Once Upon a Tower

Fairy Tales #5

by Eloisa James, Susan Duerden (Narrator)

Once upon a time…

A duke fell in love

Gowan Stoughton of Craigievar, Duke of Kinross, values order and self-control above all else. So when he meets a lady as serene as she is beautiful, he promptly asks for her hand in marriage.

With a lady

Edie—whose passionate temperament is the opposite of serene—had such a high fever at her own debut ball that she didn’t notice anyone, not even the notoriously elusive Duke of Kinross. When her father accepts his offer… she panics.

And when their marriage night isn’t all it could be, she pretends.

In a tower.

But Edie’s inability to hide her feelings makes pretending impossible, and when their marriage implodes, she retreats to a tower—locking Gowan out.

Now Gowan faces his greatest challenge. Neither commands nor reason work with his spirited young bride. How can he convince her to give him the keys to the tower…

When she already has the keys to his heart?

Genres: Historical Romance, Romance, Historical, Historical Fiction, Regency, Fairy Tales, Fiction

Audible Audio

First published May 28, 2013

About the author

New York Times bestselling author Eloisa James writes historical romances for HarperCollins Publishers. Her novels have been published to great acclaim. A reviewer from USA Today wrote of Eloisa's very first book that she "found herself devouring the book like a dieter with a Hershey bar"; later People Magazine raved that "romance writing does not get much better than this." Her novels have repeatedly received starred reviews from Publishers' Weekly and Library Journal and regularly appear on the best-seller lists.

After graduating from Harvard University, Eloisa got an M.Phil. from Oxford University, a Ph.D. from Yale and eventually became a Shakespeare professor, publishing an academic book with Oxford University Press. Currently she is an associate professor and head of the Creative Writing program at Fordham University in New York City. Her "double life" is a source of fascination to the media and her readers. In her professorial guise, she's written a New York Times op-ed defending romance, as well as articles published everywhere from women's magazines such as More to writers' journals such as the Romance Writers' Report.

Eloisa...on her double life:

When I'm not writing novels, I'm a Shakespeare professor. It's rather like having two lives. The other day I bought a delicious pink suit to tape a television segment on romance; I'll never wear that suit to teach in, nor even to give a paper at the Shakespeare Association of America conference. It's like being Superman, with power suits for both lives. Yet the literature professor in me certainly plays into my romances. The Taming of the Duke (April 2006) has obvious Shakespearean resonances, as do many of my novels. I often weave early modern poetry into my work; the same novel might contain bits of Catullus, Shakespeare and anonymous bawdy ballads from the 16th century.

When I rip off my power suit, whether it's academic or romantic, underneath is the rather tired, chocolate-stained sweatshirt of a mom. Just as I use Shakespeare in my romances, I almost always employ my experiences as a mother. When I wrote about a miscarriage in Midnight Pleasures, I used my own fears of premature birth; when the little girl in Fool For Love threw up and threw up, I described my own daughter, who had that unsavory habit for well over her first year of life.

So I'm a writer, a professor, a mother - and a wife. My husband Alessandro is Italian, born in Florence. We spend the lazy summer months with his mother and sister in Italy. It always strikes me as a huge irony that as a romance writer I find myself married to a knight, a cavaliere, as you say in Italian.

One more thing...I'm a friend. I have girlfriends who are writers and girlfriends who are Shakespeare professors. And I have girlfriends who are romance readers. In fact, we have something of a community going on my website. Please stop by and join the conversation on my readers' pages.

Reviews

[Caz · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think that Once Upon a Tower is something quite unlike most of the other historical romances I’ve ever read. In fact, I almost hesitate to call it a romance, even though the hero and heroine DO get their HEA and have to go through hell to get it. I can also see why the book has received mixed reviews because some of it makes for uncomfortable reading. That doesn’t mean that stories have to be comfortable to be enjoyable – far from it, but in Once Upon a Tower I think that some of the issues that Ms James has touched on are almost too … realistic to qualify as romance.

That isn’t necessarily a condemnation – it’s just my way of trying to explain my reasons for saying that in some ways, the book didn’t feel like a romance.

Rather, it’s a story about the pitfalls into which a young, inexperienced couple can easily fall when their relationship has no solid foundation other than a strong physical attraction and when they allow their expectations and attitudes towards their marriage to be informed by too many outside influences, past experiences and present examples. And because of that the story is - at its heart – an honest and timeless one.

Gowan Stoughton, Duke of Kinross, is twenty-two and inherited his title at the age of fourteen. He’s every inch the duke he was brought up to be, aware of his own consequence and what is due to him, but also incredibly mindful of his duty to the position and his responsibilities to those who depend on him. He’s a great believer in using every moment of every day – a major influence appearing to be his grandmother who spent her time running the ducal households, visiting tenants and filling her life with duty. Both his parents drank to excess and Gowan’s dedication to his role is as much to prove to himself and others that he is not like his father as it is to do with the fact that running a number of large estates and business concerns takes a lot of time. Gowan is a workaholic, and realising that one of his major duties is to ensure the succession, decides it’s time to find himself a wife. As he has to travel to Brighton on business, he decides to kill two birds with one stone and stop off in London to cast about him for a potential bride. Unusually for historical romance, Gowan is a virgin; he was betrothed in the cradle (to a lady who has since died) and believed it would dishonour both him and his fiancée if he were to take a mistress or to engage a courtesan. He has also been so busy setting to rights the estates his father almost ran into the ground that he hasn’t really had either the time or the inclination for dalliance.

But when he meets Lady Edith (Edie) Gilchrist for the first time, those inclinations change. She is the daughter of a good friend of his so it’s simply a matter of asking and receiving – and the morning after their meeting, they are engaged.

The thing is, he has fallen for Edie under a misconception. At the ball at which they met, Edie was unwell, and therefore spent most of the evening zoned out and gave the impression of being a very serene young lady who didn’t have very much to say for herself, whereas in reality she isn’t like that at all. Gowan has to leave the morning after the ball, so they don’t meet again for a while; although fortunately, when they do see each other again, each very much likes what they see and they’re both practically – to use the vernacular – gagging for it.
But what we learn about Edie during Gowan’s absence tells us already that things are going to be far from smooth sailing for the young couple. For one thing, Edie’s passion is the ‘cello. She’s a very talented musician and playing the instrument is practically the only thing in her life. She practices for five hours a day, and given Gowan’s work ethic and the work that is entailed in running a large household, it’s clear that there is going to be conflict ahead about that.

And then there is the fact that Edie’s father and step-mother are dreadfully unhappy in their marriage. At the root of the problem is the fact that Layla is unable to have children. She feels she has let her husband down and that he is no longer interested in her, so she behaves outrageously, taking up smoking cheroots and flirting with every man within a 50-mile radius. As a result, Edie’s father has become increasingly cold towards her which of course drives Layla to behave even more outrageously , and, being fairly close to her step-daughter in age, Layla treats Edie as a confidant rather than a daughter, and isn’t at all shy about talking about her marital difficulties.

Immediately after their wedding, Gowan returns to his usual pattern of existence; to his ledgers and his interminable discussions with stewards and solicitors, something which both astonishes and annoys Edie to no small degree, and I can’t say as I blame her. A bride of one day and she’s expected to sit in a carriage with her new husband and a bunch of strangers who occupy all his attention. Furthermore, it seems he never has a moment alone (apart from going to the bathroom!); he works solidly all day, apart from mealtimes, when he’s attended by a butler, a sommelier and several footmen – so that the only time he has for Edie is when they’re in bed. To her credit, she does point out this fact during their journey when she asks to speak to him privately – pointing out that ‘privately’ means without the servants within earshot. But Gowan has become so entrenched in his routines and his ways that he fails to see anything odd about spending the journey back to Scotland working when he has his new bride with him.

The biggest conflict in the story, though, is the one that is born in the marital bed. I thought the author’s depiction of first-time sex in this story was probably one of the most realistic I’ve ever read in a romantic novel. There are any number of well-endowed heroes who bring their virginal ladies to multiple orgasms during their first time together, and any number of virginal ladies who are able to accommodate their lusty stallions with a minimum amount of discomfort. Here, Ms James puts what may possibly be a more realistic spin on that whole “this is never going to work!” situation as Edie, while having been more than eager for Gowan’s lovemaking, actually finds it doesn’t work very well at all, and that intercourse with her hung-like-a-horse Scotsman is very painful. Believing that things won’t always feel like that, she is still optimistic about the next night – but when it’s just as bad, she resorts to faking it, having been previously told by a tipsy Layla- in a moment reminiscent of Meg Ryan’s famous “diner” scene in When Harry Met Sally - that sometimes it’s something a woman needs to do. The trouble is, once Edie has lied to Gowan in that way, she can’t stop, especially given that he tells her how important it is to him that she is finding the experience pleasurable as well as he. She knows it’s wrong, but can’t bear to disappoint him. Edie tries over the ensuing days to tell him the truth – but is thwarted at almost every turn by the fact that some servant or other is forever intruding upon them.

I think that Edie’s reticence was very realistic – even in our enlightened times, bedroom problems can be a difficult subject to broach, and we have a plethora of books, websites, sex-therapists and any number of options for help. So it makes sense that a sheltered, well-bred young woman in the Regency period would find the whole subject embarrassing and difficult to talk about, especially with the man involved whom she does not yet know very well.

After a few days, Gowan begins to sense that all is not well. While he believes that Edie is finding pleasure in his bed, he can’t help but realise that she is not as carried away by passion as he is, noticing that she is often “not there” when they’re in bed and wondering whether she’s running through scores in her head while he’s making love to her. He becomes angry with himself at his constant craving for her, thinking that she doesn’t feel for him with the same intensity he feels for her, and angry at what he sees as her self-possession around him. He’s walking around in a permanent state of seething lust, yet she is completely unaffected.

Or so he thinks, because of course, Edie has just the same thoughts as he does. She believes he is only willing to spend time with her in bed and has no idea that he can’t be in a room with her without wanting to throw her down and shag her senseless.

Things are already on the ropes as both Gowan and Edie are unable to talk to each other and resolve these misconceptions. Even worse, Gowan begins to believe that he can never compete with Edie’s true love - her ‘cello, as it’s only when she’s playing that he sees any real passion in her. The breaking point arrives when, having imbibed several glasses of champagne, Edie is finally able to let herself go sufficiently to achieve an orgasm. Naturally, Gowan notices the difference, having already realised that the experience of lovemaking hasn’t been anywhere near as earth-shattering for Edie as it has been for him – and the anger and frustration that have been building up inside him for days boil over. He is utterly devastated and completely humiliated, not least because he works out that Edie hasn’t kept their marital issues to herself and has confided in Layla, who, he thinks has probably told her husband, a very influential man in the circles in which Gowan moves.

It’s true he says a couple of harsh things to Edie at this point, but in my opinion, they’re completely deserved. She is distraught, trying to explain to him how awful she felt about lying to him, but too embarrassed to tell him how she really felt.

After he’s stormed out, having told Edie that he wonders now whether he ever really fell in love with her or with the image of the perfect bride he’d built up in his mind, Edie decides to move into the tower where she can practice to her heart’s content while she waits for her father to arrive to take her back to London.

In the weeks Gowan is away – having travelled to some of his distant estates – Edie somehow wins over the entire household of Craigievar and when Gowan returns, his staff all treat him like a leper! They believe he has used his wife ill and have taken her side, although I don’t know what she did to deserve their loyalty other than languish and play her ‘cello. Gowan has grown up with them and has treated them fairly all his life, yet they turn against him at a moment’s notice. I wouldn’t have blamed him if he’d sacked the lot of them!

I really didn’t like the ending. Gowan, for all his stuffiness, is a bit of a sweetie on the quiet, and has to endure even more humiliation at the hands of his in-laws when he returns with the intention of trying to save his marriage by having a long-overdue and frank conversation with his bride.

Gowan is thrown from his horse on the ride home, has a couple of broken ribs, a dislocated shoulder and possibly a fractured wrist, but he doesn’t want to lose any time on his thirty hour ride by resting up. When he reaches Craigievar, Layla tears into him over his treatment of Edie, accusing him of destroying her confidence and making her feel like a failure as a woman. He takes it all without protest until finally, driven to his own defence, he raises his voice to her, only to be set upon and punched in the face by Gilchrist. Bruised, broken and soundly berated, Gowan tries to talk to Edie, but she won’t admit him to her tower, so later (and here’s where that whole Rapunzel thing comes in) he risks life and limb to climb up to the window (a climb which we’ve been told has caused major injury and death to all the others who had tried) . It would have been a hard enough climb had he been in the picture of health, but with his injuries, it’s almost suicidal.

Of course, the pair are at last able to talk honestly, admit their insecurities, their culpability for the situation they’ve found themselves in - and at last have earsplitting, multi-orgasmic, hot monkey sex.

I’ve written a pretty long review here, which is odd given that I have very mixed feelings about the book. I think one of my major problems with the story stems from the fact that I really couldn’t empathise with Edie at all. I’m a musician, so I love books with musical heroes and heroines, but I couldn’t relate to this one. Gowan was far from perfect – his workaholism, his inability to see that he needed to adapt to the different rhythms of married life as much as did his bride, his rather unyielding demeanour – all served to make him come across as rather a dry stick at times. But he did genuinely love Edie and was grateful for his good fortune in finding a woman of her beauty, grace and –he’d thought – passion. He was the one who actually tried to adapt by changing his schedules so that she could fit in her ‘cello practice, while I didn’t really see Edie doing anything for him to make his life easier.

In terms of the ending, I’ve read novels sometimes where I’ve felt that the hero/heroine hasn’t grovelled quite enough for the things they’ve put their beloved through, but in this case I felt that the grovelling was far too one-sided. Gowan may well have left Craigevar in a fit of wounded-male pique, but the longer he was away, the more he realised how much he loved Edie and that he was prepared to do anything to get a second chance with her. But I don’t think he deserved the treatment he received at the hands of his staff, his in-laws and Edie herself (at first). It’s true that they both admitted their errors when they had their talk, but Gowan still did the bulk of the grovelling.

There’s a whole sub-plot I haven’t yet mentioned, which is to do with Gowan’s much younger half-sister, Susanna – but this review is long enough already, and to be honest, I felt as though it was superfluous.

Once Upon a Tower is a really difficult book to rate. I think it has a lot to recommend it in terms of its execution – Ms James is a very experienced writer, after all – and I think the concept was a good one.

BUT.

I can’t say that I felt I was fully engaged by the book. I never felt as though I’d been drawn in to the story, and I never really connected with either of the protagonists. There were places where I felt the story really dragged and I wasn’t left with that feeling of “oh no, it’s over” when I finished it.

This is one of those times when I’m going to rate the book according to how much I enjoyed it, even though I think it had more merit in terms of the subject matter than my rating would seem to indicate.

[UniquelyMoi ~ BlithelyBookish · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m a huge fan of Eloisa James’s Fairy Tales series, each book a delightful, sexy, poignant retelling of a time honored classic fairy tale. Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, The Ugly Duckling, The Princess and the Pea… all wonderful stories revisited, their happily ever afters given a lively, fresh twist. And now it’s ‘Rapunzel’s’ turn to be freed from the tower she’s locked herself away in, but can her Prince Not-So-Charming convince her to let him in, before it’s too late?

On the Cover:



A duke fell in love

Gowan Stoughton of Craigievar, Duke of Kinross, values order and self-control above all else. So when he meets a lady as serene as she is beautiful, he promptly asks for her hand in marriage.

With a lady

Edie—whose passionate temperament is the opposite of serene—had such a high fever at her own debut ball that she didn’t notice anyone, not even the notoriously elusive Duke of Kinross. When her father accepts his offer… she panics.

And when their marriage night isn’t all it could be, she pretends.

In a tower.

But Edie’s inability to hide her feelings makes pretending impossible, and when their marriage implodes, she retreats to a tower—locking Gowan out.

Now Gowan faces his greatest challenge. Neither commands nor reason work with his spirited young bride. How can he convince her to give him the keys to the tower…

When she already has the keys to his heart?

Truly, I’ve enjoyed every single story in this somewhat-related-but-not-quite-connected series. Humor, passion, romance, lessons to be learned… all woven together to create not just romance novels, but beautiful love stories. Book after book I find myself laughing, sighing, fanning myself, and sometimes even crying... and when the story is through, I find myself wanting more.

I fell head over heels in love with Gowan! What an amazing, sexy, Highlander! To say I adore him is putting it mildly, though there were moments I wished I could reach through the pages and smack him right upside his gorgeous head! Stubborn, yes - clueless, definitely! But when a man's heart is on the line - especially a man afraid of repeating his parent's horrible mistakes - there are bound to be issues. But what I love most about Gowan is that he thinks things through, works things out, and does whatever he must to make all things right.

Edie is a fun heroine! Innocent but not naive, clueless but not stupid, in her upcoming marriage she wants to avoid the mistakes that her own parents made. But when your role model is a step mother who thinks flirting with men and smoking cheroots is the way to get your husband's attention, things are bound to get sticky. I truly did love both Edie and Layla, but I wanted to throttle Edie for turning to Layla for advice, given Layla's unorthodox and ineffective methods for wooing a man.

Despite those moments when I wanted to do bodily harm to Gowan and Edie, I adored them both! Once again, Eloisa James has breathed new life into a classic fairy tale, giving us a story to lose ourselves in with people to love...

My thanks to Avon Books for providing me with a copy of this story in exchange for an honest review.

[Khanh, first of her name, mother of bunnies · Rating 4 out of 5]

As with Eloisa James' many other works, particularly the Duchess series, the supporting cast of characters and their histrionics threaten to overwhelm the main characters and their plot, but thankfully did not in the end. Like the rest of her "Fairy Tale" series, the fairy-tale-retelling aspect is quite, quite overreaching. For the majority of the book, there was nothing in it that could be remotely connected to the Rapunzel tale besides a balcony scene and Gowan's silly fantasies regarding the loveliness of Edie's hair

“Ah, darling,” he had been telling her, “I am looped in the loops of your hair.” Had he said that aloud? He would never do something so imbecilic.

There were more Shakespearean aspects and references than anything else. For lovers of Julia Quinn books, there are quite a few references to her Smythe-Smith novels and the Terrible Quartet, but they were by no means intrusive to this book and its plot. Their involvement was merely a side nod to Edie's musicality and their lack thereof.

I found the summary misleading; it implies that Gowan and Edie had no clue what the hell they were getting themselves into when they got into their hasty marriage based off a misleading first impression. This was not the case. Gowan may have been initially infatuated with the feverish Edie's dreamy debut ball, but afterwards, they had plenty of opportunities to write each other, meet each other, and get to know each other on a much more personal basis before their scheduled marriage in several months. In fact, they liked each other so much that there were no objections to moving up the wedding date. The majority of the complications comes after the marriage, and I enjoyed the unusual qualities of the complications, which concerns a much more realistic portrayal of sex than any Regency romance I have ever read.

If I had to give the book a rating based on the roughly the first half of the book, Once Upon a Tower would have garnered a solid two. The book did not get off to a promising start. It wasn't bad, but I initially found the main characters interminably dull, and the action was completely monopolized by the melodramatic theatrics of Edie's stepmother Layla and her rocky relationship with Edie's father, the Earl of Chatteris. I also found Layla's relationship with Edie unbearable and unrealistic. They're not so different in age, Edie and Layla are only seven years apart, so it explains their closeness, but the kind of bedroom details that Layla shares with Edie is incredibly inappropriate given the time and her status as stepmother: "'He still won’t bed me,' Layla confided over luncheon, a few days later." NO! I don't want to hear that coming from my stepmother's mouth!

“...as if Frenchmen were the only ones able to give a woman pleasure. I could tell you—” She caught herself. “You wouldn’t appreciate the details, as it’s your father in question.” “No,” Edie said. “I would not.”

And need I mention the When Harry Met Sally scene?

“Making love is a noisy business,” Layla said.
“It is?” Edie was growing more and more fascinated, if still confused. She hadn’t quite imagined it that way.
Layla put down her glass, now empty, and tipped back her head. A husky, sensual moan poured from her lips. She slipped her hands into her hair and tossed her head back and forth. “Yes, yes, just like that, more, more!”

Giving your stepdaughter the how-tos of a wedding night: acceptable. Telling her how to fake it? I don't know about that.

Layla's relationship with her husband has deteriorated over the years, mostly due to the tension of not being able to provide him with an heir, and subsequently "Layla had taken up smoking and developed a bit of a reckless edge." I can empathize with the pain of being barren in an age where being able to provide an heir to a peerage was of the utmost importance, but Layla's actions makes it so difficult for the reader to like her. She openly antagonizes her husband, accuses him publicly of having a mistress, and in his daughter's presence, at that. She openly flirts with other men---to attract her disinterested husband's attention, and humiliates him in the process. She is a public drunkard, and an embarrassment to herself, her status, and her husband's position as earl and politician. Any sympathy I might have had for the poor Layla was absolutely gone by the middle of the book; I really felt that she was the major contributor to much of Gowan and Edie's marital troubles and miscommunication. Her subplot was also too easily resolved, given the severe difficulty and the years of growing mistrust, neglect, and miscommunication between her and her husband. Thankfully, her stepdaughter Edie's main story is thankfully (and rightfully, given that it is her book) much more compelling.

Gowan and Edie themselves are likeable, sweet characters. Their ages are quite young and close together; Edie is 19 and Gowan 22. They are each other's first; in more ways than one. Both are similarly inexperienced; Gowan is a virgin, so utterly refreshing given the glut of Regency rakes who have bedded half the ton's wives and widows. Gowan is nice, rational, and respectful of women: “Lady Edith will be my duchess,” Gowan told him, aware his eyes had gone wintry. “She will be my better half. Why would I stint what she will inherit after my death, or enjoy during my life? We Scots don’t treat our women with the disrespect you do in this country. Even if she and I have naught but a single daughter, that daughter will inherit the majority of my estate.”

Can I get a D'AWWWW? How sweet is that? Brutish, clannish, pillaging highlander? Not our Gowan, no. He is pure gentleman, handsome, imperfect, rarely patronizing, and I love him for it. He and Edie have a good marriage, on the surface, and honestly, given their quick courtship and alliance of minds, I had my doubts on the complexity of this book and how it would develop for another half without boring me out of my mind. But then the wedding came. I am pleased to tell you that the story line picks up considerably in plot and complexity afterwards.

I loved the portrayal of the marriage bed, the insecurities, the lack of confidence. The pain, the awkwardness, there are no auto-orgasms here. I hate it that in just about every Regency novel, the hero is able to bring the innocent virgin to orgasm multiple times with his horse-sized appendage with just a twinge of pain. It's not like that with Edie and Gowan. Edie is conflicted, because her marriage and her husband is so perfect in so many ways: she loves "the strong column of his neck, his broad shoulders, and the glint of red in his hair. The extraordinary brilliance of him. The incisiveness that was an integral part of him. The way he ruled an empire without raising his voice. The way he had bent his life around her passion for music. She was lucky. She was so lucky, barring that one thing."

The miscommunication and the feelings of betrayal are realistic portrayed. If ever a young couple needed the benefits of marriage counseling...so many things that went wrong that could have easily been solved with a simple conversation, but given the context of the time, such conversations, even between husbands and wives, were rare, and more often than not never took place at all. When the climax (so to speak) came, painful words were exchanged, hearts were broken, and I could feel the pain and anger of both parties. I couldn't hate either Gowan or Edie for feeling the way they did or behaving the way they did; they simply didn't know any better, and their pain was completely understandable. We all have been guilty of saying despicable things in the heat of the moment to those we love.

This book portrays the act so much more realistically, and the complications of it are so well-written. I still highly dislike the other minor characters in the book, although I suppose without Layla complicating the fuck out of things, there would be much less of a story; and think the Fairy Tale aspect is overreaching it (and the Susannah arc...however irritating, the child is not a toy to be passed on, Gowan). However, I think it comes close to perfection as a romance that deals with some difficult subjects of a Regency marriage concerning two people learning about love and coming to terms with themselves.

[Seon Ji (Dawn) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not a fan of this author, as her writing style is not for me. But, I decided to give her another chance since this involves two innocents.

It was better.

The beginning was pretty good and I was happily surprised at finding myself enjoying it until She made the sex between the H & h too realistic. The h experienced tremendous pain at her first time, and the next 4 or 5 times after. Yes this is probably realistic, but who wants to read chapter upon chapter of painful sex between the H &h? This is a romance? Do we want realism?"

Sensitive readers! I highly recommend you read the following spoiler, unless you wish to be in the agony I had to endure.

There is one part where the H wishes to learn how to please his wife, since he feels he's not doing a good job of it (the pain you know). So he goes off to a tavern, gets drunk and seeks out a barmaid. All we get is him following the barmaid to a private room, then nothing else for about another 10%.

To say that I skimmed the next 10% in an understatement. I was desperately trying to find the spot where we find out if he did anything.

He does NOT do anything with the barmaid. He did nothing at all with her.. by his own confession to the h.

The problem is.. up until his confession, I whipped through all other chapters. I barely know or care what happened in between those pages.

This PISSESS me off. Why make the reader wait so long? I hated him, and almost stopped reading completely. It also took me awhile to calm the hell down when he admitted his faithfulness.

The book is better than her others even though it dragged in the middle and didn't pick up until 75-80%. The ending was anti-climatic but ok.

There are two romances going on at the same time. Unlike her other books where she makes these two romances seem separate and unrelated, here she intertwined them nicely.

This is what I would consider a character driven story with the conflict being emotional and internal. There didn't seem to be any outside antagonists and I could have done without all the repetitive thoughts.

So did I like it? It was ok. I was glad to be done with it, but don't regret reading it. Would I recommend it? Yes I suppose, if you can get it cheap or free.

Content concerns: (MC's only- not going into secondary romance)

Hero - Virgin
Heroine-Virgin
OW-No (see above regarding bar maid)
Cheating-No (see above regarding barmaid)
Violence-mild
Cursing-can't remember - I think not
Adultery-No
Marriage-Yes
Baby-Yes
HEA-Yes
ILY's-Yes
Sex-Yes - (see above)

[Ursula · Rating 5 out of 5]

This. Book. What a surprise. I have read a few EJ books, and liked them, but somehow never got to this one. 5 gut-wrenching, passionate stars.
Firstly, both protagonists, Edie and Gowan, are very young. That makes a nice change, having the young hero. (That he behaved like a man much older was hardly surprising, given his parents’ behaviour and his early assumption of the Duke's title.)
What impressed me was the problem around which the story revolved. There was no OW or unrequited love. No villain. They married quickly. The problem was the sex. And I would not have thought it could be done so well. Poor Gowan. He had tried to be honourable at all times. He found himself betrothed from the cradle, so had kept himself nice- shock, horror, a hero who is NOT promiscuous!- because he felt it would be betraying her if he slept with anyone else. Then she dies some months before the wedding, he goes on the hunt for another wife, because that is on his to-do list. He was not expecting to fall like a ton of bricks when he saw Edie across a ballroom floor.

Here was a man who was the ultimate micro-manager. He lived by facts and reports, and never did anything without doing something else at the same time- he would have estate and business reports read to him while he dressed, he would read them in a carriage on the way to somewhere, he would have reports sent to him every day from every estate (and he had a bunch of estates), he was on the board for banks. I could go on. The man was a complete workaholic. It was fascinating how EJ described him. A man who took his responsibilities so seriously he was in danger of withering away emotionally. So when he falls hard for Edie the first time he sees her, he is so appalled, even disgusted, by his passionate reaction to her, he frantically makes a multi-step plan to marry her (no wooing required, just a generous contract with papa. Yes, technically he bought her) and to fit her neatly into his very well-regulated and planned out life. Basically, she would need an appointment to see him outside of the scheduled times he had allotted her. One of the scheduled times was at night in bed. Where he also had a plan: he would make it awesome for her and he absolutely WOULD NOT FAIL.
Sound like a prat? Yes, but there was this deeply emotional, passionate man inside him that he had suppressed, and the story is about how he comes to terms with that aspect of his character, learning to embrace it.

Our heroine, Edie, is a musician. Not just someone who likes to play. No, she is a world-class cellist who could have been a hugely successful professional player if not for the fact of her gender. Women just did not have music careers, unless they were opera singers, who were regarded as little better than whores. Her father, an Earl, was also a cellist and their music formed the basis for their relationship. This aspect was absolutely beautiful. No domineering, ambitious father here, but one who understood his daughter's passion and was prepared to support her in everything. (His marriage to a much younger woman, Layla, is almost on the rocks, and this sub-plot adds another heart-wrenching element to this story.) Well, we know how a cellist holds their instrument. You can imagine, it is not considered a very "lady-like" instrument to play! And initially, poor Gowan does not cope well when he realises how important her music is to her (and how gripped by lust and jealousy he is when he sees her playing.)

So this book put me through the emotional wringer. At first, I was really angry with Gowan. He was over-scheduled and OCD. But gradually, the layers were peeled away and once I saw the man beneath the businessman, my heart ached for him. Their sexual encounters, two virgins, were a disaster. She does the unforgivable (she fakes it because it is so painful- he is huge, of course, - never talks to him about it because she thinks it is her fault, and he finds out) and things rapidly go downhill.

I was so invested in their HEA. It was not funny. There is a speech that her step-mama, with whom she has a wonderful relationship, makes, where she lays it on the line for Gowan. I had the tears rolling down my face. He is devastated at the harsh truth of her accusations and when dad comes in and punches him in the face, saying he is taking his daughter way and having the marriage annulled no matter what it takes his humiliation and remorse are complete.

When I rant about how heroes/heroines need to grovel if they do almost unforgivable things, I am talking about them doing more than acknowledging their mistakes in their own minds and feeling true remorse. I am talking about articulating this to their partner and asking for forgiveness, knowing they might actually not deserve it. A relationship needs to have this as a basis- admitting mistakes and forgiving them - for it to be truly, deeply strong. Most importantly, partners need to communicate. And Edie should have talked to him. But the constant interruptions by employees giving reports meant very little time alone with her husband (she also spent hours a day practising). Her virginal embarrassment regarding the topic did not help.

I know this is only HR, but EJ has added a depth and emotional intensity to this story that really knocked me over. I just loved it.
Onto my favourites shelf, and one of my very few 5 star reads.

[nikki | ཐི༏ཋྀ​​݁ ₊ ݁ .]

dnf @ 50%

I thought the premise intrigued me, but the execution was more drawn out than I anticipated and it was lowkey torture having to read thru her awful wedding night. and after 😭

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gowan Stoughton of Craigiever, Duke of Kinross, is organized and precise and everything follows a routine, just as it has for years. Knowing it is time to marry, when he meets the lovely Lady Edith Gilchrist and dances with her and finds her serene and likeable, he promptly asks for her hand in marriage. Edie, who was suffering from a high fever and was not quite herself the day of the ball, or after when she agreed to the marriage, finds herself betrothed to a man she knows nothing about. They exchange a few letters and Edie finds herself vastly relieved to find out Gowan has a sense of humor and that they seem to rub along well together. Passion quickly blooms and after they marry...disaster strikes. While they are compatible outside the bedroom, inside the bedroom is another story. Edie finds herself reaching out to her stepmother and when the truth of the matter reaches back to Gowan, tempers explode and hurtful words are spoken and leave a damaging impact. Determined to teach her husband a lesson, Edie retreats to the castles tower and awaits her husband. Will Gown realize how much his words hurt and help bridge the gap with Edie?

Eloisa James' take on Rapunzel, with a bit of Romeo and Juliet thrown in as well, was a delight to read, plain and simple. The build up to Edie locking herself in the tower was very well done and thought out. I loved how straightforward she was to not just Gowan but his regimented staff as well. I absolutely loved her dedication to her cello and learning little snippets of how to care for a cello and such (a whole separate carriage was needed just to carry it). She takes no arguments from anyone and this is new to Gowan as everyone has always done what he says without question. He leads a very ordered life and reveals his true heart and feelings to almost noone. The heartbreak that follows his terrible words to Edie is raw and emotional. I also really enjoyed a secondary storyline involving Edie's father and stepmother. Edie has a close relationship with her stepmother and that was a pleasant experience to read! This was one of my favorite stories so far by the esteemed Eloisa James. Heartbreak, laughter, joy and determination make a sigh worthy romance that is sure to please many romance fans! 4 1/2 stars

eARC provided by Avon Books via edelweiss

[Hannah B. · Rating 2 out of 5]

✨This man didn’t deserve to be a virgin hero but he also didn’t deserve to have sex so we are in a ❤️predicament❤️✨

2.5⭐️/5 rounded down because an animal was killed and it pissed me off on top of everything else. I liked the beginning well enough but I’m just not strong enough for marriage-in-trouble books. I really just am not. Here though, most of the book was building the foundation for a bad marriage, rather than the marriage itself. Which was… fun? to watch [read: it was not fun].

A previous version of this review said that this book made me mad, ~artfully~ mad, but fuck it I have zero clue what I meant but I’m leaving it in. I don’t think I’d ever reread it. I liked parts and parts of the characters and the plot (my favorite is the factor, Bardolph) but overall it just wasn’t much fun during the second half. I’m questioning if it was even much fun to begin with; I think it was me more so anticipating it getting better so I was going along with it, which is not what I got.

The sex scenes were just mostly painful because that’s how they were supposed to be. And the one good time had about seven orgasms in two pages so safe to say I’m not writing home about this book. It tried to have important conversations about various topics but it pretty much fumbled the bag. Flat bellies and rounded turnips grated on me by the end.

Oh also Eloisa adds in the pathos animal—in this case a dog named Molly—whose tragic backstory is supposed to endear our hero to us. When will authors accept that killing animals is never the answer???? We! Get! It! The hero has a tragic past in and a terrible father capable of killing innocent animals but we don’t need VISUALS. I PROMISE the amount you have said heroes sulk about their daddy issues gives us AMPLE food for thought. Leave me and the dogs alone with that ass backwards thinking.

Pretty cover though and this book did make me want my own tricked out cello tower. Perfect place to cry because this book just overall made me sad and melancholy and a bit queasy. Take me to the lakes I say.

⭐️⭐️.5/5 🌶🌶🌶/5

[Dina · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm sorry to say this, but I did not like this book. Gowan and Edie were boring in their one-track oh-so-practical minds, her father was a spineless stick, her stepmother was an idiot, and the story dragged while trying to balance Gowan and Edie's lukewarm romance and her parents' silly marriage shenanigans.

Ms. James' writing was as great as I've learned to expect after reading When Beauty Tamed the Beast, Three Weeks With Lady X and Four Nights With the Duke, which were absolutely brilliant, but not even her writing could save this particular book for me and I'm sadly disappointed.

[Amanda · Rating 1 out of 5]

I tried to read this and wanted to like it. But it just wasn't happening for me. I've noticed that Ms James' novels start off rocky for me and I usually end up enjoying them by the end. I feel like I gave this one a fair shot and at 53% I quit.

To start off, the hero "falls in love" with the h after seeing her, dancing with her twice, and not speaking at all. Well, other than to ask for the dances. That was strike one, but it could have been overcome! But instead it got cheesier. And plotless. I was bored. And frustrated. And utterly done with them as a couple by the time they got married. It went further downhill from there, but I'd hate to spoil the lack of plot for anyone. Thank goodness I attempted to read this during the 7 day return period.

[Ezi Chinny · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't love this one the way I have enjoyed the prior books. Gowan was looking for that perfect duchess to match his serene character. He didn't expect to meet Edie and to fall so hard so fast. Edie wasn't a girl lusting after a Duke for title purposes. She wanted a real marriage.

Eloisa James is a talented writer but I found the married couple to be boring. I will admit to really appreciating the author for writing a story where the hero wasn't this perfect lover. In fact, he messed it up at least 3x before she had a real orgasm. Bravo Eloisa James.

[Vaso · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ίσως το καλύτερο από τα 5 μέχρι στιγμής...

[Cathy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Full disclosure: I skimmed very large sections of this book.

I really wanted to leave it unfinished, but I read a few reviews that mentioned this book getting considerably better once the main couple gets married so I decided to carry on. My main problem was that I found the secondary storyline with the Earl and Edie's stepmother to be incredibly tedious. I was invested at first, wanting to read about them possibly addressing their problems and working through them towards their own (second) happy ending, but it took far too long and Layla was too stubborn and melodramatic of a character for me to enjoy it. Her character singlehandedly ruined the entire book for me, pretty much.

Meh.

I did like that this featured "bad sex" because historical romances, as a rule, are rather ridiculous when it comes to newly-weds in Regency times having sex for the first time. I felt this was a far more realistic portrayal and I appreciated that. It did not, however, make up for everything else in the book which was a bit of a mess to me.

This makes me sad, because I really liked book 1 and 2 of this series. Didn't read 3 or 4 because they sounded awful and didn't have many good reviews, but this seemed more promising judging from the blurb.

Alas.

[Bookaholic (reads every mortal thing) · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5

Meeeeh. I love fairy tale retellings, but didn't really like this one. I hated Edie's stepmother, Layla, so much, it kinda distracted me throughout the rest of the book.

Layla came into scenes at the worst time possible and gave the most shittiest advice I've ever seen a person give to another person. If I had to blame one person in the whole book for messing up Gowan and Edie's marriage in the first place, it would be Layla

But I guess I liked Gowan and Edie so much that I decided to go with a 2 instead of a 1.

Yeah. I really, really didn't like her.

[Nikoleta · Rating 4 out of 5]

3,5/5

[Elis Madison · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eloisa James has done it again.



At least for a few pages towards the end, that was me.

If you guessed this one would be a sendup of Rapunzel, you'd be right.



Toss in some Shakespeare



Shake well and serve.

Gowan Stoughton, Duke of Kinross, is a filthy rich duke, and he can buy any bride he chooses. He finds himself in bloody England, dragged off to be introduced to some chit named Edith. You couldn't pick a more Sassenach name, could you? But he takes one look, and, BAM!!



Turns out Edith Gilchrist is the Perfect Woman. Gorgeous, blonde, curvaceous, smells pretty, and best of all, quiet.



Gowan isn't the only guy to think so. He calls on her the next day only to find a dozen gents in the morning room ahead of him, armed with posies, candy and poetry—which he never thought to bring (she was supposed to faint at the title, you see). So he does what any filthy rich, self-respecting duke would do. Instead of courting her, he veers off to find her father and courts him.



After he outbids the contenders, the object of his obsession meekly agrees to the betrothal.

Having acquired his bride, Gowan sees no need to stick around and, oh, I dunno, get to know her. So he heads off to settle Estate Business. Meanwhile, Edie (she prefers this to Edith) recovers from the passing ailment that made her the unusually quiet, pale, fembot he met.

Turns out that, well, she's a little bit bossy (but in a very nice way). She's not especially biddable. And she's a brilliant cellist—in fact, music is her number one priority, and she plans to keep it that way. Meaning that he'd damn well better get used to the fact that she's going to practice her playing morning, noon, and night, to the exclusion of pretty much all else. And she's not in any great hurry to have kids.

Anyway, so their expectations are a bit different. But they meet and they dig each other. And the cello thing? Well, it turns out that a true musical gifting is pretty darned erotic.



The Rapunzel/tower thing comes in much later after Gowan's nasty temper gets the best of him and he just has to say what's on his mind.



This is one of those relationship-only stories that worked for me (more often I find myself skimming pages when the naval-gazing goes on too long). I liked the ending quite a bit, tho the epilogue was a bit too pat for me. I'll give it four stars.

[Anita · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF at 50% with the Audio version. I've got to give kudos to Eloisa James for being the first author I've read to give her couple this particular problem. I read HR for the history and the romance, and this one gives me neither. So many books, so little time to continue one that just isn't working for me.

[Georgia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Δείτε επίσης και στο Chill and read

Είχα καιρό να διαβάσω ένα ρομαντικό βιβλίο εποχής, οπότε μόλις έπεσε ο τίτλος «Μάτια από σμαράγδι» στο τραπέζι, που παρόλο που είναι το πέμπτο βιβλίο της σειράς «Μια ιστορία ακόμα», είναι αυτοτελής ιστορία, συμφώνησα χωρίς δεύτερη σκέψη!

Αυτή τη φορά έχουμε μια νεαρά, την Ίντι, η οποία ζει με τον πατέρα της και τη μητριά της, την οποία αγαπάει πολύ, πιο πολύ σαν φίλη. Όταν έρχεται η στιγμή να κάνει το ντεμπούτο της, η Ίντι είναι άρρωστη με πυρετό, οπότε ούτε μιλάει πολύ ούτε και θυμάται πολλά την επόμενη μέρα. Όπως για παράδειγμα το πρόσωπο του δούκα με τον οποίο χόρεψε το προηγούμενο βράδυ.

Από την άλλη, ο Γκόουαν Στόουτον, δούκας του Κίνρος έρχεται πάντα στο Λονδίνο με πρόγραμμα. Η θέση του συνήθως σημαίνει ότι έχει ένα γεμάτο πρόγραμμα, είτε βρίσκεται στα εδάφη του στη Σκοτία, είτε ταξιδεύει στο Λονδίνο για δουλειές. Για τον δούκα δεν υπάρχει πρόβλημα που να μην έχει λύση και πάντα βρίσκει τον τρόπο να είναι όλα τα θέματα που τον απασχολούν ξεκάθαρα. Ένα από αυτά ήταν η εύρεση συζύγου, όμως όσες Αγγλίδες συνάντησε εκείνο το βράδυ του φαίνονταν δυσκοίλιες. Μέχρι την ώρα που γνώρισε την κόρη του κόμη Γκίλκριστ. Μπορεί το όνομά της, Ίντιθ, να μην ταίριαζε σε μια νέα κοπέλα, τα σμαραγδένια μάτια της όμως του πήραν την καρδιά. Η αναζήτηση του Γκόουαν είχε λήξει, πριν καλά καλά αρχίσει. Ήξερε ποια θα είναι η επόμενη δούκισσα του Κίνρος.

Αυτό που ξεκινάει σαν μια εσφαλμένη εικόνα για τον Γκόουαν, αυτή της λιγομίλητης Ίντι, σύντομα μετατρέπεται σε ένα αμοιβαίο σεβασμό και αλληλοκατανόηση. Ο Γκόουαν αντιλαμβάνεται πως η Ίντι είναι μια κοπέλα που έχει μεγαλώσει αγαπώντας τη μουσική, αν και ο ίδιος δεν έχει ιδέα τι είναι το τσέλο, ωστόσο μπορεί να νιώσει το ταλέντο της Ίντι όταν την ακούει να παίζει. Η Ίντι πάλι θα εντυπωσιαστεί από τον ρωμαλέο Σκοτσέζο δούκα, μέχρι να αντιληφθεί πως σχεδόν όλος ο χρόνος του ανήκει κάπου. Τότε θα το βάλει σκοπό να του δώσει να καταλάβει πως θα πρέπει να αλλάξει λίγο το πρόγραμμά του.

Είχε ενδιαφέρον που από εκεί που είχαν ο καθένας τη δική του ξεχωριστή ζωή και χωρίς καμία επαφή μεταξύ τους ξαφνικά παντρεύονται και βρίσκονται σε μια θέση που δεν έχουν ξαναβρεθεί. Κανένας από τους δύο δεν έχει εμπειρία στο ερωτικό κομμάτι αλλά και οι δύο προσπαθούν να κάνουν αυτό που νομίζουν ότι θέλει ή περιμένει ο άλλος, μέχρι που τα κάνουν μαντάρα! Τουλάχιστον, κάποια στιγμή αποφασίζουν να είναι ειλικρινείς και επιτέλους βρίσκουν την άκρη!

Βασικό κομμάτι του βιβλίου είναι και η ιστορία του πατέρα της Ίντι και της γυναίκας του Λέιλα, που φαίνεται πως αντιμετωπίζουν κάποια προβλήματα στο γάμο τους. Παρόλο που και οι δύο είναι ερωτευμένοι ο ένας με τον άλλον, δεν συζητούν σε βάθος με αποτέλεσμα να δημιουργήσουν λανθασμένες αντιλήψεις ο ένας για τον άλλο. Μια όμορφη ιστορία που είχε ένα αρκετά μεγάλο μερίδιο στο συγκεκριμένο βιβλίο, λόγω και του ότι η Ίντι αγαπάει πολύ και τους δύο και θέλει να τους δει ευτυχισμένους.

[♥ℳelody · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5-4 stars

I'm stuck on how to rate this. I enjoyed the first half very much. But the main tension between the hero and heroine was dragged out for too long and added a lot of unnecessary distance and miscommunication. I loved Gowan, the yummy Scottish love muffin Duke who loves and worships Edie from the first moment he lays eyes on her. He was very refreshing and adorable with his strict honor code and wanting to romance and love his bride with all he possesses. *swoon* He is such a romantic I loved it. I wanted to strangle the heroine Edie for listening to her chatter mouth stepmother's misguided 'advice' about intimacy and marital relationships. Especially since said stepmother has been having marital issues of her own, faking it has gotten you nowhere dearie so don't dish out what you don't know about. So naturally I was not thrilled with the plot device used in here because it was something that could have easily been avoided and managed. I liked Edie but she tested my patience with her willingness to continue lying to Gowan just to benefit him. It hurts when they have sex and she can't orgasm so instead of telling him she grits her teeth and bears the discomfort. Let's just say it made the sex scenes not very enjoyable and uncomfortable to read through. I love angsty situations, but this was a little unbearable. She doesn't tell him and it starts to put distance and strain between them and she complains and gets angry over his countless Duke responsibilities and how he has no time for her. I found that a little unreasonable. Yet holing yourself up in your room playing your cello & demanding no disturbance is going to help?? No. And I found it hypocritical hilarious how she would get in a huff over Gowan bringing his own Chef and fine china when they travel but it's perfectly normal and reasonable to have a carriage and coachmen just to carry her cello?? Pot meet kettle. I loved that Edie was a cello player (one of my fav instruments) but there were moments that I wanted someone to throw that thing out the window. lol I would have raged and thrown the book against the wall if it hadn't been for Edie's own struggle and torment over lying to Gowan. She clearly didn't want to disappoint him and hated lying and wanted to spend more time with him so I can't fault her for that. She was very conflicted and torn up about it so it made up for *some* of my frustrations.

I just wish James wouldn't insert the meddling secondary characters who hand out ill-advised opinions and suggestions that lead the heroine in the wrong direction. She's done it a few times in her other stories and it happened here as well. I don't mind it at times but here it caused a lot of unnecessary grief and distance between Edie and Gowan. The minute Edie's young loosey goosey step-mother Layla started talking about faking orgasms just to make your husband happy I had that 'uh oh' moment. Of course in a moment of panic and desperation Edie uses the advice and keeps up the farce for a good portion of the book only to have chatty Kathy Layla tell her 100 pages later 'that's not what I meant!' Oh really? Then what did you mean numb-skull?? Next time don't tell your inexperienced virgin stepdaughter things like that before she gets married. Layla really tested my patience with her chirping and moaning over how her husband hates her while she's totally oblivious to her own reckless actions. Put a sock in it. Maybe if you stopped acting like a light skirt to make your husband jealous then he wouldn't be angry with you. Duh. And of course 2 seconds after meeting Gowan's little sister Susannah, Layla insists the girl is hers and she's her mother and wants to adopt her (don't get me started on how unrealistic that instant-bond was forged). And yet she turns around and accuses Gowan of not thinking of Edie first when he let Layla adopt the little girl. According to her, he never gave Edie a chance to be a mother to Susannah. Um seriously? You gave Edie no chance to get the know the child before you claimed her as yours, you did that, not Gowan you oblivious half-wit. Sorry a fan of hers I was NOT. Way too much self-entitlement and silly hypocrisy with this character which I was waiting for someone to set her straight on. Hhmmp.

And I know I'm in the minority when I say this but I did think the verbal and physical reaming of Gowan near the end was a little unfair & extreme. Yes he said some harsh things (which were totally misconstrued & taken the wrong way by the way) and he shouldn't have run off but a marriage involves two people and Edie had her faults too. She lied to him and instead of talking kept her mouth shut and deceived him. Cut the guy some slack. I don't blame him for lashing out and being hurt. Seeing everyone gang up on him with their 'how could you's!' was a bit much IMO. And during Layla's vicious tirade against him she says Gowan took away Edie's self confidence..yeah what about Gowan? After how long he finally finds out he couldn't please his wife in bed. That self-confidence thing and trust goes both ways.

Anyways, I did enjoy James's twist on the Rapunzel story. There is a tower, some climbing and teary ILY's in said tower. It was a very sweet and charming turn on a classic fairy tale. :P Eloisa James always makes HR so intriguing, fun, witty and new in her own way and this series is testament to that. Hoping there are more Fairy Tale stories to be told!

[Menia · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5/5*
Buddy-reading 💖 Geo, Marilena, Vaso, Joulia, Georgia

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

review posted on Got Fiction? Book Blog

***spoilers***

I liked this, but for all the awesomeness of the plot, I just didn't love it.

This book just wasn’t for me, but at the same time, I really couldn’t tell you why. Most of my friends gave it 5 stars, and yet for me, I had no problem putting it down. This makes it kind of hard to review.

I like the plot of this book, and I really like how the majority of their problems stem from such realistic events. Like marrying someone you don’t know, and then learning to live with them. Seriously, where was this book when I first got married? But at the same time, parts of it felt tedious to me.

Edie is a cellist, however as the daughter of an earl, she can’t do anything with her music but play for her own enjoyment. This is a shame as she’s pretty much the best cellist in England, possibly the Continent.

Gowan is a Scottish duke, and a very wealthy man. He’s also a very pragmatic man. In his quest to avoid being like his horrible father, he has become not only a stick-in-the-mud, but a very driven, very tedious man. And possibly more like his father than he cares to imagine.

However, the first time he sees Edie, all of this changes.

Edie has an incredibly high fever at her coming out ball. She’s so feverish, she just smiles and nods to everyone. Gowan sees this beautiful angel floating around the ball and as she’s not chatty, and not throwing herself at him, he asks her father for her hand.

One thing I liked was that this was rectified fairly early on so the Big Misunderstanding never reared its ugly head. Instead, he’s so excited and so overly-amorous, that he doesn’t realize that while their nights are amazing for him, for her. . .they aren’t.

This is the biggest conflict in the story. Edie is faking and feels absolutely dreadful about it, and Gowan is clueless. Until he finds out. Then he’s furious. And boy does he make Edie feel like crap. So Edie locks herself in a tower with her cello, and Gowan leaves her to cool his temper. I really think this was the best part of the story. Gowan realizing what a jerk he’d been, then hearing an earful from Edie’s stepmother really drove home how horrible he’d been.

So he climbed the tower, with cracked ribs, during a horrible flooding rainstorm, and tried to win back the woman he realized that not only does he love, but she loves him too! You know when you read a book and you really wanted a groveling scene? This book has a fabulous groveling scene that made even this reader forgive Gowan.

***ARC courtesy of Avon Books and edelweiss

[ineska · Rating 2 out of 5]

ako itko da ovoj knjizi vecu ocjenu od dvojke (i to cisto zbog truda pisanja) taj je lud covjek. prvo glavni lik se zove Gowan!?!? ono wtf!?!? Tko se uopce tako zove???? kolko god mi njegovo "usrano" ime iskakalo po stranicama totalno sam se trudila zamisliti kako se zove Gideon (cisto da ublazim asocijaciju). Ali ajde nastavljam dalje,trudim se,to je najbitnije... dok ne nailazim na dio u kojoj se nas govnar na formalnoj veceri (engleska 1800 i neka hlace na crtu,frak) pojavljuje u kiltu!?? Ma daj me nemoj... ono...sta ja to citam epove visocija...??? i tolko sam ubrijala u prepravljanje nekih djelova knjige u glavi,da sam kilt pocela citati kako je lik nosio klit !!!! Kontam...ludim...ok...to je zbog gowana... ( ime doticnog,jelte) Ali uporno nastavljam dalje...ne predajem se...jos malo nade ostaje za mene da procitam ljubavno povijesni roman,ipak je to Eloisa ...kad me dio u kojem se objavljuje kako je taj muzevno sexypilni i sta sve ne govnar njufer...what!?!? wait wait whattt!?! tekst mi odvaljuje takav samar da se trijeznim momentalno... iako je ni mrtva pijana dalje nebi mogla probaviti.... kratko jasno...katastrofa... ovoj knjizi je mjesto u toj kuli,ispod tone povijesnog smeca i da je nitko ne nadje....

[Becca · Rating 1 out of 5]

I had been so excited to buy this book. I love when the hero and heroine are less experienced sexually as it usually has more layers and more exuberance. I immediately dove into this book, even though I was in the middle of another. I was so disappointed. These characters did not talk to each other...it was the greatest misunderstanding I have ever seen and some of the things the characters said to each other were just plain awful and not redeemable. The story contained too much sexual dysfunction to be enjoyable. There is lack of experience, bumbling about, and joy as things are "figured out," and then there is a relationship that needs therapy. This tale fell into the therapy category and I didn't enjoy it. If this is what people assume virgins go through, that is just plain sad. It may be realistic for some, but it did not provide me with the escapist pleasure I enjoy. Major let down.

[Antonella · Rating 3 out of 5]

2,5 ⭐

[Lover of Romance · Rating 5 out of 5]

"You're my heart, Edie. My Everything"

When Gowan first see's Edith, he knows he must have her as his wife. As he is business partners with her father, it is a very simple matter for them to become engaged. He just never expected to feel so alive and is anxiously waiting for when he can truly take her as His. Edith is suprised but not shocked when she learns of the engagement, without her consent. She knows her father has her best interest at heart. After seeing her father and step mother, have such a emotional and stressful relationship, Edith wants nothing of the kind. Something practical and logical is what she would prefer. However as she and Gowan spend time together, and share some sensual embraces she knows that she could very easily fall in love with the Scot. After they get married however, their intimate relations take a down fall, and instead of being honest with Gowan, Edie keeps the truth to herself until it ends up blowing up in her face, and she hides herself up in a tower, believing that she is a failure as a wife. Gowan will have to lower his pride and humble himself in order to keep Edith as his own, because he couldn't bear losing her after he has found a womna he desperately loves.

I have read a few books from this author, and whenever I have, I usually have a fun time with her stories. The last one I read was the Ugly Duchess, which was one of my favorite historicals to read. So I have been so excited to read this, so when I received the ARC from Avon and Edelweiss I was thrilled. I haven't read all of the fairy tale series, but I have read a couple and LOVED it so far. I do enjoy a strong romance that is based on the Fairy Tales. It almost bring a magic into the story, and there is always a HEA right? I had heard some good reviews about Once Upon A Tower, so I knew I would like it. I was blown away by how much I just LOVED this one. Its probably my favorite of her books so far.

Gowan and Edith first meet at a ball, where they don't talk much, but dance and it seems to be enough for them both. Gowan knows from the first moment he dances with Edith, that she is the one he would choose as his wife. As the Duke of Kinross, he has quite a bit of wealth, prestige and power. But he finds himself falling in love with Edith fast, and a intense desire seems to escalate between them both. Edith doesn't know much about her Fiancee, and she wonders what type of relationship they will have. Edith is a talented cello player, just like her father, but has yet to be made known to the public. Music is life to her, it is everything...until she meets Gowan who introduces her to a new passion and a love. When she married Gowan there is quite a bit that she learns about her self and her new husband. When she begins to doubt herself and the outcome of their relationship, she could very well destroy the one thing that she holds most dear.

Gowan is a Scot, handsome, a sexy brogue and is more than enough of a male to appeal to any woman. I just adored Gowan, he is possessive yet protective, and he is very sensual despite being a virgin. He definitely had my heart rate up. Edith is the type of heroine, you can't help but admire. I love how strong she is inside and out. She is very musically talented, but there is much more to her than meets the eye. She makes some mistakes, but I found that a admirable, she seems human and easier to relate with. I loved how she stuck with things when it really gets rough. Such a lovely pair. At first they are so different from each other, but I enjoyed seeing these two interact and it was quite a ride with all the bumps and hills these two had to climb over to get their happy ending.

There was quite a bit that I liked about this one. I do love a fun romance based on a fairy tale...this one being Repunzel. There is quite a bit of playfulness at times, a deep sense of sensuality and even though this couple hits some strong conflict, it only helps strengthen their connection to each other. It has been a little while since I have enjoyed such a book. Such a deep riveting tale that is filled with enriching characters and a plot to take you on a adventure and passion. One you don't want to ever miss out on!!! A FAVORITE!!!

[Aou · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved the inexperienced couple!

[Laura (Kyahgirl) · Rating 2 out of 5]

2/5; 2 stars; C+

Ok, I will say right off the bat that I'll give Susan Duerden, the narrator,4/5 stars. She did a competent job with various female and male voices. I probably would have abandoned the book if a weaker narrator had read the story.

Considering how much I enjoyed another book in this fairy tale series, , this book was really disappointing. The disappointment is greatest for me because this is author is one of the only romance authors I've read who does a pretty good job defining some of the real trials faced by people in a new relationship. The problems faced by the main couple are twofold; bad sex is damaging to a relationship, especially when both people are inexperienced and clueless, and a committed relationship requires people to find the balance between work and home life that allows the relationship to flourish. Both of these issues could have been a good basis for a romance story to unfold around but the author failed. The story was BORING, the secondary characters were TSTL (Edith's parents) and the weave of the story just never came together enough to hold me.

I like this author so definitely recommend her to historical romance fans....just don't bother with this book.

[Choko · Rating 2 out of 5]

Maaaan, I am not happy. I do not know which part I disliked most. The writing itself was flawless, as usual. But the story... Are there any redeeming qualities to the way the Duke handled his supposed love??? When did it become OK to want to subjugate someone to your own will in order to posses them completely? And this is the only way you will have them in your life??? And how is it OK when you promise someone you will be fateful, the smallest bump in the relationship and you run to a tavern wench, supposedly to "learn how to please your woman"! Even if you do not really go through with actual sex, it is still very disloyal. Please!!!! And, and, and ....grrrrrr, so many things! Just not right!
I love reading Historical Romance Novels because they are written usually by women and for women. That usually implies a light read, not much thinking, a book to cuddle-up with on a lazy day and find some mindless joy in pretty words of fantasy so separate from today and now, that there is no possible way the story from the book can intertwine with my everyday life... This book was supposed to be even more so, since it was supposed to be a fairy tale. Well, it did not happen. It only made me angry about the dysfunctional way everyone communicated with everyone else and the hurtful things people not only said to each-other, but never satisfactory resolved, as it is the way in those tales. Instead of leaving me with a smile, the book left me nervous and agitated. This is not why I read romance novels and I feel very disappointed...

[Katie Gallagher · Rating 4 out of 5]

For other fun, bookish stuff, visit my blog!

Once Upon a Tower is of course inspired by the tale of Rapunzel. Of the three books of James that I’ve read, this one is the most “realistic.” The female and male MC are both quite young and sexually inexperienced. The chemistry between them is very strong, but when they get married, their inexperience in the bedroom introduces major tension into the relationship; I don’t know that I’ve ever read a more realistic and raw depiction of a young couple’s sexual struggles. I even read their first unfortunate sexcapade out loud to my husband. His response? “Oh, damn.”

So this is a more serious read than the other two here, and it will really pull at your heart strings. I’d also recommend it to any classical music fans out there; the female MC is an expert cellist, and James has really done her homework in this department.

[Yodamom · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.7 stars
I really love this authors retelling of fairytales, normally. This one missed the mark for me. I liked it, it was enjoyable but it lacked something that I found in the other books in the series. I never felt the characters drama, I just couldn't connect with them. He seemed to drift from one action to the next and I just didn't feel him and he was the one I wanted to like the most. I wanted more on him, what I got was a lot of business, a lot of responsibilities and blankness. The female lead was all music and just rubbed me wrong. I just didn't like her pure and constant need to talk music. The sex was painfully awful, the communication was not there. I could go on and on, but it just wasn't a great read for me. it wasn't the writing it was the characters.
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