Two Sinful Secrets - The Scandalous St. Claires, Book 2 - by Laurel McKee
Apr 13, 2018 8:47:56 GMT -7
Samantha K, Banana Boat, and 1 more like this
Post by secretromancejunkie on Apr 13, 2018 8:47:56 GMT -7
Two Sinful Secrets – Book 2 of The Scandalous St. Claires – Laurel McKee
Rating - 3.0 / 5.0
Heat - 9/10 (includes very light bondage)
Genre – Victorian romance
I felt strangely dissatisfied by this book. It’s hard to pin down exactly what was wrong but I think it felt disjointed or disconnected. The author moved from scene to scene without really connecting them somehow. I often complain about books in which we are subjected to endless mental dithering by the MCs. This book was the opposite. I felt like I needed more information about the thoughts and emotions of the MCs, but most of what I got was just their actions. Consequently, I never felt a strong emotional connection to either the H or h.
The plot should have been very interesting. Essentially a young widow is being pursued by a stalker. A rich and powerful man with long reaching influence. She flees from Germany to France to escape him. In France she meets a man she shared a passionate kiss with before she was married. He is a famous actor and they begin a passionate affair. But the stalker lurks in the background.
Things happen in the book that are never fully explained. The H gets beat up and deposited on the h’s doorstep. We’re supposed to assume it was the stalker that ordered that done. But it’s never confirmed and why would he have the H dumped on the h’s doorstep, when he’s trying to keep them apart? At one point the h gets “lost” backstage and becomes very frightened. She thinks someone is watching her. That moment is never followed up on. There is a “watcher”, likely hired by the stalker that is often present but never acts.
It seems like the author had an outline of a good story. Then she wrote a bunch of scenes. But she never went back and connected all the dots completely. The emotional threads that should tie it all together are weak or missing. I’ve read much better books by this author. This one was disappointing.
P.S. the synopsis on the back of the book is quite misleading. The emotions and motives described in the synopsis are never mentioned in the book. I have no idea what the “Two Sinful Secrets” are. Not even the title gets connected to the plot.
Rating - 3.0 / 5.0
Heat - 9/10 (includes very light bondage)
Genre – Victorian romance
I felt strangely dissatisfied by this book. It’s hard to pin down exactly what was wrong but I think it felt disjointed or disconnected. The author moved from scene to scene without really connecting them somehow. I often complain about books in which we are subjected to endless mental dithering by the MCs. This book was the opposite. I felt like I needed more information about the thoughts and emotions of the MCs, but most of what I got was just their actions. Consequently, I never felt a strong emotional connection to either the H or h.
The plot should have been very interesting. Essentially a young widow is being pursued by a stalker. A rich and powerful man with long reaching influence. She flees from Germany to France to escape him. In France she meets a man she shared a passionate kiss with before she was married. He is a famous actor and they begin a passionate affair. But the stalker lurks in the background.
Things happen in the book that are never fully explained. The H gets beat up and deposited on the h’s doorstep. We’re supposed to assume it was the stalker that ordered that done. But it’s never confirmed and why would he have the H dumped on the h’s doorstep, when he’s trying to keep them apart? At one point the h gets “lost” backstage and becomes very frightened. She thinks someone is watching her. That moment is never followed up on. There is a “watcher”, likely hired by the stalker that is often present but never acts.
It seems like the author had an outline of a good story. Then she wrote a bunch of scenes. But she never went back and connected all the dots completely. The emotional threads that should tie it all together are weak or missing. I’ve read much better books by this author. This one was disappointing.
P.S. the synopsis on the back of the book is quite misleading. The emotions and motives described in the synopsis are never mentioned in the book. I have no idea what the “Two Sinful Secrets” are. Not even the title gets connected to the plot.
