Tracy’s review of Tempting by Hope Tarr
Set in Victorian England, TEMPTING is the story of aspiring Member of Parliament, Simon Belleville, and Christine Tremayne, a former dairymaid whom dire circumstances have landed in the attic of a Covent Garden brothel. As Simon soon discovers, polishing this roughly hewn diamond into a gem of a lady is no small feat, especially with the opposing political party sniffing for scandal. In helping Christine, Simon knows he is putting his hard-won reputation and a lifetime’s ambition at risk. Little does he suspect that his biggest risk is losing his heart.
Simon Belville is an emotionally tortured man. Coming from forced humble beginnings he is bound and determined to make himself a member of Parliament. On his rise to the top he is head of vice and goes about cleaning out the brothels. He comes across Christine Tremayne in an attic and something about her speaks to him. Knowing himself for a fool he tells everyone that she is his cousin and takes her under his wing. he soon realizes that she’s more than a handful and sends her off to his friend, and former mistress, Margot, who runs a ladies academy.
After three months Simon is summoned and told that an offer has been made for Christine – to be a mistress. Simon is incensed as he wants no one to have Christine. He takes her off to his home in the country and teaches her himself. But having her close doesn’t help with the resolve he’d made to stay away from the dairymaid. Soon, though, they are so close that the next step is inevitable. Before anything can happen however, a ghost from Christine’s past shows up and turns Simon and Christine’s world on end.
On the surface this is a very good retelling of the Pygmalion story. Though Christine is a dairymaid and not a flower girl the story just works. There are so many different levels and intricacies in the story that were unexpected that I really enjoyed the many layers it offered.
Simon was raised in the worst part of London. His father who was the son of an Earl defied his father and married a Jewish housemaid. After he passed Simon, his mother and sister struggled horribly. After a horrible incident with Simon and his sister being attacked Simon felt completely guilty and responsible for his sisters emotion escape in to her own mind. He wanted to make something of himself and locked all emotion away so that he couldn’t be hurt again – by anyone.
For Christine her life had been relatively good until her father passed away and their dairy got passed to one of her cousins. He was a complete bastard and she ended up running away with her siblings. She hid them away and went to London to find work. She got herself into a bad situation and was damned near starved to death when Simon found her. Almost from the start Christine saw Simon as her Dark Angel.. She knew that she would never be more to him because of her social status but that didn’t stop her from dreaming. I loved that she knew who she was when it came down to it. She thought she could put up with being someone else for Simon’s sake but when push came to shove she just wanted to be loved for who she was inside – not who the world saw on the outside.
On top of the romance here we had a bit of Margot’s story, some of the story from Simon’s past concerning his grandfather, and we also get to meet Simon’s step-father and his sister Rebecca. These various stories were kind of on the side but all related to Simon so they just fit. I didn’t feel like any of it was extraneous or filler.
Overall I thought this was a lovely romance. I loved seeing Simon come out of his emotional cave and start to live the life he should have been living all those years – one filled with joy, love and laughter. Tempting is definitely worth reading.
Rating: 4.25 out of 5
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This book is available from That Book, Inc. You can buy it here or here in e-format.