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50 of 58 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Eloisa -- what's happened to your writing???, November 26, 2007
This review is from: An Affair Before Christmas (Mass Market Paperback)
I completely agree with the people who didn't like this book. I've also been a fan of EJ's for quite awhile and I am quite disappointed in this whole series. The first book "Desperate Duchesses" was not good & I thought this one was just a bit better. (In the sense that the hero didn't make me fall asleep.)
I won't reiterate the whole plot, since other reviewers have done so quite well. Basically, there are three stories: (1) Poppy and Duke of Fletcher have been married for years and they have had a bad sex life. They still love each other, but have communication problems. (2) The Duke of Villiers is on his death bed because he has an infection from a wound he recieved during a duel (this happened in the previous book). A spinster starts hanging out with him due to a mistaken note that was delivered to her & ends up meeting his potential heir. Both these guys are interested in her for marriage, apparently. (3) The Duke and Duchess of Beaumont are playing chess and still having problems because he slept with his mistress many years ago and then the Duchess retaliated by going to Paris and sleeping with other guys.
So, here's the deal: one of the biggest problems with this method of having 3 stories going on simultaneously is that the hero/heroine of THIS novel get shafted. Poppy came across as a whining, immature and annoying little girl. Her mother was obviously a horrible person and Poppy just let her walk all over for years -- to the detriment of her own marriage. Even though her husband was a great guy. Why was Fletch in love with her again? It didn't seem like Poppy had much going for her -- and the little personality she did have, she'd hid for years because of fear of her mother. So, basically, Poppy annoyed me and I just felt like she didn't deserve Fletch.
Which leads me to the hero: What was wrong with him? Why didn't Fletch have the authority to throw his mother-in-law out when she moved into his house and tried to take over his life? He's a DUKE... the most powerful title at that time after the King. Just one snap of the finger and she's toast. And neither he or Poppy ever thought of that? Makes no sense and makes it so that you cannot sympathize with Fletch, either. Clearly, he was lacking in the brains (and strength) department.
In short: Why should we root for Poppy and Fletch? Just because they're on the cover? Sorry, not enough. Too little.
Also, if EJ wants to link 3 storylines into one book, then she needs to start actually LINKING them. I think that one of the biggest problems is that the various plots do not exactly intersect -- so it's like you're reading 3 different novels in this one book. I have problems with this, because it's almost like none of the "mini-books" are well developed. The main one suffered because of it & the other two were just so poorly sketched and random that you had no clue WHAT was going on. Also, it didn't flow gracefully... in one chapter, we're treated to the details of a party from Fletch's perspective & then the next chapter goes BACK in time to tell us how the Duke of Villiers saw that exact scene. Well, that's kind of weird. I think this is EJ's way of dealing with her past issues about being in different character's head in the same passage -- but I don't think this new method is the way to resolve the POV issues she has.
So, unfortunately, I just could not recommend this book -- and series -- to anyone. And that's pretty sad, because EJ is one of my favorite romance novelists. However, if she continues this way, she won't be on that list much longer.
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16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
an interesting love story, November 14, 2007
This review is from: An Affair Before Christmas (Mass Market Paperback)
Well, I can't say I was quite as enthralled with this book as the other two reviewers. I'd give this book 3 1/2 stars, but I bumped it up to 4 because there's heart here and potential in the series itself. I can say that I really liked Fletch and Poppy's story. That said, I'm getting a little frustrated with EJ's thing about intertwining stories. I realize she's using this story, and the previous one, "Desperate Duchesses" to lay groundwork for the stories still coming, but I found myself getting annoyed with the distractions from Fletch and Poppy. Her 'intertwining' is somewhat heavy-handed, and makes it hard to say that each book in a series stands alone.
The storyline of the Duke and Duchess of Beaumont is not so bad (although I'll admit I'm interested in seeing how EJ will convince me to like the Duke after hearing the story about him with his mistress in his office hours after he left his new young wife's bed), but I got to the point where I just skipped over the stuff with Villiers. I confess that I just don't get his character AT ALL. I don't see how any man wearing the clothes she described could actually seem MASCULINE, as she describes it. It's not just that he seems so BAD, it's that I don't GET him. I know she's trying to redeem him, but it just seems so obvious, and again, heavy-handed. So, I skipped over those chapters. (I'll probably go back and re-read them before I read the next volume, but we'll see.)
I did really like Fletch and Poppy's story, though I hated that mother so much I could scream. I loved the fact that even after Poppy said she didn't love Fletch, had, perhaps, never loved him, he could still say to her, "I love you, and I've always loved you." It takes a real man to be so vulnerable, given all she's said and done. I didn't like the fact that she blamed so much on him when the cause of so many of their problems was due to her relationship with her mother. Yes, I recognize she was really hurt when she realized he was flirting with (and considering an affair with) her friend, but he really had more integrity than I felt anyone gave him credit for. And I did think his eventual handling of the mother-in-law was BRILLIANT! Especially since he seemed so helpless against it for so long. So, I guess I liked the story because I liked Fletch. Poppy got me a little aggravated. It was interesting to me that while she broached the topic of sex with Jemma, she never seemed to get to it, and realize that the issues were more hers than Fletch's. She never seemed to acknowledge she was somewhat at fault - she just kind of blamed her mother and Fletch. I can appreciate it was a matter of maturing, but part of maturity is acknowledging your own faults, and I don't think she ever did. I give EJ points for creating a great hero in Fletch, and I LOVED the whole 'hair' issue. Yuck! Great tidbit from the period. So, I enjoyed the story, look forward to the next one, and I can recommend this book to others with a few qualifications.
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18 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Couldn't put it down, November 15, 2007
This review is from: An Affair Before Christmas (Mass Market Paperback)
We open with the Duke of Fletcher, a young English nobleman, enchanted with Paris and who is wildly in love with Poppy, the even younger and oh so innocent girl he meets there, who happens to love him too. On the surface it sounds like a match made in heaven. Underneath all this wooing and love, however, are layers upon layers of fear, hurt and pain, that will lead to misunderstandings and disappointments in the four years of their marriage. At the end of those four years the Duke is dying for a simple loving human touch and Poppy is confused and fearful, not knowing what she is doing wrong. This is where the book really starts.
It's a bit like an onion, with the author peeling back the layers little by little to let us see what was really going on with our hero and heroine all this time. I'll tell readers straight up that at one point the book goes for quite a while without any interaction between the hero and heroine and from Poppy's reactions, well, at one point I wasn't sure she was actually in love with her husband at all! And I could have cheerful strangled her mother. What a poor excuse for a woman and/or mother. Eloisa is such a good writer, though, that I didn't (read, couldn't) quit and about half way through the book this one turned into a stunner. I absolutely loved Fletch and Poppy's story. I could have wished that Poppy would open her eyes about her mother sooner and not put quite so much blame at Fletch's feet, but that's me talking. From Poppy's POV I think it was exactly right. Fletch is a Prince among men. Really, I just fell totally in love with him. He loved Poppy so much that he was willing to do almost anything to keep her. But EJ wrote it so that he didn't turn into a total mushball either. Bravo. :) It was good that EJ took the time to let Poppy grow up and find herself, as it were, even if I grew a little impatient. Made it ever so much more believable. I was spellbound towards the end as I watched Fletch and Poppy find their way to each other again.
So why only four stars? That's because her use of the multi-couple plot lines was carried just a bit to far in this latest book. I remember a lot of the characters from previous books and it's good to catch up and maybe wet our appetite for more stories, but it was a bit jarring. Just as you'd be getting interested in Fletch and Poppy's story, it would switch to Jemma and her Duke. And just when something seemed about to happen there we'd switch again to Villiers and Charlotte. And this goes on a little too much and too long. If they weren't all so very interesting I'd have had to rate it lower, but EJ is one fine writer so she almost pulls it off.
All that said though, it all boils down to this. I might never read the first half of the book again, but I've read the second half twice now and am thinking of going back for thirds. Not bad, not bad at all...
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