Review of my first Julianne Maclean, An Affair Most Wicked-3 1/2 🌟s

Our hero, Segen, is a socially banished rake that only seeks out and cares about pleasure. Or heroine, Clara, is an American heiress sent to have a season with her sister (A new duchess and MC of book 1, which I didn’t read). They meet when Clara and her chaperone end up at a very inappropriate ball after grabbing the wrong invitation for the night.

I loved the first half of this book. It was all about the MC meeting, getting to know each other, falling into lust and infatuation. The excitement, nervousness, and anticipation of love. There were a lot of wonderful parts. Watching our hero go from pushing her away to an undeniable interest was so sweet. When he starts doing things he never does, having internal doubts about if the things he said were stupid or offended, and basically behaving like a man in love, I just loved it. Their relationship was so sweet and open. They had issues and doubts but I loved the frankness of their discussions. The possibility of trust but not being there yet. It was all very real feelings of a new relationship.

There is a scene where they write letters to each other and it’s my favorite in the book. It might be one of my favorite just sweet romance moments I’ve read in awhile. I love when the hero and heroine interact through letters! (Really I should have loved Julia Quinns To Sir Philip with Love but I’m weird and that’s my exception 😆)

I did like the heroine but she did feel very young. She acted young sometimes in the things she said, the lack of confidence and her internal doubts all exasperated this. I would have liked for her to have a bit more spunk. Which she did in the parts that mattered but she let her own fears really derail her a lot in the book.

I do wish the book focused more on the relationship building than the sex. I felt like that progressed really fast and while being hot and descriptive it left me wanting, something. More feeling? I’m not sure. The tension was there but not in the amount I like.

There was a great opportunity for character and relationship growth and instead I got just enough to keep me going. For example,
“They chatted about their favorite pastimes, unusual tastes, embarrassing moments.”
I felt jipped. I want to know those things as well. That’s what makes characters original, unique, memorable and loved. So while these characters aren’t boring, they weren’t as 3 dimensional as they could have been.

The book took a downward turn for me about halfway through. After having this wonderful open relationship, all of a sudden it was filled with doubts. After doing anything to get him to the alter and finally succeeding our heroine spends massive amounts of time internally debating if she made a mistake and if she can trust him. It’s like a very long, drawn out, catty, high school drama when family members start trying to rip their marriage apart. Lies, deceit, schemes swirl and neither character trusts enough. I don’t mind the plot in itself but it was drug on way too long. I also thought the plot twist at the end was really just unnecessary. It was used as a way to prove the hero’s love but I prefer that done internally though his own words and actions. It came down to a generic I choose you scene.

I would try her again though!