Broke my ankle and forced to stay put - somehow, this was comfort food. The heroine's habit of making up stories did spark some personal speculation if I shouldn't write my own romance novel. Ms. James has obviously worked more than a little to create an engaging story with a realistic background, so perhaps I'll take the easy way out and read hers instead. ( )

Following a riding accident Quill, heir to Viscount Dewland, is deemed incapable, so his father insists that his younger brother, Peter, a fashion obsessed fop marries Gabby. Inevitably Quill falls for Gabby and shenanigans ensue. This is an interesting tale as although Gabby seems to be a bit silly by the standards of many of James’s heroines, although we quickly learn that she is a gifted liar, she turns out to be strong and determined, although a bit misguided. The darkness in this book is less oblique than in the other books in the series, but its still an enjoyable and fun read. ( )

This is my second Eloisa James novel & I liked it enough that I'll pick up another soon, but I was on the whole frustrated.

The beginning of the novel rolls along quite nicely; Gabrielle is really delightful, both clever and naive, and Quinn is stiff but immediately endearing.

What bothered me is that once they're actually married, the plot starts to hinge on how angry it makes Quinn that Gabrielle (1) doesn't want to provoke his migraines because she is horrified by how painful they are (2) won't give up looking for a solution that Quinn hasn't already tried. It's easy to understand where they're both coming from; Quinn is proud, and he's wounded enough that he can be cruel, while Gabby is thin-skinned and maddeningly optimistic.

But all of the fights and battles were painful to read. A little too real for me, to be honest.

I really, really liked the side-plot with the marquis and the fashion columnist. It would have made a great book on its own right. ( )

This was my first Eloisa James and I must admit that it doesn't make me want to try a second one of her books. It wasn't badly written, well not too badly, but the book's bra straps were totally showing.

Erskine Dewland's viscount father has arranged for Quill, as Erskine is nicknamed, to marry Gabrielle Jerningham, the daughter of a duke's younger son who has been living in India as a missionary. However, Quill's riding accident a few years back left him with a bum leg and migraines - acute three-day migraines which are triggered by horse riding and sexual congress. Unwilling to be married if he can't be a true husband, his father compels Quill's younger brother Peter to marry her instead, much to Peter's consternation.

Thus begins a sort of comedy of errors.

Gabrielle has grown up in India in an extremely sheltered home and is utterly ignorant of English rules of decorum and social skills in general. Her frequent gaffes, clumsy moments and misjudgements are meant to be humorous, I suppose, but I found them grating. I didn't understand why she wouldn't ask for guidance or quietly observe how others behaved if she truly wanted to impress the propriety-focused Peter as she said she did.

So we stumble along the romantic love triangle plot, an odd sub-plot involving smuggling a young heir to an Indian throne and a seemingly random sub-plot romance between a male character whose presence in the novel is never explained and woman who's connected to Gabby in a loose friend of a friend sort of way. I can't for the life of me imagine what the extra romance sub-plot was included to show, but the prince smuggling was very obviously to show how very super clever Gabby is. Hello plot? Your slip is sticking out a bit there in the back.

There are a number of rather heavy handed moments like this. Gabby's friend Sophie must have been a heroine of an earlier novel, as we're given a wealth of info about her and her husband that does little to advance this plot. She's also unreasonably loyal and perfect as a friend. I get it. She's Sophie's friend. There's no need to make her a total Mary Sue to make the point.

It's evident fairly early on that Peter is gay. Not only gay, but romance novel gay - obsessed with fashion, parties and gossip. He does not want to marry the ungainly Gabby at all - dismissing her as uncultured, clumsy and chubby - and treats her unfeelingly. His POV shows a callous, selfish man rather than a sympathetic outsider caught up in unfortunate circumstances. As we spend a fair amount of time with him, it's a downer to not be able to empathize with him. And again, we get it, he doesn't want to marry Gabby, he didn't have to be a total dick about it. He is one of many unsympathetic characters in this novel.

And, to be honest, Gabby was wholly unlikeable herself. I can't abide a liar, and Gabby can't tell the truth or keep a promise. Quill makes her promise not to buy crazy remedies to try to cure his migraines, as he's tried them all and has just accepted the migraines are a part of him. So what does she do? She slips him a dangerous medication because she loves him and knows what's best for him. James does not even begin to torture her nearly enough to redeem her for that violation.

Quill was pretty much the only likeable character in the book. He's crippled by a riding accident, but gets on with it, refusing to dwell on what he can't change. When he sees how miserable Peter and Gabby would be, and he acknowledges how much he likes Gabby himself, he sets out to marry Gabby - three-day nausea-filled migraines be damned. He's honest, responsible and sensitive. He's also surrounded by idiots.

Sad to say I disliked the book. Entirely too transparent a plot, too much telling, plot exposition in dialog and unlikeable characters team up to make me a sad panda indeed. ( )

Fiction,romance,European historical,piffle loan