A Fine Passion [Mass Market Paperback]

Notice I said Liking it, not Loving it, hence the four stars instead of five. But don't let that deter you. It was still a good book. I really did start out almost detesting this book. I almost threw it down in disgust during the first several chapters, but ordered myself to persevere. I was very glad I did. About half-way through the book, I realized that somewhere along the way, unbeknownst to myself, I had started to like it. I laughed then, too, thinking that the author was pretty sneaky. Laurens made me almost hate both the hero and heroine at first, she being too much the uppity ice queen for my tastes, and he being seemingly much too interested in just sex. Then, somewhere along the way, they changed for the better.

By she and he I mean the heroine and hero. Clarice Altwood comes fom a very powerful family of the Ton. Despite this influence, she is disgraced by a past misdemeanor in which she refuses the marriage request of a certain unscrupulous man. Cast out , she believes, by her whole family, she retires from tonnish life to the country to live with her older cousin, James, who happens to be the only other black sheep in the family. She meets the hero, Jack , Baron Warnefleet, through distressing circumstances when he helps her rescue a familiar man from a phaeton accident on the side of the road. Though she treats Jack with icy disdain, he is instantly intrigued by her calm composure and confidence (her obvious charms don't hurt her here either) and is determined to find out more about her, and yes, to have her. It just so happens that he knows her cousin James very well, which is fortunate when James comes under suspicions of treason by a fellow collegue in the Bishop's palace. Together, Clarice and Jack set out to prove James's innocence, and in the process, discover enough about one another to build a relationship upon. It's a relationship that builds nicely, if somewhat frustratingly at times, throughout the book.

At first, I believed Clarice and Jack both to be too underdeveloped, too pigheaded and selfish most of the time to be likeable. As the story goes on though, you begin to see good reasoning behind Clarice's behavior. She has an unhappy experience with another man and is rightfully cautious of any in his social class, like Jack. Too, I felt Jack just wanted the typical one thing that a lot of romance heros only seem to want. You know what I mean. But then, at that half-way point I mentioned, I had to hand it to Stephanie Laurens; she had hooked me. I found myself "looking" back and forth at Clarice and Jack, seeing who would throw the next good verbal punch. These two went at eachother like they couldn't stand eachother at first, but eventually developed into a pair that had genuine feelings for eachother.

My two real and only gripes are about the actual scenes where you have Clarice thinking about Jack or vice versa or scenes where they are interacting, just the two of them. I hate to say that most of these scenes were terribly overwritten. There were just too many descriptive words used to describe what was only one real emotion in many cases. Where one to two good sentences would have sufficed, Laurens used whole paragrpahs sometimes. I felt like I'd never get to a point in the book where I wasn't constantly frustrated with Clarice and Jack. Thankfully though, once the secondary characters figure more into the story, it began to pick up nicely. The only other thing I didn't like was the nickname that Jack had for Clarice. Yes, I know, it's pretty picky, but I just couldn't help it. Nine times out of ten, instead of referring to her in his thoughts as Clarice, he calls her by this ridiculous nickname. It may seem unreasonable to some because he did have a reason for it, but I couldn't stand it whenever I came across it.

All in all, a pretty satisfying read in Laurens's latest series, the Bastion Club. If you haven't read the others in the series, I highly recommend you give them a try. While they didn't satisy all my wants for a great book, they were still good reads and worth the time.

At first I did not think the men of the Bastion Club would equal the Cynsters with passion and depth - but Jack certainly did. What a strong, powerful man he appeared to be. And certainly no ton debutant would ever corner him into marriage. I loved the tale of how he avoided the mother and daughter early on and escaped to his country estate. So he comes head on into facing off with a powerful woman Clarice - equal to himself. One might think this was too much for most men to handle. However, it takes a special kind of man to recognize strength in a woman as a good and positive thing and Jack is just that kind of man. At first she think he is one of the arrogant worthless men of the aristocracy that she wanted to escape from - boy is she wrong. Jack has been working for his country for 13 years in a highly worthy capacity and has estates all over. He not only is a worthy advisary he is the only man she finds herself remotely attracted to in years. This is a very intriguing tale - it reminds me of a long chess match with moves and counter moves taken by Jack and Clarice. Needless to say, their passion for one another jumps right off the page - you will need to sit in a cool room just to read their endless bedroom scenes. Another thing I liked about this couple is they did not pretend to play the courting game. When in London they bolding broke from tradition and Clarice stays at a hotel where discretion is key and Jack is able to slip in and out to keep their passion alive. In fact when the ton would expect a marriage proposal to come after they are seen in a passionate kiss at a ballroom garden - they both discuss it and decline to marry for the ton. Even though a few days later they are again discussing marriage because of their love for one another. Of course there is the usual intrigue of finding a traitor that comes with the Bastion Club books. It is a good solid backdrop for the love story. By fighting to clear Clarice's uncle together and for fighting to help Clarice's brothers with their lady loves - Jack and Clarice are truly a matched pair in all endevors. This is a complete book - with a great story - and most of all the passion that one comes to expect and love in a Laurens book!

The book has some light, heartwarming moments, 10+ page bedroom scenes, adventure, suspence, and plenty of romance. For those who follow "Bastion Club" characters, there is a brief appearance of few of them in the book, or at least a mention of them.

The book gets a slow start when Ms. Laurens gets into too much details of how the main characters feel. At times, it was like watching people in slow motion, because every move, every line of dialog was followed by three-four statements to describe the emotion behind it. Either I got used to it, or the "sidesteps" got shorter after a while, but the book got all much better after initial 100 pages. I am already looking forward to the next "Bastion Club".

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