Indiscreet (Berkley Sensation) [Paperback]

Carolyn Jewel (Author)

Book Description

Series: Berkley Sensation | Publication Date: October 6, 2009

Edward, Marquess of Foye, would have been happy to continue his life as an unmarried gentleman rake, until his brother's death changes everything. As the last of his line Edward must now marry. Having already had his heart broken by a capricious young girl, he vows to find an older woman who is seasoned, mature...and no threat to his feelings. Then he meets a woman who will require him to risk everything for their love.

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Berkley; Original edition (October 6, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0425230996
• ISBN-13: 978-0425230992
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #888,470 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Carolyn Jewel lives in Northern California with her young son, three cats, a border collie and several chickens. She loves history and imagining the lives of people who lived in years past. Writing about them is a dream come true. She welcomes letters from readers on any subject. Don't hesitate to email! In addition to writing, has an MA in English and is also a Microsoft SQL Server Database Administrator who specializes in, uhm, administering MS SQL Server databases. It's not nearly as exciting as writing.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Nearly perfect, November 7, 2009

By 

Ridley (New England) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Indiscreet (Berkley Sensation) (Paperback)

Carolyn Jewel's Indiscreet follows Edward Marrack, the Marquess of Foye, and Sabine Goddard through the sands of Turkey and Syria during the early Regency. Foye became aware of Sabine a year prior to the start of the story, via a boast by his friend, the Earl of Crosshaven, that he had seduced Miss Goddard. As the novel opens, Foye meets Sabine and her uncle on their travels in Turkey.

Foye is surprised upon meeting Sabine. Instead of a shattered girl mourning her lost reputation, he finds a strikingly intelligent woman fiercely loyal to the uncle who raised her. Sabine also finds Foye contrary to expectation. Where she supposed him to be arrogant and waits for him to proposition her on account of her low status and reputation, she instead discovers he knows Crosshaven lied and that he is drawn, rather than repelled, by her intelligence.

Despite a fifteen year age difference and a large height discrepancy, Jewel created a romance between two equals. Their banter is smart and mature, and neither ever seems to have the upper hand on the other. Even when Foye must rescue Sabine from a deceptive pasha, the rescue depends on her competence at behaving as a boy. Yes, Foye is the rescuer, but he trusts her with so much responsibility that still they remain equals. Sabine is neither too feisty, nor is she meek. She is simply capable.

Jewel also breathed fresh air into the cross-dressing mechanic. Rather than treat it as farce, she spent some time exploring Sabine's thoughts on gender and privilege. We get to see her worry about all the tiny things that could give her away, from not knowing how to mount astride a horse to realizing she had to schlep her own belongings.

As much as I enjoyed the intense rescue, I did feel that the romance was a bit short. The hero and heroine admitted their love and agreed to marry in the first third of the novel. All that separated them from their HEA was the resolution of the rescue plot. A bit more holdout, with more character and emotional development taking place during the journey, would have added a fifth star in my mind.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Knocked My Socks Off, October 9, 2009

By 

Sonoma Lass (Northern California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Indiscreet (Berkley Sensation) (Paperback)

I expected to like this book, as I have enjoyed all of Carolyn Jewel's previous historical romances. I like her writing voice, she writes intricate, intelligent characters, and I knew that this book was set mostly in the Ottoman Empire -- I LOVE exploring the British Empire in romance. So I was on board to enjoy this book, and I was excited to get my hands on it two days before its official release date.

So yes, it's a WIN, no surprise there. But what a huge WIN it was!! Sabine and Foye are amazing characters -- intelligent and then some. Jewel takes standard romance character tropes (a "ruined" virgin heroine and a jilted hero who is convinced he's unlovable) and gives them a life and uniqueness that makes them absolutely believable and sympathetic. She details the setting beautifully, and makes it integral to the plot. To top it off, she uses one of my favorite (but often poorly done) devices, the heroine-disguised-as-a-boy. She more than makes it work, she makes it into an exploration of gender that truly enriches the story.

My only complaint about this book is the cover -- the hero is just plain wrong, and I hate it when the cover and the story don't match. I don't think it's a spoiler to say that the hero in this book is 6'6" tall, and thus more than a foot taller than the heroine. Jewel makes it work, but it is an important dimension of the book that is belied by the cover illustration.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Had some very promising aspects, but as a whole it was definitely lacking (2.5 stars), June 11, 2011

By 

J. P. (USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Indiscreet (Berkley Sensation) (Paperback)

This was my first book by Carolyn Jewel and at the beginning I was very excited, because the story seemed very promising. I especially loved that our hero is not drop-dead gorgeous (far from it!), as almost every romance hero invariably is. Edward, Marquess of Foye, is definitely not one of those heroes - quite the opposite in fact: "With a face that defined 'ill made' and a body that tended to intimidate by sheer size - he had always been prone to muscle - Foye was used to women looking past him or away from him" (p8).

Throughout, Edward remained an enjoyable hero and I found him to be a very sweet and "nice-guy" type of leading man. He's intelligent and confident, but also sensitive and vulnerable. His feelings towards Sabine never waver and really come across to the reader. I also greatly enjoyed the first few interactions between the two of them. Unfortunately, after that it went downhill ...

I did not like the huge age difference, though if not mentioned all the time one can usually overlook those (she's 23 and he's 38).

I did not like that what usually takes an entire book to sort out happened by p89 - they've declared their feelings, are in love, want to marry when possible.

I did not like that Sabine is so standoffish - understandably, due to her past - with Foye, they then kiss in the 60s (pages), and then everything for her is turned around. Granted, she already starts to be nicer towards him once she discovers that he has good intentions and that he actually objected to what was said that ended up ruining her. Still, she did a very quick 180 there.

I did not like that Sabine was sometimes extremely overemotional and melodramatic. I also didn't like her constant dialogue with herself when she's having to wear her disguise as she and Foye travel, always telling herself she has to embody this role, this is what the person would do, she can't think of herself as Sabine, on and on and ON! Got to be very exasperating.

I did not like that the subplot overshadowed the romance for most of the mid-section of the book - and it wasn't a great one to begin with. It also ends COMPLETELY anti-climactically.

I did not like that there are about 5 different ending ploys. What I'm referring to are those events in romances that catapult us towards the HEA and that set everything right in the end - sometimes it's the hero or heroine almost dying, the murderer being caught, some big secret being revealed, a realization on his or her part that they love the other, etc. Well this book had about 5 of those until all I could think was Enough already!!!

I did not like that Sabine never EVER calls the hero Edward - the most familiar she gets with him is calling him Foye. One even wonders if she knows his first name, since she never even thinks it (refers to him as such in her mind) and I'm not sure they're introduced to one another with full names.

There were more things I didn't like, but I'll stop there.

I think what would have been best was if we had pages 1-66 stayed as they were, which is at the point where Sabine has started to let her guard down and Edward is really becoming entranced and attracted to her. Then the majority of the book could have been them developing an emotional and intellectual connection, without a mystery subplot - their characters were interesting enough to be able to carry the book by themselves, no need for another story thread. Their physical connection would also of course develop and then there could be pages 67-89, with the obstacles they face being both of them making the final leap and them getting her uncle's blessing. Voila, done, it's a wrap!

BOTTOM LINE:
Unfortunately, I cannot even say that I would recommend getting this from the library (which is thankfully what I did). The author does have the ability to write intriguing characters, great chemistry, and some good dialogue, so I will be giving her another chance and hope that her other books surpass this one.