A Notorious Proposition (Avon Romantic Treasure) | Adele Ashworth

A Notorious Proposition (Avon Romantic Treasure) | Adele Ashworth | Doesn't Get Interesting Until the 1/2-Way Point

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A Notorious Propos...

	A Notorious Proposition (Avon Romantic Treasure) Adele Ashworth Avon, 2008 - 384 pages average customer review:based on 9 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

From bed partners . . .

Two years ago, while on assignment for the Crown, darkly handsome Garrett Burke left Lady Ivy Wentworth sleeping naked in his bed as he went in search of the missing Martello diamonds. After apprehending the dastardly thief, he intended to spend the rest of his life in the arms of the auburn-haired beauty. But when the case came to a shocking and dangerous end, Garrett was certain he'd been betrayed . . .

To partners in crime

Ivy once loved Garrett with a virtuous heart, but these days she can barely stand him. Arriving at a deserted estate on a mysterious errand, she never expected to see him again, nor feel the same ecstasy she once did at his touch. Now, joined with him in the search for the legendary jewels, she is willing to risk everything. Everything, that is, except her heart . . .

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A pretty good read

After being disappointed with The Duke's Indiscretion, I wasn't sure what I was going to get with this book but I was pleasantly surprised when I began to read it and it grabbed me right from the beginning. Garrett and Ivy's story is really very heartwarming and I enjoyed the entire book. The characters had good chemistry, the dialogue was good and the plot wasn't bad either, although I have to say I had trouble keeping everything straight at the end. All in all, a great read but I still say Duke of Scandal is my favorite AA book.

Doesn't Get Interesting Until the 1/2-Way Point

About 100 pages into this story, I was REALLY bored. But, I persisted, skimmed a bunch of pages and skipped some paragraphs. Then, the book changed and my persistance was rewarded. The book suddendly became interesting about 1/2-way through, when the characters were locked in the secret tunnels together by some unknown person. From that point forward, I was completely engaged. I give the 2nd half of this book 5 stars and the 1st half 2 stars.

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Secret tunnels and missing diamonds

'A Notorious Proposition' is a rather misleadingly-titled book as there was no notorious proposition in the book, at least not that I noticed. Instead, set in 1850, it features Lady Ivy Wentworth, a seer whose brother is missing, who has been tasked by the mysterious Marquess of Rye to investigate ghosts in his new property. Two years before Lady Ivy loved and lost Garrett Burke, a man who was looking for the missing Martello Diamonds. When Lady Ivy meets Garrett in the village of Winter Gardens she has real animosity towards him because of the way in which he discarded her after seducing him. However they soon find themselves having to work together to explore mystery tunnels in the Marquess of Rye's house in their search for the diamonds. Do the tunnels hold more than just cobwebs and dead cats? Is there more to the history of Garrett and Ivy than they both realise? Is there more to Garrett than Ivy realises?

This story was a reasonable read with the characters exploring dusty tunnels, trying to find diamonds, attending a ball, that sort of thing. However it also felt rather loosely plotted without a strong thread of characterisation to hold it together. The names of the characters also felt unconvincing for the time - Ivy and Garrett - and the author's dialogue was peppered with modern-day Americanisms that aren't appropriate for the time and location in which the book was set. The pace of the story ramps up a little at the end where the various threads all join together and the villain or villains are identified but the suspense was never that great and, having finished the book, I doubt I shall remember much about it within a week.

Originally published for Curled Up With A Good Book © Helen Hancox 2008

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too many loose ends.......

let me state that i really like adele ashworth. stolen charms and especially winter garden were great. but.....this book leaves too many loose ends for me... perhaps i dozed through the part of the book that left me wondering:

why does garrett wait two years to confront ivy. yes, he had some memory loss, but he still remembered parts of their past,
why wait until he buys the estate some 22 months after his attack to find answers regarding ivy, was it just because he was able to buy the estate that he decided after 22 months to clarify things,
what happened to garrett during these 2 years, how did he break-off with his fiance, then, a gentlemen did not usually break an engagement, the woman was allowed to break it to save her reputation. since his fiances reputation evidently was still in tact, what happened, no mention of his exploits during the 2 years only that ivy avoided him after the way he treated her and talked about her ability in print
nothing really explaining what ivy did during these 2 years also other than a brief reference to avoiding garrett and the way he treated her when she went to see him,
now they are together, traveling though dark, dirty tunnels and for a woman who feels that she was treated badly and has avoided that person for 2 years, her every thought is about him, and this is before she even has a brief explaination of what happened to him.
what i cannot fathom is that although he had headaches and some memory loss he still remembered bits and pieces about their relationship, why loose the most important part of that relationship and remember other parts, just does not make sense with no explanation of what he did for 2 years.

i would like to have foregone tunnel exploration and had the above points clarified. also, for her to be somewhat of a seer, she did not even have enough "seering" in this book to have it used in the plot.

if ever a book needed an author REWRITE, this book does. if i have dozed and missed these points, please email me so i can go back and find them.
i have given this book 3 stars because of adele, i do like her and will read other books by her. so adele, if you read this, keep your work on winter garden level.

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reviews: page 1, 2

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