Sin and Sensibility

Rating:
Summary: Pleasently Surprised!
Review: Holy cow, Suzanne Enoch stepped it up a notch, in this novel about A women who wants to have A little fun with A rake named Valentine! I've read A few of Suzanne Enoch books before and they were always too tame for my taste. Even when she wrote about bad boys, they were always watered down heroes. I love reading about bad boys, and I am A big Susan Johnson fan. I've yet to find another author who writes about or portrays A bad boy better than Susan Johnson. She is not afraid to show just how bad A bad boy really is. Your either A rake, or you are not. So, when an author writes about A rake , and tries to make him tame, it's not realistic to me. So, I was pleasantly surprise that Suzanne Enoch finally got it together. She did an excellent job portraying Valentine as A rake. The story was also very interesting and witty. I laughed constantly throughout this book. I also liked the fact that Eleanor's compelling brothers did not overshadow Valentine. A lot of times when an author is going to write A sequel, the character of that sequel overshadows the hero in the present story. That was not the case in this book. This book was absolutely wonderful! It's been A while since I've read A book that I enjoyed from the first page to the last . It was also refreshing that it was'nt A love at first sight thing for the hero. He just started to become attracted to her one day. The only problem I had with the book was that, it needed A few more juicer sex scenes. it's about A rake for crying out loud! Two stingy sex scenes isn't going to cut it! Otherwise from that, this book was A good read.


Rating:
Summary: Not bad...
Review: I agree with the other reviewers, that this book is not Ms Enoch's best effort. However, I did enjoy it. I liked Valentine alot. He was a nice guy. It was really sweet that he wanted to please both Eleanor and her brothers. I also liked that Eleanor was really independent, but she could be rather spoiled and willful. She didn't always show good judgement.
I liked her brothers much better and hope they get their own stories. Overall this was not a bad read...just not Ms. Enoch's best!!

Rating:
Summary: Oh dear ...
Review: I had misgivings about this book when I saw the title, but pushed them away with the interest of the story premise. However, I should have listened - an alleged twist on an Austen title is often an indicator of bad things.
Lady Eleanor Griffin decides she has had enough of being confined by her brothers and her position. She wants fun.
Enter Valentine, Marquis of Deverill, a friend of her eldest brother, set to keep an eye on her. He is a typical rake who is now put in a quandry by his position of trust to this young lady who is also fast becoming an object of desire.
Well this all sounded good, Valentine sounded good. Alas it was not good. At all.
It was chiefly Eleanor, she was just too, too much the modern heroine dressed in Regency costume posturing against a wallpaper regency background. She was simply not believable for a young lady of the time, apart from the fact that she was immature, with more hair than wit. She wanted to have 'fun' and apparently gets what she wanted with Valentine with no thought for the consequences.
Unrealistic.


Rating:
Summary: Not the best from a great author
Review: I have loved every book I have read from Suzanne Enoch. I was so excited to get this book and yet from the first 5 pages I knew it was not up to the standards I have come to count on from this author. It took me several nights to get thru to the end and it was almost a task vs. a pleasure to read it. The characters and chemistry were dry and lacked the usually snappy dialog that keeps us fans engaged. I did not get the reason the herione felt so trapped and the constant tension with her family members seemed silly and was over written to the point it was annoying. I hope the next historical follows the examples of the much better "London's Perfect Scoundrel", "Taming Rafe", "Reforming a Rake" and "Meet me at Midnight". These were exciting page turners you could not put down and had heros and heriones you really loved.

Rating:
Summary: Would rate it higher if I could...
Review: I thought Enoch had done her best in "England's Perfect Hero", but this one is even better. Her ability to write engaging dialogue amazes me - both main characters are intelligent and witty (often at the same time), and I never found myself bored during their frequent conversations. Eleanor had my sympathy from the beginning - she perfectly portrays a young woman frustrated by the rigid rules placed on her by society merely because of her gender, while at the same time consumed by longing for an adventure she doesn't know how to have. Valentine is glorious as a rake struggling with feelings of true respect and friendship for a woman for the first time. He seems so genuinely confused by the whole thing, while also torn by loyalty to the very few men he is willing to call friends - her brothers. He is sweet and charming and comic as he sorts through his myriad of emotions. I love that Enoch makes it hard for the hero and heroine to realize they are both changing for the better and becoming the right people for one another to have a lasting relationship with. Toss in a realistic villain to add just the right amount of conflict - it doesn't weight the story down, but also keeps it from being too fairy-tale cute - and you have a dynamite tale kept me reading for hours straight. A definite keeper.

Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable Page Turner - 4 1/2 stars
Review: I, like the other reviewers, am a huge S. Enoch fan. Unlike the other reviewers, however, I found this book to be a delicious page turner. I couldn't put it down until I'd finished it, and this does not happen often for me!!

I really enjoyed the setup of the older brother-type having to chaperone his friends' younger sister. Nell was an enjoyable character... a young woman who is trying to experience life under the watchful eyes of her overprotective brothers. Most women can related to an urge to "walk on the wild side" at least once. I also felt that the character of Valentine was well-developed, and that his conflicts (between living up to his "bad boy" heritage vs. forming a loving relationship vs. being loyal to his friends) added depth to the story.

I really enjoyed the developing relationship between Valentine and Nell, and felt that S. Enoch really captured the feelings of falling in love for both characters (and the reader, too!).

In summary, I really enjoyed it. I will be keeping this book to re-read in the future! I cannot understand the complaints of the other reviewers since this one hooked me. I really look forward to reading more stories about these brothers, especially Sebastian (the oldest). If my hunch is right, Nell's best friend may be nurturing a crush on one of the brothers....

Rating:
Summary: A Valentine aimed at your heart!
Review: If ever there was a splendid romantic hero, it is Valentine. He's a truly wicked rake stuck with a truly innocent heroine. Nell wants excitement and daring, but like all real Regency belles, she really has no idea just how dangerous her nice polite world really is. Valentine, and her brothers, however, do. Watching this group protect their jewel makes for an extremely enjoyable read. Watching her brothers watch their rakish friend was equally enjoyable.

Sin and Sensibility has tremendous depth and realism. The heroine is not a "blue stocking" or unusually outrageous, or otherwise a 20th century woman disguised as a Regency Heroine. This girl is real. Ms. Enoch works with the contrainsts of the age and makes the results ageless! Huzzah!




Rating:
Summary: Well...
Review: Ms. Enoch is a truly talented author but her latest offering has fallen a bit short of what she normally provides her readers. Overall this was your typical regency set romance. What was not typical was the unlikable heroine Eleanor.

I wanted to like Nell. I truly did...but she came off as petulant, spoiled, and self serving. These were just some of her finer qualities! She wants one thing but ignores her inner voice when it tells her she is about to partake in a particular activity that perhaps she would be better off avoiding. The fact that she does the exact thing (not thinking and acting like a twit at the ripe old age of 21) that her brothers were "protecting" her from does not increase her "likeability factor" at all. For the entirety of the read she "wants" one thing but doesn't know what it is. Okay. But does she take time to figure out what that "something" is? The answer is no.

Valentine on the other hand is your typical rake hero. He lives a life that is well...rather colorful and he has no real use from woman (this is part of his past) and so when Eleanor's brother calls in a favor and asks Valentine to "watch" over Nell to make sure that she doesn't bring scandal to the proper Griffin name, Valentine is justifiably shocked. He represents "Sin" personified! Now honor demands that he watch out for the impetuous Nell. What he can't understand is why he is suddenly seeing her in a new light.

This was an okay read. Again it's hard to get invested in a read when one or both of the main characters turn you off. I did try to put myself in Nell's shoes and I could understand how she would have felt rather smothered by her protective older brothers. What I couldn't understand was her flaky behavior. There really seemed to be no rhyme or reason for what she did. Valentine was the better of the two and even he at times made me frustrated. Basically this is not the best that this author can do and I can't tell you how hard that is for me to say. I love Ms. Enoch and buy her books simply because her name is on the cover. I will continue to do so and I recommend that if you are new to this author, please don't judge her off of this effort. She has many worthy titles on her backlist that I highly recommend.

Official Reviewer for www.romancedesigns.com

Rating:
Summary: It was okay
Review: There just wasn't enough character development. It doesn't help when the heroine isn't very likeable. She spends the entire book whining about how she wants freedom and adventure. When her brothers agree to ease up she still complains. The characters just aren't very mature.

Rating:
Summary: Most was not adventurous enough for me!
Review: This book for the most part was only a three star - although by the end it did get better. A true deep character development was just not there - I felt there could have been so much more to Valentine but I was not feeling it. And the reviewer that felt Eleanor was too modern day might be correct = at the most she seemed confused. I mean what she really wanted was a love affair not some crazy adventure. And speaking of adventure - for these two that pride themselves on wanting excitement and some wild adventure - a swim in Hyde Park - not a real page turner- very oh humm!! The way this was written I just did not feel the intense love coming from Val to give up his carefree life fot Eleanor -again just not enough in depth character development here. For me too there just was not enough intesity to the love scenes - and not enough of them!! It took too long for the real adventure to begin- which came at the end -- and I really did like the end but not enough to give it more stars!