Saturday, February 1, 2014

Undone by Lila DiPasqua















Angelica and Simon's book




Undone (Fiery Tales #4)

by Lila PiPasqua

Book Blurb:
Maintaining her ruse as a commoner, and trusting no one has kept Angelica safe. But a chance encounter with a handsome stranger lands her right where danger lies. Now, this sinfully handsome man with arresting blue eyes and a polished manner thinks he’s saved her life, when in fact he’s placed her in great peril. She’s intent on keeping him and everyone else at arm’s length. Yet, the smoldering attraction between them is difficult to deny. And impossible to ignore . . .

As commander of a number of privateer ships, Simon Boulenger dresses and speaks like an aristocrat, and has obtained wealth. But he is still not a noble. Or an officer in the King’s Navy. His lifelong dream to elevate himself from his station of birth and attain a respectable place in society is dead. Worse, he’s ensnared in a deadly scheme, and must get out. But how is he to stay focused on his dangerous mission when the mysterious beauty has him utterly intrigued? He can’t afford the distraction any more than he can resist the carnal hunger she stirs. Simon soon discovers that she’s not only a passionate soul mate, but a woman born into privilege. A woman he can never have. But they’re in too deep. Their hearts are at risk . . . as well as their lives.




I have to admit, I was not a fan of this story. Unfortunately I did not connect with the characters nor did I particularly like them. The cover art is beautiful and Undone just happened to be an Amazon freebie when I downloaded it. There are a lot of high ratings for Undone so it confuses me on why I didn't care for it as much as others. Hopefully I can accurately explain why it didn't do it for me. 


Angelica literally runs into Simon right outside her home at night. Her home just happened to be a convent. Through the moonlight, Simon couldn't help but notice her beauty. She continued on her path and ran into the convent. Simon felt compelled to run in after her. 

The story started out interesting enough. Almost immediately Simon was thrown into the role of hero and Angelica was ungrateful for his heroic efforts. Right off the bat I had a feeling I was not going to really enjoy the story. I loath stories where miscommunications are used to drive the plot forward. From withheld secrets to misinterpreted conversations I was beginning to dislike the story as I started to move through the pages. 

It was also driving me nuts as Simon's penis seemed to have a mind of it's own. It was unruly and hard pretty much each and every page and I was getting bored with reading about Simon constantly fighting his raging hard-on. Angelica really hadn't done anything enduring enough to earn such strong feelings. Okay, she was stunning to look at in her plain grey convent garb but really, there was nothing that would make me understand Simon's feelings toward her. 

There is a scene on ship where Angelica is locked away on in a cabin. I get her anger. I understand her anger. As a woman I want to side with her but the way she handles the situation like a immature, spoiled child throwing furniture and screaming made me rather wish someone would just throw her overboard. She orders someone to get Simon (the ship's captain) and he comes to her aid. She is so freaking spazzy and as soon as Simon sees her with her messy hair, guess what? He gets a hard on.  

There is a good setup where by the author draw parallel lines of Simon's background and Angelina's background. Both hate and despise the same man, Fouquet but since both refuse to talk to each other about their lives, a major opportunity to join forces is completely lost. Instead they both walk around aroused, attracted, mad and in Simon's case, hard. 

One of my other main dislikes was mostly centered around the writing style. I don't like being constantly told how each of the characters feel on practically every single line. As a reader I like to experience the emotions along with the protagonists. I'd rather feel the anger, lust, embarrassment or whatever the emotion is by reading about their expressions. It is okay to have the emotions laid out once in a while but it was so constant and just seemed way over done. 

"She felt warn and right in his arms"
"He felt disgust down to the very marrow..."
"He felt like a complete imbecile"
"she felt...feminine."

It just "felt" like every other sentence was having it explained to me. I hope I am explaining this well enough.

Undone does get better the second half of the book but maybe because I kept picking up the book up and putting in down, Undone lost the drive for me to embrace the story.  

Undone may be the forth book in the series but you can 100% read this story as a stand alone. 









3 comments:

Goldie @ My Book Musings said...

Ah, I see. I understand what you mean about having the feelings explained too much. I'm that way, too. I'd rather be caught up in what the characters are saying or the expressions described, than on how they're feeling, and how I'm supposed to perceive them.

I agree the book cover's beautiful (I admit that's one of the reasons why I clicked on your review), I'm sorry you didn't enjoy it though! I find hard to read a good historical romance books nowadays. Every plot feels so overdone already :/

Good review!


Goldie
My Book Musings

Anna (herding cats-burning soup) said...

Aw that's too bad. I get the telling you instead of showing you. That does get old after a while.

Unknown said...

Whew! I'm glad I explained clearly enough why I didn't care for the story.