Review: Taken By A Duke
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 05 16, 2014
This book had me conflicted. I enjoyedBeauty and the Earl (The Pleasure Wars)so much and it compelled me to want to know more about all characters. When I started reading I felt so sad for all the hopes and dreams of Matilda,Liam and Christian being wiped away. It was such a tragedy and the whole family feuding. It reminded me of the Hatfield's and McCoy's for god sake.Christian and Liam have a deep seeded hatred for one another and after the loss of his sister, Matilda, Christian devises a revenge tactic to get even with Liam. An eye for an eye so to speak. This caused me mixed feelings later in the book.Ava can feel that the fuse has been lit and whenever Christian enters a room all heads turn to gauge his reaction. It really came as no surprise when she is abducted from the balcony at a ball and hoisted into a carriage. She surprised Christian by not giving into hysterics and is actually quite accepting of her fate.Although I couldn't wait to dive into the book at 50% through I found I was getting bored. I think part of the problem is because Ava was a Lady not just some random trollop and even though it was for her brother I found it hard to believe she would give in so easily. The fact that she openly admits that he scares her but so willingly and passionately leaped into bed was a bit of a stretch.I don't regret reading this as it filled in blanks from the third in the series but I could only give it 3.5 stars. The sex scenes in the book mimicked the third book in degrees. This book just never pulled me in as deeply as the other. I think I wanted to hear the whole story so much I tried to convince myself let some things go.But when Ava dropped the F bomb at her brother and refers to parts of her anatomy in a crude manner it just became too much. You have to draw the line somewhere to have a Lady of that time speak like a common whore and knowing she was only being used to get revenge and show no remorse became tiresome.What kind of man would abduct an innocent with intentions to ruin her?  The kind the author felt the heroin would want I guess.  I like dirty talk as well as the next girl but for a virgin who never saw a naked man (who she feared, let's not forget) to agree to this bargain, I wasn't buying.  It was just an excuse to add sex and not be written as a rape which is what it truly would have been had the author wrote the characters accurately.If Liam wasn't attached with this book I probably would have only gave it 1-2 stars. LIAM IS THE MAN!!!