Customer Reviews

Strictly Seduction

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

 

 

I must admit I do not feel much for Brock Taylor in the story. He feels inferior beacuse of his Whitechapel pedigree and decides to abandon his enamoured Maddie to seek out a fortune before coming back to claim her as his wife. Little did he expect that Maddie marries the profligate Lord Sedgewick. He feels betrayed and vengeful. So much so that he pays the debt that beleagured Maddie and demands repayment in the form of marriage. His ulterior motive is to secure the land that is bequeathed to Maddie. Yet when Maddie rejects his proposal, she gives in to the seduction trysts that ensues between then while hiding a deep secret that will change their relationship....

Without giving away the plot, let's just contend with the fact that Brock has caused a lot of hurt to Maddie with his pride and lack of insight. Yet love makes fool of all of us - and Brock and Maddie matures towards the epilogue to clear away their misunderstandings. Their love is riddled with thorns of insecurity and seated vengeance - and readers will no doubt seep into this melodrama inexorably. It is fortunate that Shelley Bradley has fluidly narrated their overwrought love story and gloss it with sensuality. The love scenes sizzle and crackle. Though to some cynics it may not convince them to endear themselves to the thick-skulled Brock, yet STRICTLY SEDUCTION comes alive with Bradley's impassioned writing. It renders it a strictly love-or-hate affair.

Well, I really didn't think that Shelley Bradley could write a worse book than "Christmas Promise". I was wrong.

Somewhat typical plot. "Tortured" (read: abusive) hero and "Misunderstood" (read: doormat) heroine. Hero hates, hates, hates Heroine who betrayed him. So of course, it makes perfect sense that he wants to marry her so he can spend the REST OF HIS LIFE making her miserable! Hasn't he ever heard the saying, "Living well is the best revenge"?

And since he has been treated SO badly, he is perfectly justified in using the threat of bodily harm to force the heroine to sleep with him.

But he's entitled. After all, she married another man only a few weeks after he: had sex with her, took a huge chunk of cash from her father and left town WITHOUT TELLING HER WHERE HE WAS GOING!

It never occurs to him that -
A: taking money from the father of a girl you have just seduced and leaving town without leaving a forwarding address could be miscontrued as a payoff,
B: sex sometimes makes babies, and
C: babies without a father in 1830's England don't have much of a future.

Ms Bradley has a talent for writing self-centered, egotistical "heroes". Brock is the biggest whiner I have ever seen on the printed page. "Oh, how I have suffered! Feel sorry for me, everyone!"

Not to mention paranoid. The entire world is plotting against him, you know. Brock actually thinks that EVERYONE in the world wakes up thinking, "Well, what can we do to screw up Brock's life today?" Of course, HE is an injured saint. Poor, poor Brock. None of it is ever his fault.

Until Ms. Bradley learns to write a hero that we can actually care about, I'd advise everyone to pick up a Judith Ivory or Mary Jo Putney instead.

This book captured me on page one and I read it in one sitting. Brock and Maddie intriqued me as very distinct, real characters and Ms. Bradley did a wonderful job of showing how both needed to grow and change.

This plot was not your 'average' plot. The hero, a stable boy at her father's house, fell in love with and abandoned a very young Maddie, who unbeknownst to him was pregnant. He leaves to become a man worthy of her and that's just what he does, thinking that she's betrayed him by marrying someone else. So when her very indebted husband dies, he sees his chance to get her back and also to get her land that he needs.

Ms. Bradley very craftily creates a hero with a past that has overcome his stable boy beginnings, but lacks the one person to complete his life, Maddie. So he goes after what he wants most in life and he gets her. But in the process of learning his life lessons, Maddie teaches him a thing or two about love and seduction. This tale is a very powerful, gripping love story that leaves you feeling satisfied at the end. You know that the characters have felt real emotions and have changed and grown into people that deserve each other.

If you enjoy stories that show powerful women overcoming huge obstacles to find love, then this story is for you. But beware, Ms. Bradley has some love scenes that leave the pages smoking with sensuality. This book is not for the timid reader who doesn't enjoy experiencing all that life has to offer.

I can't wait for Ms. Bradley's next book and look for her soon to be on the best sellers list. Move over Mary Jo Putney and Judith Ivory, a new talent has emerged. Enjoy!

Despite reviews by some people who don't seem to know a good book when it hits them upside the head, this is a great read. Full of tension and deep relationship.

Brock Taylor was impoverished as a boy and wants more than anything to be successful. When he falls in love with Maddie as a youth, she is above him. He wants to keep her well be worthy of her and goes away to make those things happen. He is crushed when Maddie marries someone else instead.

Maddie married another man because she had few choices. Providing a name for her baby was most important. She's moved heaven and earth to give her daughter a good home. Her aunt and the woman's companion live there too. Money is very tight. Enter the now wealthy Brock and the fireworks erupt!

I liked both of these characters. They each had struggles I understood and felt deeply. Without giving too much away, Brock and Maddie come together again in the context of business. They make a seduction wager to settle their differences. The seduction is soon very personal. This read is full of sizzle and emotion. I loved it and am recommending it to all my friends!

Don't miss this compelling story with memorable scenes that were emotionally
awe inspiring. And the passion intense with sex scenes that span pages of
incredible physical pleasure that hits the spot. Strictly Seduction is
Shelley Bradley's most passionate story to date!!

but the book itself kept getting in the way. The plot did recover the same ground over and over, and both the hero and the heroine were not particularly sympathetic. Both were stubborn in the most stupid ways, but Madeline is slightly more sympathetic, but she is also almost unbelieveably gullible regarding her first husband.

Yes, the love scenes "sizzle," but too often they seem to be stuck into the book either for their own sake (rather than for any dramatic development) or to pad the word count. In addition, they often seemed somewhat sordid, with Maddie's "mistress" wager & marital fears a flimsy excuse for her behavior.

Perhaps it's nitpicky, but it annoyed me to no end: Ms. Bradley cannot seem to master correct pronoun usage. It would not have been so bad if she hadn't done it so often, in such a short span of pages. Hint for Ms. Bradely (and anyone else who needs it): if you're not sure whether to use "he" or "him" (for example) as in "The man offered Jane and him some advice," leave out the other person and use only the pronoun in question (Would you really say, "The man offered he some advice"?). A small matter, but it ripped me out of the story every time.

Sigh. What to rate this book? It had its good points, though I'm having trouble remembering them at the moment.....I suppose 2 & 1/2 stars, though I'm not prepared to go up to 3.

I sometime wish there were fewer books written along this line. The Brock and Maddie are constantly at odds. Both distrust the other and will not tell the other why. The misunderstanding between the two goes through the entire book. Don't misunderstand the book is well written and the insecurities are believable for the time period. I do wish something had been said about Lady Dudley getting what so richly deserved. I will read other books by this author.

What a stupid book! I could not help using childish terms to describe this book. The whole jist of the book is to flip back and forth between the hero, then the heroine, in feeling sorry for himself/herself in order to squeeze sympathy from its readers. The first one or two times it may have worked, but after the 20th and 30th repetition of how the hero feels inferior, or the heroine felt abandoned etc...I couldn't care less about either one of them. The book read as if the author wrote one passage, forgot she already wrote about that thought and then repeated the whole scenario in a different setting again and again in its subsequent chapters. The book felt like a circular voltex. There was no angst to sustain the book past the first 3 chapters. Don't read this book if you don't feel like wallowing in self pity.

This book captured me on page one and I read it in one sitting. Brock and Maddie intriqued me as very distinct, real characters and Ms. Bradley did a wonderful job of showing how both needed to grow and change.

This plot was not your 'average' plot. The hero, a stable boy at her father's house, fell in love with and abandoned a very young Maddie, who unbeknownst to him was pregnant. He leaves to become a man worthy of her and that's just what he does, thinking that she's betrayed him by marrying someone else. So when her very indebted husband dies, he sees his chance to get her back and also to get her land that he needs.

Ms. Bradley very craftily creates a hero with a past that has overcome his stable boy beginnings, but lacks the one person to complete his life, Maddie. So he goes after what he wants most in life and he gets her. But in the process of learning his life lessons, Maddie teaches him a thing or two about love and seduction. This tale is a very powerful, gripping love story that leaves you feeling satisfied at the end. You know that the characters have felt real emotions and have changed and grown into people that deserve each other.

If you enjoy stories that show powerful women overcoming huge obstacles to find love, then this story is for you. But beware, Ms. Bradley has some love scenes that leave the pages smoking with sensuality. This book is not for the timid reader who doesn't enjoy experiencing all that life has to offer.

I can't wait for Ms. Bradley's next book and look for her soon to be on the best sellers list. Move over Mary Jo Putney and Judith Ivory, a new talent has emerged. Enjoy!

Maddie Sedgewick knows exactly what marriage means--loss of control, loss of respect, and being blamed when her husband beats her. When her first husband died, she felt relieved despite the huge debt he left behind. Now, however, a man from her past has bought the debt and is pressuring her to marry him. In 1834 in England, debters prison is still a real danger. Unfortunately, Maddie knows Brock Taylor knows no scruples--he'll do whatever it takes to win his goals. Brock needs Maddie's land to build the railroad that will enrich him and England, he needs her to gain entre to the world of the rich and noble, but most of all, he needs her to feel whole. What he can't do is trust her. Five years before, he'd left to seek his fortune and she'd lost no time marrying the first nobleman to come along. Dare he trust his heart to her now? Seduction and exploring of the physical attraction is safer for both than admitting to real love.

Author Shelley Bradley delivers a steamily sensual novel. As Brock and Maddie maneuver for advantage, they find it almost impossible to resist the sexual pull that compells them with real force. Both, in turn, try to use physical attraction to their own advantage, and both find that that weapon cuts both ways. Yet beneath the physical attraction, each hides deep secrets--secrets that could either destroy them or set them free. Until each learns to trust the other with more than their bodies, until what is STRICTLY SEDUCTION turns into real love, their relationship can only lead to pain.