Customer Reviews

The Bliss

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Begin with an improbable plot: The hero, Morgan Gage, an Earl ostracized from society as the prime suspect in his father's murder, concocts a scheme to return to the good graces of the ton by pretending a love for the heroine, a banker's daughter. Of course, the author tells us that the banker has a good relationship with a duke, which is supposed to explain why a peer of the realm would want to align himself in the first place with a banker's family--a family that would have been looked down upon in Regency England as "in trade." However, what makes matters worse is that the heroine, Leah Brodie, with whom the Earl seeks to align himself, is herself a scrapegrace whose own ton scandal (she dumped a souffle over the head of one of her suitors at a public event) is hardly likely to raise the Earl's stature in anyone's eyes. Yet, as if by magic, once the two come together, in the blink of an eye the Wicked Earl becomes a highly sought-after marriage candidate in the highest circles.

To the improbable plot, add two main characters who are uneven at best: Morgan Gage, the Wicked Earl, is part strong, silent alpha male who mistakenly kidnaps Leah in the opening chapters, part "whipped" dog who dutifully laps at Leah's heels at ton parties, and part angiushed son who is tortured over his father's murder by an unscrupulous cousin. Leah Brodie is foul-mouthed, immature, melodramatic, and mainly tiresome. She does have some moments in the book when her outrageousness seems fresh and charming, but only to a modern audience. In real-life Regency England, she would have been regarded by the ton as far more of a pariah than the Wicked Earl.

On top of all this, add some poor editing: There were several places in the book where I found typos and poor word choices, but the most glaring errors were plot inconsistencies. The opening prelude, in which Leah first spies Morgan at a London ball, takes place in March 1816. The next two chapters, in which Morgan mistakenly kidnaps Leah thinking she is his stepmother(!), take place in June 1816, and third chapter, in which Leah meets Morgan once again at a ball at Glenwood Park in Yorkshire, takes place at least three weeks after the kidnapping, or presumably in or about July 1816. Yet, Morgan tells Leah at the Glenwood Park ball that after his father's inquest, he went abroad to Italy and France to oversee some properties left to him by his mother and that he "returned only last month after arranging for their sale." (page 55). Similarly, on page 77, Morgan recalls an accident he had with his sailboat at age twelve when his father angrily sent him into the house to "see his mother." However, on page 132, Morgan tells Leah that his mother and sister died when he was nine.

The result: A less than blissful reading experience. There were parts of the book that were well-written and interesting if one could overlook its other glaring problems, but the middle of the book absolutely bogged down with "filler" scenes that did nothing to advance the characters or the plot. I have read some of Jacqueline Navin's other books, and I seem to remember that they were much better than this. I hope that she tries harder next time.

At one time, many snobbish grubbing mothers and their simpering daughters considered Morgan Gage, as one of the prime catches of the Ton as he is wealthy and handsome. Morgan learns how fast first grade meat can spoil when he falls from grace as the pariah of the Ton with no entrance to any door of the Polite Society. Everyone including family and friends firmly believe Morgan murdered his father. Though he could not care less what the aristocracy thought of him, Morgan wants to clear his name as the "Wicked Earl of Waring" by catching the real killer, but he needs a ticket back into society.

Morgan finds his key when he meets Leah Brodie, a former top gun who also fell from grace (just not as far) because of her temper. Morgan offers a business courtship with Leah, who accepts expecting to regain her advantage with the Ton. As she curses and he sleuths, they fall in love, but first Morgan must uncover the identity of the culprit if he is to share a lifetime with Leah.

The amateur sleuth investigation conducted by Leah and Morgan enhances what would have been a typical Regency convenience tale. The who-done-it is cleverly designed to enable the audience to observe the positive qualities of the protagonists and a few not so nice traits while watching the pair bungle at finding clues. The love subplot remains the prime theme, but the mystery makes Jacqueline Navin's novel pure BLISS.

Harriet Klausner

Once the darling of the ton he scorned, Morgan Gage is now an outcast, falsely accused of patricide. Though he has little use for society, he must live with it, and so must regain the favor of those he despises. Fate offers him a favor, throwing him into the life one of the ton's favorites, Leah Brodie, a well placed beauty with more brains than the average debutante. Leah yearns for adventure that can be found only with a bad boy, such as Morgan. Thus, these two unlikely allies find themselves working to solve a murder and salvage both of their reputations from scandal. As they work at these purposes, inevitably, they find there is more to the other than suspected, and they fall in love.

Fans of Amanda Quick will rejoice in this new adventure, pairing a quirky heroine and brooding, evil angel of a hero in a mystery delicately spiced with romance and the comedy typical of a regency.

Reviewed by Amanda Killgore.

Unlike its prequel, Meet me at Midnight, Jacqueline Navin's novel The Bliss lacks a likeable heroine. Her hero is not bad, in fact, he was rather interesting, a brooding hero driven to right an old wrong. His female counterpart was just too immature and unpleasant through most of this novel.

Leah Brodie has set the ton on its ear when she stages a scene by pouring a soufflé over her betrothed in public. She marches to the tune of her own drum even if it is a loud and obnoxious beat. This is supposed to appeal to the reader, Leah's feisty independent nature, but it never was that admirable. Leah is riding on the Moors when she is abducted. Her abductor is the Wicked Earl of Waring, Morgan Gage.

Now Morgan is an intriguing aristocrat. He was arrested for murdering his father, a charge proven to be untrue and he was later released. He is determined to find his father's killer and to protect his lovely stepmother, Gloriana, from her scheming husband. Morgan believed Leah to be his dear step-mama when he abducted her.

Leah has quite a foul mouth and she lets it fly with Morgan. She is incensed that she was kidnapped and even when she is let go fairly quickly she cannot help but be petulant and bratty in the extreme. Leah though is attracted to Morgan, so when he asks her to enter into a mutually beneficial pretense she agrees. They are to pretend to be a couple; hopefully Morgan can use the ruse to help him get close enough to his step-mother so he can warn her of her terrible husband. Through their bargain, Leah can salvage her damaged reputation, although pairing with a wicked Earl is probably not the best way to do so.

During their pretense Morgan has to play court to Leah constantly. She is critical of him, lies to him about her motives and is all around tense and rigid. I don't know how he could stand her snippiness but he somehow manages to look past it to her beautiful form. The reader somehow has to believe that Morgan enjoys having an overly emotional demanding harpy by his side. I was completely annoyed with Leah, she never redeemed herself in my eyes because she never felt she did anything wrong. Morgan deserved someone so much nicer.

I was bored-only reason I picked up this book. Maybe I'm just waaay past the typical trash romance novel (because that is really what this is). Maybe its just the all the suspense and modern mystery books I've been reading lately that made me feel as if I was rolling my eyeballs every few minutes while reading this.

Same-old-we've-seen-it-a-million-times plot where man and woman pretend to be a couple for some preposterous reason or another, only to find themselves getting more than bargained for when they start to fall in love. Same spunky, strong-willed heroine who has a hard time living strictly by societies rules. Same dark, tall, mysterious man who thinks himself incapable of love. Blah blah blah blah blah.

The plot too was completely ridiculous. I won't bore you with the details...I'll just say that their plan had so many things that were just plain silly and unnecessary-there would have been so many more ways to play that out. It was if the author was stuck and couldn't come up with a imaginative plan and so just started reaching as far as she could and contriving up these silly, and unlikely scenarios.

I guess I shouldn't be surprised, or shouldn't have expected anything more from this book. After all, it is a pure cookie-cutter romance/sex novel and it does give the targeted audience what it is looking for- several explicit sex scenes. These moments of passion often made me roll my eyes...or my stomach churn with their pure sleaziness or over-done mushiness.

So...why three stars if I thought all of that was so bad? Because I actually liked the author's use of dialog and found it often quite witty and entertaining. I actually laughed out loud at a couple parts. Leah's personality, though not at all unique to fictional heroines, is fun and entertaining, and I enjoyed reading her conversations with the Wicked Earl. But that's about it...wish I could go 2 1/2 stars...just don't think it deserves just 2. And as far as trash novels go...this does the job quite well.