DEVIL'S CUB BY GEORGETTE HEYER
Publisher: Scourcebooks, Incorporated
Date of Publication: November, 2009
Summary:
The Marquis of Vidal is a bad lot a rake and seducer, reckless, heedless, and possessed of a murderous temper. He is known by friend and foe alike as the "Devil's Cub." Yet as the handsome and wealthy heir to a Dukedom, he is considered a good prospect on the marriage market. Vidal currently has his eye on the young, lovely, and unintelligent Sophia Challoner, and Sophia's greedy mother is more than happy to encourage his dubious attentions. The colorful and eccentric characters fall over each other's plots, get involved in very peculiar coincidences, engage in colorful derring-do, and generally make life difficult for each other.
Fact: I personally think the summary is so much better than the book itself.
The first thing I'm going to say is that I love the cover. There are several covers for this one really, at least two. I chose this one because that is the cover I have. I like how he's holding her hands and sits as if he's just ridden all the way there just to do that.
I first picked this book up because I read the review over here at First Impressions (I hope this is the name of the blog). As a matter of fact, the moment I read what is said there, I rushed to the bookstore despite the unholy hour. It just sounds so good and is exactly the kind of books I'd go for.
Well, if you read the title of this post, you'd already know how it turned out.
Not so good.
Now, I don't want to say anything negative about this book because I went to bn.com and amazon.com and google to read people's reviews about this book. And 95% of the reviews are possitive. In fact only FOUR people at amazon gave this book anything less than a 4.
However, I am going to say that this book is just NOT my cup of tea. Really, since it is placed in the romance section, I expect the book to revolve about the two main characters and how their relationship progress. Instead, I got a ton of details about the family and how they think of the fact that Mary had gone off with Dominic. The one thing that bugs me is that once one character found out about the news, someone came up and this happen:
I'm going to call the person how discovered the news Triple A just because and the other, dude. And this is a very crude version of what they say:
Dude: hey, what's going on? You look pale.
Triple A: hmph! how can I not be pale! Mary's gone! She's left with Dominic, the marquess!
Dude: Oh, no! That's not good! What shall we do?
Triple A: well, we'll have to settle this somehow! This is a blasphemy!
And then the process to "settle this" by going to Dominic's family and repeat the lengthy news to them and again and again to other people. And if that's not enough for you, Mary herself, retells THE WHOLE STORY at the very end of the book. Now, I have no idea how or why the author thinks is necessary to actually presents the whole STORY back to the readers because... well, obvious, if they got to the end of the book, they must have known the story. What I'm trying to say is that, the author can just flat out say that "oh, this is where Mary retells the story to Dominic's dad!" and then move on! There is no point in repeating the same thing over and over!
Back to the topic. The romance. this is a romance novel anyway. Well, unfortunately I feel no romance between them. Their emotions move so fast I can't even keep track of what's going on.
*********Spoiler Alert*********
First, Dominic is going out with Sophie which is a dumb but beautiful girl and Mary is a pretty but not as pretty girl so Dominic doesn't want any piece of her. So Mary thought "hey, I don't want him either!" and then Mary found out that Dominic wants to make Sophie his mistress so she jumps into the coach and leaves with him. Once he found out the scheme, he thought of her as a trollop, but when she told him of her intention, he was like, "oh, you're such a kind soul! You sacrifice yourself for your sister! You're so noble!" (he didn't say that in so many words but that's basically what it comes down to).
But think about it, if some girl jumps into your coach and you already think that she's a trollop if she tells you that, chances are you would think that she makes that up, especially if you're a rich marques and everyone wants a piece of your wallet!
And then, four or something chapter later, she lies in her bad and realized she's in love with him. But not then. she's in love with him the moment she saw him! Like, really?
And then there are chapters and chapter about how the families deal with the news of Mary's supposed gallop. And then Dominic announces that he's in love with her and "cannot live without her." The entire time, I keep wondering, who/what/where/why/when made him go 180 degrees from a supposedly cold, emotionless to this warmblooded loving creature? She barely did anything for him!
**********End of Spoiler********
And then there is the fighting scene which is rather, clique for me but I'll buy that since I've always think fighting in books are clique because no matter who's writing it, it still does not sound real or dangerous like seeing it on the big screen.
But the thing that bothers me the most is the way the people speak. If that is how people did back then (and I suspect that it is), I am so glad i didn't live back then. I had a hard time keep track of the conversation, especially when Mary's aunt (I think) who is Sophie's mom speaks. She goes from one topic to the next without stopping or ending the previous topic. And when she introduces someone, she just tells you the name. That's it. You, readers, will have to find out who the character is and how he is related to others by analyzing the text. I suppose the author did that on purpose to show how silly women spoke back then (?).
The good: this book did a great job on reflecting how people spoke, lived, dressed back then during the 1700s-1800s. I actually learned a great deal about the customs and other daily life activities.
It could have been better if the author spends more time on the romance, less time on the repetition, and even less time on the redundancy of the conversations.
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