Anne Stuart - The Devil's Waltz

When you dance with the devil, you hold hands with temptation... 
Christian Montcalm was a practical man, if a destitute scoundrel, but his plan to bed and wed the delectable Miss Hetty Chipple would take care of that sticky wicket. However, there was a most intriguing obstacle to his success. Annelise Kempton desired nothing more than to come between this despicable rogue and the fortune (and virtue) of her young charge. 
Certainly, Annelise understood the desperation that comes from hard times, but Montcalm would fail-she would personally see to it. All that stands in her way is a man whose rakish charm could tempt a saint to sin, or consign a confirmed spinster to sleepless nights of longing...to give the devil his due.

Comment: This was the book chosen by my friend H. and myself for our buddy read of this month. If I remember well, what made us pick this book was the fact this was story featuring different types of characters: he is a rake and she a proper woman, I suppose the thrill is to see how the author would develop their romance.

In this book we have the story of penniless Annelise Kempton, a woman approaching her 30s who is still single, poor and has no place to stay out of charity for her father died without providing for her. 

Her most recent placement is in the house of mr Chipple, whose daughter Hetty is a great beauty and her father expects her to marry nobility. Annelise is there to help the girl to be a proper lady of society and attract the best suitor.

That man is certainly not Christian Montcalm, a rake of the worst kind who has set his eyes on Hetty for her money. The problem is that by trying to put him away from Hetty, he sets his eyes on her as a good challenge and their interactions confuse Annelise the more time they spend together fighting and being opponents. Will these two find a compromise, especially after discovering certain facts about Hetty's father?

I liked this story for the most part.

The plot was a bit simple, some situations quite predictable but of course what makes it interesting is the characters and heir behavior facing certain situations/obstacles.

This starts as something very simple, with a young and apparently spoiled young girl needing some guidance to be better accepted by those mothers who might see her as a good potential for their sons. She has the beauty but also the impulsiveness of demanding things and that could ruin her father's plans of marrying her well.

As the story develops, we get to learn a lot more about Hetty and her father and their situation in life and I can say they have the money but they aren't exactly happy people. I confess, though, that Hetty was just too annoying to be likable and she fulfills all the expectations of a silly, young girl with thoughts only to her needs.

Her father developed into something a bit darker than what anyone imagines when he first appears on the page. Nevertheless, even his personality was pout aside when compared to the main couple, the real "attraction" of this story for me.

Annelise, for instance, was a fascinating character.

She has been frequently placed in the house of other people to act as a chaperone for young charges, as a sort of governess and companion if needed but always without being paid for she is a lady and it just wouldn't be proper. However, Annelise doesn't let herself be sad about her situation and she dreams of the day she is given the possibility to just spend her older years in a small cottage somewhere.

I liked her personality, how she had her self pity moments but quickly turned her thoughts into some productive and I was amazed by how brave she was in everything. 

Christian is the obvious rake, someone who doesn't act as properly as he should, someone who doesn't act or think like the gentleman he is supposed to be. He will inherit a viscountcy and that is why he wasn't yet completely barred from polite society but everyone knows he is after someone with funds. He has the obvious development from bad/unsuitable to hero and as we learn why he is so apparently mean some things do seem less harmful in his attitude. He is redeemed, as one expects.

The romance is sort of slow burn and I don't think it was because the author wanted to portray such a proper evidence of how society worked back then. I think the deliberate manner in which the main couple interacted here and there while their thoughts and feelings for one another started to change into what we already knew would happen - their falling in love - was well done and my favorite part of the story.

The end has a very sweet epilogue and it did balance well the more negative aspects of the story.

This was the trademark "opposed characters" style this author likes to write about but this was a lot sweeter for me than what I had read before by her.

Grade: 8/10

Anne Stuart - Ruthless

Desire always wins...Among a secret society where exiled aristocrats gather to indulge their carnal desires, few can match the insatiable appetite and dark misdeeds of their chief provocateur, the mysterious Viscount Rohan. Pursuit of physical pleasure is his preferred pastime - until he encounters a woman who fascinates him and won't be swayed. Rohan's dark seduction appals the pure and impoverished Elinor Harriman, but unwittingly her own desire is slowly being unleashed...

Comment: I purchased this book a long time ago and it has been waiting for all this time basically because I wasn't too eager to read about a hero described as too manipulative and part of a so called "secret society" where people behaved  anyway they wanted, with no care for rules nor respect for others. When I got the book I just assumed it wouldn't be so, that this would be just another historical with opposed attracted characters. Now that I finished, it wasn't as bad as I imagined but nowhere near my favorite historicals, no...

In this book we meet Elinor Harriman, a young woman whose family is in dire circumstances and everything gets even worse when her ill mother steals he last of the family's money and runs off to the mansion of Francis, Viscount Rohan, an exiled British man in Paris, who seems to control the secret society. Elinor decides to follow her mother, not only to stop her from acting in a way that the family couldn't recover from, but also to get the money back, something Elinor, her sister Lydia, their mother and two servants who are more family than helpers, desperately need.

However, when Elinor gets to the depravity mansion, she can't help but show her discontentment to the viscount, even if he has the money and the influence to seduce and destroy her...

This book didn't start that well for me. I was not fond of the situation in which the hero was living in.

I understand the writer has a tendency to create situations in her stories in which readers might not always be comfortable with, or at least there will be situations not easily appreciated by all. I thought this would change and the turnabout would be magnificent or there was a secret agenda we weren't aware of at first but no. This is indeed a story about a man who has had terrible circumstances forcing his exile and this is how he copes with it.

Since this is a romance, some of my hopes were obviously on how the relationship would develop.  Again, I was not very eager to read about them together because in this case, the differences between them were more obvious on the moral side rather than the financial (although that too).

After finishing the story, I can understand why Francis was such a cynical person, why he felt he had to... wait, what am I saying? No, actually I don't understand. Why did he behave like that? He felt guilty, he missed his country, he had some other issues but why is that an excuse to have low morals, low  beliefs? I'd rather him begin a martyr, in that case I'd appreciate his efforts to change a lot more.

The way things evolved, he wasn't sorry and I guess this is why he is sometimes labeled as "anti-hero" but his treatment of Elinor, despite never past the point of redemption annoyed me at times.

The romance took a long time to be obvious for the two of them. I don't mind it felt like a slow burn romance but the reasons why Francis put Elinor aside felt very silly and not those of an intelligent man. Just grow up, was what I often thought about how he chose to "scream" his forced freedom and his treatment of others.

As for Elinor, I did feel pity for her, for what she went through. I do like heroines down on her luck who somehow get back on their feet, proving if you are a good person, you can achieve something.I was really eager to see her triumph, to see how her life would change for the better eventually so I feel a little sad her character wasn't better explored.

It was nice Francis didn't rush her and that he actually avenged her when he knew about those who have hurt her in the past but...

Only in the last two or three pages do we have confirmation of their feelings. It felt like too little too late! I guess I can follow this need for drama, for a darker tone in the romance but the whole thing felt staged and easily put aside for better explanations and changes. I was not impressed.

There's a secondary romance that was obviously there just to counter balance the main one.

There's also a villain that plays a part too vague to even be worth existing but, oh well.

I won't go back to this author so soon, even though I have another book by her in the pile.

Grade: 5/10