A copy of this book was provided by the publisher for an honest review at Romancing Rakes for the Love of Romance.

Rating: 
~4 hearts: I loved it!

Review:

Isobel Carr’s Ripe for Seduction is the third book in her League of Second Sons series, but it was easy to read as a stand-alone. It’s a light-hearted story of how a pretend engagement built on less than honorable intentions somehow manages to bloom into a real love between a notorious rake and a ruined woman of the ton.

While out carousing one night with his fellow secret society members, Roland Devere has too much to drink and agrees to yet another ill-chosen bet. He wakes the next morning to discover he has wagered a pound that he will be the first to bed a well-known lady who has returned to London months after the death of her bigamist husband. What he doesn’t count on is the lady having a secret plan of her own to thwart similar untoward propositions from anyone else during the upcoming season.

Lady Olivia Carlow didn’t know her late husband was already married when they had wed, but now that he’s dead, she’s the only one left to suffer the blame from London society. When Devere’s insulting proposition arrives via a drunkenly scrawled note sent to her father’s house, she seizes her advantage and blackmails Devere into agreeing to a false engagement. With Devere by her side as her purported fiance, Olivia intends to keep all the other less than honorable suitors from forcing their attentions and spreading lies about her even if she should turn them aside. Then when the season is over, she can break with him publicly and retire permanently to the family’s country estate at Holinshed. But as she and Devere spend more time in each other’s company, what started as pretend becomes the real thing, and the consequences of their actions have long-reaching implications for more than just themselves.

The fake marriage trope is one of my favorites and it’s used beautifully here in Ripe For Seduction. Olivia is in London under duress, preferring to stay forever buried in the country instead of in town fending off the disgusting private propositions from the men and frosty public snubs from the women. Roland would never have been so incredibly rude to her when sober, but he’s clearly not unhappy at the fate she’s forced on him in return for keeping his drunken overtures a secret. Their growing attraction was fun to watch, as was the concurrent secondary plot of how Olivia’s not-so-old widowed father became attached to Devere’s somewhat older widowed sister. There were a few villains here and there, and another side plot related to the activity of the Second Sons folding neatly into the inevitable Big Misunderstanding between Roland and Olivia near the end of the story. I found the relative lack of angst and drama to be quite refreshing, preferring the extensive details of how Olivia and her father both found happiness with the unlikeliest of partners. And after the Big Misunderstanding is cleared up and true love wins out for all, the epilogue provided the perfect ending to a lovely read. 

I thoroughly enjoyed Ripe for Seduction and I’m looking forward to reading the other books in the League of Second Sons series.


Favorite Quote:

“Livy” -- he cupped her face and lowered his head until he was staring directly into her eyes -- “let me make myself perfectly clear. I love you. There’s no other reason I’d propose in earnest. Not to get you in my bed, not to enrich myself with your dowry, not to pave the way for my sister and your father. And if you don’t believe me, I’ll just have to work at it until you do.”

Not as good as I had hoped. The romance was frequent but short lived. One minute they'd be walking along a path in a garden, the next they're at it behind a bush and then half a page later it's all over. There was no lead up to most of the romantic scenes, which kind of killed the actual romance of the scene. I finished the book in a few days, but I wasn't all the interested to see how it ended. The characters weren't as engaging as they could/should have been. There's a preview of the next book in the series at the back, which is about the scandal-plagued younger sister of the male lead from this book - that one looks more promising so I'll give the author another try before I take her off my list of authors to read.

I probably won't get round to reviewing this properly for DA, since time seems to be a commodity I currently lack, but I enjoyed this. It's Georgian, which made me super-happy, since everyone wears amazing clothes, especially the men. There's a lovely and very detailed sense of period, which really lends depth and authenticity to the settings. The heroine is awesomesauce, being a courtesan who a) has sex and b) doesn't feel too bad about it. She's clever and interesting and resourceful, and all sorts of delicious things. The hero - alas - I personally found a bit lacklustre, he's a by-the-numbers Georgian badboy alpha-type, who becomes obsessed with banging the heroine is about 5 seconds flat. To be fair, I can't blame him for this, but they start playing sexual power games with each other before they've barely said hello, how are you. I'm definitely looking forward to reading the other two books because, as is ever the case, the hero's friends are way hotter and more interesting than he is ;)

So This is the first time in a very long time since I had such a hard time reading a book, especially with such a gorgeous cover and great blurb that just caught my attention. However this review will be shorter than most because I was unable to finish it. At the first few pages it caught me but after that it just went downhill after that...I got halfway through which took me a whole week to do since it just didn't get to me....I was unable to get into the story no matter how hard I tried. I always try to finish a book if I can, however with this one it was a chore to read it....and when it becomes hard to read a book and if I give it a chance (100 pages or more) than I will just put it down...since there are always more books I want to get to as well. I feel bad that I was unable to finish this one...maybe one day I will try reading it again...who knows. But for me I just was unable to get involved into the story (which is a rare occasion its true) and I really though I would love this story after reading the synopsis...but unfortunately that was untrue...maybe one day in the future..................

The plot and the story was okay. And if you're looking for a story that doesn't have much development other than a means to an end for a detailed slow seduction, then this novel is for you. However, if you want everything to be woven beautifully with strong character development as well as a strong plot, you'll need to look else where.

This story is mostly about Roland seducing Olivia. It's all about her succumbing and Roland developing more than superficial feelings. I could understand it if her character wanted to say the hell with society's rules and she was going to go down in flames but she only makes half hearted attempts at everything. She doesn't really know what she wants other than to retreat from Society in light of her scandal which was not her fault in anyway. She really came off as headstrong brat. Roland does slightly better. He still a hedonistic son with no real expectations. While he has his moments of development, they are only moments that do not carry through. However, his character remains generally consistent.

It's the secondary characters who adds the depth to the story but on parallel tracts. Philip and Margot are far more compelling and mature. They were far more interesting than their younger counterparts. It was almost distracting though that Philip is Olivia's father and Margot is Roland's older sister. But still, I wanted to know more about them. The part with the evil cousin was predictable but had potential but the story was already being pulled in all different directions that it would have made it difficult to develop.

All in all, it's an okay novel. Not great. Not entirely bad either.