E-Reading: Book Review of #1 One Naughty Night by Laurel McKee
Author: Laurel McKee
ISBN: 9781455505470
Publisher: Forever Romance
Part of a Series: The Scandalous St. Clairs
Type of book: England, 1665, 1841, 1844, Romeo and Juliet type romance, Victorian Era, theater, secrets, rakes, romance, adult
Year it was published: 2012
Summary:
A hundred years has passed since the bitter rivalry between the St. Claires and the Huntingtons began. But in London, the feud goes on . . .
UNDER THE COVER OF NIGHT, NOTHING IS FORBIDDEN
Lily St. Claire will do anything for the family that saved her from the streets. With their support, the young widow has become the hostess of The Devil's Fancy, London's most exclusive gaming den. She's determined to restore the St. Claire family fortune, lost a century before to the despised Huntington clan. But a ghost from her past may be her ultimate undoing . . .
Lord Aidan Huntington is handsome and wealthy, with a taste for adventure and a reputation for wickedness. A gambler and a rake, Aidan can't resist a seductive woman with secrets - but one naughty night with Lily leaves him wanting more. As Lily is drawn into London's dark underworld by an old enemy, Aidan will risk everything to save the woman who has awakened his deepest desires.
Characters:
The characters are flat and boring, and story is predictable for me; Lily is insecure about herself and there is constant focus on the fact she's a brunette with brown eyes as well as the fact she's an adopted daughter instead of a natural daughter. I couldn't feel her natural personality and she seemed to me flat and boring. The author tried to portray her as distrustful and independent, but in the book those personality traits never felt part of her at all. Aidan should have been more interesting; he's dark haired with blue eyes, protective of people he cares about, as well as a desire to be a writer, yet he seemed flat and boring. I couldn't really understand him. I wish that the author would have spent more time on fleshing out their personalities rather than on the scenes.
Theme:
Love is unexpected, and trust your mate to help you through.
Plot:
This is in third person narrative, 95 percent of the book from either Aidan's or Lily's point of view. The other one is from Aidan's cousin Sophia's point of view when she was playing cards with Dominic. (The chapter is a prologue for the second St. Claire book.) Although the book tries to be fun and exciting, it doesn't accomplish those goals at all. The characters are flat, there are too many love scenes, no building of personalities, and I didn't care for the plot or hero or heroine whatsoever.
Author Information:
website
http://ammandamccabe.com/mckee/index.htm
genre
Romance, Historical Fiction
About this author
Laurel McKee is the pen name for regency romance writer Amanda McCabe.
Amanda wrote her first romance at the age of sixteen--a vast historical epic starring all her friends as the characters, written secretly during algebra class (and her parents wondered why math was not her strongest subject...)
She's never since used algebra, but her books have been nominated for many awards, including the RITA Award, the Romantic Times BOOKReviews Reviewers' Choice Award, the Booksellers Best, the National Readers Choice Award, and the Holt Medallion. She lives in Oklahoma with a menagerie of two cats, a Pug, and a very bossy miniature Poodle, along with far too many books.
When not writing or reading, she loves taking dance classes, collecting cheesy travel souvenirs, and watching the Food Network--even though she doesn't cook.
Opinion:
I wanted to like it, but I have to admit that I didn't like it at all. The characters have no shape or dimension, just bare essentials. I felt no chemistry between them and Lily struck me as a little too whiny. I also felt that there were too much romance scenes and some seemed pointless rather. I do hope that the next St. Claires book that I won will be much better than this one. I wouldn't recommend reading it, unless you'll be reading the future books. This also briefly outlines the possible lovers for the next five or six books which I won't spoil. Also, one of the chapters, fourteen I believe, is a prologue to the second book and next pair of lovers: Dominic and Sophia.
2 out of 5
(0: Stay away unless a masochist 1: Good for insomnia 2: Horrible but readable; 3: Readable and quickly forgettable, 4: Good, enjoyable 5: Buy it, keep it and never let it go.)
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