Love Lessons (Love Lessons - Cheryl Holt)

Member Name: Brooke3

Product:	Love Lessons - Cheryl Holt
Date:	27/05/09 (89 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Gripping towards the end

Disadvantages: Boring at the beginning

When Lady Abigail approaches James Wright all she wants is for him to tell her about what takes place between a man and a woman in the marriage bed. Her younger sister is getting married and being 25 and unmarried herself she isn't in a position to give that advice.
James, the illegitimate son of a nobleman, agrees to teach her but finds himself attracted to her. Things soon become more physical and both James and Abigail find themselves falling in love. The problem is that Abigail is a Lady and if her relationship with James becomes common knowledge she'll lose everything.

I've read some of Cheryl Holt's books before and always enjoyed them. They've never been perfect, the plots tend to be quite far fetched (like a regency soap opera) and she uses language that would never be used in the time period but they are always gripping and entertaining. This book was not like her other books. It was still enjoyable, very light entertainment but it just wasn't gripping like the other novels of hers that I've read.

There isn't much of a plot in this book and, like with her other books, what plot there is far fetched. I really found it unbelievable that a Lady like Abigail would seek out a man like James just because she'd heard women talk about his sexual activities. However, I do like to suspend reality when I read so this wasn't much of an issue for me. There didn't seem to be much action in the first part of the book and it's only towards the middle to end of the book that James and Abigail encounter any problems. This resulted in the first part of the book being quite boring. Towards the end I found myself quite gripped by the storyline but for the first 150-200 pages I lost interest quite easily and found myself needing to persevere and force myself to keep reading in hopes that it would get better. Fortunately it did get better!

This book was very erotic. Holt writes romantica, which is basically romantic erotica but her books tend to have a good balance of plot and sex. The majority of the book is about sex and is not balanced. I guess you expect that with a plot like this!
I was surprised at how graphic she was in her descriptions of sexual acts. At times it read how (I imagine) porn would be written rather than a romance novel!

I did like the characters in this book. Abigail is very headstrong, even to the point of defying her brother (being a single woman at the time period defying her closest male relative would have been a big deal) and although I did at times think that if she had been a real person she probably wouldn't behave in that way, as she was the heroine of a romance novel I liked it. I liked that she knew her own mind. I also liked seeing her develop throughout the novel.
James was also a likeable character. He's not exactly a nice person, earning his money by owning a gambling establishment and taking revenge on the women of the ton by breaking hearts but you do understand why he did those things and Holt still manages to make him likeable. Holt has built up an interesting and full background for this character, from his early years as the much loved son of a nobleman and an actress, to the years after his father abandoned him, to his adult life. During the early part of the book it was James' history that kept me interested and made the book more readable.

There were only two real issues that I had with this book.

During one of James and Abigails first meetings James is showing Abigail pictures of him having sex with another woman. At the beginning of the scene she doesn't even know that men and women have different body parts, by the end of the scene she is quite accurately imagining what performing oral sex would taste like. How would she know? She has no frame of reference other than a few pictures and what James has told her, neither of which include taste.

The other issue I have is that James described Abigail as "a nice piece of ass". I'm not an expert on language during that period but it doesn't sound like an expression people used back then.

This book was enjoyable enough, especially towards the end but it wasn't anything special. If all you want is a romantic, erotic, easy read then this is a good book to read. If you're looking for anything more it's best to miss this one.

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