Dinca’s review of Taken by the Wicked Rake by Christine Merrill
Historical Romance published by Harlequin Historical 21 Dec 10
I had a hard time staying with this book. The beginning is a slow take off and I lost interest several times. Usually I can stay up a long time reading at night, but I had no problem drifting off to sleep with this one.
This is the eighth book in the miniseries Silk & Scandal that started back in 2009 by different authors and the first Christine Merrill I have read. I will not be hunting her next book down in a big hurry. As my memory dims I may give her a try again at a much later date. But for this series, the hero, Stephen Hebden aka Stephano Beshaley (half Gypsy, half English), is the supposed villain and appears to be the villain in the other seven books as well. I just can’t wrap my head around him being the villain in seven other books, a menace to the heroine’s whole family, and then turning hero all of a sudden and being forgiven. And I am not a big fan of “I had a bad childhood so I am not responsible for my actions” type of characters.
Once again, the Romany people get a nasty reputation through most of the book. The saving grace is the hero’s grandmother. She is a sneaky, secretive little thing. It is not enough the really evil villain is a rich, vile, old, upstanding Englishman. I’m surprised by who the bad guy is in the end.
I’m not impressed by the Lady Verity Carlow. She’s just there. She is kidnapped and, yes, she tries to get away, but there’s nothing spectacular about the attempt. She’s turned back by a look. How exciting is that? She tries to make the best of her stay in the gypsy camp. She tries her hand at baking bread and teaching the children English. She nurses Stephano back to health when he gets a fever from a cut on his hand. Still, there is nothing exciting and interesting going on here to keep my attention. Enough said.
Stephano Beshaley is the total epitome of ‘poor me’ syndrome, which I cannot tolerate on any level, much less in my supposed heroes. The curse told me to do it, yeah right! He is a grown man and should be responsible for his own actions. I can feel pity for all the things that had befallen the unfortunate half-gypsy child, but the grown man needs to get over it and stop making everyone’s life miserable. Again, enough said.
Because of the lack of attention-holding power, I would normally give this book a D and an F for the dysfunctional, whinny hero and the boring heroine. The only thing that elevates the grade to a C is the fact that I did not know who the real villain would turn out to be. I have to give Christine Merrill an A for that, so I will meet her half way in my grading.
Grade: C
Summary:
Lady Verity Carlow is poised, charming, virginal. Her family’s precious jewel. She will marry whatever titled bore is chosen for her. Yet sometimes, in the dark of the night, she wishes she weren’t always so well behaved….
Then she is kidnapped by her family’s enemy, Gypsy lord Stephano Beshaley. In this dangerously unsuitable man’s arms, Verity is tempted to do wicked, wicked things. And, shockingly, she does not want to be rescued—not one little bit!
Read an excerpt here.
Other books in this series:
