The Pleasure of Your Kiss by Teresa Medeiros
Historical Romance
December 27, 2011
Pocket
Reviewed by May
Favorite Quote:
“Most men who cloak themselves in rumor and innuendo do so because there is nothing of real substance to hide. They spread these tall tales themselves simply to cover up their own… shortcomings.”
Clarinda Cardew is aboard a ship heading towards Burma and her fiancée accompanied by her best friend Poppy. Looking forward to a grand adventure, neither lady imagines their ship will be attacked by Cosairs and that the pair will be sold on the slave market. The Moroccan sultan of El Jadida sees the ladies and purchases them, whisking them away to his harem and a luxurious cage of sorts.
The very man Clarinda guards her heart against, Captain Sir Ashton Burke is summoned by his brother to rescue her. Offered a kings ransom by Clarinda’s fiancée (aka his brother), he sets off to break into the Sultan’s palace and get her back. He never expects to save the sultan’s life, find that he knows the sultan from school, or wind up living in the palace as an honored guest for some time.
The depiction of the harem was vivid and heartbreaking. Rather than sugar coat it, it is very clear that the women are slaves. Yes they are pampered, but essentially treated like livestock including their gilded cage. With the sultan planning on making Clarinda one of his wives, she has been untouched thus far but their time for escape is running out. All of the characters in this book were vivid and fabulous. I loved the verbal sparring between Ashton and Clarinda:
“I’m sure it surprises you to learn that there are men who aren’t driven to flee to the ends of the earth by the mere prospect of marrying me.”
He shook his head in mock pity, the devilish dimple returning to his cheek. “God help the poor bastards.”
She narrowed her eyes at him. “If I had a horseshoe right now, Captain Burke, I’d throw it at your head. And I wouldn’t miss this time.”
“You don’t have to throw a horseshoe at my head to get my attention, Miss Cardew. You never did.” With that, he slipped out of the door easing it soundlessly shut behind him.
I had but two problems with this book. The first is that I found it very hard to enjoy the relationship between the main characters as they engage in sexual activity when Clarinda is engaged to Ashton’s brother. This is a very personal peeve of mine – but I do not ever recall them thinking twice, or even feeling remotely bad about it. At the end of the story there are revelations about the brothers – however it doesn’t work for me as far as being ok with the self indulgent behavior of our main couple.
My second problem is that this book was just over 500 pages long, and yet it was a straightforward reunited lovers tale with a painfully simple plot. Right from the beginning it is clear that they need to get out of the palace, get back, and have her break up with the fiancée at some point. For my attention span, this was just too many pages for that kind of a story. There were a lot of lengthy flash backs, and sharing of their past history and secrets. I was annoyed by this as I felt like we were shown more why they are such a great couple in the past verses the present. I wasn’t convinced that grown up Ashton and Clarinda were so very meant to be.
They were inside the sultan’s palace for the majority of the book, and while it was vivid and you really get a great sense of location and character development, the length slowed the story down a lot. With a full and vivid cast of characters, as well as an unusual secondary romance, this book has a lot going for it. As I go back over it to write this review I find a lot of scenes and passages that I liked tremendously.
Medeiros did a wonderful job of transporting me to the sandy desert palace and I was fully immersed. I love her writing, and I truly look forward to her next book –featuring the ex-fiancé (aka hero’s brother) from this book. He looks fascinating – and I cannot wait!
Grade: B-
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I’m glad to hear I’m not the only one who is often bothered by “cheating” lovers overcome with their passion for one another, without considering their other significant other(s). It bothers me SO much.
it really does bother me, because to me it says something about the kind of person they are. A kind of person I sure do NOT want to go reading about or rooting for! (no matter the justification- engaged to someone you like a lot and cheating without a second thought = yuck)
Great review May, I have a whole stack of her novels on my shelves, all unread. And indeed, a thick book that has more pages than needed for the story, is not good reading. If you like harem tales, you should try some early Bertrice Small :) My favourite author of all time.
Had very much the same issues as you. Poor Max!! Although dying for his book..LOL. I wish he would have played into the h/h relationship more.
Also, while I loved it taking place at a sultan’s harem..it did stall out for a bit.
Otherwise, a nice read:)
Just a note: fiancée is feminine referring to the woman who is engaged. Fiancé is masculine referring to the man who is engaged. So, since we are talking about Clarinda’s betrothed (who is male) it would be fiancé, not fiancée. Saying Clarinda’s fiancée is implying that she is engaged to a woman.
Great review!! And am totally with you on that plot ploy – absolutely hate it; they always make the third wheel either end up being a bad person or in love with someone else so all-works-out-perfectly, but way too convenient and if they don’t know this at the time, then makes even less of a case for it being okay.
I agree with many on this board that when the characters are cheaters, I am not able to enjoy the story. Cheating happens all too often in life, I really don’t need to read about it in books that help me escape reality. There is a book I read about a year ago, I’m sorry I can’t remember the author or title of the book right now, where the fiance cheated one week before the wedding as a ‘last hurrah’. His fiancee found out in an unusual way, as she was in the house where it occurred, but while the marriage still happened, to me the whole story was shot. Thanks for the forewarning, I definitely will not read a story that involves cheating characters.