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31 of 31 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Waited for it and hated it, April 9, 2004
i have just read Your wicked ways by Eloisa James. I have to say i am very disappointed in this book. Actually it is one of the worst books i have read. The main character in the book has been estranged from her husband of 10 years. During that time she has been celibate while he has had an mistress and let the mistress sleep in their house in the heroine's chamber. (That alone is awful but it gets worse.) The heroine decides she wants a child, so she tries and find a stud. I have to say that she did find one, (one i actually liked). It seemed that he really cared for her maybe even loved her. But she decided to go and live with her husband again. The kicker is that she would live in the same house with him and the mistress and sleep in the nursery. WTH!!!!!!! The heroine actually went for that. I was like this woman has no self respect. Every character in this book thought she was crazy. And the husband had the gall to think this was all okay. Well the stud really liked her and was going to call her husband out for this. He said that no man should treat his wife like that. Do you know that the heroine at this point started to not like the stud because of this.!!!!!!! This book was pointless Now for one of the worst turns in the book. The author tried to make the stud into a bad guy. He had done something to disaparge the heroine's reputation. He was supposed to be a cad for this. Who cares if the husband had the mistress in the house and the wife in the nursery. WTH This was awful. The heroine was disgrace. The hero was a piece of trash. Are we suppose to like him? And he still did not atone for having the mistress in the house in their bed. If anyone else has read this book let me know. This has to be the worst of the year
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28 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
starts off well, but then..., April 10, 2004
In a rather strange way, "Your Wicked Ways" made for some rather compelling reading because of the enormous sympathy I had for the heroine, Helene, and because of the minor romance subplot involving the 'hero's' brother and his sometime mistress. However, a small word of warning: if you think that this is going to be the kind of romance novel where the heroine teaches her errant husband a much deserved lesson -- think again. Much as I found myself unable to put this novel down, I was really chagrined that far from making Rees pay for his past callousness, Helene actually apologizes quite a few times for being a quick tempered wife! Helene was barely seventeen when she met and fell in love with Rees, the Earl of Godwin. They eloped. But their marriage turned out to be a disaster mainly because Rees turned out to be an insensitive brute both in and out of the bedroom. Unable to cope with Helene's anger and disappointment, Rees threw her out; and husband and wife have been living apart for the past ten years -- him a life of dissolute debauchery, and she a life of chaste good behaviour. Now, however, things have become desperate for Helene. She wants to have a child, but Rees won't give he a divorce. And so with her friend's, Esme, encouragement and support, Helene decides to shed her nun-like ways in order to snare herself a lover. But when Rees learns of what she's up to, he makes (or threatens rather) an unexpected offer: he will father the child she so desperately wants if she will come back home. After a decade to bitter humiliation at her husband's hands, can Helene trust the man to keep his word? While many readers may find "His Wicked Ways" disappointing, I did think that Eloisa James was successful in accomplishing what she set out to do (I think). I believe that the authour wanted to show how a heroine could still be attracted to and care for the hero, even if he is an insensitive boor. It was apparent that Helene still had feelings for Rees, feelings that readily came to the fore once they were living together again and working on his opera. And I think that the authour also wanted to do something slightly different be showing us that not all romance heroes are masters of lovemaking, and I did think that it was nice to see that this second time around, Rees was much more sensitive to giving Helene pleasure. Unfortunately, these two factors were not enough to counter the things that made me cringe. Like the fact that Rees was an insensitive clod for much of the book -- and not only towards Helene, but also his 'mistress' and his brother. (By the way I rather liked the romance that developed between the mistress and the brother -- it was romantic and actually quite thrilling). His refusal to give Helene a divorce, his shameful proposal that Helene live with him and his mistress in the same house while Helene was trying to conceive, and his absolute refusal to see his faults, were a real put-off. Ms James does try to soften Rees by implying that his bad childhood was at the root of much of his insensitive behaviour; but since she didn't really go into this very much, it was hard to forgive Rees his insensitivity and root for Helene and him to have their happily ever-after ending. Also, Rees didn't really grovel enough for my liking. In fact Helene did far too much apologizing for her part in why things went wrong between them in my book. So is "His Wicked Ways" a worthwhile read? I found it difficult to put the book down -- full of sympathy for Helene, I had to keep on reading to see what else Rees would do/demand of her, and how it would all end. So that in that sense, the book was a compelling and well written read. But I was truly put off by the 'hero's' behaviour and by Helene's meek acquiescence to the demands he places on her. So that on the whole I'd vote it a 3 star read.
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15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
One of the most unappealing heroes ever. . ., August 9, 2004
Helene Godwin has been living apart from her husband for over nine years, ostensibly because of physical incompatibility. She believes herself to be frigid and unappealing to men, since her husband had found her insufficient and replaced her with opera dancers and mistresses.
However, all of her friends are having children, and Helene sees her biological clock ticking away. When her husband refuses to give her a divorce, she decides to have an affair. Her friends help make over her wardrobe and her makeup, and sure enough, at the next ball, she draws men like flies. Including her selfish jerk of a husband, who decides that if she's that determined to have a child, it might as well be his, since it will be his heir.
Amazingly, in all these years, the selfish jerk has still not learned how to satisfy a woman. And he has the nerve to insist that Helene move back to their home for a month while they are trying to conceive a child. . . as long as she occupies the nursery, because the master bedchamber is already occupied by his longtime mistress!
Why would anyone with any dignity accept these terms? I have to admit that this situation spoiled the rest of the book for me. Although the author tried to ameliorate Rees' character by explaining that he was a virgin when they were first married and that he really wasn't all that crazy about his mistress (who, by the way, wasn't REALLY a doxy after all, despite the fact that she had lived with him as his lover for several years), it wasn't convincing.
Come on. This guy sounds like a politician I knew once. Hardly a romantic hero. Don't waste your time with this one.
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