Aug 04, 2003 03:10 PM
3973 Views
(Updated Aug 04, 2003 06:23 PM)
The groom's not the only one bored here.
Boredom does things to you. It makes you read things you'd never, in your right mind, come within hundred yards of. That, my friends, is the best excuse I could come up for reading this book.
From the look of it...
I should've known what I was getting myself into. The cover showed a couple in embrace in vintage surroundings. One glance at the pages inside showed me lots of French and France. The hero being a 'marquis'... what more to expect than a book on romance, of the Mills & Boon kind. Yet, I read on...
The Story
It's about a Marquis by the name of Alexis who's in England. He is rich, sophisticated and... hold your breath... handsome! He has many women lusting after him but he, these days, prefers the company of a Lady Hester, whose skin is white like the snow and is beautiful and her br... let's just leave it there, shall we? So now where does that leave our heroine, who by the way is the 18yr old daughter of a rich businessman, named Lucretia. Now it so happens that the businessman owns a part of the Marquis' property and the Marquis wishes to have it back. But for that he must marry Lucretia. Thus their marriage is finalized.
Now Lucretia, being the 18yr old that she is, fears that she will not be able to excite her husband, since he is accustomed to older women, who are more refined than her. She by the way, is already in love with the Marquis (how she manages to love him, is beyond me. I think these writers confuse lust with love too often) She does not wish for her hubby to be bored of her and thus before marriage she hires a play director to teach her how to be mysterious and alluring in her ways. And so they marry and she pretends to be sophisticated and lets him know that she's had many admirers in the past and that she was a woman who'd 'been around' a lot.
In the rest of the story they're stuck in France, barefoot and running away from the French. They face hardships together and he realises what wonderful person she is, how sweet and innocent. Her sophisticated cover gets blown. And he truly falls in love with her.
What made me puke
Lucretia falls in love with him when she hasn't even met him. In fact, she even talks of how she always wanted to be his wife for she adored his home. She thought it was beautiful.
- She learns how to be alluring. (I thought we women just kinda knew that stuff.. didn't know we needed tutoring!)
What the author knew would work..
The author knew it would be awesome to have a powerful, handsome man fall in love with an unsophisticated 18 yr old. Frankly, the author is well aware that this is what most of her readers are. So best make them the heroine and let them identify with the characters. Now which 18yr old wouldn't want a handsome marquis! Smart eh?
An excerpt
Then as a sudden ecstasy like quick-silver ran through her, as she felt the hard pressure of his mouth on hers....
Reasons to read
You wanna read about sex (gotcha sucker! there isn't any sex.. or atleast not much)
You're a girl who's stuck with a bored bridegroom too (if he's bored, lock him in the house, hide the remote and go shopping, that oughta teach him not to act bored around u!)
You love anything French (then don't read it, coz the french are the bad guys in this book)
You wanna know what's so interesting in such books that girls keep reading them (there isn't anything interesting in such books, we just read em to keep you guessing)
You're stuck on an island with nothing else to read and pass time till the rescue chopper arrives (go play 'tag' with the nearest crocodile)
Reasons to read
It's a bit better than the mills & Boons crap. It's about feelings and attitudes, and not just about sex (did I hear 'oh no'? * The characters in the book are pretty well portrayed.
It's a feel good book. You can read it for time pass and not so much want to kill yourself. (maybe kill the author instead, huh?)
Why the bridegroom is bored and other FAQs
Why is the bridegroom bored?
He's bored because he hates his character. If he could, he'd sue the author for defamation.
Is there any sex?
Hardly.
Do the characters get into extra marital stuff?
No. (nothing hot and steamy, how many times do I have to say this!)
Is the story good?
it's quite alright, if you don't count the first half, in which the heroine is trying to act alluring... she ends up acting like a tart, if you ask me.
Is it Mills & Boons?
No. Not at all. It's better.
Should I Mr/Ms-reads-only-MB-and-cosmopolitan-magazine read it?
Sure, it's not all that bad when you compare it to the crap that's thrown around in MBs.
Should I Mr/Ms-reads-occasional-non-fiction-and-shakespeare read it?
Are you kidding me?!!
Verdict?
O cmon, you don't really expect a verdict do you? Oh, you scrolled right down? Sure, I could tell you 'yes' or 'no'. You promise to read the review later? Well that's ok then I guess. So here's the verdict... dont bother with this one.
Dude, I could write a better love story. Get the picture?
