Customer Reviews

The Seduction of an Unknown Lady

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

 

 

After the first book in the MacBride Family Trilogy, "The Secret Passion of Simon Blackwell," the MacBride family is back in England after the tumultuous ending in India, with two wounded and brooding brothers Alec, the Duke of Glendon and his brother Aidan, but also a happy ending with Annabel MacBride and Simon Blackwell's marriage.

"The Seduction of An Unknown Lady" highlights Aidan, who is continuing to struggle with his physical and emotional injuries that took place in that final battle. Home in England as a hero, he feels anything but a hero, and spends many a long night brooding, until one night on a dark street he meets and rescues an Unknown Lady. Immediately something draws the handsome Aidan to the lonely and beautiful, Fionna Hawkes. Aidan has his physical and emotional struggles to deal with after the family's return, being partially blind in one eye, but also feeling deep guilt over the loss of numerous comrades in a battle in which he blames himself for. Fionna is a local bookseller and writer who secretly uses the pen name, F. J. Sparrow so she can assist her ill mother and provide the best of care for her.

Friendship soon develops into passion and a growing love as Aidan spends more and more time with Fionna. Fionna is frightened by Aidan's seduction and the intense passion she feels for him, while at the same time she understands the inner struggles he deals with and feels the need to help him, but at the same time does not trust enough to share her own burdens of her mother's illness and secret writing with Aidan. When Aidan discovers Fionna needs his protection from an unknown follower, he realizes that the beauty he has been seducing and is falling in love with has many unknown secrets. Aidan feels he must do whatever he can to help this beauty and what haunts her deep inside. Mysteries are revealed as love and passion bloom and soon Aidan learns that by revealing the unknown Fionna and the demons that haunt her dark world, she has helped him overcome his demons. Eventually their friendship and love deepens into more than a simple seduction of an unknown lady.

Every book Samantha James writes is a delight. Her writing style is captivating with characters that have depth and struggles to overcome. Her sensual scenes between the love interests are well-written while at the same time discovering true love and happiness are what really matter. It will be interesting to read Alec's story next, as the MacBride Family is one that is endearing and one which the reader can become absorbed in and enjoy. Ms. James has written another sensual romance with mystery and suspense that are again, like this story, difficult to put down.

This book was dull and boring. Both h/h lacked personalities. Fionna may have been TSTL, but mostly she was a shrew. She was not a likable heroine. Aidan was a saint to stick with her. Over and over she told him to leave and she didn't want him, yada, yada, yada and I kept wishing he would just to put me out of my misery. But, no, he kept coming back for more of her tirades. Actually I couldn't imagine how they could stay together - they fought so much, yelled at each other, etc.

AND, I am getting very tired of the same old 'hero lusting over the heroine after just meeting her and he is hard every time she comes near'. While she 'gets hot and wet and achy any time he is near'. This all without them having a relationship. Sorry, that isn't romantic. Sex in the proper context adds to a romance. Sex instead of developing the story doesn't. Too many I have read lately are neglecting the story and romance for the sake of the sex scenes and all the lust! If I only read regencies like this (and the last several I have read have been) I would begin to assume men and women back then only thought about bedding each other and men only thought about how and how soon they could get a woman to sleep with them.

I have read several Samantha James books and liked them. This wasn't one of them. I read Simon Blackwell and seem to remember thinking it was ok, but can't remember anything about it, so it must not have been too memorable.

The year is 1854, the height of the Victorian age. The heroine owns a book shop, lives in the apartments upstairs and is a bookish virgin. Yet she blithely goes out for midnight walks alone, has a cleaning lady in once or twice a week and goes out on dates with the hero. Is this a 21st century woman playing dress-up in Victorian garb?

As a lover of historical romances, I find myself fed up with today's publishing houses. Editors seem to have forgotten what a historical setting entails.

Shame on Samantha James for falling into that Bridget Jones' Diary trap. Women in 1850's England had real issues to confront. Not being able to own property, fear of pregnancy, knowing that your livelihood was based entirely on how your peers viewed your virtue. Not to mention the idea that any woman could manage a Victorian bookshop (as well as her warddrobe) with just a cleaning lady in once or twice a week is ridiculous. There was no electricity, no running water, no refrigerators to store food. Keeping a household clean, food on the table and clothing as well as your own personal hygiene acceptable was a full time job in itself.

As for the romance itself, it promised something never delivered. The most perilous bits came from the snippets of F.J. Sparrow's writing. The rest is a long diatribe if will she/won't she let him in the door. it had no emotional resonance. A pity since historical novels often have peril just by nature of the time they are set. In the 1850's London was an overcrowded city on the brink of epidemic disease and death. A woman alone had to be very clever just to survive.

Save yourself the aggravation of this current crop of historicals and go read some of the classic ones from a decade ago.

Two lonely people tread the streets in the blackest depths of the midnight hour...

One walks deliberately--to let free the demons of her imagination...

One walks determinedly--to banish the demons that torment his soul.

Neither realizes something evil may be lurking in the dark...

In her latest novel, THE SEDUCTION OF AN UNKNOWN LADY, Samantha James creates a mesmeric and thoroughly intriguing romantic tale that successfully captures the style, flavor and essence of the classic gothic romance. The author gives us a heart stirring narration of her heroine, Fionna Hawkes and hero, Aidan McBride's intensely passionate love story--set in the cold winter of 1852 London, during the Victorian Era.

This is kind of a "dark" story--with several extremely poignant and heartrending elements--but I never felt it was too dark. I felt Ms James completely gains the reader's attention with her clever--and knowledgeable--use of the shadowy, eerie gothic writing style to create a wonderfully dark, mystifying, and sometimes ominously sinister atmosphere in the story. I know I was totally captivated. And Ms. James deftly sets up many delightful--or perhaps, a better choice of words would be frightful, mysterious, and occasionally disturbing--twists and turns in her skillfully constructed and multi-layered storyline... all strategically designed to keep her readers a bit unsettled, continuously guessing, and anxiously turning the pages.

And I thought she did a really superb job with the story's mood and tone, effectively using setting and language that was frighteningly suggestive--of fear, terror, gloom, menace, danger, secrecy, and a hint of the supernatural/paranormal--to appeal to all our emotions and senses. This spooky visual imagery worked so well that there were definitely moments that I felt a little prickling, spine-tingling chill on the back of my neck, and had a disquieting sense of unease right along with Fionna. At times I was so deeply immersed in the story that had anyone tapped me on the shoulder, I would surely have jumped out of my chair.

Also, I absolutely appreciated Ms. James use of the "story within the story" literary technique... which included pieces of the fictional author F J Sparrow's scary tale, The Demon of Dartmore at the beginning of every chapter... and ran parallel to Fionna and Aidan's story. It was an ideal combination of titillating horror and romance that enhanced the main story, and set the mood of each chapter perfectly.

I really liked how Ms. James wrote both Fionna and Aidan; I thought they were interesting, genuinely likable, and very relatable, believable characters. Fionna's an unconventional heroine; a strong, intelligent and fiercely independent woman who wants to be in charge of her own destiny--and for a woman of her time she is, to a degree--but when Aidan enters the picture she becomes deeply conflicted by her need for independence and her desire for love. I thought Fionna was truly a character any woman could relate to... and I sooo wanted her to be happy! Aidan is a rather tragic war hero who carries some physical and mental scars from his time in India. He's a proud, honorable and caring man... he tries so hard to understand Fionna, to provide the emotional support he knows she needs and to protect her. Even though she rebuffs him, he remains steadfast. I just loved him! I was so caught up in watching how their passion and desire for each other grew, as the tensions between them--and in the story--escalated. And I loved how Aidan breaks down all of Fionna's defenses--W0W!!!--their love scenes were sizzling HOT and VERY sensual.

The Seduction of an Unknown Lady is a marvelous book that will appeal to historical romance readers who appreciate a well written love story with a potent combination of sensual seduction and fiery passion--intertwined--with a dark gothic styled drama, a stimulating touch of terror and a dash of romantic suspense.

It's the second book in the "McBride trilogy" and is the follow-up to the darkly emotional, The Secret Passion of Simon Blackwell--I highly recommend reading them both.

Bravo Ms. James... bring on book 3, Alec McBride's story!

I read "The Secret Passion of Simon Blackwell" and thought it was a great book. This book is no where compared to it. This is so hard for me writing this review because I absolutely love Samantha James. I have read numerous of her books and this is no where compared to what she has written before. I always see people write that characters have no chemistry and I say to myself "How is that possible?" Now I know how, Aiden and Fiona had no chemistry. The best part of the book was when they made love, just because of the way Aiden took care of her. It made it seem so real. Other than that the book was just ok. You can read it but it doesn't make you anticipate what is coming next. It doesn't make you want to stay up and read what is coming next. I think the problem with this book is that you didn't feel anything for the characters more so Fiona than Aiden. I felt more for Aiden than I did for Fiona. In my opinion Fiona got lost in the book. I didn't like the pairing at all. Samantha James didn't portray the characters in a way to make the reader like them or feel their chemistry. The only thing I can do it hope Alec's story is much better.

But Samantha James is a very good Author. Try the Sterling Family series. Try any of her other books except for this. Trust me!!

I read a lot of romance novels, and I generally love them. I keep buying Samantha James's novels thinking I will like them (reading the cover and being interested) and then being completely disappointed by the book. Normally, I am engrossed in a romance novel and devour it in a few hours - reading straight through till I'm finished. I easily put this novel aside for days, and it certainly didn't keep me up at night dying to know the ending.

First, I never really cared one way or the other about the main characters. While they are both good characters in theory, they never came alive for me. None of the drama made my heart race, nothing brought tears to my eyes.

Second, the book was too predictable, the villian obvious from the first time he is introduced (very near the beginning), and the author doesn't ever really make you believe that there is any substantial problem standing in the way of the romance between the two main characters.

I'm sure the book will do well, but I don't recommend this as a fantastic example of the genre.

Whacking good bodice ripper!

She writes risque gothic novels while supporting a mother she's afraid is gone mad. She's also afraid she's being stalked. He came home to England from military service in the Punjab wounded at heart. He's instantly attracted when they meet, and the more he learns of her, the more he knows she's the one for him. So he sets out on campaign to claim her heart while trying to quell her unspoken fears.

Lots of passion and lots of love.

This is the second in the McBride series, following the story of Aidan McBride & his heroine Fionna Hawkes set in Victorian England. They both have secret lives: she is a best-selling novelist & has a mother in the madhouse, he's just left India & his military career for unknown reasons. Fionna has her own bookshop & is managing it well, needing the money for her mother's care. She expected that her life would be solitary until Aidan walks into her life & refuses to leave. Of course, she can't tell him her secrets, but is forced to when a secret admirer proves to have more than a little interest in her.

What James has done is set the novel with a gothic background, but fortunately did not let it override the plot. It wasn't dark at all though the reader & characters know someone is watching Fionna, aside from Aidan himself. Both characters grow with each other in realistic ways, letting their secrets be known & as their love grows, they are able to confront what could possibly separate them.

Overall, an excellent romance where James definitely put in her best effort to build the plot & put in plenty of mystery & twists to have the reader enthralled. Plus, both Fionna & Aidan are likeable & believable characters. Fionna is a strong character, but not bossy or bitchy, & Aidan is more gentlemanly than your average rake, if indeed he should merit that label.

The cover of this book has a comment from author Lisa Kleypas, "A remarkable writer". This book was a pleasant enough read but hardly remarkable - in fact it seemed to bear a lot of similarities in plot and character to many other books in this genre. However, as a light read for those who like historical romance, it's a reasonable enough attempt.

Fionna Hawkes is living a quiet life as the owner of a bookstore in London. She has two secrets, one about the source of her money and the other that her mother is mad. When Fionna is noticed by Lord Aidan McBride who begins to try to woo her she knows nothing can come of it - how can a duke's brother get involved with a woman who has madness in her family. Aidan isn't so easily turned away from his attempts to get close to Fionna, however, as he has his own demons to confront and he finds Fionna is a woman unlike any other. But as they become better acquainted they discover that someone seems to be stalking Fionna and that someone may well be dangerous.

The bulk of this story consists of the interactions between Aidan and Fionna, Fionna trying to resist him and Aidan trying to get her to trust him. Fionna vacillates between encouraging him and trying to get him to leave her alone and this takes up a large portion of the book. The threat of the stalker is really a very minor part of this story, dealt with rather quickly, and the couple of twists in the plot were all predictable quite a long way in advance. However it's reasonably written and, despite a few historical glitches, feels comfortable in the world of foggy London of the 1850s.

Originally published for Curled Up With A Good Book © Helen Hancox 2008

The story was just okay...I liked the hero, but I don't believe the author endeared us to the characters enough. There were times in which I felt I was rereading the same scenes with just minor variations, and I could have really liked the heroine, but as others said, she just frustrated me. Her fears could have endeared us to her with a little more polish, but I got irritated with her instead. Got better as story progressed, an average read.