Title: The Trouble with Honor
Author: Julia London
Series: Cabot Sisters
Pages: 384
Genre(s): Historical, Regency
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Desperate times call for daring measures as Honor Cabot, the eldest stepdaughter of the wealthy Earl of Beckington, awaits her family’s ruin. Upon the earl's death she and her sisters stand to lose the luxury of their grand home—and their place on the pedestal of society—to their stepbrother and his social-climbing fiancée. Forced to act quickly, Honor makes a devil's bargain with the only rogue in London who can seduce her stepbrother’s fiancée out of the Cabots’ lives for good.
An illegitimate son of a duke, George Easton was born of scandal and grows his fortune through dangerous risks. But now he and Honor are dabbling in a perilous dance of seduction that puts her reputation and his jaded heart on the line. And as unexpected desire threatens to change the rules of their secret game, the stakes may become too high even for a notorious gambler and a determined, free-spirited debutante to handle.
From the description, I was expecting a certain type of book so I was pleasantly surprised when it didn't follow the expected pattern. The stepbrother was actually very loving, the conniving fiancee wasn’t pure evil and the predicament the Cabot family found themselves was quite understandable and believable. I honestly don’t mind a predictable plot but it was nice to see something I wasn’t expecting.
Honor isn’t your usual sort of heroine - actually, she’s a little bit of a pain in the bum - but for some reason I couldn’t help but like her. I felt that she hid her true feelings and character behind her charming smile and flippant, rule-breaking demeanour. And I suppose that’s where my initial problem with this book started. I felt I didn’t ever get to uncover those true feelings or her true character. It was the same across the novel and the characters - we are teased that there is depth to these people, these feelings, these interactions - but we never get to actually witness or feel them. I was desperate for more. To make me believe what’s going on. But it didn’t happen.
I liked George, too. He was another slightly unusual character who I, surprisingly, found myself feeling heartily sorry for at times due to how members of the ton were treating him or talking about him behind his back.
The other Cabot sisters had minor roles in the book, although Grace had the biggest, and I’m assuming we’ll get to find out more about them in the other Cabot Sister novels. I’m beginning to wonder if Monica will also get her own book in the future as there were chapters devoted to her in this book which seemed slightly, well, pointless, as part of Honor and George’s story.
I did like Honor and George’s interactions and their banter made me smile. However, due to the lack of depth of feeling, I felt the sex in the book was a little superficial and I admit to skimming over it after the first couple of encounters.
A number of Americanisms were smattered throughout the book but, worse than that, were bits of appalling grammar that I am shocked come from any published author.
This was a pleasant diversion for an afternoon but I can’t say that I would ever pick it up again to read so can’t honestly recommend it other than to those with it already on their ‘to be read’ pile. It’s such a shame because there was so much promise in the book but ultimately, it just wasn’t for me.
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