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Title: Slightly Sinful
ISBN: 0440236606
Author:
Mary Balogh
Publicate Date: 2004-04-27
Publish: 2004-04-27
List Price: $6.99
Average Customer Rating: 4.0
Format: Mass Market Paperback
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $1.65
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $0.01
Amazon Merchant Price: $6.99
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| Customer Review: |
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1: Slightly implausible?
If you've read Slightly Tempted, Morgan's story, this is the book you'll have been waiting for. Lord Alleyne Bedwyn, slightly bored, not sure what he wants to do with his life, joins the diplomatic corps. In Brussels on official business just before the Battle of Waterloo, he's dissatisfied with his position and his life; he isn't convinced by the war effort and he's wary of getting too close to it. Yet he doesn't have a choice. On the day of Waterloo, he is commissioned with taking a letter to the Duke of Wellington, which will require riding right into the thick of battle, finding the Duke and waiting for him to write a response before he can get away again. As we already know from Slightly Tempted, Alleyne does not return from this mission.
Rachel York is also affected by the war, but in a different way. In Brussels as a companion, she is beguiled by a clergyman who offers to marry her. On the way back to England, she discovers that he is actually a conman who has stolen a lot of money from English residents of the city by promising to take it back to England and invest it. He only pretended to be interested in Rachel because of the family jewels she will inherit when she marries. She returns to Brussels to inform other victims of their misfortune, and is taken in by three of them, prostitutes. In order to try to make some money back, they decide out of desperation to rob corpses (don't worry, they can't actually go through with it) and as a result Rachel stumbles on a naked, barely-alive man. Pretending that he is her husband, she takes him back to the brothel, with the aid of Sergeant Strickland, who has lost one eye and is discharged from the army as a result.
From here on, the story is somewhat predictable: Alleyne doesn't remember who he is and is amnesiac for most of the book. He believes that Rachel is a prostitute, but once he knows the truth the entire group - the prostitutes, Sergeant Strickland, Rachel and Alleyne - decide to go to Rachel's uncle's home with Alleyne masquerading as Rachel's husband, so that she can claim her inheritance.
As others have commented, the fake betrothal/marriage plot is by now very tired in this series. This book, too, while it's still very readable, did not grip me as much as others. The implausible nature of the plot - prostitutes masquerading as members of high society - and plan to deceive Rachel's uncle didn't sit well with me. I felt that perhaps, unlike earlier books in the series, this was intended to be more of a farce, but I'd have preferred something in a similar style to the others.
I was also disappointed that Alleyne's family reunion was so long delayed, too, given the grief we saw in Slightly Sinful. I will say that one thing I do commend Balogh for, however, is Alleyne and Rachel's first sexual encounter. It's a brave author who makes her characters' first sex scene a disaster, and then doesn't revisit lovemaking for at least 150 pages, but it worked. Real life is like that. Rachel was a virgin and Alleyne thought she was a whore; why would it be perfect?
Overall, this book is a must-read to complete the Bedwyn series, but not really worth it on its own.
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2: Slightly Good
A good story line with entertaining characters. Just a bit thin on the relationship between Alleyne and Rachel. And, without spoiling the plot, let me just say that their sexual relationship was rather cold.
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3: Balogh's not big on originality within the series...
Two words: Fake Marriage.
*smacks head* It's not quite a fake betrothal, but it's not all that different. So when I came to the part in this book where Alleyne and Rachel decide to pose as being married, I wanted to smack myself in the head. That makes, what, four or five books so far in this series where there is a a fake relationship? That's pushing it just way too far in my opinion, and it's hopelessly unoriginal. At times there's something to be said for some congruency when writing a series. It binds them together and offers that sort of parallel fate that can be interesting. But this isn't one of those times. When most of the books in a series share an almost exact plot hook, it gets real old real fast.
Aside from that, the thing I liked most in this book was the variety of characters. Most of the others have featured a very homogeneous set of societies best...even with several heroines not being quite up to snuff, they were still proper ladies. So I liked that in this book, four of the supporting cast were "painted ladies". They were boisterous, off-beat, and likable, and just a nice diversion from all the prim propriety of the beau monde. Plus there was Sergeant Strickland to add some more variety. And I like Rachel and Alleyne's romance. They were a sweet couple. The "plot" also worked for me for the most part, aside from the fake marriage bit.
I think if the fake marriage hadn't been part of the story, I would have enjoyed it quite a bit. I still did, but that aspect just annoyed me to death because of it's repetitiveness.
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4: Love the Book
The book was wonderful, the continuity of the story held. I had read the others in the series and enjoyed the fact that there were no glaring mistakes. The story showed more of what it is like to be in a war, and a foreign country, and an amusing look at what it might have been like for women who were stronger than normally accepted.
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5: Nice but ...
Allyne Bedwyn is on a important message for the Duke of Welllington, when he shot and loses his memory. When he awakes, he finds himself in a brothel. Rachel York is young miss in a lot trouble. She lost her money and the money of her friends. Needing to work Rachel, her friends, and Jonathan head to Rachel's uncle in hope claiming money they need.
"Slightly Sinful" by Mary Balogh is the first book that I by this author, while it was okay this book just seem long and I wanted it to end.
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