This is the second book I’ve read by Carolyn Jewel, and both books shared the same flaw – a book that is great for the first two thirds, and then something unbelievable and inconsistent happens at the last minute, leaving me wondering, “what happened?” I keep buying her books because they always start with such promise, but I hope that at some point she can write a book that’s great all the way through.
Not Wicked Enough by Carolyn Jewel
(2012, Regency Historical) 11/3/2012
Grade: 3.5
When Lily Wellstone goes to Bitterward to visit her friend Eugenia, she expects to comfort her grieving friend. She didn’t expect to be charmed by her friend’s brother, the Duke of Mountjoy. She may enjoy his kisses, but he is practically engaged to a neighbor, and she has vowed never to love again, after the death of her beloved years before. But they could have an affair – after all, there’s no risk they might fall in love…
This book worked well for the first half. The characters were interesting, and the sexual tension was excellently written, at least at the beginning. Mountjoy and Lily were both unusual characters, and I enjoyed getting to know them. But the book started to fall apart in the second half. The love scenes started to get a little boring, and there wasn’t much else going on – until the hero and heroine started acting completely out of character. Out of nowhere, the heroine is considering marriage to a man she barely knows, and the hero is proposing to make the heroine his mistress. It felt completely out of place and inconsistent with the characters – it felt like the author needed to throw in an obstacle to keep the book going, and this was the best she could come up with. (Which is disappointing, because there was interesting potential in the hero and heroine’s background that could have provided a more realistic conflict.) The book improved in the last couple of chapters, but not enough to save the book for me. I ended up frustrated that this book (and this author) didn’t live up to its potential.
I have the sequel to this book in my TBR – I’m planning to try it and hoping it turns out better than this one.
Karen Wheless
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