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rjordan19 's review for:
Proof by Seduction
by Courtney Milan
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Overall: 2.5 rounded to ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Plot/Storyline: 📖📖📖
Feels: 🦋🦋
Emotional Depth: 💔💔💔💔
Sexual Tension: ⚡⚡
Romance: 💞💞
Sensuality: 💋💋
Sex Scene Length: 🍑🍑🍑
Steam Scale (Number of Sex Scenes): 🔥🔥🔥
Humor: Very light humor – there’s a few parts but overall it’s a heavy book
(These are all personal preference on a scale of 1-5 (yours ratings may vary depending what gives you feels and how you prefer you sex scenes written, etc) except the Steam Scale which follows our chart from <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/396707744649325/">The Ton and Tartans Book Club</a> )
<b>Should I read in order? </b>
You don’t have to. Yes, this is book 1, but there’s 2 short stories available for free on Milan’s website, and also a prequel novella, This Wicked Gift, but this one is fine to pick up without reading those.
<b>Basic plot:</b>
Gareth has a goal of getting ‘Madame Esmerelda’ to admit she’s a fraud and leave his cousin alone.
<b>Give this a try if you want:</b>
- Early Victorian time period (1838)
- Medium steam – 3 scenes if you’re generous, one is only about a page
- Class differences – hero is a marquess, heroine an orphan pretending to be a fortune teller to eke out a living
- A bit of enemies to lovers feel in the beginning
- Experienced heroine
- Secret identity – the hero doesn’t know the heroine’s real name for about half the book
- Rags to riches story
- You have to be okay with a jerk hero
Ages:
My notes were confusing on this, so I’m unsure – I think heroine is around 19 and hero is either 26 or 30 (haha, not sure if that’s helpful)
<b>My thoughts:</b>
This was just one of those books I never got into. I started it forever ago and would pick it up, read a few pages, and set it down. I struggled.
It’s quite dark, emotional, and heavy. And I usually love that stuff so perhaps it was just my mood. But I never connected with either of the main characters.
Gareth is very much a jerk. And if you haven’t read Courtney Milan before and this is your first, I encourage you to try her again because this really isn’t typical of her character’s behavior. But he thinks his cousin Ned is being fleeced by a cheating ‘gypsy’ (Milan’s words), and he’s out to prove her a fraud.
He’s just mean and nasty for much of the book. Condescending towards her and uncaring on a number of situations. I am not convinced of their HEA. I am not a big fan of romance novels where the ending pages don’t leave with the solid feel of a happily ever after. It was too little, very late in the book for me with what Gareth did for Jenny.
Jenny I liked more than Gareth but I still struggled to connect with her. Her story is heartbreaking and this book really shows how limited, unsafe, and unfair life is to women in the 1800s.
This book has a heavy set up for the next book in the series, where Ned is the hero and that really limited my enjoyment of the story. It didn’t feel like a romance between Gareth and Jenny. It was the story of Ned and his mental struggles and depression and Gareth trying to control everyone around him.
Here’s a few random parts that I wanted to note from the book
<i>
He inhaled fiercely, his nostrils flaring. “Ask for anything else. And don’t you tell me about hiding. You’re the one who cringes when I talk of adoration and need. You won’t even let yourself depend on me for this one little thing.”
“No. If you want me,” Jenny said despeartely, “trade yourself.”
“Damn you, Jenny,” he snapped. “It’s not a fair trade.”
</i>
GASP! WHAT??!?!! We get this shit from him at like 95% into the book? Bad Gareth! Gross!
Content Warnings:
talk of suicide
sexual harassment (hero kisses the heroine, she says no, he continues and she has to slap him to get him to stop)
hero walks in repeatedly without being invited into heroine’s home
use of the word gyspy (no antiziganism)
abuse and neglect of children
Locations of kisses/intimate scenes:
Pg 41 – kiss
Pg 104 – kiss
Pg 132 – kiss
Pg 162 – kisses, breast play
Pg 182 – kisses, oral for her, missionary followed by another
Pg 224 – her on top
Pg 295 – wall sex – only about a page, so quite short
Plot/Storyline: 📖📖📖
Feels: 🦋🦋
Emotional Depth: 💔💔💔💔
Sexual Tension: ⚡⚡
Romance: 💞💞
Sensuality: 💋💋
Sex Scene Length: 🍑🍑🍑
Steam Scale (Number of Sex Scenes): 🔥🔥🔥
Humor: Very light humor – there’s a few parts but overall it’s a heavy book
(These are all personal preference on a scale of 1-5 (yours ratings may vary depending what gives you feels and how you prefer you sex scenes written, etc) except the Steam Scale which follows our chart from <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/396707744649325/">The Ton and Tartans Book Club</a> )
<b>Should I read in order? </b>
You don’t have to. Yes, this is book 1, but there’s 2 short stories available for free on Milan’s website, and also a prequel novella, This Wicked Gift, but this one is fine to pick up without reading those.
<b>Basic plot:</b>
Gareth has a goal of getting ‘Madame Esmerelda’ to admit she’s a fraud and leave his cousin alone.
<b>Give this a try if you want:</b>
- Early Victorian time period (1838)
- Medium steam – 3 scenes if you’re generous, one is only about a page
- Class differences – hero is a marquess, heroine an orphan pretending to be a fortune teller to eke out a living
- A bit of enemies to lovers feel in the beginning
- Experienced heroine
- Secret identity – the hero doesn’t know the heroine’s real name for about half the book
- Rags to riches story
- You have to be okay with a jerk hero
Ages:
My notes were confusing on this, so I’m unsure – I think heroine is around 19 and hero is either 26 or 30 (haha, not sure if that’s helpful)
<b>My thoughts:</b>
This was just one of those books I never got into. I started it forever ago and would pick it up, read a few pages, and set it down. I struggled.
It’s quite dark, emotional, and heavy. And I usually love that stuff so perhaps it was just my mood. But I never connected with either of the main characters.
Gareth is very much a jerk. And if you haven’t read Courtney Milan before and this is your first, I encourage you to try her again because this really isn’t typical of her character’s behavior. But he thinks his cousin Ned is being fleeced by a cheating ‘gypsy’ (Milan’s words), and he’s out to prove her a fraud.
He’s just mean and nasty for much of the book. Condescending towards her and uncaring on a number of situations. I am not convinced of their HEA. I am not a big fan of romance novels where the ending pages don’t leave with the solid feel of a happily ever after. It was too little, very late in the book for me with what Gareth did for Jenny.
Jenny I liked more than Gareth but I still struggled to connect with her. Her story is heartbreaking and this book really shows how limited, unsafe, and unfair life is to women in the 1800s.
This book has a heavy set up for the next book in the series, where Ned is the hero and that really limited my enjoyment of the story. It didn’t feel like a romance between Gareth and Jenny. It was the story of Ned and his mental struggles and depression and Gareth trying to control everyone around him.
Here’s a few random parts that I wanted to note from the book
<i>
He inhaled fiercely, his nostrils flaring. “Ask for anything else. And don’t you tell me about hiding. You’re the one who cringes when I talk of adoration and need. You won’t even let yourself depend on me for this one little thing.”
“No. If you want me,” Jenny said despeartely, “trade yourself.”
“Damn you, Jenny,” he snapped. “It’s not a fair trade.”
</i>
GASP! WHAT??!?!! We get this shit from him at like 95% into the book? Bad Gareth! Gross!
Content Warnings:
talk of suicide
sexual harassment (hero kisses the heroine, she says no, he continues and she has to slap him to get him to stop)
hero walks in repeatedly without being invited into heroine’s home
use of the word gyspy (no antiziganism)
abuse and neglect of children
Locations of kisses/intimate scenes:
Pg 41 – kiss
Pg 104 – kiss
Pg 132 – kiss
Pg 162 – kisses, breast play
Pg 182 – kisses, oral for her, missionary followed by another
Pg 224 – her on top
Pg 295 – wall sex – only about a page, so quite short