Passionately Yours by Cara Elliott

June 8, 2015
Beware the Dreaded Secondary Character-o-sis

http://www.caraelliott.com/
You know how it is. You read a couple of books and there is this secondary character who almost steals the show. They are a delight, they make you laugh, and you can hardly wait for them to have their own book. Then they get it and something happens to them. You don't recognize them as the same person who charmed you so much in the other books. Well, that is what happened with Caro and Alec in the third installment of Cara Elliott Hellion's of High Street series, Passionately Yours.

In the previous books, Caro was such a drama queen, so over the top, so much fun. When she and Alec encountered each other in the last book, the sparks just flew off the walls. They bickered, they squabbled, and they didn't get along. Alex was such a curmudgeon and Caro was sooooo dramatic, I was really looking forward to their book. However, I barely recognized them in this story. Their characters had become almost tranquil and that wasn't what I was looking for. Even though the writing in the book was good, I was looking for some exciting characters who would make me laugh and I didn't get it. I want to be captivated and I wasn't.

Beside the problem I had with the characters not living up to my expectations, I also wasn't entranced with the mystery. Maybe one of the reason the romance didn't sparkle was because of the time wasted in the book on aimless intrigue. The momentum which was created by Alec and Caro in previous encounters just ran out of fuel in this book. They weren't together enough and when they were, they were pretty mellow.

In the end, while Passionately Yours was a nice try, when I closed the book I couldn't remember too much about it. Passionately Yours could have been so much better if only the sparks had remained.

Time/Place: Regency England
Sensuality: Warm/Hot