★★★★☆☆☆☆☆☆
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Wanted: One Scoundrel by Jenny Schwartz (Kindle Edition - $2.51 on Amazon)[/caption]I really should’ve liked this.
This is one of those pre-series (?) novella situations where I didn’t really know what to do. I received an ARC of Courting Trouble and noticed it said Steampunk Chronicles #2. But there didn’t seem to be a Steampunk Chronicles #1. Wanted: One Scoundrel was the only thing I could find that appeared to be a precursor, so I went for it.
The book has a fantastic start.
Esme Smith is a strong-willed 22 year old, daughter of the richest man in Australia, and staunch supporter of the women’s suffragist movement. She has a problem, however. Many of the political discussions are held at men’s clubs where she can’t participate. She needs a man to advocate for her cause. More particularly, she needs “a well-dressed, well-spoken man” who will “do as he’s told.”
And that scoundrel happens to be Jedediah Reeve – an American and, unbeknownst to Esme, an inventor and son of a senator. He takes the job not because he needs money, but because he’s intrigued by Esme.
As the two work on promoting the cause, Esme becomes attracted to Jed, although she struggles to keep it purely professional. And Jed tries to control his jealousy over the haughty, powerful Nicholas Brambury, who wants nothing more than to woo Esme.
And that’s about what this book covers – in an uninteresting, droning manner. It amazed me that the author could flatten such promising and dynamic characters. The Esme who was looking for her scoundrel at the beginning shriveled up into an unemotional shell of her former self. Jed wasn’t awful, but instead of being intrigued by and following in love with Esme as he got to know her, he just sort of went from intrigued by to possessive over. If there were any deep conversations or opportunities for them to get to know each other, they certainly weren’t mentioned in the part of the book I read.
Also, this was advertised as a “Christmas” novel. Other than occurring during the time when there were holiday festivities – none of which played a role in the plot – this had nothing to do with Christmas.
I was baffled.
But I went into this as a preview to Courting Trouble and thought maybe the purpose was just to introduce the characters. I would’ve liked an exciting plot, but whatever. The next book was probably a lot better. At this point, I would’ve given Wanted 5 stars.
I know this isn’t fair, but I felt compelled to take another star off when I started Counting Trouble. I read maybe the first chapter and was appalled. Jed seemed to be taking a little bit of a possessive stance in Wanted, but I shrugged it off. InCourting Trouble, he was a downright tyrant. He physically carried Esme out of a seedy bar (where he felt a lady shouldn’t be) while she was listening to a political speaker. Then, when he gets her home and a verbal fight ensues, he physically grabs her and drags her off the street.
Excuse me? And she lets this happen?
I hadn’t written this review yet and it retroactively tainted my opinion of Jed. As I said, it isn’t exactly fair, but I couldn’t write this review in good conscience without factoring that in.
Courting Trouble is now on my DNF list.
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