Bertirice Small

This book had more potential than it lived up to. At first, it appeared to be a refreshing change, since I had read a couple of Bertrice Small's novels before, and found them to be too hardcore porn for my taste. In these more PC times, she seems to have cleaned up her writing quite a bit; and since I like reading books taking place in the 18th and 19th centuries, I gave this one a shot.

It started out intriguing, with a mistaken identity story, one sister who wants her freedom and the right to be herself, the other sister who wants a title and the chance to shine in society, and a duke who can get them both what they want, by marrying the wrong one, thinking she's the right one, according to an arranged marriage agreement from years ago. So, sister wrong marries the duke, sister right has her freedom, and both soon regret it, as sister wrong (a.k.a. Calandra) can't stand the duke and sister right (a.k.a. Aurora) falls for him. He feels the same for her, but must do his duty and produce an heir, though he can't have sex with his wife (who'd rather have all her teeth pulled out at once, she finds him so unappealing) without thinking about Aurora. She, in turn, gets engaged to Valerian's (the duke) cousin/frenemy, St. John, in an effort to deny her feelings for Valerian.

Sounds like quite the Georgian era soap opera, but then it goes downhill fast. Apparently, Ms. Small hasn't entirely evolved, since she includes a distasteful scene, where Aurora, newly engaged, is invited to tea at St. John's, so his mother can get to know her, and the couple sneak off upstairs, so he can play with her clitoris while she strokes his penis. Even today this would be crude behavior, but back then!! To make it even cruder, that night Aurora goes over the scene in her mind, but pictures the duke rather than her intended. Pretty crummy!

I also found it a bit offensive when, early on in the book, Aurora teaches Calandra how to masturbate! Why was that scene necessary? Ms. Small seems to spend a lot of time on clitoris description, kind of makes me wonder if she had a bit of an obsession.

But back to the story...

While it's true that Calandra is self centered and shallow, and cares only for society and the latest gossip and fashions, not to mention finding pregnancy very revolting, it still doesn't seem right to kill her off, by having her go through an agonizing labor, die while attempting to give birth, and have malformed, dead twins taken from her corpse. All this, so Valerian (who by now has found out about the deception) can marry Aurora. The duchess is dead, long live the duchess! I would have preferred her to miscarry, then the duke could have had the marriage annulled, due to fraud, (as was already mentioned), they could have parted company, she could have gone back to the social whirl, and Valerian and Aurora could still have their HEA.

Not that it was much of one. They hardly spent any time together to really build their relationship, just a lot of talk about how they suited one another, then a week after Calandra dies, they get married! In real life, at that time, they would have destroyed themselves socially beyond repair. And though St. John was hardly a model character, he didn't deserve to get dumped so unceremoniously (despite making a quick recovery, and picking out a new conquest the same day), not after all the pleasure he gave Aurora between her legs.

Next thing you know, the duke and new duchess are going at it like dogs in mating season, and in between they're each admonishing the other to stay faithful. (They just got married and yet they feel they each have to warn the other not to cheat? Doesn't say much for this relationship.)

So many other authors could have taken this story and done a whole lot better with it, more's the pity.… (más)