Whitley’s review of The Gentleman Jewel Thief (The Hope Diamond Trilogy #1) by Jessica Peterson
In an era when ladies were demure and men courtly, one priceless treasure set England ablaze and incited unimaginable scandal and passion—the Hope Diamond.
Heir to an impressive title and fortune, Lord William Townshend, Earl of Harclay, is among the most disreputable rakes in England. Desperately bored by dull heiresses and tedious soirees, he seeks new excitement—with a dangerous scheme to steal the world’s most legendary gemstone from its owner, Thomas Hope. To his surprise, however, it’s not the robbery that sets his blood burning but the alluring lady from whom he pilfers the gem.
A string of bad luck has left the fate of Lady Violet Rutledge’s estate entirely in Hope’s scheming hands. So when his prized jewel disappears from around her neck, she has no choice but to track down the villain responsible for the theft. Only Harclay has his sights set on taking more from her than the necklace—and she’s tempted to surrender anything he desires…
Now, caught in a thrilling game of secrecy and seduction, Violet must find a way to protect her fortune—and her heart—before she loses both forever…
I didn’t make it very far with this one. It started out so promising, with smooth writing and an interesting set-up and the promise for all sorts of fun shenanigans. But it went downhill fast. The writing started fumbling as soon as the lust got introduced, as if an editor got distracted partway through the job, and all the shenanigans turned into contrivances instead.
To cap things off, the characters weren’t very smart. I think the worst part was when Harclay kept repeatedly congratulating himself for his “brilliant” robbery, which consisted of “make a loud diversion and then grab it.” Yeah, it worked, and robberies don’t have to be complicated to be effective, but maybe stop crowing about how ingenious it was? Then again, the rest of the characters aren’t much better. “Hm, the thief would have had to have been someone wealthy who attended as a guest. Hey, let’s ask that wealthy attendee who was standing right next to the diamond the whole time if he saw something!” I get the cultural hesitation to call a peer a criminal, but if you’re going to use that excuse you have to be smoother than that.
The only thing that could have saved this was the sex, but unfortunately, the sex was the most contrived part of the whole novel. (Well, the part of the novel that I read, at least.) Even for this genre, which can make some pretty silly situations seem hot, the set-ups were plain ridiculous. It didn’t help at all that the tone of the narration turned choppy and crude when “romance” was involved, giving the book a “teeheehee, they’re gonna bone” voice which just came off as juvenile and grating.
There’s really just nothing I can recommend from this book besides the premise. With some more work, it could have been a real gem, but alas. It wasn’t.
Rating: DNF
This title is available from Berkley Sensation. You can purchase it here or here in e-format.
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