Outrageous, the second book in Minerva Spencer’s Rebels of the Ton series, left me feeling unsatisfied. I had a hard time buying the romance and it seemed as though there were actually two stories and two heroines in the book - although there were only one of each.
Eva de Courtney, daughter of the Marquess of Exley, has decided to kidnap Godric Fleming, Earl of Visel, to punish him for behaving cruelly to Eva’s brother and his new wife. But Eva hasn’t completely thought this through and soon Godric has turned the tables, ejected Eva’s groom/accomplice, and taken charge of the carriage. Godric, although he is ostensibly the bad-guy, knows that he must now marry Eva as they’ve been alone in a carriage for a few days. Eva is less convinced, but a series of mishaps keep our hero and heroine together - and soon they have to decide if marriage is in the cards for them.
I had a hard time buying the premise of this story from the beginning. Eva is supposed to be a strong, independently-minded heroine, but we are constantly reminded that she is only nineteen and she acts it! The whining, please no more whining! It was also hard to believe the insta-lust. She is so mad at Godric, whom she truly loathes at the beginning, that she kidnaps him. But within the first chapters, she’s already having “sparks of anticipation” flying through her body when he looks at her.
Godric is sparking too and even though he realizes Eva is barely out of the schoolroom while he is thirty-six, he still gets the hots for her. Which could be okay given the time period, but Godric talks about how young and childlike she is all the time - “She was achingly beautiful and unlike any woman he could remember. She was part antagonist, part hoyden, part siren, part child.” When his musings turn more lustful, I was just grossed out. It’s okay to have a nineteen-year-old heroine marry an older man, just please don’t emphasize her childlike qualities over and over!
The story changes focus and direction about three-quarters in and Eva matures somewhat - we finally get a glimpse of the independent woman we are told she is. However at this point, it felt like a new heroine had appeared and the author was telling a different story. Throughout the book, there were moments of interest but there were also some nonsensical scenes that left me scratching my head. And the horse breeding - I feel like I’ve been cursed - this is the second book I’ve reviewed this year that goes on and on about the ins and outs (no pun intended) of horse breeding. I would be a happy woman never to read about horse breeding again!
I was picturing a low-C grade throughout most of the story but near the end there were some meandering plot twists and random storylines added and it just all fell apart. Our hero and heroine end up together but their journey was more like a drunken stagger than a romantic stroll. I think Outrageous is a book readers can safely skip!
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Sensuality: Warm
Publication Date: 06/2021
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