Enchanting Pleasures

The Pleasures Trilogy, Book 3

By: Eloisa James

Narrated by: Susan Duerden

Length: 13 hrs and 21 mins

Publisher's Summary

People magazine named Eloisa James' novel Midnight Pleasures "Page Turner of the Week" and raved, "Romance writing does not get much better than this." Now the acclaimed author returns with another sumptuous tale of passion and misadventure in Regency England.

Gabrielle Jerningham cherishes the portrait of her betrothed, the perfect Peter Dewland... until she meets his commanding older brother Quill. But it is Peter to whom she has been promised. And how can she possibly transform her voluptuous, outspoken self into the poised gentlewoman Peter requires?

When Gabby's shocking décolletage plunges to her waist at her first ball, Peter is humiliated. But Quill comes to the rescue, to the peril of his heart. An accident years before has left Quill plagued by headaches - the kind that grow more excruciating with strenuous exercise. Needless to say, this hardly bodes well for siring progeny. But the very sight of Gabby leaves Quill breathless. One forbidden kiss and Quill vows to have her, headaches and Peter be damned! But it will take a clever man - and a cleverer woman - to turn the tables on propriety and find their way to true love.

©2001 Eloisa James (P)2015 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Emotional roller coaster and not in a good way...

I finally finished the series...and all the books follow the same formula: engaging characters, good storyline, overall fantastic first part and than it all goes wrong..... rational intelligent characters become stupid and insipid, male heroes are burdened with heavy emotional baggage and often cruel and emotionaly abusive.
There is always misunderstanding and series of false assumptions by both parties, long inner dialogues, and than they suffer and suffer towards the eventual happy end.
Overall it was frustrating experience as it could have been great but too much drama and torment ruined it for me.

The best Duerden performance!

One of the BEST books by Eloisa James. LOVE the characters. So real. I was never bored throughout this almost 14 hour book. Couldn't wait to find out what happened next and then couldn't stand that the book ended. Great storyline. Trust me when I say you will not be disappointed.

Thankfully this is finally an audiobook

It's an Eloisa James book. What more needs be said? This was a non-stop read ( listen) for me. I liked it a lot. The characters were all flawed so it wasn't all sunshine and flowers. I really liked Quill. He's one of my new favorite characters. And I loved Phoebe. I'm sorry she sort of fell out of the picture. I found the story of her "new mother" and her suitor (his name escapes me) a bit odd. It was nice but seemed an unnecessary distraction.

Susan Duerden does another stellar job with the narration. I had just one tiny issue and that was with Gabby's voice. I think it was described as "husky" or something like that but it was not. Not a big deal though.

This is an early book by James and I'm glad it was finally produced in audiobook format. A good addition to the Pleasures series.

Codswallop

Would you consider the audio edition of Enchanting Pleasures to be better than the print version?

I didn't read the print version.

What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)

Codswallop is a word in British slang meaning "rubbish" or "nonsense". It is also the name of the butler in this regency romance.

I was enjoying this story very much until the end. The ending was a load of codswallop. There is no way these events could have happened. Disappointing that the author would choose this way out, when there were so many other good outcomes.

What three words best describe Susan Duerden’s performance?

Overdone, too "breathless"

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

No

my new favorite Eloisa James book!

the characters in this book are delightful and SO funny! love love love it!!

I love the story of Gabbe and Quil

I didn't like the brother Patrick I thought of him as whinny. I liked him in other books so I believed it was to billed up to another story line. I wish that the story of Emily and the Marquees was more in depth. I believe they desire their own book. But back to Gabbe and Quil they were funny but not over the top. They fought like a real married couple. The other books before this one they could be very harsh. Overall this was great book with many mini books within.

Fabulous!

And that's the truth. Eloisa James does it spectacularly well.... I loved the characters, the plot.... I remember looking and seeing almost two hours left and wondering what would fill them... and almost magically it was done. That's a good book! The ending was just a little odd... I didn't get the locale but that's ok. I understood it, it was even a good scene, but why put them there? I guess it doesn't matter.

NARRATOR : Susan Duerden is Fantastic here. I never heard HER but rather the characters. That's the way it should be!

CREDITWORTHY? : YES! 100%... that is IF you like a good romantic HEA story with a little political intrigue and a good cry.

HEAT FACTOR? : High. Not steamy heart throbing sexual tension high... but high all the same.

More Turbulent than Fluff

With slight reservation, I recommend this book. I haven’t listened to the previous two books yet, but intend to. Sophie, the character in the second book, was a really delightful and supportive friend for Gabby and makes me want to hear her story in particular.
What I enjoyed: Gabby and Quill seem like a good match, and there’s definitely chemistry. I felt invested in the characters. Also, I appreciated the slightly more thorough depiction of what happens at a ball. The story has both humor and drama and features a couple rather steamy scenes as well.

What detracted: This book was very frustrating due to either characters’ density or stubbornness and at times I had to take listening breaks before getting through it. The characters are passionate and their conflicts seemed to escalate quickly at times. It’s definitely a story of a volatile love. Gabby was lovable although a little innocent in a puritan kind of way.
When they were attuning to one another and things were good, I thought Gabby and Quill were an awesome couple. All the times when they were together and not fighting, was great, and makes the book worth it. But they fight a lot. I mean… big ones too. By the end I kinda just wanted the turmoil to end and I briefly had a self-righteous thought that it’d serve Gabby right if she died.

The main conflict at the end was probably the most disturbing to me. It is similar in weight and disturbing-ness to what the heroine did in Julia Quinn’s “The Duke and I,” (a book, which minus that part, I thought was very good). As a proponent for both self-determination and consent, it felt wrong. That said, James makes the heroine’s motivations clear and therefore I could sympathize while also disagreeing with her choice.

It has a happy ending, and I like the characters – but the constant ups and downs and randomly heavy/sad moments (deaths) were somewhat jarring and ultimately kept it from being as even and rewarding as I’d hoped for.

Enjoyable love story

What I liked about this story was entertaining and funny.
The author did an excellent job on explaining or extending the lil girl (forgot her name) story with her new mother.
The ending was cute - that's all I'm going to say about the end.
But it left you wondering about Peter - I think he is guy. I wondered what happened to guy man during the 1800's.
I love the narrator, you can never go wrong in listening to Susan Duerden - she does an excellent job on all voices.

BULL-HEADED BEAUTY

Lots of questions - few answers. Why was Peter such a prig? What did Quinn's migraines have to do with a "hip" injury? Why was Gaby so extremely naïve, yet so bull-headed? Much of the story didn't make sense. There was a lot of time spent on irrelevant characters and then the story seemed to speed toward the ending without clearing up the loose ends.