A Little Bit Sinful
Grade : C+

Revenge is a powerful motivator, especially in romance novels it seems. But I’ve got to wonder why a woman who finds out her honey is only interested in revenge and she’s part of the plot can think he can ever be her one and only. Basso tackles this question in her latest book.

When he was a child Sebastian Dodd, Viscount Benton, found his mother hanging from a curtain rod in her room. This understandably traumatized him and made him dwell on getting revenge on the man who drove her to commit suicide, George Collins, the Earl of Hetfield.

To this end, Sebastian as an adult sets up Hetfield at cards, calling him a cheat which should result in a duel, a duel Sebastian knows he can win. However, his plan is foiled by his good friends who calm the waters and make it possible for Hetfield to walk away unscathed.

Frustrated but unable to tell his friends his plan, Sebastian looks for another route to shame Hetfield and provoke him into a deadly fight. The answer comes in the form of Hetfield’s two daughters – Eleanor, the older and unloved daughter, and the beautiful Bianca, whom Hetfield secretly plans to sell to the highest bidder on the marriage mart.

At first wooing Bianca, Sebastian finds a kindred spirit in Eleanor and switches his outward affections to her. As they glide through the season, it’s harder and harder for Sebastian to reconcile his plan of revenge – wooing then dumping Eleanor in a scandalous way, thereby angering Hetfield into a duel – with the woman he comes to know. Only the specter of his mother’s lifeless body urges him to complete his revenge.

Eleanor is suspicious of Sebastian’s regard when it’s turned to her sister, and downright skeptical when it settles on her. Since she knows her father privately despises her, she has always kept to the shadows, letting Bianca charm the man when the girls want or need anything. Consequently, even though she enjoys Sebastian’s company at the gatherings they attend, she can’t at first believe his pursuit.

All of this is good and fine. Sebastian does have a legitimate reason for wanting revenge, but seeking it at the expense of an innocent party can’t be the action of a genuine good guy the way I see it. But this often shows up as a plot device in Regency romances.

As far as I’m concerned, the real problem comes after the revenge is met, and the hero decides he loves the one he’s wronged. How can he prove his love? And how can someone who has been so deeply betrayed and hurt believe in that love? How far will a relationship without trust survive? These are only a few of the questions I have at the end of a book built around revenge.

While Basso, like many other authors before her, tries to reconcile readers to Sebastian’s love for Eleanor, I find it nearly impossible to accept that a life built on such a shaky foundation will be happy for either party.

Reviewed by Pat Henshaw
Grade : C+

Sensuality: Warm

Review Date : March 8, 2011

Publication Date: 2011/01

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