A Gentleman Undone

Blackshear Family Series, Book 2

De: Cecilia Grant

Narrado por: Susan Ericksen

Lydia Slaughter understands the games men play - both in and out of the bedroom. Not afraid to bend the rules to suit her needs, she fleeces Will Blackshear outright. The Waterloo hero had his own daring agenda for the gaming tables of London's gentlemen's clubs. But now he antes up for a wager of wits and desire with Lydia, the streetwise temptress who keeps him at arm's length.

A kept woman in desperate straits, Lydia has a sharp mind and a head for numbers. She gambles on the sly, hoping to win enough to claim her independence. An alliance with Will at the tables may be a winning proposition for them both. But the arrangement involves dicey odds with rising stakes, sweetened with unspoken promise of fleshly delights. And any sleight of hand could find their hearts betting on something neither can afford to risk: love.

©2012 Cecilia Grant (P)2012 Tantor

Reseñas de la Crítica

"Luscious, erotic, and emotionally intense.... Cecilia Grant is a fresh, unforgettable voice in historical romance." (Madeline Hunter)

Finally!!!

Wow wow wow absolutely loved this book. Finally a book in this genre about two flawed/imperfect people that weren’t dukes or duchesses etc. Absolutely loved this book for so many reasons - especially the writing i.e. character development, period details and so on. Beautifully done. Looking forward to next in series and will be enjoying this again in the future.

Not your average bodice ripper

This book and Grant’s, Lady Awakened, are definitely a cut above the average romance, IMHO.
Well developed non-stereotypical characters, well narrated.

Meh

Yeah, this wasn't my favorite. I love Susan Erikson and will listen to any book that's narrated by her. This is the first one I've sped up. It wasn't awful, it was just a lot of redundancy. The H & H just constantly carried on about why they couldn't be together until it was just overbearing. I did like the plot and the heart of the story, I just wish it had less conflict between the H & H. That's just something I'm no a fan of in a story, If you are, then this may be fabulous for you! The secondary characters were great and I love getting to revisit previous stories which this had a little bit of.

I paid $4.20 for this on sale and I won't return it. I definitely would NOT have been pleased had I spent a full credit on it, but I very very rarely spend a whole credit on anything.

Hurt so good

The writing--exquisite. The storyline--gripping. The characters--damaged but not destroyed. A Gentleman Undone is literary writing at its best. Cecilia Grant manages to avoid all of the canned gimmicks that so many formulaic romance novels resort to using, and the end result is a novel that is original, profound and poignant. I do enjoy novels that trend toward the darker side, though sometimes the darker they are, the less I'm convinced in the end that the characters can truly ever be happy (see Judith Ivory's Black Silk). Grant does dark well, but she knows how to convince the reader (through the aforementioned exquisite writing) that the characters can survive, heal, and eventually thrive together.

Because this is a romance novel, there is obviously going to be a sex scene or two, but what sets this romance (I'm loathe to even categorize this in the romance novel genre--it's that good!) apart from so many others is that each sex scene propels the story forward. Every sex scene is necessary to the story because it is part of the plot; none of them have the author-must-meet-their-sex-scene-quota feel. Miss a sex scene and you've missed a good bit of character development essential to your understanding of the plot. Oh, and the sex scenes are so good (what a paltry word!) they should be measured on the Richter scale.

I waited for this book for five months after reading A Lady Awakened (worth it, of course!), and it looks like I'll have to wait eight months for the next (A Woman Entangled). I don't mean to be pushy, Ms. Grant, but you really do need to write a bit faster.

Brilliant

I rarely review books but I have to say the Blackshear series is magnificent. I can understand and empathize with these female characters!