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Coucher de soleil's Reviews > The Finer Things
The Finer Things (Saint Georges, #2)
by
by
** spoiler alert **
NB: As a general comment, here is a link to a more general complaint of mine regarding romance novels (this novel was cited as an example of the problems I discuss in my complaint).
This is easily one of the WORST books I have ever read.
The term I would use: a pile of shit. Yep.
Spoiler alert (but seriously, don't read this godawful mess)...
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OK.
Good points:
I like historical romance, in general. I can't say anything good about this at all, though. This was truly awful. It reminded me an earworm, actually: it was basically this godawful thing that I *wished* I could do away with but made myself finish because I'm a masochist like that and wtf why do I do this to myself???? So it never ended and I really WANTED it to end and go away but it just didn't. So I'm venting a little here.
Bad points:
Characters: The main character, Violette, throughout the entire book, always had things done TO her and never BY her. So since she took so little space as a character in this narrative, I am going to exemplify just how passive she was by not saying anything more about her here.
All the characters were insipid and uninteresting. However the one I absolutely HATED was the main male character, Blake.
This is what I would have liked to see happen to Blake.
Why? Simply put, the guy was a complete and utter asshole and a waste of space.
...He knows that a vulnerable young woman is married to a much older man. He realizes that there is an attraction between them. He also realizes that she came from a difficult background and yet he pursues her regardless (i.e. he actually makes out with/kisses her).
Remember: he pursues her despite the fact that an affair between the two of them might cause her irreparable harm (while he didn't know she was an orphan who had lived on the street at this point, it was obvious she was from the lower classes and had 'married up', so it wouldn't have been difficult to conclude that proceeding with caution might be the ethical thing to do here). But apparently this is a-okay because this woman is the main female character and he just couldn't help himself.
Later, when the main female character is charged with a murder she didn't commit, he does help her, but basically he never lets her forget just how far above her he is. For example, there is a point in the book where she tries to ask him about himself and why he doesn't want to marry, and he cuttingly remarks that she is not allowed to ask him that question (I am paraphrasing here, but this was the gist of it).
It takes most of the book before he admits that he loves her, ostensibly because (for a good part of the book at least) he supposedly wasn't over this woman he had 'loved' (the quotes are mine) in the past. However it really felt that the main reason was that the main female character was just never good enough for him. This impression was reinforced by the fact that he and his family were supposedly friendly to this woman but would bemoan her taste in clothes, her manner of speaking, her everything really, and encourage her to 'better' herself by becoming more like them. It is only once she is sufficiently like them that he begins to see her as a potential wife, really.
World building: The world building (e.g. details about England of the time) were not too badly done, although briefly touched on. (Okay, I guess I managed to say something nice after all.)
Plot: OMG but the plot was dumb.
I agree with you, Jean-Luc. I really, really do.
It starts out with Violet/te (*gag*) being mistreated by most of the village where she moved to with her first husband. Her first (elderly) husband dies after six months of marriage (she is eventually accused of her husband's murder, as I describe below, in large part because the husband's daughter is a horrible witch -didn't you know that women who are not young and/or physically attractive are ALWAYS horrible witches?). It is discovered the first husband was bankrupt so he actually left Violet/te (*gag*) with nothing. She runs away to London where eventually Blake/asshole finds her and he gets her a job and gives her some money. Then it turns out there will be a trial so he marries her so that she can be tried in the House of Lords rather than as a commoner (what is peculiar here, as I saw another review here point out, is that she already wasn't a commoner as a result of her first marriage, but whatevs, I guess).
She and Blake marry and agree to have the marriage annulled once the trial is over but then of course they realize they are crazy about each other (what they actually had in common I never knew, but okay) and do the deed. She realizes that he will never love her so she leaves London despite the upcoming trial, and goes to live in Paris.
...Of course, once she arrives in Paris she realizes that she is pregnant, and (of course) she decides not to tell Blake (I'm not touching the ethics of that one with a ten foot pole, either). There is a useless other lord character who is courting her. She argues with Blake once he comes to Paris and finds out about the baby -by this point, you should also know that Blake is now engaged to another woman who was a longtime friend of his family (i.e. named Catherine) and who was the one who actually taught Violette how to 'better' herself.
...I'm also skipping over a lot of idiocy here: Blake's older brother got injured while protecting Violette from the lecherous advances of some lordling who knew just from hearing her talk that she 'wasn't a lady'. He becomes paraplegic and he and Catherine (who actually love each other) agonize over the impossibility of their union now that he can't knock her up for the good of the Earldom. Or something. So she gets engaged to the guy's brother, even though she doesn't love him and the brother (i.e. Blake) loves Violette.
...Meanwhile there is Ralph Horn who is another orphan she grew up with on the streets of London and who saved her, when she was a child, from a procurer/pimp (of course she never saved herself!). Of course Ralph wants Violette as well and he is a suspect in the first husband's murder.
Violette goes back to England to give their child to Blake's family because he can 'give her a better life'. She is of course arrested and thrown in jail, and only rescued when the real killer is caught.
...wtf did I just read?
Do you know, I really, really want back the time I spent on this crap?
Truly, one of the most godawful books I have EVER read. Don't bother!!
This is easily one of the WORST books I have ever read.
The term I would use: a pile of shit. Yep.
Spoiler alert (but seriously, don't read this godawful mess)...
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
OK.
Good points:
I like historical romance, in general. I can't say anything good about this at all, though. This was truly awful. It reminded me an earworm, actually: it was basically this godawful thing that I *wished* I could do away with but made myself finish because I'm a masochist like that and wtf why do I do this to myself???? So it never ended and I really WANTED it to end and go away but it just didn't. So I'm venting a little here.
Bad points:
Characters: The main character, Violette, throughout the entire book, always had things done TO her and never BY her. So since she took so little space as a character in this narrative, I am going to exemplify just how passive she was by not saying anything more about her here.
All the characters were insipid and uninteresting. However the one I absolutely HATED was the main male character, Blake.
This is what I would have liked to see happen to Blake.
Why? Simply put, the guy was a complete and utter asshole and a waste of space.
...He knows that a vulnerable young woman is married to a much older man. He realizes that there is an attraction between them. He also realizes that she came from a difficult background and yet he pursues her regardless (i.e. he actually makes out with/kisses her).
Remember: he pursues her despite the fact that an affair between the two of them might cause her irreparable harm (while he didn't know she was an orphan who had lived on the street at this point, it was obvious she was from the lower classes and had 'married up', so it wouldn't have been difficult to conclude that proceeding with caution might be the ethical thing to do here). But apparently this is a-okay because this woman is the main female character and he just couldn't help himself.
Later, when the main female character is charged with a murder she didn't commit, he does help her, but basically he never lets her forget just how far above her he is. For example, there is a point in the book where she tries to ask him about himself and why he doesn't want to marry, and he cuttingly remarks that she is not allowed to ask him that question (I am paraphrasing here, but this was the gist of it).
It takes most of the book before he admits that he loves her, ostensibly because (for a good part of the book at least) he supposedly wasn't over this woman he had 'loved' (the quotes are mine) in the past. However it really felt that the main reason was that the main female character was just never good enough for him. This impression was reinforced by the fact that he and his family were supposedly friendly to this woman but would bemoan her taste in clothes, her manner of speaking, her everything really, and encourage her to 'better' herself by becoming more like them. It is only once she is sufficiently like them that he begins to see her as a potential wife, really.
World building: The world building (e.g. details about England of the time) were not too badly done, although briefly touched on. (Okay, I guess I managed to say something nice after all.)
Plot: OMG but the plot was dumb.
I agree with you, Jean-Luc. I really, really do.
It starts out with Violet/te (*gag*) being mistreated by most of the village where she moved to with her first husband. Her first (elderly) husband dies after six months of marriage (she is eventually accused of her husband's murder, as I describe below, in large part because the husband's daughter is a horrible witch -didn't you know that women who are not young and/or physically attractive are ALWAYS horrible witches?). It is discovered the first husband was bankrupt so he actually left Violet/te (*gag*) with nothing. She runs away to London where eventually Blake/asshole finds her and he gets her a job and gives her some money. Then it turns out there will be a trial so he marries her so that she can be tried in the House of Lords rather than as a commoner (what is peculiar here, as I saw another review here point out, is that she already wasn't a commoner as a result of her first marriage, but whatevs, I guess).
She and Blake marry and agree to have the marriage annulled once the trial is over but then of course they realize they are crazy about each other (what they actually had in common I never knew, but okay) and do the deed. She realizes that he will never love her so she leaves London despite the upcoming trial, and goes to live in Paris.
...Of course, once she arrives in Paris she realizes that she is pregnant, and (of course) she decides not to tell Blake (I'm not touching the ethics of that one with a ten foot pole, either). There is a useless other lord character who is courting her. She argues with Blake once he comes to Paris and finds out about the baby -by this point, you should also know that Blake is now engaged to another woman who was a longtime friend of his family (i.e. named Catherine) and who was the one who actually taught Violette how to 'better' herself.
...I'm also skipping over a lot of idiocy here: Blake's older brother got injured while protecting Violette from the lecherous advances of some lordling who knew just from hearing her talk that she 'wasn't a lady'. He becomes paraplegic and he and Catherine (who actually love each other) agonize over the impossibility of their union now that he can't knock her up for the good of the Earldom. Or something. So she gets engaged to the guy's brother, even though she doesn't love him and the brother (i.e. Blake) loves Violette.
...Meanwhile there is Ralph Horn who is another orphan she grew up with on the streets of London and who saved her, when she was a child, from a procurer/pimp (of course she never saved herself!). Of course Ralph wants Violette as well and he is a suspect in the first husband's murder.
Violette goes back to England to give their child to Blake's family because he can 'give her a better life'. She is of course arrested and thrown in jail, and only rescued when the real killer is caught.
...wtf did I just read?
Do you know, I really, really want back the time I spent on this crap?
Truly, one of the most godawful books I have EVER read. Don't bother!!
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Reading Progress
Started Reading
June 25, 2018
– Shelved
June 25, 2018
– Shelved as:
godawful-worst-ever
June 25, 2018
–
Finished Reading
December 19, 2018
– Shelved as:
worst-of-2018
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Chris
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Jun 26, 2018 08:27AM
OUCH!
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Chris wrote: "OUCH!"lol! Yeah it was pretty terrible.
...And believe me, I do know by now not to expect too much from romance novels (I mostly read them because they help quiet my anxiety, honestly), but yeah this one was just awful.
