lorrrrrrrrrrrrved it ( )

La valiente chica inglesa consigue superar todas las probabilidades en su contra y burla a los villanos”.
Ese es el titular del regreso de Zoe Lexham a Inglaterra. Tras doce años en el exótico oriente, es una increíble experta en las artes de la sensualidad y sabe todo aquello que cualquier dama que se precie no debería saber. Es un escándalo andante, sin ninguna esperanza de futuro... a menos que alguien consiga civilizarla.
Lucien de Grey, el Duque de Marchmont, no es caballero de brillante armadura. Es un cínico redomado, que se aburre muy pronto de todo y un auténtico peligro para las mujeres. Las hechiza, las seduce y las termina dejando... eso sí, con unos cuantos regalos de costosas joyas para que su pena sea menor. Su buena apariencia, combinada con el dinero y su rango social, le abren las puertas a lo mejor de la sociedad.
De modo que el soltero más popular de Inglaterra podría salvar la reputación de Zoe muy fácilmente... si esa belleza no le tentara de esa manera y le hiciera caer en una pasión que podría arruinarles a ambos.

Don't Tempt Me by Loretta Chase is utterly ridiculous, a delightfully ludicrous piece of froth. Zoe Octavia, childhood friend of Lucien, who is now a cold, sad duke, was kidnapped in Egypt when she was twelve, and sold into a harem. Twelve years later she has overcome enormous danger to escape the harem and has now returned to England. Her parents had never stopped searching for her and are overjoyed, but once Zoe's sisters have become accustomed to Zoe's return, they start to worry that she will never be accepted by the ton, and that the whole family will be ostracised. Lucien, who is devoted to Zoe's father, his childhood guardian, takes it upon himself to have Zoe accepted by the ton. One big problem is Zoe's training in the arts of seduction and pleasure, which make it hard for her to say no to a handsome man.

I enjoyed this very silly book. ( )

Light. Fun. Entertaining. Fluffy Regency with some improbable plot lines. ( )

This was my first Loretta Chase novel, but it won't be my last. I have to agree with some of the less-than-stellar reviews that the plot is thin, but then aren't most Regency historicals? (I mean, it's pretty amazing how many ways historical authors have come up with to tell the same bored-duke/earl/whatever-needs-to-wed-to-save-family-fortune plot. I applaud them...seriously!) It was Ms. Chase's writing style and characterizations that made this an enjoyable story for me.

But then I think it's characterization that is the central point of any story, whether it's a book, TV or movie...or even TV commercial. Once we care about the characters, we keep reading and watching, maybe even through plot lines that aren't that compelling.

It's true too that these characters' motivations might seem weak to some (especially viewed through the prism of our time and western culture), but for me, part of the fun of reading historicals is seeing that snapshot into the past (albeit a romanticized version of the past). It's escapism. That's why I read fiction.

( )