I was very interested to read your review because I felt very much like you. I thought that with all the trauma I should feel more connected and I wanted to but it just didn’t happen. Especially in the last third or so of the story. I thought as well that this book didn’t deliver what it could and should have been with such a setup. About halfway through I started thinking that Dahl was not wholly with the story. Still a good book, but you just knew that it could have been great with a bit more effort and care.

I think it’s in part because the solution offered at the end is just too pat. That whole deal with his ‘profession’ sounded completely off to me and I didn’t feel that it fit the situation (creditors at the door, family in distress) and that the betrothal and the consequences of its demise were utterly glossed over felt wrong to me as well.

While I can usually take or leave them, I also felt strongly that there should have been at least one more sex scene because his obsession with his ‘dark desires’ was all tell and no show, meaning I didn’t believe for a second that he was that out of control or needing anything out of the ordinary.

There’s been a lot of that lately in the books I’ve read, insinuations that the hero’s or heroine’s sexual drives are somehow dark and deviant and then all the h/h do is basically vanilla with a couple of silk ribbons thrown in. It’s starting to feel like false advertising to me.

Most importantly, this is yet another book I’ve read lately that absolutely suffered from word count constraints. Don’t know if they are self-imposed (aka considered ‘tight plotting’) or publisher-imposed, but there were at least 4-5 books so far this year that really needed more story and words rather than fewer. It’s really frustrating to read all these books and be left thinking at the end that they were good but could have been so much better.

All that said, I enjoyed this book, but I feel almost more disappointed in it than books I didn’t enjoy as much, because I’m so sure it could have been so much more. I do admit I wonder a bit at the pace of Dahl’s career going forward with so many releases in different sub-genres in such a short time. I know the current wisdom is to throw it out there constantly but I just cannot believe that’s doing any favors to either author or readers in the long run.

@Stacy ~: I haven’t read the first one, but I definitely liked the second, A Rake’s Guide to Pleasure and reviewed it here.

@joanne: Do you think it’s because there was never a sense of danger that the two would not find a way to be together? I think that because we know intellectually that the couple will end up together, sometimes that emotional uncertainty, for just a moment, that they will make it work can create a stronger sense of attachment to the couple’s romance. But here that wasn’t so much an issue. It didn’t bother me so much, but your comment makes me wonder if that’s what you were responding to in the novel.

@KeriM: OWAL did feel like a quick read to me, but I think that’s because I *did* inhale it the first time through. It certainly wasn’t a thin book IMO, but I would definitely not have protested 50 more pages of Cynthia and Lancaster. ;)

@ Janet, thanks for a great review and I cannot wait to get my hands on this one and inhale it like I did the other two. Dahl has a way of really making me get emotionally involved in her characters. I too wish the books had been a bit longer, not because Dahl didn’t do a great job, just because I was not really to let the characters and story go, I also wanted more!

But. They didn’t need me. I was feeling, as soon as the main characters were introduced, that they would survive and thrive with or without each other or me biting my fingernails. They were so capeable. Not a TSTL moment for either of them (okay, her playing at being a ghost but desperate times etc.). I’m not making any sense but with all their miserable circumstances and dark secrets I always felt that they would both be okay. So there was some type of disconnect for me as a reader. Probably just me being crazy. Dunno.

Great book, wonderful characters, excellent plot, beautiful writing.
Nice review, thank you.