Customer Reviews

The Second Seduction

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Ms. Munro has penned a very entertaining gothic romance. She has taken the concept of the "dark, brooding, scarred hero and created Lucien a wonderfully complex hero that has suffered a fate no man should have to experience. He is physically as well as mentally scarred but he still manages to allow his heart to be healed by Rosalind a feisty heroine that has her own secret and issues. Together these two find love, solve a mystery, and catch a bad guy. Not bad days work. Of course the path to their enlightenment and love is not a smooth one and each of them learn something special about the other and as a result their love is honest and believable.

Rosalind is considered a witch in her village. She has only one wish. She wants to marry for love and have fat happy babies. In order to see this wish fulfilled she agrees to marry Lucien a man she's never met before. Her wedding is unremarkable and she starts to live her life feeling alone. She has "seen" that her husband has loved another and that his heart is not free to love again. Despite this she refuses to give up. But there is something wrong at Castle Clare. She feels that she is being watched, and one night an intruder enters her room and hurts her. She has no idea that this is the same person that has harmed another. Will she be the next victim?

Lucien can't remember who he is. Three years earlier he suffered an injury that stole his memories. He is not ready to marry another but must. Rosalind is an English Mouse, not the fiery beauty that his Francesca. But Rosalind is stronger than she appears and when she uses her "powers" to help him solve the mystery of his wife's murder he can't help but realize that she is special and the feeling that she generates in him are wonderful. But will he let himself love her fully?

This was a very good read. I truly love a well-penned gothic romance and I'm glad to see that they seem to be making a come back. Ms. Munro has created some very vivid characters that will stay with the reader long after the book is finished. I look forward to reading her next effort and suggest that you add her to your "Must Read List."

Official Reviewer for Romance Designs

In 1720, Lucien Viscount Hastings has returned home but nothing feels right although his father insists he is his son George. While on a grand tour of Italy, an unknown assailant attacked him costing him much of his memory. Worse ten months ago someone murdered his beloved pregnant wife Francesca; he lives to solve the homicide so as to enact vengeance.

His father has arranged a marriage for Lucien with Rosalind. Lucien tries to persuade her to look elsewhere for a spouse, but she feels she has no choice as she has been branded a witch. Unbeknownst to Lucien she "sees" the spouse he cherishes so holds no hope beyond friendship for herself. He even rejects that until someone from the shadows threatens both of them. As he tries to keep his second wife from succumbing to the fate of his first spouse, Lucien falls in love with Rosalind; she reciprocates but has no hope for he feels guilty for surviving, for caring for someone else and for knowing women he loves die.

THE SECOND SEDUCTION is a fine Georgian paranormal romance starring a scarred hero as women have not done well when associated with him and his perfect counterpoint who has no options but to except him. The story line is mostly typical of the sub-genre, but refreshed by the heroine's second sight skills used cleverly at selective moments and the mystery of who killed Lucien's wife and what happened to his sister who vanished when she was six years old.

Harriet Klausner

This book was enchanting from start to finish. I really enjoyed the romantic tension mixed with danger that left me unable to put this book down. Shelley Munro spins magic and will easily captivate you. I definitely recommend this book.

This is a wonderful read! The mixture of paranormal with romance makes for a different and intriguing novel, I would recommend this book!

The heroine is "cursed" with the gift of second sight and marries the hero, sight unseen, in order to finally be normal (i.e. get married and have babies), something denied her because of her ability. Unfortunately for her, her husband is not only uninterested in his marriage, he's uninterested in everything except getting revenge dead wife's murderer. This includes uninterest in the earldom he's heir to which he apparently knew nothing about (at some point he lost his memory, but this reader was uninterested in slogging through the book long enough to find out why.)

I don't normally read gothics and this book hasn't particularly enamoured me with the genre. I have to admit, I finally gave up on the book a little more than 1/3 of the way into it (that is, if rapidly flipping pages can be construed as reading). Every single last character in this story was about as flat and cliched as they possibly could be - the heroine and hero's "angst" (I didn't even care enough about them to remember their names) was both unoriginal and completely unmoving, their stiff, two dimensional actions completely rote and by the book, the sexual "tension" laughable... for no apparent reason, both of them are overcome by feelings of desire.

It's been a while since I've suffered through such a mediocre book - I got it because it had so many positive ratings but for the life of me can't see why. I think I'm going to have to dig out a book I've already read to wash this out of my brain.