I lasted a paragraph or two and decided to move on. Can't say if this is good or bad and I didn't care to find out.

Eloisa James's later books are quite enjoyable, so I was excited to read this series, but unfortunately this just wasn't worth reading for me. DNF 45%. I hate to quit a book part way though, but I was disliking it more and more as I went along, and after peeking at a few review spoilers, I'm confident that I would have been absolutely hating it before the end! And it's a looong book. Life is too short!

As a side note, I didn't like being in everyone's (and literally their mother's) heads. Pick a couple narrators and stick with them please. Scenes shouldn't bounce around like a pinball machine.
The hero, even before he apparently becomes verbally and emotionally abusive later in the book(!), is just an ass! He sees her, doesn't realize that they've *ahem* "met" before in some sort of 'one night 5-minute stand', knows absolutely nothing about her (later on he asks if she's already married... might be good to know before you start making plans!), but decides that 'she'll do' to raise his child and warm his bed, and basically just has at her! Totally making free with her person as if they're already married, even when he believes it's only the second time they've ever met (and it's the first that she's known his name)! And then he *informs her* *that same day*, that he 'will give her a week to accept his proposal' before they will marry by special license. And if she doesn't acquiesce within that week then he says "after that I'll probably have to snatch you out of your bedroom myself". What an absolute cad! He doesn't care a fig about her as a person! That same picnic/first date(?) (that he hijacked btw!) he also ruins her dress as some sort of test of motherhood potential, teases her (maybe?) that *she's on the shelf!*, abandons his guests, and purposely terrorizes his toddler into sobbing *just to demonstrate* how she's afraid of women... Really, it's surprising I made it several hours past that one, highly eventful, outing!

And why write a historical romance if you're not going to abide by any of the rules of the time?! James has these two (an Earl and a Duke's daughter) canoodling out in public all over the place with hardly a thought to any consequence! Even the one time when the guy thinks 'Gee, we're getting pretty hot and heavy right here in Hyde Park!' his "solution" is to just *pull her into his lap* and continue groping her. Umm? Hardly ever any sort of chaperone, repeated closed carriage rides just a man and a woman, it's basically a free for all! I'm totally willing to overlook some modern phrasing or something, but a historical novel is more than just modern people running around in dress up! It's hard to believe James was even *reading* historical romances before she sat down to write this one!
*Sigh* To be fair though, she's not the only one to get off to quite a rough start. Julia Quinn's first book [b:Splendid|110382|Splendid (The Splendid Trilogy, #1)|Julia Quinn|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1274212629s/110382.jpg|106381] also had a horrendous caveman of a hero, and none of what makes her later books interesting and emotionally compelling. The good news is that both have improved tremendously! ( )

Yeah, nope. This was all sorts of shady for me: A heroine who seems delightfully independent on the surface yet who keeps making questionable decisions about the dude she's in love with; meanwhile the dude she's in love with has some massive issues with anger management. But the real clincher for me was his obsession with his wife needing to be 'pure' and his conviction that if she's anything else she's automatically a worthless whore. It's a shame, really, because the writing was nice and some of the other characters were fun and lovely. But yeah, just NOPE. ( )

Charlotte Dalcheston, a Duke's youngest daughter, has just finished her schooling and is about to prepare for her debut into London society in 1798. She is staying with her friend Julie in the country and her friend is besotted, at this moment, with the Revered Colby, who invited them to a masked ball the locals are having. He tells her she needs to open her eyes to the real world. What the two do not know is that this is the Hooker's Ball. It is indeed attended by footmen and maids, as well as prostitutes, and the occasional slumming gentry and it is not at all a party for innocent ladies. When they get to the party, the Reverend takes Julie off to dance, leaving Charlotte alone. Then, suddenly she sees a man across the room with dark hair, shot with silver and she is captivated. When he comes over, assuming she is a whore and begins kissing her, she is so surprised, she does not stop him. Soon he has taken her into the garden where things progress quickly, and her senses have completely overwhelmed her. When he takes her virginity, he realizes the mistake and stops. She tells him "Thank you" and runs off. While she knows exactly what he looks like, she was wearing a mask and had her hair powered, but her skin was so white, he assumes she was a red head. All he knows is that she has these amazing green eyes and that she smells of lavender, however, Charlotte was wearing an orange blossom scent (men are so clueless). He believes she has to be a whore, but the way she acted makes him think she might have been a lady. She believes he had to have been a footman.

When she returns home she refuses to have her debut. Eventually, her mother manages to weasel out of her what happened. She assures her that her husband will never know the difference and that maybe the footman wasn't a footman and will show up at one of the balls. Charlotte's ball is a success, but she so upset that the man does not show up, that she starts crying and goes to bed before he does come by. Alexander, the future Earl of Sheffield and Downes is there, with his twin brother Patrick. Charlotte's mother, Adelaide sees them and thinks one of them might be the one, but she is not sure, so she decides to wait. After all, the Season has just begun. Unfortunately, their father sends Alex off to Italy and Patrick off to India. Charlotte endures the Season but turns down the offers of marriage. The next two Seasons pass quickly with Charlotte attending as little parties and dances as possible. She has turned to her painting and has become quite accomplished and is content to live her life alone. Then her father decides to give her some property in Wales that is not attached to the Ducal estates so that she will be able to take care of herself and not depend on anyone and have an independent dowry in case she changes her mind about marrying.

Then one day, something snaps in Charlotte and she decides to have a makeover. She gets rid of her old dresses and has her maid, Marie set her up with the most popular dressmaker and hairdresser. She is the first to start wearing the daring French Empire waist gowns and gets her dark hair cut short. Suddenly, her dance card is full and she is flirting with every man she meets and getting multiple proposals a week and turning everyone down. She becomes friends with a saucy French girl, Sophie, and they tear up the town. Then Alex shows back up in town. With a one-year-old daughter, Pippa. The gossips all say that his wife Marie asked for a divorce on the grounds of impotence and he gave no argument. Even though he is now an Earl, and normally a catch, no one wants him. He sees Charlotte and immediately wants her. He is attracted to her, but he also needs someone to take care of his very frightened daughter who had a rough time of it when her mother died. Alex had no idea that when Maria left she was pregnant with his child. Frankly, he hated her so much, he was about to join the Dragoon army to get away from the cheating horror show of a woman he had married. He would have said anything to get out that marriage. Alex, however, does not remember Charlotte, and this, Charlotte cannot accept. This is the man who took her virginity and apparently, in her mind he does it so often he can't keep them straight.

The two are desperately attracted to each other, and even if Charlotte wanted to marry him, her father opposes the marriage on the grounds of his impotence. It is hilarious reading about her father trying to explain this to her mother, so she can explain it to Charlotte, who is confused, because, as they say, the soldier still stands, but according to her mother, that doesn't mean he will be able to have kids. Eventually, it all gets sorted out and they have the wedding of all weddings and the nightmares of all nightmares of a wedding night. The things he says to her are unthinkable and unforgivable. Things end up going downhill from there, but this a romance, so yes, there is a very happy ending, a good one. I don't know how many times I wanted to whack him upside the head with a baseball bat. In my experience, though, most men need that from time to time, but this guy really outdoes himself. How can you not recognize those amazing green eyes? They're rare. When you kiss her and touch her, how can you not remember her body? He never forgot the girl in the garden; she was burned in his brain, but he could not see her right in front of him. He really does not deserve her, even if you can understand how he is messed up about women from his first marriage, which was truly a horrid nightmare. But Charlotte is a good woman, not just to Alex, but to all those around her and helps supporting characters, whose stories are just as interesting. I'm looking forward to the next book, which I predict will be about Patrick and Sophie. It will be interesting to see how on earth the two of them will find common ground. ( )

Usually I'm a fan of EJ's books, but I didn't like this one at all. I disliked the plot because it is based on a simple misconception which could have been cleared up in a few seconds. That made the book rather boring and a bit weird in my eyes.
Furthermore, I enormously disliked the hero. He is childish and egocentric, and she keeps on forgiving him just like that. He doesn't trust her and never will. Terrible basis for a relationship.
The only interesting character was Lucien, although I wondered why he was in the book at all. In my view he - and the sometimes lengthy ponderings by/about other people - weren't needed and did nothing for the story itself. I skipped parts because of this. ( )