En el Londres de 1812, Rebbeca y Arabella siguen boquiabiertas el relato de su amiga Brianna: un libro prohibido la está instruyendo en el arte de desarmar y enamorar a su elegante, cortés (¡pero tan frío y aburrido!) esposo, empeñado en tratarla como a una pieza de porcelana. Exactamente lo contrario de lo que ella y sus amigas desean de los hombres. ¿Y qué les cuenta Consejos de lady R.? Cosas que no deberían leer, ni mucho menos repetir en voz alta… Cosas muy, muy instructivas… Después de todo, como reza el título de uno de los capítulos de ese librito absurdamente censurado, «Nunca olvidéis que vosotras sabéis mejor que ellos lo que quieren».

Cosa può fare Brianna per far sciogliere il marito Colton, un aristocratico irresistibile ma freddo e troppo rispettoso? La scoperta di un libretto scandaloso sarà la via per dare una forte scossa al suo matrimonio.
Una storia deliziosa e molto carina, ambientata a metà ‘800, con personaggi decisamente intriganti, una lettura decisamente piacevole.
Peccato per alcuni errori decisamente eccessivi nella prima parte.
Effettive quattro stelle e mezzo. ( )

RATING: Almost 2.5 stars.

So I'll start with the pros: Emma Wildes has an engaging writing style and her idea (the one you read on the back-cover) was good for a Regency romance.

Now, the cons: Lots and lots. I confess I feel a little cheated. This book could have been good - some parts of it were, actually - but overall it fails. Why? Because it contains two short stories (it actually looked a bit like the author only had enough material for two short regency stories so she decided to put them together in the same book to try to get a novel) instead of one full-fledged one. Yes, you read that right. There is the story about the Duke and his wife, Brianna (advertised on the back cover) and there's the story of the Duke's younger brother, Robert, and Rebecca an unmarried friend of the Duchess. And it's not like this second story is just a background story with a couple of scenes; it's actually a complete story entitled to it's own chapters and way too much space in a book that should be about one couple.

As a result both stories and characters are badly developed. Also as a result, the book was painful to read at times... I actually prefered to read about Robert and Rebecca most of the time, so I hurried over the chapters devoted to the Duke and Brianna to get to the other parts. The change in POV and story made the narrative seem fractured and like I said before, made the reading quite annoying as I felt I was really getting into the story of one pair and then... BAM, the chapter ended and the next one opened with the other pair.

I'd have said it was a fluke, but I've read the other book by this author and the type of writing is exactly the same: two couples, two love stories, four different POVs. Even if it made a bit more sense in "An Indecent Proposal" that switch in the POV was still irritating at times; in this book I didn't see the need to add a second (you can't even call it a secondary story; it was actually a second story, as I mentioned before) plot. Robert and Rebecca deserved an entire book for themselves; that would have allowed the author to develop the story and characters better... in both books. ( )

Emma Wildes is a genius. ( )

Emma Wildes is a genius. ( )