LynneC’s review of Star Crossed Seduction (Lords of the Seventh House, Book 2) by Jenny Brown
Historical Romance published by Avon Harper Collins August 30th 2011
If I’d read the book described in the blurb, I would have been a happy woman. Unfortunately, it’s nothing like that. The description of this one intrigued me because it’s about an army officer and a street rat. No lords and ladies, even though the previous book had a lord for a hero. But I soon got bogged down in a welter of historical detail and astrological didacticism. If, like Ms. Brown, you’re a devotee of astrology, then this book might be for you, and certainly I can’t complain a huge amount about the history in this one, unless that there’s too much of it (I know, don’t faint!).
Captain Miles Trevelyan, Trev to his friends, is home on leave from India, so it’s a bit odd that he and his friend choose to wear their uniforms on occasion, because it was the convention for off-duty soldiers on half pay not to do that. But, anyway, a niggle, and it doesn’t bother me a great deal. He’s handsome, a professional soldier, not used to England, since he’s lived all his adult life in India.
Temperance is a street rat, a pickpocket, who gave her heart to a man called Randall, who is now, she believes, dead. When she tries to pick Miles’ pocket, he pursues her, and, in the ensuing struggle, gains the locket she always wears. But here comes my first disconnect. He kisses her and they get the instant connection thing. Wait—he kisses a street rat? These people had rotting teeth and stank more than somewhat. As a gentleman, he might just have noticed that.
Temperance and her friends are taken in by the heroine of the previous book of the series, to her refuge that she runs on astrological principles. Not too far a stretch to make, since there were all kinds of eccentrics around at the time. But in 1821, astrology wasn’t taken seriously in scientific circles and was derided by most. Everyone seems to take this woman seriously. She does the horoscopes of the girls she takes in and decides what to do with their lives accordingly. That is, to me, nuts. As is the assertion that when Temperance lies and gives not her birthday but that of her dead sister, Lady Hartwood spots that the owner of that birthday is dead. Does that mean everybody with the same birthday and time and place of birth are dead? So, as you can see, I’m an astrological skeptic, which makes me a hard sell for this book.
But I read books with elves and write books with vampires, so surely I can take a bit of astrological stuff and accept it for the space of the book? Well, I would, except there is so damned much of it. And it does read like didacticism. I gave up on the book after I got another lecture from Lady Hartwood and realised that, and my other disconnects, make me uninterested in what happens to the characters or the plot. I just don’t care.
There is a lot of history in this book and a lot of references to things that happened at this time. While I am familiar with the time and took most of it in stride, I don’t know how regular readers will take it and I don’t know why they should care. It’s set in 1821, firmly established as this is the year George IV finally was crowned as King, after all his years as Regent, and there are references to the Indian campaign and to the growing discontent among political firebrands, as they were known at the time. One of these themes would have been interesting, but it’s a bit like scattershot, especially in the early chapters—it is sprinkled all over in the hope that some of it might take. I wonder about the reference to Peterloo, for instance, which was a completely local affair and only became a national scandal after the military overreacted.
And the references to “dragoons,” as if they all belonged to the same regiment, is a bit off, too. Dragoons are only one type of soldier – light cavalry, i.e., they carried light weapons, were mounted, and were the lightning forces of the day – and the reference to Miles’ blue tunic (tunics came in a bit later for the army—at this period they were still coats) and blue trousers make me wonder. My father-in-law was a dragoon, but he was in an Irish regiment, so his uniform was green. Temperance’s assertion that the dragoons are all the same, that the ones at Peterloo were the same as the ones in India had me puzzled, but Temperance is a tempestuous heroine, much given to acting first and thinking later.
I really couldn’t like Temperance. She flings herself from one situation to another, and although we’re told she has a kind heart, it is the kind that gives things away to people and doesn’t really work for me. She accepts poverty, and worse, instead of taking what she was born with and making it better. She has the kind of idealism that people who have never known poverty imagine that poor people have for each other. Brown seems to want to make Temperance a bit of everything – intelligent, charitable, streetwise, gracious, a woman born to wealth who gave it up for an ideal—not only gave it up, but flung herself into the gutter. I think Temperance is a servant of the plot more than a living, breathing character, and I couldn’t warm to her. That’s the main reason I gave up on this one.
Miles is, well, the hardened military man thrown into schemes and devices not of his making. I think Miles is the more interesting character, but in the half of the book that I read, I didn’t get enough of him. I might have read on, but the heavy plot and the building “why should I care?” feeling eventually made me give up.
The dreariness of the prose, the throw-everything-at-it-until-it-sticks plot, and the dislikeableness of the main female character made me give up on this one. Oh, yes, and all that astrological stuff.
Grade: DNFSummary:
Lovers or Enemies?
Captain Miles Trevelyan, on leave from active service in India, is heading out for a night on the town when he rescues a beautiful pickpocket from arrest. She’s the perfect choice for a few days of dalliance–beautiful, cunning, and completely disposable.
But Temperance has no intention of becoming the plaything of a man who wears the uniform of the solders who murdered her lover. Disarming Trev with a kiss, she escapes. But her sultry kiss opens the two Scorpio adversaries to an obsessive attraction that neither can elude–or possibly survive.
Following the success of her sensational debut novel, Lord Lightning, Jenny continues her Lords of the Seventh House series–in which each hero is a different sign of the Zodiac. A dark and sensual story reminiscent of the acclaimed novels of Loretta Chase, Anna Campbell, and Mary Balogh, but with a very tantalizing touch of the occult thrown in, Star Crossed Seduction is top-flight historical romance with a uniquely unforgettable difference.
No excerpt available.
I have also read this book. Anyone who had read the first chapter would notice that you’ve got YOUR facts wrong. The book is set in the fall of 1820, not 1821. The author gives the hero’s regiment as the King’s Royal Irish Light Dragoons and when I Google it I found pictures and toy soldiers from this period wearing blue uniforms. The hero is referred to throughout the story as “Trev” not “Miles.” And yes, there really are people from wealthy homes who commit to idealistic causes and cast their fate with the poor. Not everyone is as selfish as you are. Oh, and an excerpt IS available on Scribd.com.
But what really does a disservice to readers of this fine book is that it is clearly being sold as having an astrological theme. Since you obviously HATE astrology, you should have had the decency to pass on reviewing it.
Fortunately, there are quite a few other reviews posted online. I’d urge readers who love well-researched, emotionally moving stories to check them out–and read this book. I loved it.
There is an excerpt available on Scribd:
People who would like to read a more balanced review of this book
Okay.
The book mentions the coronation of George IV, and that occurred in 1821, not 1820. He acceded to the throne in 1820, but wasn’t crowned until the following year, partly because he insisted on such an elaborate ceremony.
http://www.georgianindex.net/coronation/Coronation-GeorgeIV.html
I was commenting that the dragoons were spoken of as a single regiment, which isn’t true. There are dragoons in most cavalry regiments and their uniforms follow the regimental conventions.
I won’t reply to the personal insult. I don’t use them and I don’t regard them as worth replying to.
I don’t hate astrology, I’m an astrological sceptic. I have a folder full of charts etc, that I cast years ago, and that others cast for me. They didn’t work out. So I am speaking from a standpoint of knowing something about the subject. But as I said in the review, it wouldn’t have stopped me enjoying the book had there not been so many lectures on the subject.
I’m glad you enjoyed the book, and as I have always said, it’s the book that counts. I found it disjointed, with characters I couldn’t believe in. If the rest of the book had involved engaging characters, if the tone had been less didactic, I would have enjoyed it more.
If you’d been paying attention instead of looking for things to hate you would have noticed that the story is set months before the actual coronation on purpose because the events involved have to take place before the coronation.
And if you can’t understand why someone whose beloved was killed by a soldier gets upset seeing a soldier in uniform WITHOUT first carefully checking to see if it is a soldier in the uniform of the exact same regiment, well, there’s no hope for you.
My guess is that nothing could have made you enjoy this book, you were having too much fun stomping on it. Are you perhaps a frustrated would-be author? Usually they are the people who write this kind of nasty review.
Hello and welcome PeggyG,
We love any and all opinions here and yes, do review based on our honest opinions. I want you to love, hate or anything in between, any and all books and so I expect that of my reviewers as well. I am sorry you are taking the review so personally. It isn’t meant to be anything other than Lynnec’s opinion. And honestly, this ISN’T a nasty review.
Are you new to romanceland? If so happy to have you and do hope you stick around but do ask that you keep the person attacks to… zero.
I understand we can be passionate in our view of books (good and bad) but we shouldn’t take that out on the author, reader or reviewer.
Good lord, it’s like review wank bingo. *snickering* I count at least half a dozen squares.
One for me to miss I think.
I’ll take the hit for no except on this book, Peggy. I checked both the author’s web site and the pub’s and found no excerpt at all. In fact, the author has two web sites for this series and no excerpt on the second site either. If an author doesn’t have an excerpt on her site, I go the publisher’s site. If I can’t find an excerpt there, no excerpt is available, because I don’t have the time to do an internet-wide search for something that should be posted on one of those two sites for their books, especially for as many books as this blog reviews. That’s their responsibility, and if they’re lacking, well, nothing I can do about that.
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As an aside to this whole issue, I can’t for the life of me understand why anyone would want to argue with a Brit about British history. That makes no sense! And you should check your facts, Peggy, on Lynne’s impressive backlist. She’s no wannabe. So she knows whereof she speaks on those two counts, not half assumptions as some of your comments are. Reviews are opinions and you’re welcome to disagree with hers. In fact, it makes reading and reviewing all that much more fun for both sides. I’ve disagreed with Lynne a few times myself, but it’s because I don’t know or remember historical items and that doesn’t matter to me but to Lynne it does. We’ve never insulted one another over it, however. Read Lynne’s review again. You’ll not see one place where she became sarcastic or insulting to the author, just how a review should be written. Take exception if you must, but be kind about it.
Thank you Syb and Sandy!
Peggy, in those days, regimental uniforms were vastly different. One soldier didn’t look like another, and there were no khaki field uniforms. Just the bright green, red, blue, or whatever. So one soldier didn’t look like another.
But that wasn’t the main problem I had with this book. The long stretches of backstory and explanation, throwing everything in to the mix, and the sheer stupidity of the heroine did me in in the end. I have to care about the characters for them to engage me. The history niggles are neither here nor there. If I’d loved the characters, I’d have carried on reading.
As I’ve said before, I open every book hoping this will be the one. And sometimes it is. This one wasn’t. Another reviewer might love it, and I hope they do.
But God love you for loving the book enough to want to defend it. You might prefer to keep your comments to the review and the book, rather than to me.
No, I’m not a frustrated wannabe author.