The Perfect Lover

Very charming!

This book reminded me of some Agatha Christie stories; Set in a house filled with intriguing characters, each one a potential suspect, it kept me guessing until the end.

It was a bit slow, but I really liked Simon and Portia together. Their chemistry was simply delightful. I'd give it a near-perfect 5 rating, but the sluggish pace nudges it down to a 4.5.

The last time that I read a Stephanie Laurens' book I swore, "Never again." But, silly me, the lure of a 99¢ Kindle book and fairly good reviews caused me to fall off the wagon.

This is a perfectly ordinary old-friends-fall-in-love tale, told at a large house party (which I usually like), with a murder mystery thrown in for fun. Simon agrees to school Portia in the ways of love -- in the name of protecting her from rogues -- so there's lots of (what Dear Abby used to call) heavy petting, progressing into lots of heavy sex. But, good grief! These myriad love scenes go on and on and on, and I had to resort to just skimming through them to find out who the murderer was, even though it was rather obvious. Just look for the most unpleasant show more man in the goup.

Stephanie Laurens does not believe in using one word when seven or eight will do. Most distracting, though, she eschews the use of subjects in her sentences. Just skips them, leaves them out, annoys the reader, sometimes confuses the reader. Tops it off with a sentence fragment.

I thoroughly enjoyed the first Cynster novel, [b:Devil's Bride|363499|Devil's Bride (Cynster, #1)|Stephanie Laurens|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348213744s/363499.jpg|2524956]. Every one since then was just dreadful. Now I really, really mean it: no more Stephanie Laurens. show less

Reviewed by Bri

The Perfect Lover was a book I thoroughly enjoyed. Having read all the previous Cynster novels by Mrs. Laurens, this one didn’t let me down in the least. While the overall formula of rake must fight his own fears of love and convince the girl to marry him was there, the characters made it decisively different.

Portia Ashford and Simon Cynster, the last available Cynster, have been friends since birth. Both intelligent, prideful and stubborn they have played the games of dueling tongues for a decade. While Simon has a reputation for being, a rake and Portia a woman against marriage, choosing to spend her time on personal endeavors instead of trolling the ton that is until work in an orphanage helps her see the desire of show more family.

Attending Lady O, a character I always loved, a saucy, wise, revered woman of the ton, Portia decides to test her husband assessing abilities at a country party. Simon a family friends just happens to be attending at the same time. As sparks fly, and Simon always the protector, assumes his role only motivated in a different way murder and fear threaten Portia before either can decide what they feel.

Portia was different in this one in that she is extremely independent and intelligent to a fault. Over analyzing everything. Simon on the other hand isn’t the domineering conqueror of his previous Cynster sires. Oh the instinct is the there, but having been surrounded strong females Simon’s character rightly evolves with those influences and patiently waits for Portia to figure it out.

A must read, enjoyed it greatly.

http://www.romancing-the-book.com/2011/08/review-perfect-lover-by-stephanie.html show less

Simon Frederick Cynster is determined to find a wife and everyone knows this so he's hunted by marriage eligible women, mostly young girls, but he wants something more. When he goes to Glossup Hall to visit a friend who is having a house party he's hoping he finds something more, he doesn't expect Portia Ashford who is someone he's known since he was young, a person he didn't consider, she always seemed distant and aloof, but now she's attractive and interesting and he's finding himself wanting more from her.

The romance progresses but then a murder happens and things get interesting when it looks like Portia is the next victim.

It's not a bad read, nothing stand-out but fun.

I heard so many good things about the Cynsters that I was happy to find this book. But what a disappointment.
I know this is part of a series, but if you have not read the other parts, you might be frightened away by all the people that are introduced in the first 10-20 pages - I had the feeling more people were introduced here than in War & Peace.
The whole story takes place in a 'weekend' but there a more days in this weekend than there usually are in a week.
All characters, including Simon and Portia, are cardboard - no depth to them at all. Portia is getting sex lessons from Simon and luckily she didn't get any homework assignments, otherwise nothing would have happened in the rest of the book either, now it was filled with a - very show more vague - murder mystery. show less

This wasn't one of my favourite Cynster books to date, but was fun. The mystery was pretty obvious, so no challenge to the brain there.

2.5 stars rounded up. The premise of their relationship is a bit weak, and also feels like it's just a slight variation on several of the previous books in this series... I didn't dislike this couple, but they didn't particularly stand out in any way either.