CONFESSIONS FROM AN ARRANGED MARRIAGE (The Burgundy Club #4) by Miranda Neville
Mass Market Paperback, 384 pages
Published
March 27th 2012
by Avon
Genre: historical romance novel
Rating: 4 stars
Many thanks to Goodreads First
Reads Giveaway for providing me with a free copy of this book.
I would have loved to rate this HRN five stars,
because I liked it and I believe the premises for a riveting romance were
there. Yet, despite the great potential provided by the interesting main
characters and their issues, the first half of the book falls short of all the
very things that make a romance novel appealing: the romantic tension is lacking,
the characters too tame. At some point
the storyline is heavily loaded with historical references and although I
appreciate a certain accuracy and consistency in my readings, the “historical
element” with all those details about politics and elections were just too much
for my “romance-reader” frame of mind.
Luckily, halfway into the novel
something clicks in the right way and the storyline stirs in the right direction,
giving depth and intensity to a love story that would have been otherwise very
shallow. The second half of the book definitely deserves five stars and redeems
all the shortcomings of the first part: the steamy love scenes are emotionally
charged and extremely sweet. What started as an arranged marriage between two
people who loathed each other turns slowly but relentlessly into a heavenly love-match.
Minerva Montrose is a young and
pretty debutante at her first season, a typical English rose with an unusual interest
in politics. Her highest ambition, in fact, is to marry a young and brilliant
politician and help him advance in his parliamentarian career. And instead she
gets involved in a scandal that will force her to accept the marriage proposal
of a dissolute (and extremely handsome) marquess she utterly detests, Lord
Blakeney. The feelings of dislike are mutual, at least in the beginning.
Although it wouldn’t be fair to
judge a book from the first one hundred pages, at an early stage the storyline
doesn’t captivate me, emotional depth is lacking and h/h are rather shallow.
But don’t worry, things will totally change. The readers’ patience will be
rewarded. An interesting as well as original twist will stir great emotion and
sympathy towards our characters, especially the male hero: from this moment on
the romantic tension will be much more palpable, rather sizzling and
heartwarming.
Lord Blakeney (a soon to be duke)
has a well-guarded secret: he is
dyslexic, a condition not recognized or treated at that time. He is
barely literate, he is unable to read and
he can hardly write. His inadequacy makes it impossible for him to engage in
any of the educated and elevated activities (involvement in politics or
discussions about literature, knowledge of dead languages or fluency in French
and German) a man of his station should be able to perform. In order to hide
his inability, he spends his young and adult years building the reputation of a
lazy, shallow and impertinent aristocratic. He rather and successfully
engages in sports, outdoor activities or less intellectual tasks such as the
running of his father’s estate. In the eyes of society (and what hurts him the
most, in the eyes of his wife Minerva) he has only good looks and no brain.
His dyslexia causes major trust
and self-confidence issues and prevents him from showing his real self (he’s
not just a pretty face, Blake is a good, pleasant and practical man). His sense
of being inferior holds him from establishing deep and confident relations with
people, especially with Minerva who on the contrary is highly educated and
extremely bright. Despite his lacks, Blake emerges as a very human and
endearing character, certainly not fluent and articulate, but extremely sweet
and capable of true and deep feelings . Even Minerva, initially all ambition
and superficiality (due also to her very young age, she is barely twenty), will
redeem herself showing a more vulnerable and loving aspect of her headstrong
personality. She will understand her husband’s condition, support him in his
effort to fill his father’s shoes as a duke and a political leader, and get to
love him for what he is, with passion
and pride.
The second half of the book
definitely unfolds in a much more romantic and delightfully sexy way.
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