Guest Review: Tempted by His Kiss by Tracy Anne Warren

Posted August 6, 2013 by Book Binge Guest Blogger in Reviews | 2 Comments

Guest Review: Tempted by His Kiss by Tracy Anne WarrenReviewer: Erica
Tempted by His Kiss by Tracy Anne Warren
Series: The Byrons of Braebourne #1
Also in this series: Seduced by His Touch, At the Duke's Pleasure, Wicked Delights of a Bridal Bed, The Bed and the Bachelor, At the Duke's Pleasure
Publisher: Avon, Harper Collins
Publication Date: February 24, 2009
Genres: Historical Romance
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three-stars
Series Rating: four-stars

London Society knows the Byrons are “mad, bad, and dangerous,” and every bit as fascinating as their poetic non-relation. Join the fun as New York Times bestselling author Tracy Anne Warren presents the first tale of this tempestuous family––famous for scandal and legendary at love…

Orphaned beauty Meg Amberley never planned to pose as Lord Cade Byron’s fiancée. Caught in a snowstorm, she takes refuge at his estate. Stranded together, Meg soon finds herself falling under Cade’s spell. When the roads clear, she intends to leave, but fate intervenes.

Haunted by his past, Cade Byron has buried himself in the country. Then Meg—with her lush curves and soft, blonde hair—invades his house and his life. With her reputation compromised, he proposes a pretend engagement and a London Season where she can find a husband.

But as their charade deepens, Cade can’t let her go . . . vowing to tempt her with a kiss that just may lead to forever.

Erica’s review of Tempted by His Kiss (The Byron’s of Braebourne, Book 1) by Tracy Anne Warren

 

Cade Byron is one of the Byron brood, another one who is “mad, bad, and dangerous to know.” He’s horrifically injured fighting in France, and has PTSD, avoids his family, and drinks too much. Meg Ambersley is heading to north to Scotland to go stay with her last living relative, but a snowstorm prompts her to seek shelter from Cade’s house. She cajoles him into actually being slightly social, and they become friendly, and then one night when Cade is super-doped up and has no idea what’s going on, he puts Meg into a slightly compromising situation. So, they decide to pose as engaged, have a London season, and Meg will meet someone else, “jilt” Cade, and life will go on.Well, obviously, that’s not going to happen. I mean, seriously, you silly people, can’t you see you’re in a romance novel?The problem with this story, was that I never lost sight of the fact that I was in a romance novel. I was never really worried that they were going to screw up so massively that they could miss their happy ending. I was never totally swept away on the journey you take when reading a good love story. You may know intellectually that the happily-ever-after is an assured thing, but you sweat, worrying that that the characters will do something dumb if you put the book down. And I was never, ever once so swept up that I could forget the structure of the romance and worry about the characters and their emotions.

Which really totally sucks, because there was some interesting stuff going on. Cade’s PTSD was something worth talking about, but it was acknowledged that he’s been through some crazy bad stuff in the war, and… that was it. It seemed brushed under the rug. Cade and Meg were so well-matched in the beginning: mocking each other gently, playing each other at chess, matching wits perfectly equally. And then later… Well, I can’t get into the details. But basically Meg could have been shown as this total badass, but the opportunity is dropped and she’s just another girl who does extremely dumb things. And it affects my enjoyment of her relationship with Cade, because they had been so well-matched, and then she’s just a silly girl, and I was disappointed. The Bryon family dynamics seemed like the typical big, slightly crazy family, and I wanted more details about what exactly makes the BYRONS so crazy and awesome. Because they could have been any big family.

I dunno what to tell you. It wasn’t bad. There were some lovely things that I really appreciated. But I felt like everything was framework. Everything was on the surface, and there wasn’t enough behind it for me. There were lovely things that I wanted to see explored, and they were dropped. The relationship started amazingly, and then it got a bit off-kilter. That being said, I may try out another book in the series to see if maybe it was just this hero-heroine combination. I’m giving this one 3 stars — it’s okay to read, there are good times to be had, but I’m not going to gush or tell people that they have to read it immediately or suffer my wrath.

Rating: 3 out of 5

This title is available from Avon Books.  You can buy it here or here in e-format.

three-stars


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