Customer Reviews

The Naked Gentleman

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

 

 

I picked this up while out shopping one day, hoping for a few hours of light entertainment. Well, it started out good, quirky and funny, I enjoyed both characters, Meg and John. I was excited for the remainder of the book, however it quickly took a nose dive from there. The characters meet in another book, then meet back up and get "Close" in the first 50 pages, but don't come face to face again until page 200! In the mean time we are forced to read about almost 5 different subplots, multiple characters, and a lot of stuff from previous books that i had not read. By the time they get back to the main guys, I had lost interest. Both characters were whiny and rather pathetic, and the plot was flimsy at best. (The leading lady is compromised in the first 20 pages, but refuses to marry the guy, although she is still looking for a husband, it's weird) The plot is forced, the characters are flat and whiny, and I found myself skipping pages towards the end, just wanting it to finish. It did, thankfully. I wouldn't recommend this book, unless you have read the other ones in the series and enjoy her work, but I won't be buying any more of "the naked...." series ever again!

Meg Peterson has decided she's ready for marriage and she's developed a plan to make it happen. One by one, she lures possible suitors into the gardens at the many events in the Regency Ton. But when Viscount Bennington decides to push matters and Meg is rescued by the one man she really doesn't want to consider, her reputation is ruined and sexy John Parker-Roth, the man who rescued her from the Viscount but who then proceeded to utterly ruin her reputation by sitting her on his lap is linked with her ruin.

Parker-Roth is nothing if not a gentleman. He knows that any woman of society would prefer a title, and he was already abandoned once on the altar by a woman who found a better (and titled) match. But he's still flabergasted when sexy Miss Peterson turns him down. After all, she didn't seem to mind the kisses they shared and it is her reputation in tatters. It can only mean he was right all along--marriage is a necessity for a man with a title. For a mere gentleman, it's an inconvenience, a leg-shackle. As soon as he can get his mother situated, he'll head back to the country where he belongs, where he can work with his plants. Except fate, his mother, and Meg's relatives seem intent on throwing Meg and him together. While his resolution is firm, his body has other ideas.

Author Sally MacKenzie spins another sexy and laugh-out-loud funny story of manners battling with libido set in Regency England. Meg, with her love for gardening, her habit of dragging potentially eligible men into the bushes, and especially her spirit, is an enjoyable heroine--if a bit of a ditz. Parker-Roth makes a wonderful foil--stiff and reserved, Parker-Roth never knows what's hitting him and his own feelings are more of a mystery to him than just about anything else in the world. Without the relatives and Scottish servants who populate the novel, it's likely that Parker-Roth and Meg never would find the happiness they both so desperately want--even when Meg manages to ruin Parker-Roth's reputation even more completly than he ruined hers.

If you're looking for a sexy and breezy regency-era romance, do yourself a favor and check out THE NAKED GENTLEMAN.

While this book was cleverly written and fairly humorous, it left me feeling left out.
If you like light romance I suppose this would be appealing.
Not having read the other books in the series, I was unfamiliar with several secondary characters.
It started out quite juicy but dried up until practically the very last page, and by the time I read that, I no longer cared about the characters.

I was up all night finished this book. This is the story of John Parker -Roth and Margaret Peterson. They meet last year and both enjoy gardening but since John wanted nothing to do with Meg since that party she decided to move on. John saves Meg from a evil little man and the 'Ton' think John compromised Meg and they should marry. Through out the book the gossip mill is full of their and some other secondary characters scandal. A fun book - Enjoy! Looking forward to her next book The Naked Baron due out in 2009.

If you enjoy this genre check out my summer reading list; Three Nights of Sin , The Lost Duke of Wyndham (Two Dukes of Wyndham, Book 1) , At the Bride Hunt Ball and The Trouble with Moonlight (Berkley Sensation) .

Save your money and do not buy this book. It is childish and poorly written, not counting the fact that it goes on and on and on about the same thoughts each character is having. I usually pass on books I have read to my friends but this one went into the trash after I forced myself to finish it.

If the Ton figured on anyone to be scandal free it would be horticulturist John Parker-Roth who avoids London as if the plague beset the city. However, the one person who can get him to come to town for the season demands he does; John would anything for his beloved mom even face the unmarried horde and their general officer mothers.

Still even in London he spends as much time in the garden as he can. He saves Margaret Peterson from the unwanted assault of Lord Bennington although perhaps her biting amorous Bennie saved the day. Margaret shocks her would be rescuer when she asks John for a kiss; he responds in kind like a true gentleman honoring the lady's wishes. However, by doing so he may have compromised her. Although she says there will be no scandal, her family and his mother push the gossip to the surface in order to force the couple to marry; even as the pair finds their passion for one another growing exponentially.

The fourth "Naked" romance (see THE NAKED EARL, THE NAKED MARQUIS, and THE NAKED GENTLEMAN) is terrific humorous Regency in which Sally Mackenzie cleverly uses hyperbole to tell her tale and showcase the foibles of the Ton. The story line is fast-paced jocularity as John wants a pragmatic wife who will literally play in the dirt with him until Meg teaches him what rolling in the dirt truly is starting with a simple kiss. The support cast is out of control adding to the overall amusing entertainment of a delightful historical.

Harriet Klausner

This book was booooorrrrrring. After reading The Naked Marquis, I was looking forward to this one. 'Marquis' was so funny and had so much better heat in it...I was so looking forward to the story of Emma's sister Meg but found myself very sadly wanting.

When I was young, my grandparents used to refer disparagingly to certain types of romance novels as "bodice rippers"; to my regret, I was never allowed to read them. I think they would have immediately placed the "Naked" series in this category (although regency dresses believed in direct advertising and didn't have much bodice to rip...). Of course, we now have 21st century updates, with throbbing organs at appropriate moments and a variety of other explicit details, but the ancestry still shows. Having said that, this series is enormously entertaining, provided that one reads the books quickly and for fun (ideally at one sitting), and just savors the plots and complications, rather than looking for high literature.

In my opinion, the Naked Gentleman is the best of the lot, perhaps because the hero and heroine are not at the highest levels of the British nobility, which is where the author periodically gets somewhat lost; for example, her nobles seem to get involved in uncharacteristic manual activities from time to time, and there seems to be a real dearth of servants, neither likely in the stately homes of the period. Another slight problem for English readers, but probably not so noticeable on this side of the Atlantic, is the use of Americanisms. For example, in England a visitor to one's house does not "stay over", and one fishes with a "rod", not a "pole". So, read them for pure enjoyment(or impure, depending on one's viewpoint), not as history lessons.

Miss Margaret Peterson (Meg) is interested in only one thing--plants. That one-track interest leads Meg into more trouble than she is prepared for. She can handle the men who think she wants more than to discuss the plants in the gardens. Of course she can. That's why her sister Emma decides too late to take over chaperone duties.

John Parker-Roth has the most amazing and extensive gardens in England. And absolutely no desire to get married. It's too bad his mother doesn't feel the same and drags him off to town to look for a bride. His mother is delighted when Parks is caught in a compromising situation...twice...with Miss Peterson. Knowing his duty, Parks proposes to Meg only to have her refuse his offer. He's surprised at how that disappoints him.

It seems that everyone they know wants the two of them to marry. While Meg is trying to decide if she will go to South America to search for unusual plant specimens, Parks is still trying to convince himself that he is NOT attracted to Meg. Good luck with that.

Funny. Funny. Funny. I love The Naked Gentleman! This is the fourth in the series and is just as funny and entertaining as the others. Meg and Parks are just too much fun to read. I think I'll read it again.

Willow
Reviewed for Joyfully Reviewed

I was really looking forward to this book, I had read the previous three and enjoyed them. Little did I know that Meg was no longer the strong, matter of fact, tomboyish character I had enjoyed, instead we get a silly, immature female who is kissing any single male with a good greenhouse in the garden.

And apparently every couple in Regency England during the season is having a quickly in the gardens of London's ton. No, I don't want to know the biggest gossip likes to do it in the bushes when over heated. Or Parker's mother likes to paint her husband in all his natural glory.

There were so many side characters, and to me there must be a problem with the story if the secondary characters are getting more story line then the two main characters.

I think I would of enjoyed this book more if the female character was not introduced from previous books. There were some very funny parts in the book, but over all I wouldn't recommend this book if you read any of the previous Sally MacKenzie books.