It's a good thing I'm not a reviewer, because I haven't finished this book and we all know what happens when you bring up DNFs! That's not to say I won't finish it, I probably will. I just had to post and ask - WTF???
I'm in the third section of Chapter 8 and nothing has happened! Oh, there's been losts of lusting and Mac has found his Muse and painted three nekkid pictures of Isabella. From memory. We know the color of the hair on her head, and the color of the hair on her pubis, in all sorts of positions and in all sorts of lighting, while using all sorts of paints. That's about all we know.
Oh, okay, some backstory has been given. We know they love each other and always have. Isabella doesn't trust Mac - I get that. And he's trying to prove himself to her, therefore he forces himself not to bed her, although he could because she's in complete lust.
Eight chapters of this. I'm sure there's a plot in there somewhere (maybe the painting fraud will be enlarged upon?), but I'm getting a little tired of all this lusting and petting and mental anguish. Just fuck her already, will you Mac?
Ahem. Sorry about that. I'm past menopause so maybe I no longer have the appreciation that others seem to have for this book. Of course, it's early days yet (I hope). Ian and Beth have showed up, so I'm hopeful.
I'll continue reading, but after The Madness of Lord Ian MacKenzie, I was expecting so much more.
Oh sadness.
ReplyDeleteI feel she makes too much use of lust and not enough of plot to drive her stories forward. TMIM really stood out from the crowd in this area.
ReplyDeleteShe also tends to write a lot in flashback which can be very disruptive to the flow of the story.
I had high hopes Lady Isabella's SM would be more like Lord Ian, but agree she didn't capitalise on the great set up she achieved in that book. I had hoped for a similarly flawed hero in this one - with the same thoughtful and sensitive treatment she gave Ian. Alas It was not to be.
She fell into some other cliched plot twists during the book- and her secondary characters( and villain were never really fully developed) - and that was a disappointment to me.
Having said that, she still writes beautiful prose and I thought it was a good read. I will read the next one when it comes out (next year)
But I can't help but think she might struggle to hit the height she achieved with Lord Ian again.
Right now I've started reading Loretta Chase's latest. I even went back and reread Lord Perfect so that I could better appreciate Peregrine and Olivia's story.
I adored all of the characters in Lord Perfect and I SO hope that this new one does it justice.
I lost the beginning of this comment.
ReplyDeleteWhat I wanted to say is that I've been reading Jennifer Ashley's backlist and I suspect that TMLIM was an exception to her usual style.