By Love Undone

I usually love over-used plots such as the one Suzanne Enoch chooses for this novel: Regency era, heroine has been ruined due to scandal and has been living in seclusion but is to be re-introduced to society with the help of hero. Throw in a fiancé, a terribly straight-laced father, and life changing love and it sounds wonderfully mind-numbing and sweet, does it not? Said heroine is beautiful, said hero is dreamy and this is the stuff romance tales are made of!

Except this book fell dreadfully short. The heroine, albeit beautiful and strong minded, came across as childish and so incredibly small she was unlikable; I didn't identify with her at all. Most times I wanted to put a sock in her mouth.

The hero was also a raging disappointment. He seemed weak-willed and blind, and also childish for chasing the other child a.k.a. heroine around! Give me an Alpha-male anyday!

Some of the dialogue was humorous, but the story was flat and the characters, who should have been able to carry the story over for a bit, just made the book worse. I would not reccomend this book.

Being a fan of the author, I bought this book thinking it was the newest of her releases. Not so. This is a reprint of a book published in 1998. FIRST: why can't the publishers be honest enough to alert the purchaser of this news????? As soon as I saw the publication date, I was completely disinterested but tried to give it a go anyway. Needless to say, after the first few chapters I was bored and skipped all the way to the last to see how it ended. SECOND: This author has put out some really good books over the past few years so I know she has a talent for story-telling. But ten years ago, not so much. A very predictable story with the same old characters. I didn't care much about any of them, except Miss Marguerite -- and she was a pig! (a real one; and she seemed to have a great personality) I wish I could have given this a higher rating but my extreme disappointment over the publication date still has me annoyed. The book (from what I read) has some amusing and witty parts but not enough to recommend it to fans of the author. This will go to the recycle book store; maybe somebody can pick it up for half price or less.

LASTLY: this tendency for reprints is rampant in this genre: be aware of old Nicole Jordan, Connie Mason, Kat Martin reprints! (and I'm sure there are more....)

This was a new author for me and I throughly enjoyed the book, I found the scenaro a bit hard to swallow but it worked well in this story. What I enjoyed most was the development of the hero and heroine which was exceptional. The heroine at times was a bit angry but she had every right to be and I loved the fact that she was stalwart in her right to be believed. I thought a few characters were a bit over the top, Quin's father but he was a wonderful contrast for the h/he to play off of. I found that I like the voice of Suzanne Enoch and am looking forward to reading her back list to see if Rafe had his own story. I would highly recommend readers who want a most unusual heroine.

I liked the development of this story. It was clear and concise without a thousand subplots and enoch kept the focus on the hero and heroine. The characters were well developed and I enjoyed reading of their struggles to come together. Sometimes keeping the story simple is such a good idea. So many HR authors seem to have forgotten that in their new releases - I guess in attempts to come up with something new they end up muddling down a story with just too much ado. Also, the love scenes in here were hot, even if short. It amazes me how almost all of the new books out have the first love scenes between the couple take up several pages with them going through every base and more and back again before they (how in the world do I delicately put this?) get on with it. That just seems so unrealistic. I think there is more likely to be so much passion in most of the circumstances in a story and still a little bit of timidity with a first time. So I just really enjoyed reading this today and recommend it as fun and loving read.

Madeline Willits is living as the companion to Mr. Bancroft at Langley, happy in the country away from London and the nobility of the ton. Five years previous she had been the toast of the season until a drunken sot compromised her and the fickleness of the nobilities regard turned declaring her ruined. Now, another noble, Quinlin Bancroft, Marquis of Warefield, has come to Langley to attend Mr. Bancroft and see that Langley is being managed properly.

Madeline, Miss Maddie, couldn't stand Quin because of his rank and treated him disdainfully from the very start. Quin could not figure out just what is was about him that Maddie hated, as even though he was betrothed there was something about her that attracted him - could it have been the insults she threw at him any chance she could? When Quinn finally kisses her, his uncle forces him to do the right thing and try to repair the damage done to her by re-introducing her to the ton as respectable.

Ms. Enoch has given us another highly enjoyable sparring of the two main protagonists...so much sparring in fact that I wondered if they would ever get together. Very, very enjoyable and the very heated argument between Quinn and Maddie in the Bancroft library was - to say the least VERY HOT!!! Great read!