Tempting Fortune | Jo Beverley | Good read - much better if read in order!

Tempting Fortune | Jo Beverley | Bryght's Story

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Tempting Fortune

	Tempting Fortune Jo Beverley Zebra, 2002 - 448 pages average customer review:based on 18 reviews view larger image
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Portia St Claire's brother has gambled and lost, throwing her into the power of ruthless men. Their price for his life is her virtue, to be auctioned off in London's most notorious brothel. To retrieve an incriminating letter, Bryght Malloren once broke into a house where he was greeted at pistol point by a resolute woman...a woman he could swear stands before him, masked and trembling, on a madam's auction block...

Good read - much better if read in order!

I read this book several months ago - and relly was quite confused - recently I read My Lady Notorious and realized why - these books need to be read in order. Why authors do not make this more clear is beyond me - one would think they would want us to enjoy them to the fullest. So much of what happens in Tempting Fortune is based on the relationships of the first book. Tempting is a good book - I loved Bright Malloren a lot as the male rouge hero - he had for me great appeal. There were many times though that I found Portia a little hard to take - she seemed attracted but so difficult. If I were Bright by the end of the book I would have told her to perhaps hit the road. I thoroughly do enjoy this series of Beverley books and I did the series of the Rouges. Jo Beverley is one of the best!

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Bryght's Story

This is the second in the Malloren series and while not nearly as good as the first book, My Lady Notorious, still quite entertaining.

Anyone who read the first book will recall Bryght was selected to fetch a letter that implicated his first love, Nerissa in a scandalous affair and the family has kept the letter since that time. When Bryght went to the house where the letter was hidden he was almost shot by Portia St. Claire who mistakenly though he was a thief. Bryght was attracted to Portia then but then runs across her in London and learns her brother's gambling has left them in dire straights. When loan sharks demand Portia sell her virginity in a brothel to pay her brother's debts, Bryght outbids everyone to rescue the disguised Portia so that her virtue and identity will remain safe.

This was a sensual interesting book and Bryght a wonderful hero. However, Portia got on my nerves a bit. Although, I can understand a little reluctance on her part, her coldness to Bryght even after all his sacrifices left this reader cold.

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Hateable Heroine

I couldn't stand Portia. I liked her at first and assumed she would lighten up on Bryght after a while but she never did. In the end when she tried to shoot him (again!) I thought he should have chucked her out the window. One of my favorite parts was when he told her she could leave with her brother. I wish he'd done that sooner and given her something to think about.

Oddly enough, Portia is just as infuriating as Fort but I gave Something Wicked four stars. I think it's because Portia never really has to reveal a single thing about how she feels and Bryght truly does go all out to help her through some very harrowing times without actually deceaving her in any way (as Elf did with Fort).

I didn't understand why he was in love with her. Jo Beverley likes to give herself challenges it seems, with heroines who are less than gorgeous, but she also tends to make those complex ladies shrewish ('An Unwilling Bride' comes to mind). That is to the detriment of the entire story. There has to be something more than just 'courage' or 'independence' that attracts a beautiful, honorable man like Bryght.

Still, I give it three stars because I just love the way Jo Bev writes and I adore Bryght (as well as all the Mallorens). If there were ever a rewrite of this book, I would suggest a softening of Portia so we can see what the hero is so attracted to.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4

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