Review: No surprises in this tale of lust and love
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 02 3, 2012
This book was very successful in it's goal - a lush, nearly Romeo and Juliet fated romance, filled with angst, lust and love.  Of course, this book does get it's happily ever after, unlike Shakespeare's doomed hero and heroine, and most reader's will find it a very satisfying ending.  The book itself is very well written and I enjoyed watching Lucien and Madeline's anti-romance progress into a great love affair.All that being said...I personally found myself strangely dissatisfied with this tale.  There were a great deal of unnecessary self-pitying, drama and conflicts.  In fact, I found the hero, Lucien, unlikable.  I liked him, initially.  However, he grew annoying, his self-involvement was far far too real and his inner drama was as unnecessary as all the hoopla over his conquest of Madeline.  I know that conflict was necessary and so the author found some pressure points to pursue.  However, she overplayed it and by the end I was no longer that involved in Lucien and Madeline.  And there was never a reason why Lucien couldn't have married her (it certainly was okay by the last chapter, so why not several chapters previously?).  He was rich and had relentlessly pursued and seduced her and then offered to marry her.  She was getting married solely because she needed the money.  So why couldn't they be married?  No reason.  The entire second half of the book was wearying because all it did was constantly find reasons for conflict where there was no conflict.I would have liked this book so much more if it had scorned the dishonorable nature of Lucien, who was of course perfectly sexy and handsome, and created instead a beautiful love between Madeline and the Marquess, who was far more deserving of a romance.  Of course, I realize this book is entitled "Lucien's Fall".  So I knew and understood the parameters of the book from the start.  But in the end, the book was too overwrought for my tastes.  I walked away wishing that it had surprised me in some way or that it had chosen to throw romantic cliche out the window.