Book #13
Title: The Viscount Who Loved Me
Author: Julia Quinn
My rating: 3.5/5
Summary from Amazon:
1814 promises to be another eventful season, but not, This Author believes, for Anthony Bridgerton, London's most elusive bachelor, who has shown no indication that he plans to marry. And in all truth, why should he? When it comes to playing the consummate rake, nobody does it better...
--Lady Whistledown's Society Papers, April 1814
But this time the gossip columnists have it wrong. Anthony Bridgerton hasn't just decided to marry--he's even chosen a wife! The only obstacle is his intended's older sister, Kate Sheffield--the most meddlesome woman ever to grace a London ballroom. The spirited schemer is driving Anthony mad with her determination to stop the betrothal, but when he closes his eyes at night, Kate's the woman haunting his increasingly erotic dreams...
Contrary to popular belief, Kate is quite sure that reformed rakes do not make the best husbands--and Anthony Bridgerton is the most wicked rogue of them all. Kate's determined to protect her sister--but she fears her own heart is vulnerable. And when Anthony's lips touch hers, she's suddenly afraid she might not be able to resist the reprehensible rake herself.
I am sorry to say that this third book of Julia Quinn that I have read, will probably be the last of her books that I will ever read. This is such a pity because I actually love her writing style. But unfortunately for me, all her books that I've sampled were always divided into two parts. The enjoyable and the boring. When the plot was still in its early stage, and the characters' relationships are still progressing, the book is a very enjoyable read. I love how Quinn wrote the conversations between characters and how she voiced the characters' thoughts but then the book just had to come to its boring parts. Mainly the intimate interactions. This is indeed bafling for me, because in my opinion (obviously) intimate scenes should be interesting. It's not that I covet a much more vulgar scenes, on the contrary I always prefer a much more conventional scenes which only involves kissing and vague hints at intimacy. But I don't mind reading a passionate scene if only written in the right style and language. Quinn, for me, was writing it a monotonous and somewhat preposterous way. I mean, seriously.... it escaped my understanding how a respectable gentleman could advance onto a respectable lady in the garden, in her living room, and I once read a romance albeit not Julia Quinn, in which they actually perform the feat in a garden's gazebo! Well it's just not my thing. Quinn, in my opinion, wrote the scenes in a monotonous style and language that somehow robbed the experience of its magical moments. This is such a pity for me because she can always draw the characters in a way that they seem human and a being of emotions with each character's own past and tragedy. I just hope that I can give Quinn's works another try and perhaps I will not be as disappointed.