After The Kiss, by Karen Ranney

A February read: After the Kiss (excerpt), by Karen Ranney.

It all began innocently enough.

Margaret is a proper widow, living penuriously and quietly in the Downs until she is forced to sell one of three scandalous books she discovered. Michael is the Earl of Moncrief, forced by circumstances and a profligate family to marry for money. When the two meet, the attraction is mutual and alarming for both of them.

Add a mystery involving the lurid Journals of Augustin X, a meddling mother, three sisters looking for husbands, a starchy, disapproving butler, and the plot is complete. Except, of course, for the bargain that Michael proposes, After the Kiss.

This was a B. An interesting book, but it had some sylistic problems that made me enjoy it less. The main problem was similar to the one I had with Jamie Denton's Sleeping With The Enemy: dialogues too drawn out, with too much internal monologue and description in between, which made it impossible to easily follow who said what and in response to what.

Another stylistic problem was that, to change POV in the middle of a scene, the author would insert a break (leave a little blank space, which IMO usually indicates a change of scene or of location). Maybe that's more "correct" than headhopping, but I much prefer the latter. Every time I ran into a break I'd mentally prepare myself for another scene, and had to bring myself back when I realized we were in the same place, just inside someone else's head.

I felt the book had way too many love scenes, and that they were too long (never thought I'd complain of that!) They were quite sensuous, but I ended up skimming them.

Apart from all that, I liked the story and the characters. I especially enjoyed how Michael finally decided to put his mother in her place and stop her from spending the money she didn't have. I usually don't get it when people in romance novels decide they have to marry a wealthy man / heiress, just so that their relatives can continue living in opulent luxury (not just comfortably, mind you. These people need to live in a huge mansion, with 248 servants and buy 68 ball gowns per season, so the heroine / hero has to sacrifice so that they can). Anyway, the road Michael took would be much more sensible. Just learn to live within your means!!