Sandy M’s review of An Earl to Enchant (A Rogue’s Dynasty, Book 3) by Amelia Grey
Historical Romance published by Sourcebooks Casablanca 6 Apr 10
I had a difficult time with this book. One moment I was enjoying the heck out of it and the next I was wrinkling my brow, wondering what in the world happened when it seemed to fall apart. Then it would pick right back up and sail along quite smoothly for a bit, only to sink back down to previous depths. I’m going to say it. It was an up and down read.
The conclusions I have come to in my dilemma with this story is, first of all, the dialogue is what threw me most of the time. Sometimes there’s wittiness enough to get through a scene, but then the next scene has Morgan and Arianna sounding like 12-year-olds. I never did figure out if it’s the wording used, the cadence of those words, or just what caused the problem. All I know is I didn’t care for most of the dialogue throughout.
The book actually starts out quite nicely. Morgan has retired to the country to escape his newly married cousins and their respective bliss. He’s just had enough and wants a little debauchery to counteract all that marriage stuff. So he hires a courtesan for the week, anticipating a lot of satisfaction. What he gets instead is Arianna Sweet sweeping into his life during the same storm his lady of the night is expected. Yep, he mistakes her for a wanton woman. This scene is also the first instance of the dialogue I talked about before.
Arianna has come straight from India where her father was murdered and she’s determined to finish his work so he’ll receive due recognition posthumously. She is a savvy young woman due to her international experience, but there are spots where that savviness inexplicably disappears for a while.
One of those aforementioned down moments is Morgan began to irritate me with his never marrying attitude. It’s all well and good for him to not want to marry, but even after he begins to think there’s more to his relationship with Arianna, he still refuses to give in. This just went on much too long, more than three-quarters of the book. I want something different to go on after a while when I read, and it just didn’t happen here.
At least Arriana’s single-minded focus on her father’s work doesn’t last nearly as long as Morgan’s non-marriage hang-up; she’s admitted she’s fallen for the man before she leaves his home when he doesn’t commit in any way to her.
An up side is that I do like the love scenes (minus the dialogue) between these characters. There’s sexual tension aplenty starting first on Morgan’s part and then Arianna’s as she becomes more and more aware of him as a man in conjunction with her sensuality.
I have not read the second book in this series. I’m on the fence about it. I did enjoy the first book a little more than this third one, so I’m not sure I want to pick up the middle part of the series right now or not. Maybe some day.
Grade: C+
Summary:
HE’S DETERMINED NOT TO BE A HERO . . .
Lord Morgandale is as notorious as he is dashing, and he’s determined no woman will tie him down. But from the moment Arianna Sweet appears on his doorstep, exhausted after a grueling journey, he cannot resist the lure of the fascinating beauty, her exotic wardrobe, or tempting green eyes . . .
SHE HAS A DEADLY SECRET . . .
Arianna Sweet never imagined the significance of her father’s research until after his untimely death. Now she is in possession of his groundbreaking discovery, a discovery that someone would kill for. She can’t tell Lord Morgandale her secret, but she knows she needs his help, desperately.
Read an excerpt.
Other books in this series:
