 List Price: $6.99
Lowest Price: $3.10 
Product Description: James Cordier is all blue blood and entirely dangerous. He's a master of disguise, a brilliant thief, a first-class lover—all for King and Country—and, by gad, he's so weary of it. His last mission is to "acquire" a packet of incriminating letters from one notorious woman. Then he can return to London and meet sweet-natured heiresses—not adventuresses and fallen women. Francesca Bonnard has weathered heartbreak, scorn, and scandal. She's independent, happy, and definitely fallen; and she's learned that "gentlemen" are more trouble than they're worth. She can also see that her wildly attractive new neighbor is bad news. But as bad as James is, there are others far worse also searching for Francesca's letters. And suddenly nothing is simple—especially the nearly incendiary chemistry between the two most jaded, sinful souls in Europe. And just as suddenly, risking everything may be worth the prize. Customer Reviews: Rating: 
Date: 2008-07-07
Spying and Romance in Venice
Loretta Chase wrote the wonderful 'Lord of Scoundrels' which was full of life, with great dialogue and original characters. She doesn't seem to have been able to write to the same level since but I had hopes of this book, with its Venetian setting and interesting characters.
It was a good book but, unfortunately, not as good as 'Lord of Scoundrels'. My main problem with the book was a complete inability to like the heroine, Francesca Bonnard, a high-class courtesan and divorcee. We learn of Francesca's history, that she was in love with her husband but had her heart broken by him, but throughout the novel she appears heartless and manipulative. I was never very sure why so many men liked her - she's clearly attractive but she seemed to have an almost super-human ability to make men act like idiots around her. This was not convincing to this reader and meant that I was never entirely carried away by the book.
The hero, James Cordier, is an English spy who is trying to find some treasonous letters that Francesca apparently stole from her husband. Cordier's attention from his task tends to waver in her presence and he decides that the best way to get the letters is to seduce Francesca. It appears, however, that someone else may be after the letters - or perhaps may just be trying to kill Francesca. Can Cordier find the letters and keep Francesca safe?
The Venetian setting of this book was excellent with descriptive passages where we follow high-society people as they travel around on gondolas, attend balls and other events and hobnob with princes and diplomats. However the underlying story was perhaps a little thin and the difficulty I had with Francesca's character, and partly also with Cordier's, meant it wasn't an entirely satisfactory read.
Originally published for Curled Up With A Good Book © Helen Hancox 2008 Rating: 
Date: 2008-07-04
Not her best -- but her midlist is better than most
I think what I like best about Loretta Chase's romances is that they happen between fully-realized experienced heroes and heroines so there are no more of those mind-numbing nattering "getting rid of the virginity" scenes so tediously explored in so many romance novels. Every Chase book I have read thus far has a heroine who has long been shed of her virginity and moved on to more interesting romantic fodder.
This being said, I also enjoyed this novel, if only for its interesting Venetian setting. I had a hard time pinning down exactly when the hero decided when he could not live without the heroine, but that didn't really take away from the intrigue of the plot. All of Ms. Chase's books are interesting and lively.
I do have one itsy bitsy little bone to pick with Ms. Chase as a writer and that is her continuous use of the word "idiotish" as an adjective. Such a word does indeed exist, however after some research I have discovered that it has only been admitted into the lexicon since 1913. It's a cumbersome, wishy-washy kind of word, and Ms. Chase manages to work it into her books at least three times each novel. Please, I beg of you Ms. Chase, just use "idiotic." It's a much stronger, older adjective and would convey your meaning much more clearly, and certainly with less tongue-twisting on the part of those of us who read your novels aloud.
That being said, Ms. Chase is one of my favorite Regency authors and I will continue to buy her books, even if they do come off as being idiotic when she employs that horrible adjective "idiotish." (Seriously, I implore you, have you EVER heard anyone else in your life use this word in an actual conversation?) Rating:
Date: 2008-07-02
A good book...
...but not a great book.
If you rate this novel against all the other historical romance novels out there, this book scores high. But rating it against Loretta Chase's previous work, I can only give it 4 stars.
Loretta can certainly write, and the setting is marvelous but this book was strangely unfulfilling. I would have liked to have more character development. I found both the hero and the heroine (in spite of their intriguing backstories) to be strangely blah. They were both rather boring and even their romance was boring. Just an instant attraction, with some witty dialogue, and humorous moments thrown in. There was no real conflict or tension. The plot was okay but the ending was silly, even the villains were unconvincing. I have no real sense that the 2 main protagonists' lives had changed due to falling in love or that they would not go back to their old lives after the HEA when the bloom wore off their romance.
As for the whole heroine as whore, Mary Balogh has done it much better. In her books the reader really "feels" for her heroines and the personal costs of their situation. I would have liked more of that in this book.
I much preferred many of Loretta Chases's former books especially: Lord of Scoundrels, Miss Wonderful, Mr. Impossible, Not Quite A Lady, and Isabella and the English Witch.
Don't get me wrong, this book is definitely worth your time... I'm just a little disappointed, because it had almost all the elements to be truly amazing! Rating: 
Date: 2008-06-29
Can Loretta Chase write an uninteresting book?
i will answer my own question and say, in this instance, yes she can. My first reaction on reading the blurb, was oh boy, let's play spies and hookers again -- it seems a cliche by now to investigate the intimate sexual lives of men and women by glamorizing the life of a prostitute. Of course, so that ordinary non-whores can identify with her, she can't be someone from the lower classes who was born into this life, is uneducated and has never been exposed to any other options - so our heroine is the divorced and disgraced wife of an English lord. This was my first major disappointment with this book; I wanted to know more about the marriage that landed her in Venice as the city's most sought after working girl, but this aspect of the book was quite sketchy.
On the plus side, the book is set in regency Venice, which is a new locale, and Chase is an excellent prose stylist, so it wasn't painful to read. On the minus side, the plot is completely routine, the subsidiary characters seem as shadowy as background images on a TV screen, and it just wasn't very new or interesting or credible. I found myself forcing myself not to skip towards the end.
To anyone wanting to try Chase for the first time, I'd say give this one a pass and read the Carsington family series which begins with Miss Wonderful.
Rating:
Date: 2008-06-25
Hmmmmm.....disappointed.
Loretta Chase writes some of the best and most original historical romance around and I was looking forward to this new one... Sadly, for me, it does not quite match up to her past efforts.
The characters are not very believable, the plot is thin, the story doesn't really go anywhere. It didn't drag me along with it at all, there was not much emotional intensity and I just never felt much empathy with either of the two main protagonists.
However I still think its a better effort than you get from many, many other historical romance writers - mainly because at least she writes good English and does her homework well and thoroughly. It's still witty in parts with good dialogue and some lovely scene setting - Venice - sigh. |
