26 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
It was okay, I guess, May 15, 2007
This review is from: The Perils of Pursuing a Prince (Desperate Debutantes, Book 2) (Mass Market Paperback)
Some reviewers have said that the heroine is stupid. I would say rather that she is not a 19th century woman in her mindset; a 19th century woman (one not of the servant class) would not have travelled to a single man's home, let alone have stayed there isolated and unchaperoned, and then have expected to just go back to her life as it had been before. She would have been ruined. Ruin didn't just mean some ladies sneered at her; she would not have been allowed into decent homes and her options (if her family didn't pay her to go away & live somewhere else quietly) would have been marriage to anybody at all, or prostitution, or starvation. No social safety net in regency England! These ideas are given lip service only in the book; it's clear that the heroine doesn't believe them and neither does the author.
Both the central characters are 21st century people in 19th century clothes, so the book should be judged as a sex fantasy, rather than a historically based novel. As a sex fantasy it has too little erotica for those who like that sort of thing and too much for those who don't.
The author has a pleasant writing style that doesn't grate, otherwise I would have tossed it aside, because there's nothing very new or different about it. However, it wasn't so dull that I didn't finish it, and if I put everything I know about regency mores aside, it's mildly entertaining. Nevertheless I felt that this author has done much better books, and there are other books out there much more worth the money and the time.
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17 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
I will read Julia London books again but I am disappointed., May 25, 2007
This review is from: The Perils of Pursuing a Prince (Desperate Debutantes, Book 2) (Mass Market Paperback)
I picked up this book because of the author and finished it with hope that author would make a awful story better. In this novel immature Lady Greer goes to Welsh to get her inhertance. She trust the wrong person and believes lies and in the end finds herself a unwanted housequest the Prince of Powys. I really like the prince. The last 1/4 of the book was very good but save your money and pick it up at the library.
If you enjoy this genre I would suggest 'What an Earl Wants' by Shirley Karr, 'Secrets of a Duchess' by Kaitlin O'Riley and 'A Lady At Last' by Brenda Joyce.
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11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
A mess!, June 2, 2007
This review is from: The Perils of Pursuing a Prince (Desperate Debutantes, Book 2) (Mass Market Paperback)
"The Perils of Pursuing a Prince" is a dismal follow-up to "The Hazards of Hunting a Duke". Greer Fairchild is the most idiotic heroine I've encountered in years, and I must confess I'm generally quite forgiving. It's not even that she's too impulsive or headstrong, it's that her thoughts don't seem to belong to one person, and, as several other reviewers have noted, although she seems to give lip service to a knowledge of society's rules of behavior for young, unmarried women, her actions don't reflect any of it. She's entirely taken in by the scoundrel in the story, she's beyond rude to the Prince for the first two weeks she is a guest in his home, and I see no consistent rationale for her actions. At one point, she's at Kendrick, cleaning a room, and imagining her future, either married to the Prince, or simply continuing their relationship as lovers. Later that day, he proposes marriage to her, and she responds as if he's crazy and says she hadn't previously considered the possibility of marriage. On top of that, she goes on about how she couldn't imagine life away from London after she spent the afternoon dreaming about living at Kendrick! Makes no sense, whatsoever! She is rude, devious, and stupid, and I can't imagine what Rhodrick could possibly see in her. As the book progressed, I found myself thinking less and less of him for wanting her. At the end of the story, one of her cousins - Ava, I think - makes some comment about how she had to love him for putting up with Greer, and I could only think, `absolutely!' I can't think of one endearing quality to her.
The plot itself is all over the place, too. Much is made of the magic of Wales and ghosts and such, but it's all kind of vague. At the end, the big issue for Greer is finding out how Rhodrick found the woman's dead body in the forest. As the reader, I couldn't care less. It was clear to me that he was a good, honorable person, and it just didn't matter. Too, there was the issue of the `bad guy'. Since she was so taken in at the beginning of the book, I felt it was important that she have an "Aha" moment where she realized he was bad (not to mention acknowledge what a witch she was to Rhodrick when she believed all those lies). That didn't really happen.
Don't even bother with this book. It's an exercise in frustration. I can't believe I finished it.
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