Book Harlot

The Temptation of the Night Jasmine by Lauren Willig

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Rating:  

Summary:

After years away the Duke of Dovedale returns to his home which is currently being run by the Dowager Duchess.  Surprisingly to everyone in the house, cousin Charlotte included, he doesn’t want his ducal seat back or to run the family out of the house.  Cousin Charlotte’s late father was the former Duke and when he died, the very distant half cousin Robert became Duke.  He didn’t want to be duke and ran off to India with the army.  Now that he’s back and doesn’t want the ducal seat what does he want?  Revenge.

He comes home with very specific plans, none of them include falling in love with very distant half cousin Charlotte.  Which of course is what happens but in order to protect her he must spurn his love, but he can’t help but look out for her and ward of suspicious suitors.  Robert stumbles upon secret societies and a plot to endanger the King.  Meanwhile, Charlotte manages to stumble upon the same plot while taking her turn serving the Queen at court.  Can they put their differences aside to save their monarch?  Will they finally catch the elusive frenchie?

Opinions:

Ok so there are two reasons to read the Pink Carnation series, you love historical fiction and love romances.  The great thing about Lauren Willig is that she doesn’t write those thinly plotted books where the story is just what happens between sex scenes.  Her stories are very entertaining because of the history she uses.  I love historical fiction mostly because I love Jane Austen.  These stories offer the best of both worlds, something entertaining between the racy scenes.  Except, nothing happened in this book.  I was very disappointed.  This being the 5th book in the series you come to expect a mix of the exciting story and the raciness of the characters falling in love and getting into trouble.

Willig tells a parallel story that weaves her series together which I love, because you want to keep reading the books to find out what happens to the main character in the present as well as hearing the story she discovers about the past.  Only in this book I feel like I missed a lot of the story line.  The romantic storyline for Eloise and Colin over the first four books was very very slow, agonizingly slow.  You put up with that because you know eventually they will get together and it will all be worth it but in this book I feel like the author skipped all the good juicy bits.  Unless I am not remembering the previous book at all which is entirely possible.

Anything to add?