Something About Emmaline by Elizabeth Boyle

🍎🍎🍎🍎

Looking for a new audiobook to listen to at work and errands, I went through my prompts for Fall in Love and checked ideas with what was available from my library through Hoopla. There were quite a few books I wanted to read next, but weren't available. I ended up setting for Something About Emmaline by Elizabeth Boyle. This is the first book in her Bachelor Chronicles series. I am applying this for the prompt give an author a second chance. I had read His Mistress by Morning earlier this year and didn't really enjoy it. I try to read more than one book before setting an author down for good, so this was the best option going off of authors I've read this year.

Alex, Baron Sedgwick is tired of the marriage mart. To avoid marriage minded mammas and debutantes, he makes up a wife. Her name is Emmaline and she's very ill and unable to come to town. One day he receives receipts to pay for purchases made, by Emmaline. He arrives at his house in town to find that not only is Lady Emmaline in residence, but she's also renovating his house. They come to the agreement to stay "married" for the next two weeks before going their separate ways.

This was cute and I definitely like it a better than His Mistress by Morning. I think if I were to get super specific, I'd go with a 3.75 star rating. I liked how Alex and Emmaline connected and how she was constantly able to get one up on him. I also felt like when we got to the end there was too much going on that needed to be resolved. I also don't like the fact that she was made to married before on top of who she actually finds out is her birth father. It just was too much. Another thing that really bothered me was the pacing. They are spending two weeks together. The first 60% of the book is in the first 24-48 hours. We don't even get through the rest of the two weeks before the end. I almost wish that it was flipped and that we got brunt of their relationship development later in their time together than the first days. While I did understand the need to show the first little bit of time together to keep them in forced proximity, there was too much going on (once again) and we didn't move forward quick enough for my tastes.

I went with 4-stars mostly based off of my previous rating of her book. Now that I'm really getting into it, maybe I'll change my ratings to 2-stars for the other and this one at 3-stars. I might pick up other books in this series, but it took until about the 65% for me to really fell engaged with the characters and want to finish reading the book. It took me way too long to get through it. It was cute and I can see how others would enjoy this. Maybe I'll mark it as a 3.5 rounded up on goodreads

Will I pick up another Elizabeth Boyle, maybe another in this series. It depends on the tropes. Mostly likely not. I just don't get engaged with her writing and way the plot develops as I can with others. I feel like because I had similar issues with the mechanics of these two books, her other books might not be that different. We'll see. If anything it'll probably be in audiobook format if there's nothing else my library has that I want to listen to at that time. I am glad to give her a second chance though.

Have you read Something About Emmaline?

Bookishly Yours,

Stasi🍎

STATISTICS: Something About Emmaline, Elizabeth Boyle, 4-stars, 10 days, audiobook, 374 pages, published in 2005

His Mistress by Morning by Elizabeth Boyle

 

🍎🍎🍎

Elizabeth Boyle's His Mistress by Morning is the first book in her Marlowe series. This is the 5th book in the Winter of the Wallflower read-a-long hosted by Kelly and Dana for their Seasonally Booked Up club. 

Oh this book. I struggled through most of this book. The blurb grabbed me and I waited until after February 1st to start this since it had fantasy elements (and I can use it for FaRoFeb). The basis of this book is that Charlotte is a painfully shy spinster in love with her best friend's older brother Sebastian. He doesn't even notice when she's in the room a lot and can't quite seem to remember her name. She gets a ring as inheritance from her aunt, and surprise! it grants one wish. She wishes to be the woman that Sebastian loves. 

At 41% I really wanted to DNF this book, but I pushed myself to continue (granted I started skimming and speed reading) both because it's for the club, and I loved the first little portion before the wish. I did not like anything about the "alternate reality" and had a lot of issues of how things were going to reconcile when she came back to "reality." First off, at 41% I was ready for the wish to be over and get back to normal to see how Charlotte would deal with everything she learned. Instead, we didn't get back to the normal timeline until about the 70% mark. The alternate reality portion lasted way too long for my taste. I wish that more time was spent on them becoming a couple in the real world. 

So, in this alternate reality Charlotte is not a spinster lower noblewoman, but a courtesan/mistress. When she wakes up in this new reality, she has no memories of what this other "Lottie" has gone through and experienced. I did not like this choice at all by the author. I feel like Charlotte should've had more access to her memories and that she didn't wake up the arms of Sebastian. She went from being a sheltered spinster to waking up in the arms of a man (after clearly having a very lascivious night). I also didn't like that (and I know this was not the intention and not meant at all to come across this way) she basically became a different person to get the person she loved to love her back. I understand that the point was for Charlotte to find herself and become more confident, but it felt too drastic a change. I also feel like it also felt more out of character for her when she ended the wish and starting coming on strong to Sebastian. 

Why the 3-stars instead of the two I was expecting throughout most of this book? Basically it comes down to the parts outside of the alternate reality and Elizabeth Boyle's writing. She writes really well and I enjoyed her prose. I really, really wanted there to be more of the "he finally sees her" feeling without Charlotte having to act completely wanton and out of character. As I said before, it felt like too much of a drastic change. I think if she had more internal insecurities that we the reader saw, it would've felt more natural and not as "she's magically cured of her shyness." What I wanted out of this book, especially going with the wallflower trope, was not what I got. Now I want to (re)read a historical that give me an HEA and a journey I ca

 I most likely will not read the second book in the series, and might pick up some of her other series. I think before I do though I'll check out some reviews before.

Have you read His Mistress by Morning?

Bookishly Yours,

Stasi🍎

STATISTICS: His Mistress by Morning, Elizabeth Boyle, 3-stars, 2 days, eBook, 384 pages, Published 2006