Review: Trigger warning
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 04 15, 2014
This is RELEASE DAY for this book. I read the advanced copy a couple months ago. Maybe the issues I bring up here have been addressed, and if so, I'm willing to adjust my review...and my rating.BUT...since the issues here are ones that I wish I hadn't read...I'll put my .02 out there for other readers that would want to know about cheating and rape.I read the first book in the series, A Kiss of Lies, and I enjoyed the start to this series. Was pretty happy to get this second book immediately after the first.After I read this, I had to really think about this review. Took me a few days to get my thoughts together.I loved that Beatrice was willing to do what was best for her family. Even if the best thing was to marry the man who they think killed her brother in a duel gone wrong. The family is just short of the poorhouse and she, as a 25 year old spinster, who's nickname is Henpeck Hennessy, knows she's never going to catch a husband.I'm quite fond of the "marriage of convenience" trope. Sebastian does the right thing and agrees to marry her. He knows he has to marry at some point, and it might as well be her. She's not all that pretty, and he owes her family. She won't want more from him than he's willing to give, right?Then he discovers that she really is quite pretty, isn't she? And she's smart, too. And what are all these dreadful feelings that he has for her? While he loves his sisters, he never, ever wants to love a wife. His parents loved each other and it was hideous living with them. They fought all the time.From the first book, the Libertine Scholars are searching diligently for the person who has started setting them up for ruin. We are getting clues, slowly as there are seven of them, and they'll all need their own book before the grand reveal comes around, I'm sure. I am enjoying this part of the plot.What I'm not enjoying, and what caused me great concern, is the cheating in this book. Sebastian never means to be loyal to his wife.  He goes to his ex and allows her to touch him, intimately. He watches a prostitute pleasure herself. He kisses other women.While in erotica, that kind of thing may be okay, in romance I want the hero, once he's made vows to his woman...to keep it in his pants, and to not let other women touch him.This totally ruined the story for me.The rest of this has spoilers...please read NO FURTHER if you don't want to be spoiled. I really wish Amazon had that code where you could HIDE spoilers so you have to CHOOSe to be spoiled. Sorry!.....<spoiler><spoiler><spoiler><spoiler><spoiler>I do realize that not every reader cares if there's cheating. And this, in my book, no matter what some presidents may say, allowing this kind of intimacy is cheating.Everyone kept saying how honorable Sebastian is. This is not honorable and not fair to Beatrice. Even his fellow Libertine Scholar thought it was below him.Of course, this is just my opinion, but this was not romance.Then comes this truly awful moment. Later, when Dunmire has Beatrice locked in the bedroom and he's going to rape her, the fact that the author allowed the bad guy to actually touch her intimately was just wrong. I don't want to read that. Getting close to touching, maybe. But he actually had fingers IN her, that's RAPE in my book...the note I wrote in my kindle was: No...JUST NO.Then Sebastian just leaves her. Wraps his coat around her...says he'll send the aunt to her...and leaps out the window. How was he going to be able to send the aunt? And really? He'd just LEAVE her after her rape? It's not like he left via the ballroom and could send the aunt. Of course, she needed to be left alone (plot device) so she could be kidnapped. I just couldn't get over that her husband would leave her. He knew that Arend (one scary dude) was after Dunmire and knew he'd have a good chance of catching him. And.He.Left.Her. Just no.I've only read one other Bronwen Evans books. Maybe this is what she does in her other books? Cheating and scenes with actual rapes in them? As much as I may enjoy the premise of this series, it worries me to even continue reading. Worries me that she may be pushing the envelope beyond what I want in my Romance Books.Other plot points that didn't work for me:His flip flopping...he wants to be with her, no  he doesn't! He's kind, then he's not. Let me make love to you, Beatrice! No, no making love. He gave me whiplash.The repetition of back story, of why they feel the way they do, of why he doesn't want love in his marriage, made me skim and skim. I got it the first time each of their issues were mentioned, but found myself skimming the other six or eight times it was.Who did Marisa love? Lord Montague? or Lord Rothman? She told Beatrice that it felt like she was dying when she thought about Lord Montague marrying someone else...then she's making up to Rothman.When Clarice is left alive, Serena said, "of course she was. The woman setting them up would, of course, leave Clarice and Sebastian's sisters alive." Or something like that.  BUT...Carla was killed in the first book. She was the prostitute who was with Christian when he was framed.When the mastermind is monologuing at the end. She has a moment of sadness over allowing Portia to be sent to a harem. She felt bad that an "innocent" had to pay. But she had Harriet raped in the first book! Harriet was innocent, too.Twice Beatrice has a conversation with Christina about Sebastian being in bed with Clarice and he wouldn't have been there if he had loved Christina. It was almost word for word both times I read those bits.End of spoilers</spoiler>I only post three bookmarks and higher on my blog. But I do post lower ratings at Goodreads. As this book stands now, I give it a two with a HUGE warning about cheating and the rape. Since I read this as an advanced copy, maybe other readers or editors made some of these comments, and maybe the final book will be adjusted.If that is so, I'd be willing to give this a higher rating. But as it stands, this will be a low two. I realize that my opinions don't count for much. But when Sebastian kissed, fondled, etc. these other women, it did just ruin the entire book for me. Heroes aren't supposed to cheat. And to allow the bad guy to actually TOUCH her that way? Just no.These are just the thoughts I had reading this. And the publisher asked for feedback via Netgalley. I do thank them for the opportunity to read the book.