Customer Reviews

Potent Pleasures (Enchanged Pleasures)

5 star:		(42)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(13)
2 star:		(11)
1 star:		(26)

 

 

I read the "Potent Pleasure" and I enjoyed the story very much. After reading it, I came online here to read the reviews of other people. I was amazed to see both wonderful and very terrible reviews. I began reading the 1-2 stars reviews and I discovered that the historical errors the "unhappy" readers talked about were not present it my "Potent Pleasures" book. I was confused and I truly thought that the 1-2 stars reviews must be talking about a different book than I read. I even went back to try to find the numerous historical errors which other people found, but I couldn't find them. Anyway, finally I figured the puzzle out. Apparently, I am the first one to be reviewing the paperback version of this story (which came out in May 2000) and I can tell you that the story errors, that the other readers pointed out, have been cleaned up and/or rewritten before the paperbacks went into print.

This is Eloisa James's first novel and on the whole I found the story to be very interesting and enjoyable. However, I am surprised that an unknown author would have had her first historical romance novel printed in a hardcover book. If I had purchased the $20.00 version of the book and found all the initial errors in the story, I too would have been upset. But for $6.00 the revised softcover version it well worth the money. It's a good story, and I am looking forward to Ms. James next "paperback" book. This new author has alot of potential!

I felt I had to write a review with the several scathing reviews already written. There are too many characters and the author tends to go off on a tangent with many of them. The first meeting between Alex and Charlotte WAS slutty. How could he have sex with a complete stranger and it supposedly mean a lot to him, yet he never recognizes Charlotte later. I found myself skimming over the too long paragraphs that had little to nothing to do with the plot. HOWEVER, these problems were mostly in the first half. I nearly put the book away to never finish it. I am glad I stuck with it. The second half is what grabbed me and didn't let me put it down till finished. The second half of the book is emotionally wrenching and moves along swiftly. The ending saved the book for me. The birth scene was heartbreaking and the love scene 2 months later was redeeming for Alex.
If you can plod through the first half, you will enjoy the second half enough to make it worthwhile.

This book was so poorly written I don't quite know where to begin. Since the author is a PHD in English, I suppose I'll begin there. The text is chock full of unnecessary colons, semi-colons, and exclamation points. At one point the heroine sees her mother's (the duchess), carriage arriving to pick her up from finishing school and she notes that the footmen are all 'in livery!'. I would think that it would be more remarkable if they were not in livery. The fact that they are in livery would not be a surprise to Charlotte. Colons and semicolons are even used in the dialogue, where it would have been far more appropriate to use dashes or dots.

There are also a couple of dangling participles with unintentionally humorous results. "Gasping, her eyes stared up into the dark leaves." is one that is particularly bad.

Here is a description of Charlotte (taken from the book).

'Just now the rage was for blondes: blondes with curly locks and blue eyes, but Charlotte had jet-black hair, her mama thought despairingly. She did have green eyes, but her skin was so white -- not a drop of color. True, with some coaxing her hair formed perfect ringlets, and her skin was creamy, but she was no pertly sweet debutante. Her eyebrows arched like question marks over eyes as green as the ocean on a cloudy day. In fact, her whole face was pointed like a question mark: Her chin formed a delicate triangle that simply led back to her eyes and those flying eyebrows.'

Her face was pointed like a question mark? Also, all through the book we hear about her flying eyebrows, and the hero's flying eyebrows (yes, he has them too) and the hero's daughter's flying eyebrows. Their eyebrows fly up in surprise too! A lot!

And then there is the problem of the plot being based on a misunderstanding that could have been cleared up with one sentence. "I was the girl you made love to at the Hooker's ball." Instead, the hero won't let the heroine explain, and he behaves so terribly I was surprised that she didn't shoot him rather than take him back. He called her a whore on more than one occasion.

Regency fans will want to avoid this book at all costs. The year is 1799, yet at the ball they are dancing the waltz, which had not been invented yet, and wouldn't be for at least another 10 years. In another passage, the hero is wearing pajamas. A nightshirt would be the appropriate bed attire for the time, since pajamas would not be worn for at least a hundred years. Also, there is the problem of innapropriate dialogue for the time. At one point the heroine says, 'thanks' and a paragraph later, 'Forget about it'. She sounded vaguely like the Italian mobster Regency Lady.

I could list more problems, but I hope you get the idea.

Historical inaccuracy abounds when Lady Charlotte Daicheston and the Earl of Sheffield and Downes fall in lust. This book is filled with historical details -- most of which seemed to have been included without any regard to their appropriateness. Hence we are treated to time anomolies, such as the cameo appearance of the "formidable Lady Jersey" (page 32) when she was still a child. She may have been a formidable child, but she wasn't Lady Jersey or a "patron of Almack's" yet. At the same ball, guests danced the quadrille (page 33) nearly two decades before its introduction in England. And why did this wealthy duke's daughter have her London debut in August, two months after the customary end of the London season in June? Then there is the repeated misuse of titles, an incredible lapse for a book about British nobility. The younger son of Viscount Dewland CANNOT be Lord Dewland sans the death of his father and older brother (page 160-164). With each error, I found myself pulled out of the period, and consequently, the story. One could argue that the book showcases style over substance. The style problems begin on page 1 when the school mistress hisses "Julia!" How does one hiss a word whose only consonants are 'j' and 'l'? Then there are the pedantic comments inserted into the narrative, provoking in me an impolite urge to hiss "Duh." Furthermore, I found that the constant jumping from the thoughts of one character to another quickly became tiresome. I didn't need to read the mind of Charlotte's sister, Charlotte's maid, Charlotte's suitor, Charlotte's father, Charlotte's mother, Charlotte's family's butler, Charlotte's friend, Charlotte's friend's mother, Charlotte's friend's father, etc. This is not a joke, but it did become something of a game to count the number of characters whose thoughts were included. (I counted 21.) Style is subjective, and I probably wouldn't have even noticed if I'd been involved enough with the characters to care what happened to them. Instead, I give Alex a Jerk Award. His boorish behavior turned me against him so thoroughly that even his concern for his daughter and later regret for his abominable treatment of Charlotte couldn't reverse my opinion. Readers ignorant of the time period or who do not care about accuracy may find something to like in this book. James includes some clever lines, and the plot had great potential. However, as a longtime reader of Regency-period novels, I found the problems too much to overcome.

What exactly was there to like about this book, other than Charlotte? Nothing! Alexander Foakes was so vile to her I don't see how a few moments of kindness here or there could make up for his treatment of her. The story itself would have been more interesting if there had been a decent plot, but as it was, the entire book was based on 'gossip stories.' This important guy made life-altering decisions based on unreliable people's idea of truth, knowing full well that these wicked people thrived on destroying other people just for the fun of it.

The cover of this book is lovely-- I hope publishers take note of how tasteful and appealing such covers can be.

The book itself has some power, some emotion, but reads pretty much like a first draft. I'm not a big Regency reader, but even I noticed mistakes everywhere, like the major who is about to become an admiral (presumably he's going to have to switch from the army to the navy first), and all the British girls in the latest French fashions when they've been at war with France for 10 years. The whole feel of the book was kind of weird because there was no attempt to create a plausible Regency-era backdrop. I kept being yanked out of the story to ask, "Did anyone do any research here?"

But there were also problems with the book's scenes. There was one scene that was sort of like a flashback in the hero's point of view, back to the night before, and I got so confused about where we were and who we were with-- at one point, we're in the heroine's head, and how could that be, since the whole scene is a flashback in the hero's head? It was hard keeping track of when things happened. There were also a whole bunch of scenes that had to do with minor characters, and I didn't find those very interesting.

I also didn't think the hero was much fun. He kept being really mean to the heroine because he believed she was sleeping with his brother, and he never had any evidence of that. It made him seem sort of psycho.

I also didn't really like that the heroine had sex with a guy she hadn't even spoken to and thought was a servant on the ground in a garden surrounded by other people. I know you can be swept away by passion, but even my wildest acquaintances in the dissolute 1970s wouldn't have done that.

But I thought the friendship between Charlotte and Sophie and Sophie's fierce loyalty and intelligence were admirable. I thought that was the really healthy, nurturing relationship in the book. Alex was more "good for one thing" and when she needed a friend, a helper, a comrade, a supporter, she turned to Sophie, who always helped her and believed in her. I think Sophie would make a great heroine.

I hope the editor helps more with any future books, because the author has talent but maybe needs a bit more training in things like history, point of view, and scene structure. I don't blame her though. I think it's hard to do that "on-the-job" training in public, to have your first book out there before maybe you're completely in control of your talent. I hope in the future she'll put into practice all she's learned.

I could not understand how some reviewers could rate this book as a one. To each his own I suppose. Still, I found this to be a thoroughly enjoyable romance with complex, well-developed characters and surprising twists and turns. Some people said they disliked Charlotte for going into the garden with Alex, but romance is all about being human and being human is about making mistakes and learning from them. Perfect love stories don't happen, it's the challenges and conflicts which the characters face that make the stories interesting and James seems like she is definitely capable of coming up with well thought out challenges. I can't wait to read Midnight Pleasures. Keep up the good work James and keep the books coming!

I don't care how good-looking a guy is, or how sweet he is to his child - that is, when he's thinking clearly and not banishing the poor thing to Scotland, probably never to see her again - if he's verbally abusive, he'll likely remain that way. He got angry at Charlotte - called her all kinds of vile names, then promised it would not happen again, and even promised to trust her. Didn't happen. Alex did the very same thing a few months later - called her the same names and failed to trust Charlotte as he'd promised. There's no way this guy would ever keep his word.

I started this book to pass an hour. Seven hours later I was done with it, and immediately regretted that I "swallowed" it so fast. It's a nice sort of "Cinderella" story where a hero gets enchanted with the girl and spends years comparing her to everyone else, measuring all other women to this girl's image. Yet, when he comes face to face with his "Cinderella" he does not recognize her, does not remember her. The ending is quite sweet when Charlotte arranges for Alex to finally "recognize" her, but I would have prefered it to be an accidental discovery on his part.

There are also some interesting side characters, and the book starts an introduction to the next story, which is my favorite twist in any book. I really enjoy sequels.

I am on Thanksgiving vacation and reading some lighter stuff. I don't often read two regency romances at the same time, but figured I'd better keep my reading in a lighter note for the holidays. I saw the very pretty cover of Eloisa James's Potent Pleasures at the train station bookstore and decided to give it a whirl. Big mistake. I read through the old reviews here and many readers complained about the historical inaccuracies. I admit that their reviews were far more interesting and enlightening than the book itself. It appears that either the author or the editor fixed some of the more blatant and embarrassing inaccuracies (but still left some). Shame, shame on the author and publisher who researched and corrected the mistakes AFTER the readers pointed them out. Well... they should have fixed the story as well. Ugh. Charlotte Daicheston decides to join her friend to a seedy masquerade ball to see how the other half of the world (the ones without titles) lives. There she meets a dashing masked man who says he is a footman and they indulge in some very compromising things. A few years later, Charlotte makes her London debut and meets the dashing masked man again. But she discovers that he isn't a footman but an earl, one whose reputation of being a rake is fast dwindling due to rumors centered on his virility. Charlotte is determined to set things straight. Sparks fly between them again, but a secret will get in the way of their happiness. All it takes is for Alex to open his eyes to the truth. There are some twists throughout the novel.

Oh brother! Let the stupid misunderstandings begin! Charlotte is one of the silliest, eye-rolling ninnies I have ever read. She could have avoided a great deal of heartbreak had she set things straight to begin with. I know that this misunderstanding is the plot and if things had been straightened out we wouldn't have much of a story. But that isn't exactly a bad thing! Alex is a nasty piece of work. I don't think I've ever disliked a "hero" as much as I disliked this loser. I can't even call him an anti-hero because that description is better reserved for a compelling, complex character, and this one isn't that in my book. This male character treats Charlotte like the equivalent of garbage. And the worst part is that she keeps coming back for more. The scenes in which he is nice to her don't make up for his nastiness. I kept reading the book during my train ride in order to keep myself busy with something, but I had to keep the vile from rising when I read some of the scenes in this book. I hated the story and its characters, period. I give Potent Pleasures two stars because the author succeeded in getting reactions from me, even if they were mostly disgust. The author tried to do something similar to that of Judith McNaught, a story centered on misunderstandings. Perhaps she achieved the misunderstandings part, but she failed to create compelling protagonists that you care for and wish them well. I won't be giving the other Foakes brothers' books a whirl.