Your Wicked Ways

Another book for my "bad akward sex" shelf list. Not rape or anything like that mind you. Just...bad sex,fumbling around


Helene,Countess Godwin has been married for 10 years after eloping with Rees Holland,Earl Godwin.They had seemed perfect for each other intially,both passionate about music and each other.

Then after a disastrous wedding night it all got ruined culminating with Helene being kicked out of the house after a year of marriage. Since then she has tried in vain to persuade Rees to get a divorce. He seems to take a bit of pleasure refusing her in fact.

At their last confrontation Helene reveals that she really wants is a child. Rees dismisses this as another of her follies.
Angrily she makes up her mind that if he wont give her show more a divorce or a child she will take a lover who will get her pregnant.Enough with being prude!

So she takes help from her glamorous and freespirited friend Esme to attract men.This isnt as easy as it sounds as she doesnt have a lot of attractions (read flatchested) but after a visit to the modiste she acquires a gown that shows off the attractions she does have.

Rees learns of her goal to take a lover and arrives in the nick of time to prevent her seduction,instead he proposes that it would be much more convenient if he fathered the child. Helene agrees to this even though she and Rees knows that their relations has hardly been sucesses before.

And from there on it goes...

I liked this and found it quite funny,not perfect but there was plenty of humorous situations.

A case of the hero and heroine not seeing whats in front of them and quite a lot of misunderstandings in the past and present.

Rees was quite boorish and crude despite being a very artistic type who wrote operas and Helene was a bit sensitive but yet able to get angry at him when he teased her. (he enjoyed scattering her prim and proper attitude)

They were not perfect but maybe perfect for each other :)

The supporting characters were just that ....characters with their own quirks and motivations. Helenes friends were especially a hoot to read about.

A character I had problem with was Lina the heros mistress (though he has not slept with her for months)who was quite the wet blanket.It was a good thing of the author not to depict her as completely bad person and giving her,her own love story but really I just wish she would have the sense to go away.

Wich she does eventually.

If you are looking for a light read with a flawed hero and heroine this is the one. show less

Cried uncle at 189. Rhys is such a terrible character I wanted no HEA for him, I couldn't work up the enthusiasm to wish him anything other than out of my sight. And Helene, God what a bore! When the best character is "the other woman" you know you are in trouble. (Frankly, she wasn't much either, but at least a tiny bit interesting.) I love so much Eloisa James, but this is just terrible. Also, stop using the word rakehell! It must be in here 30 times at least. So irritating.

Aww. As much as I enjoy novels about new love, it's sometimes nice to read about a couple with more miles on the clock. Rees and Helene's estrangement has been a thread running through the series, and this is their book. It didn't completely knock my socks off but I enjoyed their gradual rapprochement, particularly because it required both of them to recognise their own culpability in the breakdown of their marriage. Rees was a beast, yes, but Helene caused some damage too.

I appreciated this nuanced approach in James' treatment of Lina, Rees' mistress. While I wasn't terribly interested in her plot line (and I can quite see how other readers could find being yanked out of the Rees/Helene storyline quite irritating) I loved that she show more wasn't a stereotypical 'other woman', the cardboard cut-out you see so often in romance who exists for the plot's sake but has no depth of character. Lina was more than she first appeared

All in all this was a worthy end to a very enjoyable series. show less

This is one of my very favorite of Eloisa James's books. And that description leaves out one of the most salient points of the plot - Helene isn't a loose woman who just wants some man to bed her, she's a woman who desperately wants a baby, and knows her childbearing years are running out. That's why she does everything she does. That discription makes her sound a bit...wanton. But anyway, the Helene/Rees plot in this book is brilliant. Rees is a perfect anti-hero - he's clueless when it comes to women, a bit of a jerk, poorly dressed - and absolutely loveable at the same time. And it's obvious from the moment they sit down at the piano together that they're a perfect match - if only they could get over their less than perfect past show more together. The problem with this book, as with many of James's other books - is that she has to ruin a perfectly good and entertaining story by interspersing it with a secondary plot between Lina and Tom that is boring and pointless. I found myself desperately wanting to skip the chapters with them in order to see what was happening with Rees and Helene! The habit she has of doing this is getting more and more annoying! show less

I liked the novella, but otherwise this series has been right on the line for me of wether I'm receiving more joy or annoyance (from its ridiculous drama). And also the hero of this one seemed undesirable going in. I even considered coming back for this last book at some later point in the future, but decided to push through and finish it out. And it ended up being much better than I had expected! There were several opportunities to start really piling on the drama, and I would start to brace for it, but then Eloisa James pretty commendably resisted. There is obviously still drama, but not to the farcical extent of the others.

Sexy and fun. James has a fondness, it seems, for established couples, married for years, to fall in love, for real, the second time.

Helene and Rees are one of these couples. Married very young and recklessly (they eloped after only a month of knowing each other, I think), after ten years, Helene desperately wants to have a child, but since she and Rees live in separate houses, and he refuses to give her a divorce, she decides to find a lover who can give her a child. She undergoes a makeover, finds new confidence, and then is stopped in her tracks by a furious Rees, who demands that he be the father of her child.

Helene, despite her misgivings and willing to do whatever it takes, moves back into the Earl's home (with his mistress!) and show more slowly gets to know her husband again.

It was interesting to watch a couple come back together, after having been separated by pride and misunderstandings. I also liked the musical aspect of the book - the couple came together through a love of music, and Rees convinces Helene to help him improve an opera he's been struggling with. They both come to realize the mistakes they've made and work to make amends, with sexy results... : )

Romantic - recommended. show less

A fun resolution to the series. Helene and Rees are probably the most interesting couple in the series and James gave their story a fair resolution. It was also nice to see a favourite character from another series putting in an appearance and playing a key role.