The Secret to Seduction [Mass Market Paperback]

After months of anticipation it pains me to rate "TSTS" with three stars. The first half of the novel starts out slowly. There is a lot of "thinking" from Sabrina's POV and not much dialogue from either character.

I found the author's style of repeating words and phrases over again in the same paragraph tedious and unnecessary. I also thought the sentence structures were hard to follow and had to reread passages repeatedly.

I thought Rhys's love and desire for Sabrina unconvincing. Partly because so little of the story was told from his perspective as a whole. The tension and love scenes were so tepid that I cannot fathom how "The Libertine" would be so overcome with lust, forsaking all others, based upon what I read.

The emotional and dramatic aspect of "TSTS" finally picks up about the last 100 pages or so, which is why I rated the book with 3 stars and not less.

The Secret to Seduction is the third in a series and it solves the central mystery that has unraveled bit by bit in each book. This particular installment was the most satisfying for me, not only because of the interesting plot twists and conflict between the hero and heroine, but also because the romance moved at the perfect pace. Although I enjoyed the first two books, and admired how skillfully the author developed her characters, I felt it took a bit too long for the hero and heroine to come together. But in Secret to Seduction, the pace kept me turning the pages happily.

This installment is about Sabrina, an adopted vicar's daughter whose plan is to marry Geoffrey, the curate, and move with him to Africa so they can devote themselves to missionary work. She and Geoffrey end up attending a house party at Geoffrey cousin's estate and since said cousin is none other than the famous poet known as the Libertine because of his sensual poetry, Sabrina is determined to make her mark. Sabrina considers herself to be sensible and cool-headed, but after only a few interactions with Rhys, the Libertine, she discovers she has a passionate side-- and a temper.

I loved the banter between Rhys and Sabrina-- it's immediatey apparent that these two are well-matched. They eventually give in to their attraction, and have to deal with the repurcussions. Just when Rhys and Sabrina seem to have found happiness, an unexpected secret is revealed that changes everything.

What's Good: Nearly everything is good about this novel. Long reminds me of Julia Quinn and Elizabeth Hoyt in terms of the high quality of the writing, genuine wit and humor and the obvious intelligence involved in crafting of the dialogue and plot structure. She's an expert at developing characters you initially won't think you'll like-- Sabrina seems too perfect, Rhys too flawed but by the end, we see them as complex and fascinating individuals. Every detail of the suspense plot rings true and we get to see characters from the other books return in a believable way. This novel is truly very well done and a pleasure to read.

What's Bad: Not much. I would say that after reading most of Long's novels, I'm a little tired of the fact that the heroine is always gorgeous, just because I find it easier to relate to a lead female character who is not flawlessly beautiful. I also think that sometimes she gives us too many points of view-- Morley's made sense in this story, but I don't know if we really needed Geoffrey's. And also, in all the books in this series, there are third and sometimes fourth parties. In this book there's Geoffrey sortof courting Sabrina and Sophia, Rhys mistress. It's very rare in romances that we get development of these kind of traditional spoiler-type characters, and I do applaud Long for taking a risk in trying for realism (after all, many upper class men did have mistresses and these mistresses were real people with real emotions. And it's also true that sometimes people are invloved with someone else when they meet their true love). But I will say that other readers might find the inclusion of such characters to be distracting, especially since it seems to be something Long does in every novel.

But overall, The Secret of Seduction is a wonderful romance-- fun yet poignant, sensual and beautifully written. I highly recommend it.

I liked the first book in this series a lot. The second book was pretty good. (I should go back and review them with 5 and 4 stars each.) This one was disappointing. It was readable, but I didn't find myself drawn in. It felt like the overlap with the trilogy was tacked on in a way that I could easily have liked the book without it better.

There were some little things that bothered me enough that they became big things. The heroine winds up alone in a big house with a tuned piano. She is known as a good pianist and presumably enjoys playing. (This is from her saucy mother's genes, apparently, to tie it into the trilogy.) Yet when she's concerned about all the time on her hands, does she raid the music library and hone her musical skill? Teach lessons to the village kids? Give concerts for the neighbors? No. She learns to knit. I wanted to scream at her, "The piano is right there! Go play it!"

I found the romance to be on the tepid side emotionally. I didn't buy into it very much. I found the trilogy tie in distracting and unnecessary. Sabrina didn't appear to pine for or in any way define herself in relation to her lost/unknown family they way the other two sisters did, and wasn't concerned about finding them, so why bother. The hero, I can barely remember enough to comment on other than he absented himself a lot and wasn't that great. Not that a hero has to be great all the time, but this was pretty eh.

So. If you want the end of the trilogy, read this. If you want a tame, non-threatening romance, you might like it. If, like me, you have all of JAL's previous works on a keeper shelf... I'll send you my copy.

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