Woe is Me
https://www.eloisajames.com/
Well, I have to say Ms. James’ latest series is leaving me underwhelmed. I keep hoping that
If you remember Lavinia Gray from the previous book, you will remember her mother stole some jewels and was also addicted to laudanum. So, things have traveled downhill for Lavinia; she no longer has money and she must find a way to make money. She chooses to become a wedding planner. Yes, a wedding planner. You see, she can put her reds and oranges together and they will look boo-ti-ful. Right away I had a problem with this plot-device. I thought it was silly. This was 1780 for Pete’s sake! Women as wedding planners/fashion designers in the 1700s is a big stretch. Anyway, Lavinia talks fashion… a lot. She thinks about fashion… a lot. All those words about clothing peppered throughout the book were all quite - oh I don’t know - boring. I started to skip over them after a while. It’s not a good sign in a book when one starts skipping over words. Clothing descriptions in romance books can lend a great deal to adding atmosphere to a story. If written properly those descriptors give us a sense of time and space. This time there was just toooooo much clothing talk. I eventually lost interest in the character of Lavinia. I even groaned when she stopped to have a look at a piece of cloth or inseam or nap. Losing interest in the heroine isn’t a good thing considering she is one half of the romantic partnership in this book.
The other half of our love couple was Parth Sterling. He grew up with the Wildes, hence the reason for his inclusion in this series. He also knows Lavinia but has always considered her a frivolous, empty-headed, worthless bit of fluff. Lavinia has always considered him a stuffed-shirt. Now this could have led to some wonderful banter, some butting of heads – but, alas there was hardly any and what banter there was wasn’t humorous. I could find no chemistry between these two people, but that didn’t stop them from jumping in bed together. Yes, there were hippidy-hopping in the bedroom, but because there was no chemistry between the couple before they partook of the old skippidy-hippidy the “hot” scenes made me uncomfortable. I eventually skipped those. So, not only was I skipping the clothing talk, I was also skipping the bedroom scenes – that’s a lot of skipping. There was also an ick moment attached to a questionable historical moment. At one point in this book, Lavinia informs Parth she is having a female complaint moment. This was so bizarre I was thrown out of the book. I really cannot accept that a woman in the 1700s would mention to a man she wasn’t married to that it was that time of the month. I found it hard to believe that she would discuss her mommy parts with someone she wasn’t married to.
I was very disappointed in this book. It had lots of words, but there wasn’t any feeling beneath those words. I cannot recommend this story – and that makes me sad. It is not up to Ms. James’ earlier stories.
Time/Place: 1700s England
Sensuality: Odd
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