Sunday, April 18, 2010

Review - Goddess of the Hunt



Title: Goddess of the Hunt
Author: Tessa Dare
Publishing Date: 2009
Genre: Historical
Rating: C+
Sensuality: Hot
Book Disclosure: Borrowed from the library

Lucy Waltham has set her sights on her brother's friend, Toby. Only Toby is pining after another young lady, Sophia. Then Lucy decides to take matters into her own hands, late one evening Lucy goes to find Toby and seduce him. Instead of finding Toby she runs into her other brother's friend, Jeremy Trescott the Earl of Kendall. Lucy and Jeremy start a faux relationship in which Lucy hopes to make Toby jealous. Along the way, Lucy and Jeremy discover that their feelings for each other are true.

Goddess of the Hunt had some positive press around the blogosphere which perked my interest up. Tessa Dare is a new to me and I would have never been introduced to her book otherwise. Despite all the positive press, this one was just a mediocre read for me.

I am not really sure what it was that I didn’t like about the book. The story dragged for me mostly in the middle. I was interested in the beginning, but then the pacing started to drag. I think some of this was due to the childish behavior of both Lucy and Jeremy. Lucy is young. If I am not mistaken she is eighteen or nineteen and it shows. Her maturity level is low on the totem pole, if you know what I mean. She seemed to keep dwelling on her infatuation with Toby, which sort of annoyed me.

Overall, the flow of the story was a little too slow for my taste. Some of this was due to the characters. Some of this was due to beating certain points into the ground. This seems to be just the author’s style. I wonder if this is indicative of her first book and if subsequent books would be different.

I did like the friendship that developed between Lucy and Sophia. Sophia was the girl that Toby was interested in instead of Lucy. The author could have made Sophia out to be a villain or victim, and instead made her a very fun-loving and imaginative woman. A person anyone would want to befriend and make it really hard to be jealous of her. There is definitely a lot of sequel baiting with her character, but I felt it was just worthy.

Here is what others had to say:

Bodice Ripper Reviews
Smart Bitches, Trashy Books
Romance Book Wyrm
Breezing Through
Babbling About Books and More
Cindy Reads Romance
Dear Author
Monkey Bear Reviews

This book can be purchased in print or kindle format from Amazon.

6 comments:

~ames~ said...

Aww, I'm sorry this one didn't work that great for you.

Hilcia said...

Jill I have this book on my TBR pile. I also decided to give Dare a shot and am hoping to enjoy her writing -- all that great press. *g* Sorry this book didn't work for you, let's see how it goes for me. :) Are you reading the next book in the series?

Jill D. said...

Ames - I just don't know what it was I didn't like.

Hilcia - If I find the time I will read Sarah's book next. I did like her character and would like to see some closure with her.

Leslie said...

Lots of positive reviews for this author but I'm wondering if the slow pace would put me off.

I do have two of her books on the tbr pile so I'll give her a try eventually. Thanks for the review. :)

Jill D. said...

Leslie, I do hope you enjoy her better than I did. It can always be what is going on in your life that can affect how you take a book, you know? Maybe my life was too hectic just then for me to enjoy it as much as I could have.

nath said...

For me, it was the plot and Lucy. Wasn't fond of Lucy very much... and quite frankly, the plot was boring. Ah well. I have the 2nd book in my TBR pile and it<s just been sitting there. Sigh.