Status Updates From The Reluctant Countess

It really seemed like it would finally end but surprise! 100 pages more of this growling earl with warning flags of a domestic abuser, creepily childish but oh always so brave countess with alabaster skin and raven curls and a mess of a rambling weak plot. Not to mention you can see how weak the period knowledge is, so even the setting makes me roll my eyes.

This must be the worst book I have been reading in ages. This is for a book club, I swear — the idea is to read something you expected not to like and this is perfect for that.

The writing has not improved. Now we've dealt with a number of coercive interludes between Patrick and Sophie. He comes on hard, she protests, he brushes her stated intentions aside. She freaks out, understandably, and flees. Not a great pattern...

So far the writing is extremely clunky. I think we've gotten through half the romance clichés already, and unless the plot goes somewhere totally unexpected, we should be at the 70% mark of the plot pacing, too. What's going on?

Got to love an overprotective man in love!

Patrick and Sophie such a delightful pair,

Dragging

Review coming later! ;)

I just love a heroine that isn't who she seems... ;)

*ARC courtesy of Random House Publishing Group - Bantam Dell via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*

***ARC courtesy of Loveswept via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review**

OFFS!! In Britain, a woman's fanny is NOT her backside, so dropping her on it would be a) difficult and b) rather painful. I'm sure a gentleman in regency times would never have referred to such a thing. Arse, yes. Bum or bottom, maybe. Backside perhaps if he wanted to be less shocking. I'm sorry; I must seem ridiculously pedantic to some, but things like this really spoil a reading experience.

*rolls eyes* Here is a massively WRONG conclusion. Watch me as I jump to it!