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72 of 85 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Unlikeable characters do not equal a "breakthrough" book, April 18, 2008
I'm so glad I did not buy this book but instead got it from the library. I was eager to read it after the reviews on All About Romance and the Romantic Times Book Review: "Groundbreaking!" "Desert Island Keeper!" "Not Your Ordinary Romance!" I must disagree with the reviewers. Okay, the last superlative is true - it isn't an ordinary romance. Thank goodness, too, otherwise I would never read romance novels.
Set in late Victorian times Gigi, Lady Tremaine, seeks a divorce from Camden after 10 years of marriage. Their marriage actually ended after the wedding night and the two have been living entirely separate lives on separate continents since then. The story is bisected chapter by chapter between their courtship ten years ago and "current" times of 1893. In essence, Gigi was a scheming young woman hungry for a title. After meeting Camden, she fell in "love" and turned her scheming to get him to marry him despite his expressed love in another woman. After some trickery, she gets her wish but the plan unravels on the wedding day and Camden departs swearing vengeance upon her.
Ten years later, Gigi is now in "love" with the talented but dim Freddy and wishes to end her farce of a marriage. Camden arrives in answer to her divorce petition and says he will allow it ... so long as she gives him a year-long opportunity to get an heir off of her. Gigi agrees and now these two people are forced to deal with one another and ten year's worth of lies, deceptions, and hurt feelings.
The first two chapters were excellent - I was immediately sucked into Gigi and Camden's story. Things began to go downhill as Gigi's character was shown to be relentlessly selfish. Camden was likeable in the courtship chapters, but his cruel coldness in the other chapters soon made that initial impression a distant memory. Both Gigi and Camden are amazingly good at self-deception. A bone is tossed toward redeeming Gigi's character a little through her charity work, but this does not evidence itself in her daily dealings. I kept waiting for these characters to develop beyond amorality, but it never occurred. The "love" between the characters came across as twisted lust with no deeper emotion. Bottom line: these are not good nor nice people. I never found myself wanting to cheer for them. I only thought they deserved each other in the sense of "good riddance."
I enjoy reading novels with complex and flawed characters, but this was not it. The love scenes were uncomfortable and as dysfunctional as the characters. There weren't even redeeming secondary characters - the romance between Gigi's mother and a duke was just as deceitful as the main storyline. The storyline of past loves finding redemption again - with complex characters and everything - has been done better by other authors (see Eloisa James, Mary Balogh, Mary Jo Putney). I think Ms. Thomas has potential as an author, but this book did not display it well.
My recommendation: pass on this one.
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30 of 36 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Yes, a great book, but just a reminder about a few problems, April 2, 2008
I'm definitely not going to give 'Private Arrangements' low marks because it is a very well-written debut. I agree with the other reviewers in regard to the positive points of this book: great dialogue, wonderful period details, involving story, in-depth character development. But, here are a few of the bothersome aspects for me as a quick reminder before you plunge into this story - and the reason I didn't give this five stars. Thomas jumps back and forth between past and present too much...especially the first 100 pages. I quickly got tired of having to re-orient myself at the beginning of every chapter. I would get into the story and then be ripped out of it to try to remember the details of each time period. Very exhausting. Thomas should have stuck with one time frame for more than a chapter. And, here's another nit-picking detail. Maybe it only bothers me. But, Gigi has "torrid" affairs (Thomas' word, not mine) with other men during the ten years of her marriage to Camden. Yes, they are living apart, and Thomas wants to give Gigi equal-opportunity sexual adventures like she gives Camden, but it seemed that there was no remorse, no sadness about this, no apology at all for these affairs. While Camden also has sexual encounters with women, he feels badly about them and expresses that. I don't think there is one time in the book when Gigi feels badly about her infidelity. That bothered me. Made me not respect her as a character as much. But, I tried to ignore those details, and when I did, thoroughly enjoyed this impressive debut.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Just beautifully written, May 24, 2008
This book was a pleasure to read. The author's talent is incredible, I don't think there can be any quibbles about that. What some people are turned off by, are the characters themselves. I loved both Cam and Gigi; yes they were both unfaithful during their decade apart, but it only highlighted their human frailty. Cam was especially haunting..here is an exceptional man, with incredibly high standards. You can really believe that, as opposed to the standard romantic novel, which drones on about how virile,dashing, rich and perfect a hero is, but leaves you unconvinced in the end.
When Gigi fails to live up to Cam's standards initially, the way he reacts is convincing. Yes he takes it too far, but I loved the journey inside his head the author takes us on. I did have some problems with the book,the part with the Duke of Perrin and GiGi's mom is just distracting, while doing nothing for me; I would have liked it better if Cam and Gigi had had more time together, especially in the end.
But all in all these are characters you will remember, and this is a book to treasure. the excellent writing also makes it eminently re-readable!
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