Review: Not My Cup of Tea
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 02 13, 2014
I have to say that this romance involved aspects that I particularly detest...namely infidelity.  Shortly after Arabella and James are married, he abandons her in the country, seemingly for the delights of London.  Two years later he returns home to claim his wife and his husbandly rights.  Arabella, of course, is not happy about James' return.  James' absence is ultimately explained and forgiven, even by this reader.  However, I hate infidelity of any kind, and in this story we are supposed to believe that even though Arabella loves her husband, she still felt free to carry on a clandestine sexual relationship with her father's land agent, Tom. She even went so far as to sleep with him just hours before going to her husband's bed.  The revelation of how Tom came to be in Arabella's life, did not, in my view, make the adultery any less unpalatable, especially when you consider the fact that Arabella had no idea how Tom came to work for her father.  Then there is the fact, that when James returns home he is accompanied by two women who are purportedly his mistresses...although that is never confirmed, he certainly did not deny it when Arabella accused him of such.  I didn't understand how I was  supposed to believe that James really loves his wife, and was sorry for everything that had occurred between them when, after a two year absence, he finally comes home accompanied by his MISTRESSES!!  Furthermore, when the story ends I was confused as to the future of the trio; were they all going to be in a relationship from then on, or was this ménage a trois just a one time occurrence?  So, in my view, this book has really hot sex, but the actual story is confusing and unsatisfying.  The book is really well written, but I did not really like the characters, nor did I enjoy the story.  Consequently, I would not recommend this book...unless you just really like to read hot sex and don't care about the story itself.