The Seduction of Sarah
Grade : D-

Zebra is doing a great job with their covers lately. I've actually bought a few because the tone, color, and model poses caught my eye. We all know you can't judge a book by its cover. The cover for The Seduction of Sarah is its best attribute.

As the widowed Mrs. Sarah Wellsley enjoys her daily skinny dip before being forced to return to her spoiled cousin's company, she is spied by a "gentleman," a term I use loosely. He introduces himself as Alex, lets her know he enjoyed the view, and promptly tries to arrange a dalliance. After much pleading on Sarah's part - and a kiss or two - he goes on his way.

Sarah is at Caldern to act as companion/chaperone to her whiny cousin Lady Caroline, who is supposed to marry Alex, the Marquess of Caldern, by some arrangment of her father and his step-mother. As soon as Sarah returns to Caldern, she hears his lordship has finally returned home. Since she is treated just a touch above a servant, Sarah hopes she will escape his notice; all she wants is to practice her herbs and try to help everyone.

Sarah's out of luck. A few moments after they are introduced, Alex realizes the shabbily dressed woman is actually his sea nymph. So he charms her by treating her in a very familiar manner in front of his family and Lady Caroline. The result is that Lady Caroline spews venom at Sarah and flirts openly with Lord Caldern's friend, all after throwing a vase at Alex and showing a fit of temper within minutes of their first introduction.

The fun proceeds as Alex escorts Sarah to dinner. Although his stepmother has no rights or claim to Caldern, she calls him him down for his lack of protocol. Alex pretty much ignores her, sits Sarah on one side of him at the table, and continues to make an ass out of himself by whispering sweet nothings to Sarah at the dinner table. You know - the kind where you call someone's character into question. Lord Caldern eventually offers up an apology for his behavior. Unfortunately, he continues the same pattern over and over again, and ignores all the rules governing behavior. But hey, we don't need no stinking rules, familiar be thy name Alex.

Some interesting backstory for each character is offered, but since it is in the form of conversation between the two, it's simply too soon, considering the time in which this romance is set, for her to learn about his two bastard brothers, her marriage at 17 and being widowed by 18, his tour in the Navy and that she will never marry again, etc.

Attempts are made on Alex's life, bastard brothers visit, Sarah attempts to fade into the background (but at the same time insists on treating him with her herbs by entering his bedchamber alone, without knocking), and Caroline informs her cousin that, once they are married, she will not allow Alex to behave badly. Apparently somebody neglected to inform Lady Caroline that in the 1820s, after the "I Do's" are said, a woman is her husband's property. Oh wait...Sarah tries, but it all falls on deaf ears.

The Seduction of Sarah is a mix of contradictions and the characters are consistently doing things that don't make sense. Alex hates his stepmother but allows her to pick his bride. He is going to marry Lady Caroline but he spends all his time avoiding her because she is a pain. He whines about how he can never trust love, all the while waxing poetic about its wonders and joys. And he encourages Sarah to flirt with his bastard brother, then criticizes her for being a flirt. I kept waiting for Alex to grow a pair and take control.

The other characters are no better. Sarah doesn't want to marry again but puts herself in compromising situations. Lady Caroline wants to marry Lord Caldern but doesn't like him and can't seem to be nice to him for more than a few minutes at a time. Alex's step-mother professes to love the estate, but allowed it to fall into ruin under her control.

I wasn't interested in the least in any of this novel's characters and didn't care a whit about whether or not they got their HEA. How Alex finally gets his girl is completely wrong of him, and the ending wraps things up too nicely in a nice pink bow. Had these characters' ideas changed over time rather than flipping back and forth from paragraph to paragraph, chapter to chapter, it would have been a better book.

What saves this one from an F is the way Alex made a family with his illegitimate brothers and his father's ex-mistress. But I need more than that to want to read a book. Show me why I should care at all for a hero and heroine, and why they should be together. Don't give me an ending out of left field, with no real build-up to get there other than telling that that's just how it goes. But did I mention the pretty cover of The Seduction of Sarah?

Reviewed by Sybil Cook
Grade : D-

Sensuality: Warm

Review Date : August 7, 2005

Publication Date: 2005

Review Tags: 

Recent Comments …

Sybil Cook

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

4 Comments
newest
oldest most voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
4
0
What's your opinion?x
()
x