The Pleasures of Sin : All About Romance

The Pleasures of Sin

Grade : D-

As the inimitable Yoda said, “There is no try. There is only do.” And no matter how hard it is to create a film, produce a song, or write a novel, it is a truth in the arts that only the final product can be judged, because fundamentally that’s all that matters. The Pleasures of Sin is a case in point.

For the past year Lady Brenna has been banished to a castle tower for refusing to marry the man her father wished. She occupies her time by making plans to retire to a convent in Italy, saving money for her future by painting and selling religious works of art, as well as Medieval pornography (and there’s no other word for it – the back cover’s “provocative works of art” is so pussy-footed it meows.) Anyway, one day her younger sister busts in wearing a wedding veil and begs Brenna to take her place in an arranged marriage to James Vaughn, Earl of Montgomery, a man who holds their father hostage. See, Brenna has been practicing knife-throwing, so the plan is she’ll marry him, get him naked, then stab him, after which the whole family will run away.

However, the plan goes awry when Brenna’s aim goes awry, and Montgomery punishes his new wife by a) whipping her, b) trying to behead her, and c) changing his mind and deciding to keep her in shackles while she continues her wifely duties. The rest of the book is a tug-of-war as they fight each other, their feelings, and their loyalties, then live happily-ever-after.

To do the author justice, Ms. Trapp tries very hard to write heart-pounding conflict, gut-wrenching emotion, profound character development, and Medieval accuracy. The sheer earnestness of the prose and plot shines through the pages like an eight-year-old waiting nervously for her favorite teacher’s judgement. But in my opinion, she failed. My biggest problem lies with the writing, which reads like said eight-year-old who put together My List of Medieval Vocabulary, then discovered the Find and Replace function. The result is a sloppy hodge-podge of modern and Medieval that at best, grated and at worst, made me laugh.

Characters and conflict are no better. The Earl shackles his wife by day in a contraption that reduces her to little more than an animal, releases her at night to do their stuff, then replaces the collar and cuffs in the morning. The Medieval era was brutal and so were the people of the time. But it’s not romantic when Brenna and Montgomery reach a turning point in the relationship, kiss, and she thinks, “The clank of chains doesn’t even matter anymore, I love him too much!” In some ways, Brenna is probably the best character in the story (which doesn’t say much), for sheer character consistency and development (Medieval pornography aside). She tries very hard to reconcile her family duty with the knowledge that they all use her and grapples with her feelings for her husband in a believable manner. Montgomery, however, comes off as a brute who takes too much pleasure in a woman’s submission, and the way they play with Brenna’s knife just gave me the creeps. Oh. I forgot. The knife has a name. Why is the knife called Eye of the Devil? Who knows. And who cares?

Reading this book didn’t make me feel a thing except the desire to burst out laughing, and I found much of the conflict contrived, and the prose was just… bad. If this book was hard for the author to write, believe that it was equally hard for me to read.

Reviewed by Enya Young

Grade : D-

Book type : European Historical Romance | Historical Romance | Medieval Romance

Sensuality : Hot

Review Date : June 25, 2009

Published On : 2009

Enya Young

I'm a teacher who's been fortunate to live in a few places; currently I'm in England. And if you give me a choice between savoury and sweet, I'll go for savoury every time.

No recent reviews by Enya Young.

0 Comments

newest

oldest most voted

Recent Comments

Enya Young