nope

I dislike giving single star reviews, but I just didn't enjoy this one at all. The main characters each showed *appalling* judgement right from the very first, and then seemed to actively get in the way of their own happiness at every available opportunity from then on. The plot was especially unlikely, and unfolded quite tediously. I didn't buy any of it. I've read 38 previous books by this author, and this is my least favorite. ( )

I mean, it’s not as ‘good’, and probably not as good, simply, overall, as Elin Hilderbrand—who’s not considered literary mostly because her gender and her pulse count against her; that’s two faults, or one point…. The second “Huxtable” book isn’t like that; it’s genre fiction, part of a series, right, so I guess that raises the question of why read it at all.

I guess basically the answer is balance. I’ve read a lot of mythology, and the mythology of romantics today isn’t any more base than the story of dead gods, you know. It’s not like there’s a huge a-ha even about money and love and drama, but I think low-brow stuff can be an exercise in not taking things too seriously, and in this case addressing both male-female And masculine-feminine balance, you know, which society as a whole flunks out on, on both counts. We have a society divided between the dreamers who want to nom on the rich, and the realists who post armed guards at the career center to shoot the first person who walks in trying to get in line to get a better job without an appointment, right. Or at least shoot AT them, right. Even when we’re here to help…. The important thing is that, I’m a man—and guess what, you’re not.

It doesn’t take a huge imaginative gift, despite the occasional cultural oddities (twenty is the old forty!), to see the relevance of the realism or whatever of the over-the-top controlling-the-romantics drama, you know. So, even though I haven’t decided whether the first and second “Huxtable” books might be part of different sub-genres, or whether I want to divide “popular English romance” into sub-genres, I thought I’d give you that, you know—just the idea that we’re hurt, by going poo-poo at the record of how we poo-poo people and try to control them when they do more or less anything at all, which is what a lot of romances are basically about. Living the right way doesn’t even get you halfway towards conforming with custom, in many instances.

…. It is certainly true that in any age there is the temptation to do wrong in all of the most obvious ways, right; it remains that the classic response to obvious wrong is moral hysteria, where you cannot determine (and do not really care about) the truth, or even the literal facts of what exactly took place, right. And that’s just the element of the mind. To say that moral hysteria is the pious guard of the heart, is just…. well, its victory is achieved by force.

…. I do kinda think it’s better than Downton or most butler TV shows, even if preparing a big finale party brings them to mind. Downton was supposed to be a mix between romance and society, you know, “everything that happens at Downton”, but doing the one thing the way that they wanted to meant that they couldn’t tell the truth about a butler’s job being to be a prick, you know, the thousand indignities of being alive in that period of history. Mass market romance book though, are mostly about the two people, the two kinda semi-realistic semi-mythological people; I think that’s different than promising all realism and delivering all mythology, you know. She just puts a little end-cap on this book about being a good member of the community, but it’s not a real think-y community relations romance, you know. I think you need a little quasi mythology sometimes, though, or you think that you date or hear about a date in order to, I don’t, write a report. Well, DON’T let’s talk about who writes book reports, you know. 😸

But you know what I mean. Better at aim at the big target, and tell the truth about whether you hit it or not, right.

…. There is a certain beauty to it.

I remember once I was at work so I had to listen to the teen pop when I was at a very contrary stage of life, and so this girl is singing about how her love affair is like a bet, you know—and I’m all (not what I said), That is NOT like any Chekhov story that EYE have ever read, you know. 😤

…. A woman objects to betting because she doesn’t want to be bought. A man objects to betting because he wants to be alone—in essence, at any rate. Oh, you can boil my tea, alright….

And all the biological psychologists can do is peer over their forms half-blindly and declare magisterially, Gender X is more likely to bubble in response B.

They’re helpless. As innocent as children.

…. It is an odd story, the human story, or, whatever. The father, the priest—I will not allow it! It can never happen! Not for as long as I live! We must master the animals! ~ and the woman, rejected by her father but trying to please him; and the male lover, offending her with his crudeness—and you cannot please both…. And what //sadness// the seducer feels; what pain! What inability to really feel! To really feel! It must be sickness from one feeling, and nothing else; no other feeling! ~ And then the woman is left feeling like if she is not a philosopher’s wife, that she is a dirty pig, and that that is what is being demanded of her.

And then, they all love each other anyway. Well, except for the dead priest. But the servants all believe in God, and think he smiles on the “bad things” that priests in their perfection forbid. So, it works out; although it was impossible, that didn’t matter, and how could it, since it was all inevitable anyway?

…. And then you’re together in public, as a couple—an item.

I remember once reading one of those old-real-man theology books—it was Calvinist, but that doesn’t make much difference at a certain remove, one way or the other; it’s just the old-real-man/god, you know—and they’re like, “People say, ‘But I don’t like or love or even respect this god of yours.’” And then didn’t have a response at all, basically; it was just: “Well, fuck, You, okay; fuck You. God’s god. So…. Fuck You, good-bye.”

Hell does exist for some people—primarily in this life, to be honest, since we are not primarily spirit-beings—but beyond a certain point, any god who’s scary enough to get you to fold to stay out of hell is scary enough to make you push somebody else into the flames of fire to save your own sorry ass, you know. Some Indian woman saint, I think, said, “If I worship you, God, to stay out of hell—then send me to hell.” It’s just not good motivation. And the proof is that the hell people don’t respect getting it back, you know. The climate scientists fear-sell environmental science and say, ‘history will judge you!’, and the hell people—well, they’re not as eloquent as me, right; they certainly don’t have proof that they’re right, now do they, but that’s okay. They’re the devil’s deputies to send people to hell. I mean, God’s deputies, since they’re on the side of white man Jesus, not false-Jesus, right.

…. And that, children, is what the old sagas of the Northmen say it is like to be seduced in polite society.

…. And then you blink and you’re a crappy old feuding couple that nobody likes: but we don’t have to talk about that today.

Today, you’re happy. Always today.

Katherine Huxtable, the youngest sister - and society's most ravishing innocent - is about to turn the tables on the irresistible rakehell sworn to seduce her, body and soul....In a night of drunken revelry, Jasper Finley, Baron Montford, gambles his reputation as London's most notorious lover on one woman. His challenge? To seduce the exquisite, virtuous Katherine Huxtable within a fortnight. But when his best-laid plans go awry, Jasper devises a wager of his own. For Katherine, already wildly attracted to him, Jasper's offer is irresistible:to make London's most dangerous rake fall in love with her. Then Jasper suddenly ups the ante. Katherine knows she should refuse. But with scandal brewing and her reputation in jeopardy, she reluctantly agrees to become his wife. Now, as passion ignites, the seduction really begins. And this time the prize is nothing less than both their hearts...
Strong characters, sexual tension, romance ( )

I liked the OTP in this novel almost from the beginning; however, I found the heroine's romanticism and the hero's cynicism tiring. Balogh seems to do a really good job at beating a theme into the ground. The best moments were when he would open up about his life or when she would just let go and feel. I'm glad that the subplot was pretty minor, although it was kind of entertaining (even though I hate the "shrill older relative" trope a little). I'm still interested in the Huxtables, but I'm not sure this author will be a continued one for me. ( )