Series: Capitol Theatre, #1
Traits & Tropes: arranged marriage; actress; titled hero; other woman troubles; childhood proxy marriage
Publication Date: 10.01.96
Genre/Setting: Historical; Regency, London, England, 1827
Heat Level: 3
Rating: 1/5
Narration Rating: 4/5
This doesn’t happen very often for me, but I have struggled to finish this book and I’m now struggling to find anything I liked about it at all. There may be spoilers ahead as this will likely become a vent since this is a book from a favorite author of mine and it just did not work for me at all.
Perhaps my biggest issue here is how disjointed the pacing feels. Sometimes I was really just bored listening to this. Despite Rosalyn Landor’s excellent narration skills, I know there were times when my mind had drifted elsewhere rather than becoming lost in the story. Apparently, this is now a hit or miss author for me, as I know she is for several other reviewers, because I’ve been trying to work through some of her older backlist and this isn’t the first one that didn’t work for me, though I seem to be feeling much harsher towards this one than I was the last one I read.
This was a crazy, implausible plot, which I would’ve actually been fine with because I went into it knowing how impossible it was, but it was somehow slow and boring. There was quite a lot going on here so I’m still not really sure how that happened; perhaps it’s just that I never became very invested in this story or the characters. Julia was incredibly flighty, and it never made sense to me why she would hide herself away from Damon. The childhood proxy marriage concept was a bit icky anyway and Julia knew it would never be enforced by a court. She was well aware of how easy an annulment would be to obtain, she professed to only want to be rid of Damon, so why not find him and discuss dissolving the marriage with him? Hiding from him just made zero sense. She should’ve just found him and told him what she wanted instead of wasting both of their time. Then once she and Damon finally meet, she’s amazed that he’d been looking for her. Excuse me, what? Of course, he was looking for you, you were holding up his entire future girl. This aspect made her seem wholly self-centered and stupid and I couldn’t bring myself to root for her after that. It certainly didn’t do her any credit that she hid from him for so long and her excuse was that she was afraid, but I never really understood what she was so scared of. This plot was pretty wild, but I certainly did not find it romantic, but I’m willing to give it a point for being unique. However, that point is almost immediately negated by Julia’s air-headedness. It also didn’t make sense that her parents would hide her from the husband they wanted for her. Just tons of nonsense going on here.
Additionally, there were several side characters who got quite a lot of page time but didn’t seem to really do much to further the plot or gain my interest. I hated the other woman drama/mistress trope thrown in here. Pauline was a wholly unnecessary character, I didn’t want or enjoy her scenes with Damon, and then, when he finally put her in her place for good, she just quietly faded away in defeat, leaving me to wonder why she was ever even there in the first place. There was a secondary romance going on between Julia’s friend and fellow actress and the stage painter that received just enough page time to be annoying, mostly because she was another flighty female, even more fickle than Julia, and she didn’t truly appreciate a good man who loved her. I was once again left wondering what the point of her little side plot even was. On the subject of weird plot lines that seemed unnecessary: the whole proposal from Logan. Why? If I hadn't read his book before this one (out of order for this series), I wouldn't have liked him either or wanted to read his book. He comes off horribly in this book and I wouldn't have wanted to read his book if I had read this one first.
Julia was snippy and annoying, one of those heroines who want freedom and independence just for the sake of saying they have it, not because it actually makes them happy or is truly what they even want. She used her desire for independence as a justification for behavior that was really just petty and mean. I just could not find anything to like in that. Beyond all this, I think my biggest issue here was the fact that Julia goes almost immediately from vehemently railing against Damon to suddenly falling into bed with him and being unable to do without him. Yet, she then goes right back to insisting she can’t be with him for some unknown, nonsensical reason. She was just so ridiculously fickle, denying herself the man she actually wanted simply because he was the man her father wanted for her. She was cutting off her nose to spite her face and I hated that. Julia was a brat the entire book and I still have no idea when, how, or why she and Damon fell in love. Even when Damon was grieving his father, Julia was still completely self-centered and offered him no support. Julia was so determined to not be with Damon, despite wanting to and supposedly being in love with him, that she was willing to marry another man and that just felt insurmountably icky. Then she was just as suddenly she was ready to stop being afraid and actually be with the man she wanted. Yet another plot point that made no sense.
As a hero, Damon wasn't great and didn't do enough communicating about what he wanted, but Julia didn't exactly make that possible much of the time and at least he was trying. Julia just wanted someone to make her decisions for her and I'm not sure how that was supposed to jive with the independence she kept screaming about. Damon was at least willing to compromise and that was about the most positive thing I could find here. This one just never felt romantic to me and I found an inordinate amount of things to dislike here and basically nothing to like. This didn't work for me and I can't come up with a reason to even add a second star.
https://www.bookbub.com/reviews/1252348631
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3992347066
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