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ibeforem's review against another edition
4.0
This was better than I expected it to be, but between the kidnapping, the wandering, and then Tarquin's efforts to basically have a ton of people around so no one things inappropriate things are happening, there's a lot going on in the book. Also, I knew where the jewel was the whole time.
bitterlina's review against another edition
adventurous
lighthearted
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
3.0
alexbobalix's review against another edition
I don't like either of the main characters. She lies to him about his identity, they manage to travel aimlessly for 3 days or so. He thinks he was part of her kidnapping, she's lying to him about his identity. Once they sleep together he immediately regains his memory and they're back to fighting.
This writing is abrupt and alternates between flowery to the point of absurdity to spartan.
This writing is abrupt and alternates between flowery to the point of absurdity to spartan.
heidenkind's review
Dragged in the middle, but overall very good. I didn't think I would love Tarquin, but I did. :)
cassandra67b07's review
2.0
I started this as the third book in the series I was enjoying, but I was really disappointed in it. The writing was good as expected for Neville’s books, but I just really disliked the characters and thought the plot was absurd. I read some of it during jury duty downtime but then abandoned it. I’m moving on to the fourth book which I’m hoping will work better for me. I hate not finishing a book but sometimes you’ve just got to move on.
balletbookworm's review against another edition
4.0
This was a 99 cent special over the weekend and I thought, why not? I liked [b:Confessions from an Arranged Marriage|11713902|Confessions from an Arranged Marriage (The Burgundy Club, #4)|Miranda Neville|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1326450479s/11713902.jpg|16661701].
This volume is the previous book and concerns Celia and Tarquin (met briefly in the beginning of Confessions). The set-up is a bit much: Celia is framed as a loose woman, dismissed from her governess position (and one where she might have married her employer - because she handled his unruly children so well), kidnapped, robbed, and forced to strip; escaping from her captor's house she comes upon Tarquin, also stripped to his breeches and boots and knocked senseless. Although she knows perfectly well who he is (because he said she looked like a cauliflower during her debut), she pretends that he's her finacee. With a ludicrous backstory but whatever - it all works.
There's a good sideplot involving a book of erotic fiction by Aretino (him again) that Celia shares with Minerva.
This volume is the previous book and concerns Celia and Tarquin (met briefly in the beginning of Confessions). The set-up is a bit much: Celia is framed as a loose woman, dismissed from her governess position (and one where she might have married her employer - because she handled his unruly children so well), kidnapped, robbed, and forced to strip; escaping from her captor's house she comes upon Tarquin, also stripped to his breeches and boots and knocked senseless. Although she knows perfectly well who he is (because he said she looked like a cauliflower during her debut), she pretends that he's her finacee. With a ludicrous backstory but whatever - it all works.
There's a good sideplot involving a book of erotic fiction by Aretino (him again) that Celia shares with Minerva.
claire_loves_books's review
2.0
While I liked Tarquin and Celia (most the time) and I did enjoy the story I just really struggled to get over the fact that Tarquin was tricked so horrendously. Celia's trick would have been funny and pretty justrified until she went and slept with him while he thought they were engaged, it just felt really unfair to Tarquin and kind of rapey (he would never have consented to that if she hadn't been lying to him).
gaderianne's review
5.0
I almost never give historical romance books 5 stars. This one I loved. It was cute, fun, funny, and just a great read. The story line wasn't boring of "done" before. And...even jumping I to the series with the 3rd book (not having read the others), I did t feel lost or like I was missing something. Plus - awesome vacation read! I'll be reading more Miranda Neville soon.
seeinghowitgoes's review
2.0
I feel like I'm not really the target audience for these novels, perhaps if I was reading them 5 years ago I would enjoy them a lot more. Celia Seaton is somewhat confusingly kidnapped right off the bat and we start off the novel with her stumbling over Tarquin Compton, the ton leader and dandy who once humiliated her ruining her chances at marriage.
To make things less complicated we're thrown another trope - Amnesia *groan*. I was nearly lost at this point but carried on, primarily due to the strength of Tarquin's indignity and shock when told his name was really Terrance Fish and all of the Fish jokes that continued.
Throw in a mystery plot, pregnancy scares and typical non-communication it all just seemed a bit too much.
To make things less complicated we're thrown another trope - Amnesia *groan*. I was nearly lost at this point but carried on, primarily due to the strength of Tarquin's indignity and shock when told his name was really Terrance Fish and all of the Fish jokes that continued.
Throw in a mystery plot, pregnancy scares and typical non-communication it all just seemed a bit too much.
pn_hinton's review
4.0
This was the first romance novel I remember reading where amnesia played a huge part of the story. While it seemed to be a deterrant for others, I found it to be an interesting premise, even if it didn`t stay apart of the story as long as I expected. It seems a lot of readers had issues with Celia lying to Tarquin when he was in that condition and judged her for it. I didn`t take issue with that so much and I`m also honest enough to admit that if I were put in that position with someone who likened me to a cauliflower in front of the ton that I would likely be tempted to do something of that nature too. Especialy knowing that it was only going to be for a short period of time.
This story was a bit of a comedy of errors all around, which made me smile many times when reading. Between the kidnapping for seemingly no reason, the amnesia, a possibly scandalous past and upbrining in a foreign country, a jewlel obsessed evil aunt, a well meaning, well dressed and slightly misguided uncle, and a possible fiancee hiding in the wood works this was quite the cast of characters. They were all well written and entertaining though and the story moved along at a rather quick pace.
Ultimately I did enoy the main characters. I felt bad for the hand that Celiia was dealt by life; however even with all that she didn`t want to settle. She refused Tarquin`s proposals many times, mostly because he was doing it out of obligation. And while Tarquin was a tough hero to fall in love with between his callous observations and overall obession with how he looked even he eventually endeared himself to me. When I got to that part of the story where his uncle explained why he was that way it made sense but initally the obession and comdemnation of others was annoying. That and even when he was proposing marriage to Celia he appeared to be doing it out of pure obligation. It wasn`t until later on when he realized his feeling that he became genuine when it was almost too late.
I enjoyed this story and finished it in three days. I was intrigued to see how the romance would play out especially with Tarquin being, well, Tarquin as well as wanting to know why anyone would kidnap Celia. I figured that out fairly early but I didn`t solve the full mystery or discover all the players so that was a nice little twist for me.
To say too much more broaches into spoiler territory so I will stop there. I really did enjoy this book even though Tarquin was a bit much to deal with at some points. However one thing I will give credit for is Tarquin was man enough to admit when he was wrong or that he should have done something differently. It may have taken others pointing it out to him but he still did it and that is something in and off itself.
This story was a bit of a comedy of errors all around, which made me smile many times when reading. Between the kidnapping for seemingly no reason, the amnesia, a possibly scandalous past and upbrining in a foreign country, a jewlel obsessed evil aunt, a well meaning, well dressed and slightly misguided uncle, and a possible fiancee hiding in the wood works this was quite the cast of characters. They were all well written and entertaining though and the story moved along at a rather quick pace.
Ultimately I did enoy the main characters. I felt bad for the hand that Celiia was dealt by life; however even with all that she didn`t want to settle. She refused Tarquin`s proposals many times, mostly because he was doing it out of obligation. And while Tarquin was a tough hero to fall in love with between his callous observations and overall obession with how he looked even he eventually endeared himself to me. When I got to that part of the story where his uncle explained why he was that way it made sense but initally the obession and comdemnation of others was annoying. That and even when he was proposing marriage to Celia he appeared to be doing it out of pure obligation. It wasn`t until later on when he realized his feeling that he became genuine when it was almost too late.
I enjoyed this story and finished it in three days. I was intrigued to see how the romance would play out especially with Tarquin being, well, Tarquin as well as wanting to know why anyone would kidnap Celia. I figured that out fairly early but I didn`t solve the full mystery or discover all the players so that was a nice little twist for me.
To say too much more broaches into spoiler territory so I will stop there. I really did enjoy this book even though Tarquin was a bit much to deal with at some points. However one thing I will give credit for is Tarquin was man enough to admit when he was wrong or that he should have done something differently. It may have taken others pointing it out to him but he still did it and that is something in and off itself.