Review: sexy, historical romance but a bit too weak for me.
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 08 22, 2013
A Marquess for Christmas. Vivienne Westlake.ARC supplied by Netgalley.This sounded fun, a historical novel with an erotic theme. Interesting and unusual, and a change from my normal selection. It started well, Violet is out in her carriage when she's attacked by highwaymen. Kit comes to her rescue and gets hurt. Violet stands up for herself, and we see she's no simpering flower, (violet- flower!!) but a woman prepared to wade in and stand up for herself. That was good as I hate these weak, helpless women that are in so many books of this type. She takes Kit back to her home and nurses him through his injuries, but when he recovers he's lost his memory and doesn't know who he is. He's attracted strongly to Violet though, and they have a steamy affair. So far so good eh? Well...yes, but it was just a bit...bland. The sex was hot, but the story just not very strong. I was waiting for something else to happen, and thought that maybe his sister, the one that was always throwing heiresses his way in an attempt to get him to marry, might provide it. We'd met her and her husband Freddie earlier in the book, and I liked her, she was very protective of Kit and was keen for him to settle down and stop the boxing, gambling etc. He was adamant though - he wasn't ready to marry. It caused some strong words between them. So I was thinking when she found out about Violet, and her being a simple country widow, not wealthy, no title, that she might be the much needed protagonist, a nice, jealous, bitchy person :)  and be against them marrying. Instead she's all for them getting together, while Kit is still against the institution of marriage. So it was a fun, sexy read but for me just too one level, no angst, no tears, the bit where  there is separation was just not enough for me, I felt a lack of real emotions in this book, everyone was just so ...nice. Sadly I need more, more tears, more smiles, more build up to the sex, and a story with a bit more of a plot.It wasn't a bad book, its well written and edited, and priced at 2.73 for 205 pages/402kb its a reasonable length and price but it just wasn't strong enough for me. If you want a quick spicy easy read then you'll probably love this story, there's nothing difficult to work out and it fits that description well, but I need a bit more.Stars: three, it was OK - just not enough content, interest for me to rate higher.