1.75*
Review completa em: http://pepitamagica.blogspot.pt/2016/04/livro-ma-reputacao-de-nicola-cornick.htm...

Full review: http://pepitamagica.blogspot.pt/2016/04/livro-ma-reputacao-de-nicola-cornick.htm...

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Tenho pouca coisa boa para dizer sobre este livro. Susanna e Devlin são personagens irritantes, mesmo no fim não se redimem. Apenas Rosy e Rory, que verdadeiramente não entram no livro, prestam. Eu percebo que em casos de extrema necessidade, tudo possa acontecer, mas isso não justifica a atitude de nenhuma das personagens.

Não houve uma única personagem com a qual me pudesse identificar minimamente. A própria história não me prendeu e, apesar de não me esquecer do enredo (desde Novembro que ando com o livro na mala – 6 meses!), não tinha qualquer vontade de o ler.

Apesar de normalmente gostar dos livros da Nicola Cornick, este foi uma desilusão. ( )

3 ½ Stars

This review is also published at http://thebookaholiccat.com

Susanna Burney has been hired by the Duke and Duchess of Aston to impersonate a rich young widow to enamored their son, Fitzwilliam and thus make him forget about his love interest, Francesca Devlin, also known as Chessie, a girl with no titles or money therefore and ill match for a peer of the ton.
What Susanna wasn’t counting on was in crossing paths with James Devlin, her husband, who is unfortunately Chessie’s brother.
James Devlin had a very tough childhood. His father was a gambler, one day rich, one day poor, until the pressure of the debts was too much and he committed suicide, leaving James and Francesca orphans at a very young age.
James has always done whatever necessary to protect and provide for his sister. Now when he thought they would have a safe and steady future, Chessie married to Fitz and him engaged and soon to be married to Lady Emma, the heiress of a big fortune, a ghost from his past comes to ruin everything. This ghost being the woman he married nine years ago whom he thought was dead.
After their quick elopement and unforgettable wedding night James woke up to find Susanna gone with just a note left behind saying their elopement was a mistake she was planning to remedy by requesting an annulment. Later he was told she had died and since then he tried to never again think about her, his one and only love.
Now they are back in each other lives and don’t know what to do with each other. James hates Susanna for leaving him and now for trying to ruin Cheesie’s future but at the same time he is still attracted to her as much as when they were young.
Susanna doesn’t understand why after so many years seeing James still affects her the way it does but she has a mission to accomplish and sadly it doesn’t matter if Chessie gets hurts, there are others more important to her who depend on her to do her job.
The question is are they going to be able to continue with their plans or forget about money and social position and continue where they left years ago?

Notorious is book four in The Scandalous Women of the Ton by Nicola Cornick and my first book by this author.

Because Susanna is a character with many secrets it takes some time to warm up to her and start to like her and even more time to understand her past and present actions. Also to make things harder sometimes her behavior felt a little bit antagonistic. Furthermore she should have been a strong woman to be able to accomplished her “duty”, but this wasn’t always the feeling I got from her, it was more the one of the victim and suffered woman, this might have been because of her situation with James but still I wanted a little bit more of courage from her.

I liked James Devlin since the beginning of the book, I guess it has to do with his sense of humor, his love for his sister and his sense of responsibility. It doesn’t hurt that he is also described as a very handsome man who has done all kind of things to be able to provide for his sister.

Susanna and James relationship is one of those I love you/ I hate you – I want you/ I cannot stand you relationship, full of banter and witty remarks. The chemistry between them felt real, making the sexual tension sometimes unbearable and when they were together the pages sizzled.

The secondary characters didn’t provide anything interesting to the story I could sadly say they took points from it. Fitzwilliam is a spoiled, pompous prick who thinks he can do anything he wants, whenever he wants without caring for the consequences just because of who he is. Cheesie’s story started as a very interesting one with a twist that could have add something nice and spicy to the story but ended in a big disappointment (at least for me) even though Mrs. Cornick tried to implied she will get a HEA what lies ahead for her is not sun and flowers, but headaches, betrayals and disappointments.

What attracted me to read Notorious was that it had a different story from the conventional historical romances. It was not the poor girl in love of the Lord, or the heiress in love with the reformed rake. InNotorious both main characters aren’t part of the ton, and have done all kind of things to survive and climb the social ladder, this make it more interesting and as I said before somehow different.

Even though I haven’t read the books previous to Notorious I didn’t feel lost in the story. The only moment I felt there must have been a story behind was when a character call Bradshaw was introduced, besides that I never felt I was missing something. I can say this book could be read as a stand-alone without any problem.

I recommend this book to historical romance fans, especially is they like steamy hot relationships. I’m sure in the future I will read more books by Mrs. Cornick. ( )

Epic romance tends to guard its deepest, darkest secrets closest to the heart rather than wear them on its sleeve, so pardon James Devlin if he fails to acknowledge his perfect-in-every-way fiancée when he spots his dead wife across the ballroom. No, not zombified, but very much alive and currently seducing a gentleman away from Devlin’s sister!

Susanna Burney had learned long ago that love is not invincible and has found a lucratrive job in helping disapproving mamas and papas of the ton to break up an unwanted courtship. This was supposed to have been an easy come-hither-and-dash deal, but Susanna did not count on running into her past in the form of a husband she had discarded long ago.

Egads – I just realized James Devlin and I are the same age (27) as of a few months ago, and I can hardly say that I have everything I have ever wanted. Back on subject, though, Notorious was a scrumptious feast for this reader who practically inhaled it up her nose! The tension tightly bound like a corset, the love-hate bubbling to a delicious boil, the secrets as decadent as dark chocolate, Nicola Cornick nailed the emotional rollercoaster on the nail and I cried my eyes out. There were some awkward moments in Notorious that felt a little too melodramatic, but these were mostly side-plots that snuck in for a few seconds of pagetime. Otherwise, I loved how Susanna was a match-breaker – I don’t think I’ve run across such a concept before and thought it awfully smart! ( )

I reviewed this book for Romance Reader At Heart website.

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

Our hero, James Devlin, is at a ball, and he’s bored. But then he spots a woman, and she’s none other than Susanna Burney, his ex-wife, who he thought dead for the past nine years.

Our heroine, Susanna Burney, is at the same ball, and she’s on a mission: breaking up a betrothal of Fritz, the Duke of Alton’s son, who just happens to be wooing James’ sister.

Everything about this story sounded and, in the beginning, was interesting. The premise of a woman hiring herself to the ton as a match BREAKER is something I’ve never read before. The more I read, the more frustrated I got. This had nothing to do with Ms. Cornick’s writing. She pulled off a well written, three-dimensional and decently paced story that had plenty of secondary characters to keep me entertained; but what frustrated me was our hero and heroine.

With all my heart, I wanted to feel, understand, and love them, but I just couldn’t. I disliked Susanna for her selfish, conniving, and deceitful manner, and by the time all her secrets came to light, it was too late for me to like her.

As for our hero, I didn’t dislike him as much as I was baffled by him, and I couldn’t understand why in the world he would love her! I know that opposites attract (my real-life relationship with my husband is living proof), but try as I might, I just never felt the passion he clearly felt for this pathetic, sorrowful, and nasty piece of work.

I understand that this is book four out of six in the ‘Scandalous Women of the Ton’ series, and I can tell you, without a doubt, it stands alone. If you’ve read the previous three, I’m sure you wouldn’t want to miss this one. If you’re new to this author, as I am, you might be better off starting with another story with a more likable hero and heroine.

In the end, I’ve decided to give this tale Four Roses despite my dislike of the main protagonists and their actions, and the reason is Ms. Cornick herself. She gets credit for engaging my emotions, negative as they may be. Also, this book made me want to read Alex and Joanna’s story from WHISPER OF SCANDAL, and only a well written book can accomplish that.

Melanie ( )

I was impressed with Cornick's writing style and her ability to make me care about what happened to a character I should hate. I'll go back now and read the earlier books in the series. ( )