To Seduce a Sinner

- Elizabeth Hoyt -

Hero: Jasper Renshaw, Lord Vale who was a secondary character in "To Taste Temptation". Jasper is looking for a wife as he knows it is his duty to procreate and he seems intent on getting the job done as quickly as possible so he can focus all his attention on who was responsible for the massacre and torture he witnessed during the war. We are told Jasper is very traumatised as a result of his experiences in the war, but it definitely seems to be something we are told about rather than see - it is never explored or discussed in much depth, much the way Melisande's past is never really gone over.

Heroine: Melisande, a 28 year old spinster who after an early love affair and engagement went wrong, has mostly hidden behind her shyness to avoid society. She has loved Jasper from afar for years and so capitalizes on his broken engagement to offer herself as a replacement bride.

One thing I really did enjoy about this book was the genuine curiousity that both characters had about each other. They seemed to really be interested in getting to know each other, which is not something you necessarily see in a lot of historicals (the getting to know each other part seems to happen incidentally or against someones will). I did find it frustrating that between the two of them they have so much history - Melisande's previous love affair which had no apparent societal repercussions, her social shyness, Jasper's trauma, not just around the war but around the loss of his brother, the loss of his best friend, etc, - but all of it felt like it was skated around and not really dealt with in depth. I just wanted to see a little bit more conversation around the hard stuff I guess, as Melisande and Jasper got to know each other, as well as the more superficial stuff.

Overall a good read though.