One More Kiss

Mary Blayney
Random House/Bantem Dell
April 30, 2013
Description:

Mary Blayney, the acclaimed author of Courtesan’s Kiss, returns to the Pennistan family with this new historical romance—the delectable story of a free-spirited beauty with no interest in marriage who gets more than she bargained for when a seductive kiss leads to the possibility of love.

 Dispatched by their ambitious father to snag a titled husband, Beatrice Brent and her twin sister, Cecilia, attend a house party with an array of eligible gentlemen. Defiantly ignoring her father’s wishes, Beatrice flirts shamelessly with Lord Jessup Pennistan, a gamer with scandal in his past—and the one man her father has warned her against. But when flirting goes too far, Beatrice suddenly finds herself engaged and, worse, estranged from her family. Though convinced that her fiance’s wicked ways will bring nothing but heartache, Beatrice is powerless against Jess’s masterful seduction and the anticipated delights of the marriage bed.

A gambling man who has lost more than his family is willing to forgive him for, Jess quickly realizes that compromising Beatrice was the best mistake he ever made. But to keep her he must right the wrongs of the past, reclaim his lost fortunes, and place the boldest wager of his life. For now he has everything to win . . . and everything to lose.

I’m a big fan of Regency romances, but because of that little things that don’t ring true bug me more than they might otherwise. Overall, this was an incredibly boring book. There was a slight villain (okay, he did do some pretty danged nasty things), but it just didn’t ring very strongly. It mostly felt like we were told about everything, rather than experiencing some of the feel of danger from the villain.

There are two romances in this book. The primary one features Beatrice Brent and Lord Jess, a duke’s son. The secondary one features Beatrice’s twin, Cecelia and Marquess Destry. I felt almost no chemistry whatsoever between Bea and Jess, though I was certainly told about it enough times. There was a charming little coming together between Cici and Destry, which saved this book from being a flat-out 1-star.

The vast majority of the book takes place at a house party, shortly before the twins are due to have their come-out (though it’s not a huge come-out since their father is a mill owner, and not a member of the aristocracy). Cici is incredibly snobby for a mill owner’s daughter, and Bea just bored me.

Toward the end of the book, someone dies. And even though it could have been a big kerfluffle, it wasn’t. It was just another…big whoopin’ deal. He died.

Then there are the errors. I’d like to think that some of them were either some sort Regency thing that pretty much every other Regency author has overlooked or that it was something that will be caught before the final, published version comes out (I read an ARC from Sourcebooks). However, almost every time the character named Crenshaw was mentioned or introduced, it was always Baron Lord Crenshaw. I’m sorry, but you generally are not going around introducing people like this, unless his first name happens to be Lord, which I doubt.

Then, at a given point they’re betting on which chicken is going to win a race (that should be a clue as to just how dull One More Kiss was, that there’s a chicken race). During the “excitement” of the race, while they’re standing around waiting for the chickens to get to the finish line, there’s a bet that no one can keep quiet for a minute. If a character talked during the minute, they had to pay a shilling. However, when one character saves another character from breaking the silence, said Character 2 comments that Character 1 just saved him a guinea. A guinea would be 21+ shillings (approximately in that period). How do you make a basic currency mistake like that, and this is the 5^th book this author has put out in this particular series.

In the end, I can’t think of any reason to recommend this book, other than Cici and Destry make a sweet pair once Cici finally gets over herself. (1.5/5)

Provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

–Review by Victoria