Customer Reviews

The Perfect Kiss

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

A fan of Anne Gracie's, I had been looking forward to this final chapter in her Merridew sisters series. And how I wish that I could report that "The Perfect Kiss" concludes the series on a high note! The uncomfortable truth of the matter is that while "The Perfect Kiss" starts off really strong, it, unfortunately, disintegrates, in my opinion anyway, into a bit of a mess.

The plot for "The Perfect Kiss" is an oft used and very traditional one: thanks to her father's machinations, timid and impoverished Melly Pettifer finds herself suddenly engaged to the rich and forbidding Dominic Wolfe; horrified at the prospect of marrying someone whom she doesn't love and who is insistent that theirs will be a marriage in name only, she turns to her beautiful and well dowered good friend, Grace Merridew to help her get out of this marriage. And while Grace isn't too sure as to how they are going to accomplish this, she finds herself agreeing to help and accompanying Melly and her father to Wolfstone Castle, disguised as a lady's companion. The last thing Grace expected was that she would find herself so dangerously attracted to Dominic Wolf -- or that for her feelings would be so powerfully reciprocated! Has Grace Merridew finally fallen in love? And could the girl who secretly believes that she is not worthy of love actually be loved for her own sake?

"The Perfect Kiss" starts off really well: Anne Grace does a good job of 1) showing us how Grace was traumatized into believing that no one would ever love her by her grandfather (and why she would cling to this belief all these years later even when it has been established that her grandfather was evil and mad); 2) the instant attraction that springs between Grace and Dominic; and 3) of developing the characters of Grace, Dominic and Melly. And she really does do a brilliant job of portraying Dominic -- showing us his past and his emotional scars and how these have made him the stern, almost cold gentleman he is currently until Grace's love changes him for the better. The trouble I had with the book lay after the characters and storyline had been established, and a triangle of sorts was set up -- Dominic, Grace and Melly seemed to wallow in the fact that they were unable to get Melly's father to change his mind about Dominic and Melly getting married -- everyone strikes attitudes but no one does anything concrete. And Dominic's notion to both runaway and to punish Melly struck me as both foolish and boorish. Of course things do get straightened out and everyone lives happily ever after, but I was a tad disappointed that the same author that wrote "The Perfect Rake" & "The Perfect Waltz" failed to completely deliver here. That said, "The Perfect Kiss" is not a badly written or realised book; it's just that it falls a little short when compared to the aforementioned novels. There were a lot of wonderful points about this novel -- like good character development; sizzling chemistry between the hero and heroine; the subplot dealing with how Dominic overcomes his prejudices about Wolfstone Castle and the people there and grows to appreciate his heritage and his responsibility to his people; and the manner in which the author develops the relationship between Dominic and Grace, allowing us to see that it is a lot more than just a physical attraction. It is just unfortunate, in my opinion, that the storyline was allowed to stagnate for a good chunk of the book. All in all a 3 1/2 star read.

Having read and mostly enjoyed the previous books in Anne Gracie's Merridew Sisters series, I really wanted to like this one. Unfortunately, I found too many aspects problematic and disappointing.

First of all, "The Perfect Kiss" can't seem to make up its mind whether it wants to be a Gothic, a fairy tale, a Manipulative Will story, or a road romance with touches of the exotic. It combines elements of all of the above--a rich, beautiful heroine disguised as a dowdy companion, ancient prophecies trembling on the brink of fulfillment, unreasonable legal conditions forcing two painfully incompatible people together, and a night spent in a harem--but not that successfully. The book might have gotten away with tackling two subgenres, but four?

The characterizations present another difficulty, especially within the context of the plot. In a nutshell: glamorous Grace Merridew masquerades as the aforesaid dowdy companion to help her timid best friend, Melly Pettifer, resist an arranged marriage to a mysterious, much-traveled lord only to fall in love with the prospective groom herself. While not very original, the bare bones of the plot seem serviceable enough -- except that at least one key relationship never rang true for me. Although I was told repeatedly that Grace and Melly were best friends, I felt that I was never shown WHY they were close or what drew them together, despite their different personalities. It was never clear to me why Grace would go to such trouble to help the spineless Melly, and their so-called connection is further weakened by the ease with which Grace repeatedly dallies with Melly's betrothed.

Dominic, the betrothed, does not exactly cover himself with glory either -- ready to abandon his estates and dependents out of a childish desire for revenge against his late father and treating his unwanted fiancee with an indifference bordering on contempt while he energetically pursues her "companion." And while Melly herself is a weepy, spiritless wet noodle, she may still deserve better than to be treated so thoughtlessly by Grace and so callously by Dominic. I found it hard to sympathize with any of them.

In other circumstances, I might have enjoyed Grace and Dominic's romance. Grace's intrepid spirit was one of her more appealing traits in the earlier books and Dominic partially redeems himself when he awakens to his responsibilities as lord of the manor. However, the clunky plot contrivances designed to keep them apart and the couple's rather shabby treatment of the pathetic Melly, who's decidedly not in their weight class, add up to a less than satisfactory read.

Grace Merridew has always longed for adventure. Her greastest desire was to travel the world; sail into Venice at dawn or ride a camel in Egypt, only those things would have to wait, that is until she got her timid friend Melly Pettifer out of being forced to marry Dominic Wolfe, Lord D'Acre. Disguised as a maid-companion, Grace sets off with Melly and her father to Wolfestone. When she arrives, its nothing as she expected. The dismal grand castle, devoid of servants, is on its way towards crumbling. The local villagers believe in all sorts of strange folklore. And to top it off, Grace initially mistakes Lord D'Arce for a gypsy. Apparently, its the handsome, tanned, rake-ish gentleman's-with-the-wolf-eyes first visit to his ancestral home as well. Well that's strange! And so are the feelings that Grace has to hide anytime she's around the big bad Wolfe, who decides to make her his delectable prey. A pursuit that will definitely turn into an adventure of a lifetime.

This is a wonderful book. My favorite of the Merridew sister series, although it can be read as a stand alone. Dominic is a fantastic hero, a strong minded man out for revenge against his father. He takes no prisoner's and takes what he wants -Alpha male all the way without being cruel or uncaring. He pursues Grace with a passion creating lots of smoldering sexual tension and several very good love scenes. Strong willed Grace, on the other hand, does her best to avoid any romance, he's her friends fiance for goodness sake! But its difficult when Dominic akins his mission to that of a wolf stalking and taking its prey... -and the lady has been warned!

Add to that a cast of cooky villagers who believe in a ghostly vision of a Grey Lady riding on a white steed, a lake with magical powers, a set of sister's named (I-kid-you-not) the 'Tickels' or a Turk with a long curled mustache with the manner of a king and ....oh...did I mention the harem? You'll just have to read to find those out. ;)

Just a really good book that's different than your average run of the mill regency historical.

Unlike some of the other reviewers, I wasn't turned away by the fact that the hero preferred...well, the heroine...over his betrothed. It was pretty much made clear from the start that he had no interest whatsoever in being wed and that the marriage would be one in name only. I enjoyed the interaction between the hero and the heroine; it was both witty and engaging. Although the story started off well enough at the beginning, it kind of fell apart towards the end for me. However, I would definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a good read. My first read by Anne Gracie but definitely not my last.

There are a lot of negative reviews about this book, but I actually quite enjoyed it. Probably some of the criticisms are true, especially about too many different sorts of elements in the book (society belle in disguise, bitter revenge-seeking hero, harems, local mythology, etc). I was somewhat bothered by the hero and heroine getting together despite his being engaged, but I felt that it was forgivable as a) hero always made it clear what that it would be a white marriage, b) the fiancee did not wish to marry the hero either and c) they were clearly meant for each other. I don't think the hero was trying to punish his fiancee so much as a) encourage her/her father to break the engagement and b) make it clear what she could expect.

The reason I enjoyed this novel is that it was fun, plain and simple. The hero and heroine had great spark and amusing banter. It was also nice to see the hero fall in love with his estate and the people on it.

I liked the previous books in the series, but I really didn't like this one. There is instant attraction that does not seem to be based on anything substantial; the hero and heroine keep having progressively more sexual encounters while he is engaged to her best friend, and has no plans whatsoever to break the engagement. There is so little real emotional development between love scenes that I already forgot most of the plot detail - but if I remember correctly, they sleep with each other before his engagement is broken, do not have any qualms of conscience, and then make a big to-do over the original bride's father not releasing the hero, because it will make his bride destitute. And this happens over just a week or so! We are told that the hero is good, and tortured, but I think he is just spoiled and petulant, and don't see what there is to like; and if his problems are real, it's even worse, because there's nothing there that convinces me that they are, or can be, resolved.

For a much better example of this series and this author's writing, try The Perfect Stranger (Berkley Sensation) - the characters are much better developed there.

A Perfect Stranger was a book I enjoyed. I didn't review it, but I would have given it a B-. However, this book seemed a significant departure in quality from the previous Merridew books. It is replete with anachronistic characters, silly mental lusting, and a wafer thin plot.

Grace Merridew, the toast of the ton, has cut her golden red locks, died her hair, marred her perfect complexion with henna freckles and embarked on a journey to "save" her best friend, Melly Pettifer, from an unwanted marriage. Seems that Melly's father, Sir John, and Dominic wolfe's father, the deceased Lord D'Acre made a betrothal contract when Melly and Dominic were still minors. Melly wants to have children more than anything and thus she can't marry Dominic because after he found out he couldn't weasel out of the betrothal contract, he declares theirs will be a "white marriage."

Somehow Grace is going to ensure that they don't get married by posing as Melly's maidservant/companion. Of course, Grace takes a real shine to Dominic and doesn't seem to be too bothered by the fact that she engages in kissing, heavy petting and then coitus interruptus (twice) with her best friend's fiance. She does push Dominic away toward the middle of the book, thinking that perhaps her physical contact with him isn't proper but a few pages later is back in his arms.

Grace is full of predictable anachronistic heroine traits:

* Despite being the darling of the ton, she knows how to act as a maidservant.
* She carries a knife in her boot because all Merridew sisters go around armed.
* She swims in her drawers because it is so stifling in the heat (and because a village granny told her not to swim in the pond because it causes girls to lose their morality. hmmm, I can't guess what happens next).
* She had a bad childhood and doesn't believe she can love anyone, but she sure can lick the skin off a hot male nearby.
* She knows how to light a fire. Knows where the kitchen is. Is used to folding bed linens. All things a rich young lady would have in her repertoire.
* She recognizes that leeching is bad and demands that the quack doctor refrain. Again, common knowledge amongst the young gentry.
* Is immediately beloved by entire village and servants. She hires people to come and work at Wolfestone. Yes, a maidservant. And then offers to pay for their wages, out of her nest egg.

Dominic is not much better of a character. Embittered by the fact his mother was treated abominably by his father, Dominic is going to let his 800 year old legacy die. And ruin a young woman's life in the meantime. He has no problem romancing a maidservant while still intending to marry another woman. Wow, a real prince of a guy.

The story is so predictable. Every scene is telegraphed which led to a complete lack of drama. The secondary romance is no less hamfisted and obvious. Within seconds of meeting, the secondary couple are in each others arms wondering at their attraction for each other.

Maybe this is supposed to be a farce. I don't know. I could barely bring myself to finish the book but I did, even in the face of Dominic's Ottoman factocum who arrives complete with his own harem.

I really enjoyed this book. The only other book I read by Anne Gracie was Tally's Knight and I thought it was OK. But this book I really liked. If this was the worst of the series, then I can't wait to read about the other sisters!

I liked that the hero knew who he wanted to be with right from the start. Even having the servants go to Greystoke for instructions. Everyone wanted out of the betrothal except for the girl's father, so I didn't see a problem with the hero and heroine getting together. In fact it was Melly who I found irritating and without backbone.

... not The Perfect Waltz, which is close to the top on my TBR pile. I truly enjoyed this one, and don't understand the 3 and under reviews. I noticed that Eloisa James rated it her favorite in the series. I will quote from her review, since there is no way I can improve on anything that Eloisa James writes):

"The Perfect Kiss has everything of the earlier Perfects - and more. It's my favorite in the series. A good deal of the time she engages in a deft, hysterical parody of Gothic novels (which happen to be some of my favorite childhood reads!). But put together the huge gothic castle, the cobweb-strewn gargoyle, the brooding hero returned from former parts - and add in the signature Anne Gracie touches. The heroine's best friend is not only falling in love with the hero (possibly) - but engaged to him. The heroine is carrying a knife in her boot and has good reason to feel unlovable. There's one moment when the heroine sighs and says to herself: It was all getting horribly complicated.

But not for the reader - in which case, all those horrible complications, and all the fabulous Gothic-esque characters, and the surprising moments, are fabulous, funny and totally entertaining." - from a review by Eloisa James

My own personal favorite is probably "The Perfect Stranger", although there are moments when that one fights it out with "The Perfect Rake".

This book had its moments but overall it was just okay. It was not at all a thrilling romance to read. male protagonist was a jerk and female protagonist let him treat her that way.