30 July 2011

The Dangerous Gentleman.

Author: Julia London.
Genre: Historical-Romance.
Source: Personal Copy.
Rating: 4 out of 5.
Book one in The Rogues of Regent Street Series.

Synopsis from Goodreads.com:
The Rogues of Regent Street
With her trademark sensuality and dazzling storytelling, Julia London brings us the Rogues of Regent Street, three dashing, aristocratic gentlemen whose scandalous exploits are the talk of the ton. Adrian Spence, Earl of Albright, has earned his notoriety on the dueling field, an din the finest drawing rooms-and boudoirs-of England. This is his story...
THE DANGEROUS GENTLEMAN
It was strictly business as Adrian Spence claimed the woman his brother desired. A hasty wedding, and Lilliana Dashell was his-sweet revenge on the father who disinherited him and the brother who let it happen. Their wedding night is a revelation as passionate, innocent Lilliana ignites fires Adrian tries desperately to deny. By day he is a stranger. By night he is the lover her dreams, and she a shameless wanton in his arms. But Adrian is determined that no woman will ever possess him. And Lilliana knows that her only hope of taming this very dangerous gentleman is to unlock his deepest mysteries and open his shuttered heart to love
My Review:
I would have given this story five stars, but this was a little too dramatic for me at points. If you know me that may be a bit of a shock because I adore dramatic stories. But, as we all know romance already has it's fair amount of assumed cheese in it's pages, but this bordered on just plain unbelievable at times...the odd thing though, this book sat on my shelf for the longest time, I finally picked it up, but I think I picked it up too late. This is one of Julia London's earlier books, I bought it a few years ago actually (that horrifies me to admit that it sat on my shelf for that long, but I digress), I think I should have read it as soon as I bought it. I am positive I would have loved this book then. But since my tastes have changed and I prefer a little less drama than I used to in romances, I didn't enjoy this one as much as I hoped I would, but I did enjoy it.
I picked this one up later the same night as I had finished The Year of Living Scandalously, hoping for a better read from her. I am so glad I did. Even though this one had it's dramatic downfalls and moments of "oh come on! 's" I couldn't wait to see what would befall the brave hero and heroine next. Lilly was so lovable and innocent to Adrian's, and to Benedict's (or, "the rat's") ulterior motives that I could not help but feel sorry for her and to just persevere through what seemed like their pure petty selfishness through a good part of the book. I found myself with mixed feelings towards Adrian though. At the beginning I was horrified for him, but when he took his revenge on his brother and his father, I was rather apalled because of what he was doing to Lilly at the same time. The "what a pig" alarm flashed in my mind quite often at his antics..but this truly would have horrified me if he wouldn't had done everything in his power to redeem himself and make everything right between he and Lilly - which of course, he did do.
When everything began to unfold as Lilly took on the task of unravelling a huge family mess between brothers, father, mothers, and old lovers, I could not help but feel a little shocked and, well, appalled really at some of the actions that took place. But I found myself as glad as everyone in the book was feeling once the truth came out. Also, once I found out the truth, I couldn't help but feel a little bad for Benedict, even though he was a little weasel at times.




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