Customer Reviews

Tempting Fortune

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Enter the world of the gambler - where stakes are high and all could be lost or gained at the turn of a card. Portia St. Claire's brother, Oliver is an addicted gambler who loses their estate. In order to try to pay off the debt, Portia and her brother travel to London to ask for help from a family friend.
Bryght Malloren, 2nd in line to the Malloren Fortune is on family business to attempt to retrieve a damning letter in the home of the Earl of Walgrove. He finds instead the short, fiery Portia St. Claire instead who holds a pistol on him and demands he leaves. Sparks fly immediately between these two.

This good is interesting on several levels. First it very accurately portrays the addiction to gambling, the inability to control it, and the dangers of bidding beyond your means. Secondly, and completely unassociated the characters and secondary characters each hold their own weight, are interestingly created and weaved into the story. Unlike the 1st Malloren book (MY LADY NOTORIOUS), Rothgar, the head of the family does not overshadow Bryght who in his own right is sensual, intelligent and handsome. Portia, though not a traditionally beautiful woman has such a fiery nature, though perhaps a bit prudish and still, is a nontraditional heroine.

Though Portia is actually auctioned in a Brothel at one point, for her virginal qualities this book is much lighter on explicit sex then it's predecessor and indeed the story seems much richer. However, perhaps it is that you truly began to care about this family. And this being book 2, you get to know and like them a lot more!

Portia St. Claire has come to London with her brother to beg for assistance from a family friend. Her brother lost the family estate in a card game and they are desperately trying to get a loan from the Marquess of Walgrave to cover the debt. Unfortunately, the earl is not in town after all, and Portia must deal with her bored half-brother's determination to resolve the situation by gambling away their remaining funds. It doesn't take long for him to get in over his head with some unsavory characters, who threaten him physically unless he agrees to pay the debt by allowing them to take Portia to a brothel to be auctioned off to the highest bidder.

Fortunately, Bryght Malloren, who has been intrigued by the spirited Portia ever since she threatened to shoot him when he broke into their lodgings to retrieve a letter, finds a way to rescue Portia from her plight. Resigned to his fate, he sets about trying to help resolve her problems and persuade her to marry him.

Portia, however attracted physically to Bryght, cannot imagine anything worse than being married to a gamester, and nothing Bryght says or does can convince her that he is not addicted to gambling, especially after she discovers that the man who won their estate is one of his best friends.

Tempting Fate is a worthy successor to My Lady Notorious, the first in the five-book (so far!) series about the Malloren family. If you like books with determined, marriage-minded heroes and strong-willed heroines that are not too easily won, you will LOVE this book.

I read this book several months ago - and relly was quite confused - recently I read My Lady Notorious and realized why - these books need to be read in order. Why authors do not make this more clear is beyond me - one would think they would want us to enjoy them to the fullest. So much of what happens in Tempting Fortune is based on the relationships of the first book. Tempting is a good book - I loved Bright Malloren a lot as the male rouge hero - he had for me great appeal. There were many times though that I found Portia a little hard to take - she seemed attracted but so difficult. If I were Bright by the end of the book I would have told her to perhaps hit the road. I thoroughly do enjoy this series of Beverley books and I did the series of the Rouges. Jo Beverley is one of the best!

I have to admit I read this book mainly because of Bright (Lord Arcenbryght Malloren). If you don't know anything about these names, that is fine. Until I started collecting and reading the Malloren series, I didn't know much either.

TEMPTING FORTUNE is the second book in the Malloren saga, which appears to have ended in DEVILISH (Rothgar's story). The Mallorens are the children of the late Marquess of Rothgar by his two wives; Rothgar, the present Marquess (Bey to his family and friends), is the surviving child of the first marriage; the others are his half-brothers and half-sisters.

Fortunately for me, MY LADY NOTORIOUS (the first book in the series, and the most expensive) is being re-printed after many many years. [Did you know that romances were collectible? I didn't, until I started to try and get backlists].

Down to the basics. Barbiesa has provided a excellent synopsis of the story. I will confine my remarks to the wonderful title (one of her best) and to my impressions of the book. This is a story about gaming (gambling) and risky investments/ speculation (another type of gambling more familiar to us today). TEMPTING FORTUNE is thus a wonderful send-up of the fears and motivations that drive the hero and heroine, and several of the minor characters. [The author explains all this very well in her long afterword].

Historical context - This story is set relatively early in the reign of George III and his new queen, Charlotte. At this time, gambling is rife in society, and fortunes (and estates) change hands easily. Of course, all gambling is done by men; women do not control money or estates, especially if they are married. Among the more interesting developments taking place in the background, we hear murmurs of what will become the Industrial Revolution, driven by coal and new ways of transporting goods. The Duke of Bridgewater is trying to build his famous canals, and Lord Arcenbryght (Bright) has invested virtually everything in it - and become a stakeholder. If Bridgewater cannot get his canal bills through Parliament, or if his canals are technologically unsound, Bright loses everything. This is the fascinating background to a remarkable story. I have to admit I read the story more to read about all of this, and also to get Bright's point of view.

The story itself - Portia St Claire is the daughter of a man who ruined himself by bad and risky investments. Her mother and stepfather crave only stability, so much so that the mother will not let her only son go off to battle. When the son (by the second marriage) inherits the estate, he goes to London - where he gambles away a fortune - and the family estate. Yikes.

Portia takes matters calmly, considering all of this. She does have options - for one, she can get a loan from the Ware family (the earl of Walgrave being her half-brother's godfather); for another, the family can always seek refuge with her maternal uncle, a manufacturer. However, her options become sharply limited by the death of the old earl (see MY LADY NOTORIOUS to see what happens), when the new earl stays in the country. There is no way to raise a loan in London.

And to make matters worse, Oliver goes and plays again - when he has no money. This part of the book is so well-done. Oliver would have learned his lesson, but he is seduced back into gaming through Lord Bright's well-intentioned actions. We see Portia hiding coins here and there, paying the rent weeks in advance, and trying desperately to preserve what little cash they have against her brother's rush to the gaming tables again and again. Portia now has a grudge against Bright, not just because he appears to be a gamester, but because he has inadvertently persuaded Oliver back into gaming.

And then disaster strikes. I will let that be a surprise for the new reader, but all ends with Portia forced to marry Bright, the man whom she desires but whom she distrusts [Bright even promises never to game again, knowing well that his gaming, as witnessed by Portia, was for a reason].

So far, so good. We see Fort, the arch-enemy of the Mallorens, interacting with his childhood friend. Could Fort have saved Portia as Bright did? Perhaps not. Would Fort have married Portia in the face of a major scandal? He says not. And this is the man to whom Portia flees - on her wedding night. She does so for a reason, but considering the enmity between the Wares and the Mallorens, this is not a good move. At that point, I nearly gave up on Portia.

The book ends happily of course, but I wonder how long it will take for Portia to learn to trust Bright. I also noted that Portia seemed to trust her half-brother's word more (despite some lapses), although she perhaps had no choice. I was also puzzled by a little subplot involving a society lady, and the reasons why Bright would want her under his thumb. Those were the reasons this book gets four stars, and not five.

This is the 2nd book in JB's 'Malloren Series'; its my 3rd since I've read them out of order. It would really be best to read 'My Lady Notorious' first due to a lot of references in this book to things that happened in the first one. Now, all of that being said, I was really disappointed in this book. I just loved 'My Lady Notorious' & 'Secrets of the Night'.... they had both heros & heroines that I could really enjoy. Even though I didn't start out liking Chasity Ware from the first one, her personality was totally explained, understandable, & made me come to really respect her. Not so with Portia in this book.
I can't, for the life of me, figure out why Bryght fell in love with her. She was rude, unappreciative & very insulting through the entire book - right down to the page when she admitted she loved him & couldn't live without him (at the very end).
Although it was attempted to explain why she acted like she did, I didn't go for it. Without telling the story, she made sacrifices for a brother that was worthless & blamed Bryght - however, it was only thru his actions that her life wasn't REALLY horrible!
I like a book that at least has some affection and/or fun between the hero & heroine - that at least have a reason for falling in love. Although Bryght was an excellent hero, Portia ruined this one for me. Bryght's the reason this one got the 3rd star! lol

Bryght has as much depth as a puddle, everyone hates the Mallorens so much there are enemies popping out all over the place, the fascinating Rothgar we first met in My Lady Notorious is about as excting as a wooden Indian, and theere is no sensuality in this book.

All Portia does is whine, complain, mistrust Bryght, and God only knows why he puts up with her. The part in the brothel is totally gratuitous and there is nothing romantic about this book because they never realy fall in love.

Bryght himself tells her several hundred pages into the book that they never talk. How true-they are hardly ever in the same room together, both tearing off in different directions, him trying to save her and her getting involved in worse and worse disasters.

Trying to seduce his enemy and her old childhood friend are among the dumbest and most offensive things she does even after he has told her he loves her and that she should try to trust him. All the people who hate him and her are the ones she does trust.

She is supposed to be named after the woman in Merchant of Venice who is able to discern truth from lies, and dispense justice. She is totally feeble at both, and as blind as a bat to herself and others. A frantic book with little humor and even less love. I will take Bryght any day, but he deserves a lot better than Portia. No one would ever want to identify with such a priggish fool.

The endless warnings against gambling and descriptions of the games of chance and canals, and her afterword, show that the author really let her research show for all to see, and got way to carried away in her message to make us care about any of the characters. A feeble volume in this increasingly lacklustre series. Where is the sizzle?

January 2010:

I recently completed the first 4 in the Malloren series - all are good/great except this one. I've read the reviews of this story by others, but I don't think they capture the real problem. Yes - the story is fairly preposterous, but so many of these types of stories are - and the Malloren series has its share of ridiculous plots. Yes - Portia is an annoying heroine, but I have read plenty of great stories where the heroine is not likeable (though I do agree with the reviewer who said she was about the worst one ever.)

Yes - Bryght is underdeveloped as a character -- which I found really annoying because he has such sexy potential -- and we learn at least as much about different facets of his personality & what makes him tick in "Lady Notorious" and "Secrets of the Night" as we do in this story. He's supposed to have a certain darkness about him yet he comes across in this story mainly as a flake and rascal, not taking life too seriously and falling in love with one woman after another. I desperately wanted to know more about him and kept waiting for everything to click into place, but it never did.

Which is why the story fails --nothing ever does really "click" into place. There is NO romance! We never come to understand either main character fully: she seems to be a shrew who obsesses about gaming and has absolutely nothing pleasant to say to anyone; he seems shallow and superficial. What draws these two souls together? What makes Bryght pursue her relentlessly?? Why does he fall passionately in love with her??? And why, when she seems so repulsed by him all the time does she suddenly decide she loves him? They've barely spoken to one another and she is fairly nasty and insulting to him one moment, then announces she loves him the next! How did this happen --- I wish the storyteller could have provided some clues!

The problems with this book become even more apparent after reading the other Malloren stories, and in particular Brand's story (Secrets of the Night) -- because in that one, I truly could imagine the two protagonists falling in love with each other in short order. By the end of this story, it seemed pretty amazing that Portia and Bryght were even on speaking terms.

The main reason the story earns any stars at all is because the secondary characters continue to grow more interesting - especially Rothgar and Fort.

P.S. Feb. 15, 2010: Just completed Devilish (Rothgar's story - 4 stars seems about right), and now I have an even better understanding of Bryght, including why he acts somewhat carefree at times. By the end of Devilish, I realized what a complex man he was - the most complex and conflicted of the siblings with the exception of Rothgar (maybe even a tie). I think that of all the Mallorens, Bryght is the character who is most fully revealed over the course of the 5 books - which is why it is hard to fully understand/appreciate him in this one, book 2 of a 5 book series. In fact, the reader is still learning important things about Bryght towards the very end of Devilish. An unfortunate decision on the part of the author, since each story in the series should be able to stand on its own. However, its a reason to read them all, and definitely in order. Don't give up the series because of this one.

I couldn't stand Portia. I liked her at first and assumed she would lighten up on Bryght after a while but she never did. In the end when she tried to shoot him (again!) I thought he should have chucked her out the window. One of my favorite parts was when he told her she could leave with her brother. I wish he'd done that sooner and given her something to think about.

Oddly enough, Portia is just as infuriating as Fort but I gave Something Wicked four stars. I think it's because Portia never really has to reveal a single thing about how she feels and Bryght truly does go all out to help her through some very harrowing times without actually deceaving her in any way (as Elf did with Fort).

I didn't understand why he was in love with her. Jo Beverley likes to give herself challenges it seems, with heroines who are less than gorgeous, but she also tends to make those complex ladies shrewish ('An Unwilling Bride' comes to mind). That is to the detriment of the entire story. There has to be something more than just 'courage' or 'independence' that attracts a beautiful, honorable man like Bryght.

Still, I give it three stars because I just love the way Jo Bev writes and I adore Bryght (as well as all the Mallorens). If there were ever a rewrite of this book, I would suggest a softening of Portia so we can see what the hero is so attracted to.

This is the second in the Malloren series and while not nearly as good as the first book, My Lady Notorious, still quite entertaining.

Anyone who read the first book will recall Bryght was selected to fetch a letter that implicated his first love, Nerissa in a scandalous affair and the family has kept the letter since that time. When Bryght went to the house where the letter was hidden he was almost shot by Portia St. Claire who mistakenly though he was a thief. Bryght was attracted to Portia then but then runs across her in London and learns her brother's gambling has left them in dire straights. When loan sharks demand Portia sell her virginity in a brothel to pay her brother's debts, Bryght outbids everyone to rescue the disguised Portia so that her virtue and identity will remain safe.

This was a sensual interesting book and Bryght a wonderful hero. However, Portia got on my nerves a bit. Although, I can understand a little reluctance on her part, her coldness to Bryght even after all his sacrifices left this reader cold.

I apologize that this review is brief and so negative, however...
Portia St. Claire is THE most idiotic, one dimensional and STUPID heroine that I have ever encountered in a romance.Ever. I guess I should thank Jo Beverley for providing the benchmark for what I now consider to the brainless and boring heroine.
PLEASE do not waste money buying this book. Borrow it from the local library if you must.