Sinful [Mass Market Paperback]

Susan Johnson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1993

In need of a rake to save her from an unwanted marriage to a man she does not love, Chelsea Fergusson begs the notorious Sinjin St. John to help her. Reprint.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Chelsea Fergusson, daughter of the impoverished Earl of Dumfries in this 18th-century romance, foils an unwanted marriage to the wealthy but loathsome Bishop Hatfield in an unlikely manner: she makes herself unacceptable by losing her virginity to London's leading rake, Sinjin St. John, Duke of Seth. When Chelsea becomes pregnant, her indignant father and brothers abduct Sinjin and forcibly wed the two, then separate them and imprison him. This sets off a series of escapades that climax in Sinjin's rescue by a band of desert bedouins led by an American Indian. Can the new duke and duchess now find bliss in licentious London? It hardly matters. Sinjin leaves to buy Arabian horses in Tunis, where he is captured by an evil Bey. Chelsea determines to storm the Barbary coast and ransom him. . . . but all ends well in this rollicking tale, which proves to be as robust, sensual and adventurous as its protagonists. Johnson ( Forbidden ) uses her fertile imagination to blend a strong heroine, unbridled sex, and a modicum of history into unadulterated fun.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 432 pages
• Publisher: Fanfare (January 1, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553293125
• ISBN-13: 978-0553293128
• Product Dimensions: 4.2 x 1.2 x 6.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (36 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #639,817 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #99 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Romance > Authors, A-Z > ( J )

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Sinfully Romantic, February 24, 2001

By 

Abbys (Moreno Valley, CA United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Sinful (Mass Market Paperback)

This is the 1st book of St. John Series. Read Wicked (story of Beau, Sinjin's son), the second book of the series.

After reading this book, I didn't write a review for it right away as I normally would have. I always write a book review ( esp. when I am taken by the story) as soon as I finished the book, that way the story is still fresh in my mind. However, this book seems to have puzzled me. I like the plot, the hero & the heroine. I enjoyed the book immensely, no doubt about it but there was something either wrong or missing to it. I didn't know what it was until I read it the second time.

Sinjin St. John, Duke of Seth is like most hero in every historical romance novel. He is handsome, rich, a rake & England's most eligible bachelor. However, he has a dark past which made him vow never to marry or fall in love again. Sinjin's life seemed prefectly content until Chelsea Fergusson appeared in his carriage with scandalous yet tempting request. She begs Sinjin to take her virginity, to save her from unwanted marriage. This is one of my favorite scenes - Her naive comments, suggestions & statements on how to go about this request & Sinjin's reaction to it is simply amusing. Sinjin noted that Chelsea is clearly a high breed lady ( despite her scandalous request ) and among other things, sister of his friend, Duncan... so naturally, he painfully refused the request & took her home. But the head strong & determined Chelsea will not be deterred....

The immediate story line of this book is pretty much causal - rich, handsome, eligible rake hero and a head strong, intelligent & beautiful heroine who is arranged to an unwanted marriage by family to improved financial status or to pay off gambling debts. However, what made their story much more appealing though is the way they both intensely react to each other. Sinjin & Chelsea didn't follow propriety or rules of the society. They were sorta a rebel. Yes, they try to be discreet but passion & the strong attraction interfered with common sense. I highly enjoyed Chelsea's character. She is innocent yet seductively naughty & straight forward. She wasn't afraid to feel & react to their passion, which are all new to her. As for Sinjin, sex was definitely not new to him but there's an unexplainable urge of desire only Chelsea can satisfy (temporarily). He was always careful and have never caroused beyond brothels or married woman. Chelsea however, he sought after... She was a risk he was pleasantly willing to take. They both least thought nor expected LOVE.

The only thing that bothered me about this book is Sinjin's abrupt change of character towards the end. You'll have to read the book to know what I mean. Given the circumstances, I could understand his bitterness... but his cold & rude treatment towards Chealse was simply uncalled for, (given the circumstances that she wasn't entirely at fault) & it dragged on for quite a long time too. I was disappointed because Sinjin was such a gentleman to Chelsea in the beginning of the book. He was sooo smooth and controlled. He was kind, thoughtful, playful & gentle to her. Almost as if you can see that he truly cares for her. His intense attraction towards her in the beginning was too much to abruptly just turn around like that. He became very insulting, degrading Chelsea & very hurtful. To the extreme! This really irritated me, perhaps I just feel so sorry for Chelsea that i am not reading through reasons. Chelsea's character also changed towards the end, she was too understanding, too accepting & too forgiving... She was reaching out to him with all her heart, waiting... waiting... waiting for Sinjin to come around, which is kindda devastating. She blamed herself more even if they were both force into that situation together. After what she's been through (esp. that awful stormy night), I rather think that Sinjin should be the one to do the reaching out most.

Well, despite that small troubled comment above, the whole story/book in general is entertainingly romantic & heart quenching. I surely recommend it! Despite the ordinary immediate plot, the steamy love scenes & twists somehow contributed in making this book unconventionally different from the usual historical romances novels that I have read by far.

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars If you like erotica instead of romance this book is for you!, November 15, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Sinful (Mass Market Paperback)

If you like crass, this book is for you too! The heroine turned me off with her first sentence in the whole book (you can take a peek with Amazon's handy sneek peeks that lets you view the first few chapters - it's right there in the beginning of chapter 3). The only reason I kept reading was because this book was recommended to me and I kept wanting it to get better. My son's name is Sinjun (I got that name from an Olympic volleyball player from back in the 80's) and even I knew that it was the way the french pronounce St. John (think "Sen ZHAWN") - making his name rather redundant. Aside from that, I felt the characters lacked depth and the only thing that held them together was sex. I learned more about what Sinjin looked like on the outside (what he wore, how well he wore it, etc...) without hardly getting a peek inside the man as a feeling, thinking being - beyond his thoughts about Chelsea - "I want her but I don't know why." I personally can't understand how other reviewers were "captivated" by this book. I can read a good book in a matter of hours but I had to "swallow" this one down like medicine. Maybe it's because I started out reading romances like A Knight in Shining Armour by Jude Deveraux or maybe I'm just picky about what I read - I enjoy books that are hard to put down and pull you inside the story. This book just made me feel like I was pulled into their bedroom to watch!

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars 5 stars for the beginning, 1 star for the middle and end, November 2, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Sinful (Mass Market Paperback)

The beginning starts off soooooo well. It's so naughty and nice, you know you like 'em that way. Sinjin is a wonderful bad boy in style. He's rich, so debonair, and has a good balance of wham-bamming and gentle caresses. Ahh. so very sinfully rich The girl Chelsea, I must say, is a truly wonderful character who isn't the usual prude. I got to give her extra points for being curiously intelligent type instead of the pompous academic *****. and she's also sexually curious, but not to the point of well..dirtiness.

All goes lovely in the book UNTIL Sinjin departs from his lady love, after all, he's a bad boy and has many duties to fulfill. Then the plot AND characterization falls apart. I see evidences of rush, procrastination, and this books surely wouldn't hurt to get another revision to get the narrative smoother.

This is not your feel-good book. Some of the scenes rather hurt emotionally. The conflicts are rather extreme. Sinjin's character totally changes to weirdness. He turns into what you might call- a sensitive guy (Yucko).

Things don't go as well for Chelsea. She goes through some hell, making you just want to cry with her.

The other flaw of this book is the theme of the arranged marriage. I am sick of people getting forced to get married by officious relatives. The quarkiest part of this theme is that the love comes AFTER the marriage.

I absolutely did not appreciate the toning down of the characters in Sinful. I wish they were allowed to be more consistent. Such great potential for this book gone wasted. *Sigh*