Review: Splendid

✩✩

American heiress Emma Dunster has always been fun-loving and independent with no wish to settle into marriage. She plans to enjoy her Season in London in more unconventional ways than husband-hunting. But this time Emma's high-jinks lead her into dangerous temptation...

Alexander Ridgely, the Duke of Ashbourne, is a notorious rake who carefully avoids the risk of love...until he plants one reckless kiss on the sensuous lips of this high-spirited innocent...and condemns himself to delicious torment. Little does he know that his passion has touched the very soul of the lovely enchantress...and committed them both to a lifetime of splendid ecstasy.

Genre: historical romance

Publication date: March 2009

Mature content: yes

 

Review: After reading so many of Julia Quinn's books over the years I never thought I'd rate one with two stars, but here it is. To be fair, Splendid is Julia Quinn's first book, and there was clearly a steep learning curve to get to her more recent amazing books. 

Splendid is, however, a case study in "too much, too silly, too fast." The characters are not consistent, the plot seems to defy logic sometimes and there are a zillion points of view from the main and secondary characters that often alternate from one paragraph to another. On top of that, I don't find neither the dialogues or the characters' actions to be historically accurate. 

So, unfortunately, this is not a book I would recommend - not even if you've read and loved Julia Quinn before and are curious about her earlier work.

 

Happy readings,

This post may contain affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.