A Season To Be Sinful [Paperback]

Jo Goodman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 2005

Wyatt Grantham, Viscount Sheridan, is stunned to find three young boys at his door, demanding he right the wrongs of an incident that occurred earlier that evening when he thwarted a determined thief. When he discovers his wily pickpocket is a woman, now gravely injured, he takes his flame-haired attacker under his wing. Clearly, Sheridan's new "guest" is lady of quality. So how did she become a common street thief? He finds himself irresistibly drawn the too clever, cheeky Lily, and determined to unlock her mysteries...The five years since she left the care of the French convent have been a nightmare for Lily. Her secrets are dangerous - as is the powerful man determined to find her. The handsome Viscount is clearly a gentleman with secrets of his own, but staying with him could mean the difference between life and death for Lily. With each passing day, her handsome host turns Lily's convalescence into an increasingly sensual escape. Now her greatest challenge may be imagining anything less than a future in his arms...

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

The knife was meant for him. Not that Viscount Sheridan realized this; he assumed the cutpurse slipped. Sheridan only learns the truth after three of London's grimiest urchins approach him for the money he promised in exchange for information. The boys lead Sheridan to "Miss Rose," their unofficial guardian, who tried to stop the children from picking Sheridan's pockets and was wounded in the process. It is only after he takes Rose and her charges home with him that Sheridan discovers not only that Rose wasn't carrying a knife at the time of the attempted robbery but also that Rose isn't even her name. An eminently respectable hero with a few secrets of his own finds his comfortable world shaken up with the arrival of a courageous woman with a dark, dangerous past in this deliciously complex Regency historical. Goodman's elegant and wryly witty style ensures that her latest is a perfect treat for readers who enjoy smart, sensual love stories a la Amanda Quick. John Charles
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

"Jo Goodman hooks you and keeps you glued to the pages."

Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Zebra (August 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0821777750
• ISBN-13: 978-0821777756
• Product Dimensions: 6.5 x 4.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #348,116 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Well-written romance with rich, complex characterizations, September 3, 2005

By 

ellejir "ellejir" (Virginia, United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Season To Be Sinful (Paperback)

This is only the second book of Jo Goodman's that I have read, but clearly I have been missing something. "A Season to Be Sinful" is a wonderfully rich and complex Regency historical romance of the type that is unfortunately too rare these days. The writing is intelligent and evocative, the characters complex and memorable and the plot interesting.

The story at first glance seems a little bit contrived--a young woman disguised as a scruffy boy rescues a rather stuffy young viscount from an assassin's knife in Covent Garden. Summoned to her sick bed by three adorable street urchins (named Pinch, Dash and Midge), Viscount Sheridan (called Sherry) discovers that the young woman has taken the knife than was meant for him and is gravely ill. He quickly realizes that she is more than she seems upon hearing her gently-bred speech. Lily, the heroine, is actually in hiding in the slums of London after fleeing from the ever-so-evil Baron Woodridge, a pervert who had taken her from a French abbey purportedly to be his children's governess and then used her as his own sexual plaything. This is pretty heavy stuff for a historical romance and likely will not be to all reader's taste, but romance lovers who like character driven romance and prefer grittier, more complex stories will be rewarded for their effort in "A Season to Be Sinful". Jo Goodman transforms this plot (which admittedly has "bodice-ripper" overtones) into a nuanced story of healing and discovery between her well-matched hero and heroine.

The characters of both Lily and Sherry and finely drawn and wonderfully deep. Sherry (and his name to me sounded not feminine as suggested by another reviewer, but *terribly* British upper class) is a remarkable hero--attractive, intelligent and full of dry wit, but also rigidly correct and emotionally restrained. It is a pleasure seeing Sherry gradually open himself up to Lily and the three boys and to peel back the layers of his complex character. Lily is a worthy heroine, damaged but not broken by her horrible past, she begins to slowly and realistically heal her wounds under Sherry's care. The story unfolds gradually as Lily and Sherry learn to trust each other and share the secrets of their pasts. Their developing romance is sweet and believable and the love scenes are not only wonderfully sensual but also integral to the plot and to Lily's healing.

The book is not perfect in that the plot has a few too many coincidences for my taste, and the villain is a little too relentlessly evil; however, the dialogue is so sharp and intelligent, the writing is so beautiful and descriptive and the characterizations so marvelous (even the children are engaging despite their rather "too cute" names) that I found myself overlooking the few flaws.

Highly recommended for lovers of richer, darker, and more complex historical romance.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars mixed emotions about this book, December 9, 2005

By 

Autumn99 (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Season To Be Sinful (Paperback)

This is the first book I read about this author. I have such mixed feelings with this book. I wouldn't say that this book was terrible, but I also wouldn't say that this book was captivating.

I think that the first half of the book was excellent. The author really shows you how Lily and Sherry fall in love. The secondary characters are adorable. All of the actions are so believable.

Somewhere in the middle, all the beauty book possessed fizzled. The author's descriptions of Lily's past was so cruel and horrid. I was just so disgusted by what men did to her in the past that I literally had bad dreams in the night. Also, the first love scene between the two characters were not as romantic and emotional as other ones are in other romance books. It seemed so dry as if it were out of a textbook. Later on, the story focuses more on the mystery than their love for each other.

Then the ending was good, but it wasn't touching as other endings in romance books. So I think that this book wasn't terrible, but I wouldn't say that I loved this book. There were moments in this book where I sighed, but there were also moments where I was just bored or annoyed that I skipped pages.

I think that Goodman has the potential to write much more romantic books if she just focused more on the drama between the two characters instead of all the mystery. For historical romances that are truly romanctic, I'd suggest reading Lisa Kleypas, Julia Quinn, Pamela Britton, and Lorraine Heath.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Complex Character Devlopement, August 27, 2005

By 

Shawna Lanne "Shawna" (San Jose, CA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: A Season To Be Sinful (Paperback)

Sometimes it is so long between truly wonderful historical romances that I forget why I fell in love with the genre in the first place. Jo Goodman's "A Season to Be Sinful" reminds me.

A great historical romance will have highly developed main characters and only slightly less developed secondary characters, which "A Season to Be Sinful has". In this book, not only do I care about the hero, Sherry and the heroine, Rose, but I also care about their three wards and Sherry's godmother. The plot is complex enough to show us who the hero and heroine are the shadows and the light. And why they are that way.

It is a bit darker than one would expect in your typical romance, I don't think I'm giving away too much that you can't ascertain in the first chapter, but the heroine is forced into sexual bondage. So, if that is just a place you don't want to go, I'd recommend not picking up the book.