All About Seduction
by Katy Madison
December 1st 2011 by Avon
Caroline Broadhurst is about to take a lover— At her husband’s command. For fifteen years, Caroline has done everything her much older husband has desired—except provide an heir. Now he has given her an ultimatum: seduce a suitable gentleman and bear a son. Caroline would never think of bowing to such a shameful order, but then she meets Jack Applegate. Jack has longed for the beautiful, untouchable Caroline for years, but the chasm between a lady and a laborer was too wide to ever dream of crossing. Now, fate and passion have thrown them together, but the potential scandal threatens to smother their love. And when a violent secret comes to light, only a terrible sacrifice will prevent the flame of their affection from being snuffed out forever …
***
It’s very predictable to know what will happen with our hero and heroine right from the start. In spite of having to read some scenes that I didn’t agree with the author’s solution, we get to see Caroline dealing with her fears and surrendering to the hero, who helps to heal her from a terrible marriage and finally achieve the deserved happiness.
The plot isn’t fresh, and other couples in that situation at that time would blame the wife till the end. Some of the decisions taken by the main characters were rather odd, but I was satisfied with the ending and the overall book. The characters are very well build, and Jack Applegate is the hero we’d love to fall in love with! Broadhurst is a coward, distasteful and a disaster as a husband. No wonder your hate for him will grow until simply reading his name will make you want to take the pen out of the author’s hand kill him. Caroline is simply terrible at flirting, and not all the love scenes are happy – in fact, some can be quite depressing.
The dialogues weren’t bad, but the repetitive dialogues about having to seduce a gentleman and get pregnant got me annoyed sometimes. There were no surprises in this book, but it had a couple of good twists that saved the story from being simple and over the top predictable.
There’s a lot of suffering and sadness in this story, that some faithful and hopefully romantic readers might not enjoy. But at the end don’t we all love a good HEA that crosses society barriers and overcome giant obstacles for love? And what about this cover? Incredible! One of my favorite covers this year! I truly recommend you to give this book a chance and add it to your TBR shelf.
Heat Level: 4/5
Rating: 3/5
This book was received in digital format from Harper Collins, in exchange for an honest review.