Customer Reviews

The Naked Baron

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I really enjoy this author and love this series but I found the book not at the standard I have expected from this author. Yes for a historical romance it was a great book for a Sally MacKenzie novel - it wasn't an 5 star. I found I had re-read whether we were talking about Baron Dawson or Alex (his uncle). The concept of this novel is that Lady Grace is 25 year old and having her 1st and last season before her father marries her off. Baron Dawson decides that Grace would make the perfect wife (even before they have spoken). The twist is the Grace's father HATES everyone in Baron Dawson's family so their courtship has some problems. The secondard love story is Baron Dawson uncle Alex and Lady Grace's Aunt Kate who would have married put Grace's father kept them apart too.

I loved her early books; The Naked Marquis, The Naked Duke (Zebra Debut), The Naked Gentleman, The Naked Earl (Zebra Historical Romance).

I'm in the process of reading this book and have yet to truly enjoy it. It has it's moments. I'm more interested in the story of the secondary character's, Grace's aunt Kate and the baron's Uncle, than I am in the main characters. All the baron seems to do is stare at Grace's huge boobs (my paraphrasing), and think about what he can do with them. No plot there at all. Even while she's planning ways to get their relatives together, he's checking her out, and barely listening. I'll finish the book because I don't like any book to go to waist, but I will be very impatient for it to end.

At twenty five years of age, Lady Grace Belmont is elated not to be at Blandon where her father is obsessed with marrying her off, but is unhappy to be on display during her first London season as the men stare at her bosom. She knows she is too old, too tall and a bit too plump to have anyone truly interested in her. Grace is especially grateful to her widowed Aunt Kate who is sponsoring and chaperoning her, which keeps Grace away from her father who has been arranging for her a marriage after providing no seasons for his daughter.

However David Wilton, Baron Dawson, observes Grace in a garden and thinks she is the loveliest woman he has ever seen. He tries to steal a kiss from her and plans to court her as he wants her like no one ever before. At the same his Uncle Alex Wilton sees his beloved Kate. Years ago when they were younger than Grace is now, he proposed to her but her martinet father gave her to someone else. Alex plans to try again to win Kate's heart, unaware he always owned it. He also wants to insure history does not repeat itself with his nephew and her niece starring in their former roles.

With two heated Regency romances, Sally Mackenzie provides her readers with a fun, often amusing, but always entertaining novel. The story line is brisk from the onset as the older couple seeks a second chance at love while hoping to steer their younger relatives to an easy landing in a field of love; only their efforts lead to scandal. Readers will appreciate THE NAKED BARON as humor and heat combine for an engaging historical.

Harriet Klausner

As usual, Sally MacKenzie has left me quite entertained! I recently discovered her books and read all of them within the last month. I really enjoyed The Naked Baron, just as I enjoyed all of her other books! I would definitely recommend this book and all of her other books to fans of historical romances.

I've read the other books by Sally Mackenzie and enjoyed most of them. This one was a struggle. I don't mind it when authors head hop maybe once or twice in a chapter (if done smoothly) but his was not and left me scratching my head as to whose head we were currently in. I also found the lack of dialogue tags to be a problem when more two people were in a conversation, especially when she'd use a pronoun instead of a name.

The storyline actually had two romances going on, which really should have been just one because neither of them were covered very well. As for the characters, they were stiff at best with very little conflict that made you want to root for them to make it as a couple--well except that she was engaged to Parks and would jilt him at the altar. But we already knew that was going to happen because of the other, the naked Gentleman.

Anyway, stiff read with lots of head hopping.

I am a fan of historical romance. I ordered the used book as I am on a fixed income trying to keep up with life's expenses. But I had to indulge in a book now and then.
The book arrived a week after I ordered it in excellent shape. I'm very satisfied with the purchase.

This was my first Sally MacKenzie novel, although I know of other titles in this line. I wanted a humorous read and this appeared to have some humor in it. Turns out, it wasn't as funny as I'd hoped, but it had a few amusing moments. There are dual romances in the book, and I think I was more interested in the secondary romance of Alex and Kate.

The way things work out was a bit obvious and standard romance fare, but it's an enjoyable book. I'd consider reading other novels by MacKenzie, but I can't say I'd expect a lot.

After getting into the book it was not a bad read. I found the description of the book misleading. The book seems to really center on the romance between Lady Kate Oxley and Mr Alex Winton, even though it describes a relationship between Baron Dawson and Lady Grace. The book had some rather humorous moments and once again pulled characters from Sally's other books into it. Both couples are intertwined in the story as Lady Kate is the aunt of Lady Grace...both appear to have their lives planned out by Lord Standen, the father of Grace and brother of Kate.

Not one of her best books but NOT one that I would say to skip either.

Basic Plot: Grace and the Baron see each other across a crowded dance floor and he decides he wants to marry her, but her father was once jilted by the Baron's mother and he hates the family and even influenced her aunt Kate to marry a much older man to keep her from marrying the Baron's Uncle Alex. Alex has always loved Kate and they sleep together and she gets pregnant and they have their love story. It's pretty straight-forward. Grace's father tries to force her to marry the man he chooses for her and drags her away from the Baron and she has to decide if she loves the Baron enough to disappoint her father.

I'm not sure I get why some of the other's were less than fond of this. Yes, the love stories are a bit superficial. For example, both the older and younger sets of lovers had only met a few times before deciding to love each other. In fact, for the Baron and Grace, he experienced love/lust at first sight. I didn't really ind it since none of the characters were particularly strident, amoral, or annoying. No, there isn't much drama involved in this story and that's one of my favorite things about the story. I also liked that the heroine is tall and statuesque instead of being either tall and slim, short and slim, or short and curvy. I can't think of any other similarly built romance heroines. I think Coulter had one years ago. I kinda liked that the Baron (his name is escaping me) liked her large breast since so many romances are about making women with smaller breasts feel better. 2 of my sisters have pretty huge chests and I bet they would definitely identify more with Grace than the typical skinny or hourglass heroines.

So in the end, this book is sort of middle of the road since it does nothing badly and also nothing well. It's proficient, but since it isn't offensive and didn't make me want to throw it across the room, I gave it 4 stars.

What i find confusing is that she already talked about Grace and Dawson in the previous novel 'The Naked Gentleman'. I hate it when an author does that. Why didn't she just write about Grace and Dawson first, then write about John Parker-Roth and Margaret 'Meg' Peterson? I like the first two books but every one after that has just left me bored and i just couldn't wait until the story ended. I hope this is the last in the naked series so that she can come up with some better stories. This series is not terrible, but it is lacking and i hope she does some better books in the near future. I have not given up on Sally yet, but only time will tell.