Private Arrangements (Mass Market Paperback)

~ (Author)
Key Phrases: Private Arrangements, Lord Frederick, Lord Tremaine (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Deft plotting and sparkling characters mark this superior debut historical. Camden Saybrook, Lord Tremaine, returns to late 19th-century England to confront his wife, Gigi, about her petition for divorce. Still bitter from Gigi's machinations to snare him as her husband, Camden will grant the divorce under one condition—Gigi must give him an heir within a year. Sparks fly as the two embark on heated attempts to put the bun in the oven, despite Gigi's fear that her next conquest, the insipid Lord Frederick, will discover her duplicitously lusty reunion. A captivating subplot emerges when Gigi's mother, Mrs. Rowland, sets her own plan in motion for Gigi's next nuptials. Thomas propels the plot forward with revealing repartee and gives the leads real nuance. Intelligent and forthright with honorable hidden qualities, Lady Tremaine makes an exceptional heroine, and her deceptions are believably attributed to a desire for self-preservation in a sexist society. The results are steamy and smart. (Mar.)
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Review

“Enchanting…An extraordinary, unputdownable love story.”—Jane Feather

“Deft plotting and sparkling characters mark this superior debut historical.... Steamy and smart.”—Publishers Weekly, starred review


From the Paperback edition. --This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Bantam (March 25, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0440244315
• ISBN-13: 978-0440244318
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (60 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #120,273 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

41 of 46 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Unlikeable characters do not equal a "breakthrough" book, April 18, 2008

By	Aislinn Jones (Atlanta, GA) - See all my reviews

I'm so glad I did not buy this book but instead got it from the library. I was eager to read it after the reviews on All About Romance and the Romantic Times Book Review: "Groundbreaking!" "Desert Island Keeper!" "Not Your Ordinary Romance!" I must disagree with the reviewers. Okay, the last superlative is true - it isn't an ordinary romance. Thank goodness, too, otherwise I would never read romance novels.

Set in late Victorian times Gigi, Lady Tremaine, seeks a divorce from Camden after 10 years of marriage. Their marriage actually ended after the wedding night and the two have been living entirely separate lives on separate continents since then. The story is bisected chapter by chapter between their courtship ten years ago and "current" times of 1893. In essence, Gigi was a scheming young woman hungry for a title. After meeting Camden, she fell in "love" and turned her scheming to get him to marry him despite his expressed love in another woman. After some trickery, she gets her wish but the plan unravels on the wedding day and Camden departs swearing vengeance upon her.

Ten years later, Gigi is now in "love" with the talented but dim Freddy and wishes to end her farce of a marriage. Camden arrives in answer to her divorce petition and says he will allow it ... so long as she gives him a year-long opportunity to get an heir off of her. Gigi agrees and now these two people are forced to deal with one another and ten year's worth of lies, deceptions, and hurt feelings.

The first two chapters were excellent - I was immediately sucked into Gigi and Camden's story. Things began to go downhill as Gigi's character was shown to be relentlessly selfish. Camden was likeable in the courtship chapters, but his cruel coldness in the other chapters soon made that initial impression a distant memory. Both Gigi and Camden are amazingly good at self-deception. A bone is tossed toward redeeming Gigi's character a little through her charity work, but this does not evidence itself in her daily dealings. I kept waiting for these characters to develop beyond amorality, but it never occurred. The "love" between the characters came across as twisted lust with no deeper emotion. Bottom line: these are not good nor nice people. I never found myself wanting to cheer for them. I only thought they deserved each other in the sense of "good riddance."

I enjoy reading novels with complex and flawed characters, but this was not it. The love scenes were uncomfortable and as dysfunctional as the characters. There weren't even redeeming secondary characters - the romance between Gigi's mother and a duke was just as deceitful as the main storyline. The storyline of past loves finding redemption again - with complex characters and everything - has been done better by other authors (see Eloisa James, Mary Balogh, Mary Jo Putney). I think Ms. Thomas has potential as an author, but this book did not display it well.

My recommendation: pass on this one.

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars OK but not good enough to keep, May 20, 2008

By	Ruth Ann Nordin "Historical Romance Author" (Springfield, NE USA) - See all my reviews

Overall, this book was entertaining enough to keep going. I did like the format. The book alternates between the past and the present. At first, it threw me off guard before I haven't seen an author do that before, but as the story progressed, I actually thought it was a good idea. How the characters met and fell in love and actually waited until their wedding night to have sex was a definite plus in my book. The fact that Camden was a virgin on his wedding day (which I have yet to see in a secular romance up to date) was very impressive as well. So that's why I gave it three stars.

Now the downside to this book: I found the way he left her, since she had lied to him, to be understandable but to hold onto that grudge for ten years was cruel, especially when she kept coming to him and apologizing for her lie. I wished he had been more forgiving. Also, the fact that they cheated on each other (with no feelings of remorse) was depressing. They had such a lovely and romantic beginning, but the rest of their relationship seemed like a wreck. I didn't find it very romantic since the characters seemed more concerned with themselves than with each other. It had a happy ending, but I felt sad after reading it. I would have liked to have kept it because of the positives but just couldn't bear to read about the guiltless adultery again.

22 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Yes, a great book, but just a reminder about a few problems, April 2, 2008

By	Kathy Kaiser - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I'm definitely not going to give 'Private Arrangements' low marks because it is a very well-written debut. I agree with the other reviewers in regard to the positive points of this book: great dialogue, wonderful period details, involving story, in-depth character development. But, here are a few of the bothersome aspects for me as a quick reminder before you plunge into this story - and the reason I didn't give this five stars. Thomas jumps back and forth between past and present too much...especially the first 100 pages. I quickly got tired of having to re-orient myself at the beginning of every chapter. I would get into the story and then be ripped out of it to try to remember the details of each time period. Very exhausting. Thomas should have stuck with one time frame for more than a chapter. And, here's another nit-picking detail. Maybe it only bothers me. But, Gigi has "torrid" affairs (Thomas' word, not mine) with other men during the ten years of her marriage to Camden. Yes, they are living apart, and Thomas wants to give Gigi equal-opportunity sexual adventures like she gives Camden, but it seemed that there was no remorse, no sadness about this, no apology at all for these affairs. While Camden also has sexual encounters with women, he feels badly about them and expresses that. I don't think there is one time in the book when Gigi feels badly about her infidelity. That bothered me. Made me not respect her as a character as much. But, I tried to ignore those details, and when I did, thoroughly enjoyed this impressive debut.