Review: Tempting Bella
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 12 21, 2013
Tempting Bella picks up soon after the epilogue of Seducing Charlotte, although it is not necessary to have read that one first, since we were only briefly introduced to the unusual marriage between Sebastian and Bella. In order to settle a gambling debt, their fathers' arrange a marriage between 19 year old Sebastian and 13 year old Bella. Since they're both young, they were both sent back off to school, then Bella traveled abroad, before being reunited six years later. Needless to say, these two didn't even recognize each other. Sebastian took his role as husband very seriously, even in his wife's absence, but Bella has been harboring feelings of abandonment and neglect and refuses to submit to her role as wife.There are a ton of different romance tropes at play in Tempting Bella: arranged marriage, mistaken identity, misunderstandings, and enemies to lovers! It's a lot, but I really enjoyed all of it! Bella is understandable unhappy with the arrangement, which is only amplified because she thinks Sebastian married her for the money and promptly forgot about her. Sebastian is smitten with her, and really tries to make her comfortable and doesn't take advantage of his husbandly rights. She doesn't make it easy for him with her attitude though. Bella does things only to shock and upset him. I actually found this all quite funny, except for one instance where I felt like she disrespected his family for no reason. But other than that, I quite enjoyed Bella's fiestiness. Of course, once she learns the truth of the situation it's easier for Bella to see Sebastian for the good man that he really is and fall in love with himIn addition to Bella just not wanting to fall into the wife role without a fight, she believes that Sebastian is pilfering money from her father. Yes, Sebastian is now in charge of the accounts, but perhaps he's taking liberties with the money? Bella sets out on an investigation so she can bring these crimes to her father and hopefully take charge of the estate herself. Of course, Sebastian has reasons for taking more money, and they're of course super noble ones. He's way too perfect and has his hands in far too many noble pursuits. And there's some twists at the end which just kept twisting. It felt a bit dragged out to me.I did enjoy Tempting Bella a bit more than the first book. I adored this romance, since it does take Bella longer than usual to trust Sebastian and give into her feelings for him. The extra plot wasn't quite as engaging to me, since I knew Sebastian couldn't possibly be up to no good. They don't call him "the saint" for nothing. All in all, this was another cute historical romance.*Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher through NetGalley for review. No compensation was offered or accepted.