mess, but their thoughts and actions make so much sense given their understanding. I was engrossed in their courtship. They spend a lot of time on page getting to know each other, both of them grow into their best selves with each other, it was complicated but lovely. Of course there's a part later where things go poorly, there's always a hitch in the third quarter. But they end up back in a good place, and besides a little bit of frustration with them during that turbulence, it was a very nice journey. I think it will be memorable as well, so it stands out from the crowd for me. Show Less
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
2012-05-01
Physical description
304 p.
ISBN
0425246965 / 9780425246962