Reads like a romance novel
924450
The story was good, but a bit far-fetched.  However, the further I got into the book, the more difficult it was to actually finish it (which I eventually did).  The problem was that as the story progressed it became more and more like a trashy romance novel, making it difficult to enjoy the story itself.

Unless the author can get away from her emphasis on the childish behavior of the heroine, I doubt I would ever pick up another of her books.
2143347
The concept of this novel was very good, man is shunned from his family due to a lecherous stepmother and her innocent niece, man tries to exact revenge twelve years later.  The problem with the story was in the execution, the characters were interesting, the hero well developed, less so for the heroine, and the plot moved along nicely but the romance between the main characters was problematic.  They seemed in lust but not really in love.

When he was only fifteen, Viscount Everod's young step mother, Georgette, seduced him in the garden but they were discovered thanks to his stepmother's young niece Maura. Everod's father viciously stabbed Everod's throat believing that he was raping his wife, something the stepmother claimed.  Everod was then banished from his home.

Fast forward twelve years and Maura is all grown up and spending the season in London.  Everod sees her in Town and decides to seduce Maura, thereby getting back at his family who adore her.  He plans his seduction through gifts and conversations. Maura feels guilty for the part she played in Everod's banishment  so she is almost a willing participant in keeping secrets from her aunt and uncle. Their romantic interludes are very steamy.

As stated earlier, Everod is a well developed character with a full range of emotions.  He is bent on his course to ruin Maura and when he discovers his younger brother is interested in marrying her, well, that just makes it all the better. Everod does have a temper but this is directed more at his friends and their wives' interference than at Maura.  He is a known seducer and his practiced attempts have their effect on Maura but I never felt he really loved her until the very last chapters.  His actions were more of a man who wanted a woman in his bed solely.

Maura was both likeable and frustrating.  Since her aunt, Georgette was the one who raised her, Maura refused to judge any of her actions even when they were obviously deplorable.  Maura seemed almost a different person around her Aunt, acting rather cowardly and Georgette recognized how incredibly nave Maura was and easy to manipulate too.  I understood Maura's devotion to her Aunt, Maura's parent's ignored her, but allowing a horrible lie to exist for twelve years denotes a character flaw.

There were a few loose ends to this novel, mainly the rebuilding of family relationships.  I had not read any of the previous novels in this series so the secondary characters, although good, were many and I kept forgetting who was married to whom and who was brother to whom etc. Still this novel does have an interesting hero.
3415467
Degrees of Love: A Novel by Lisa Slabach was very well written, but I struggled with reading it.  I say that because since this book is a romance novel, I got bored because even though I don't know what is going to happen, I do know what is going to happen if that makes any sense.  I am sure that if you don't read a ton of books like I do that statement won't make any sense.  I did enjoy the characters in this book, and I really enjoyed the authors writing, but in the end, I was bored.  If you are a huge fan of romance novels than I am sure you will love this book.  I am just starting to realize that I need to stick more to mystery type books because I tend to be bored with another genre of books.  I am going to hang onto this book so that I can pick it up in the future and see if my thoughts and feelings change any about this type of book.
I received this book free of charge from the author or publisher.
3644589
I don't like writing negative reviews but this book has plenty of positive ones. I think the characters are well-drawn and compelling- the story is interesting- but I could NOT get past the modernity of the novel- nothing of the essence of the era- the language, etc- except what is typical- to that degree it was a romance novel- a kind of soap opera. At one point she writes about the old countess up in her closet- and that she had  firm boundaries in her interactions- BOUNDARIES? Really? I read to get away from overused words like that-
So I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who loves to get lost in James or others for entry into those times.
1921260
I wanted to like this book.  The story was fine in the beginning then it fell flat.  I love a good romance novel, but this is not one.
2589303
It's a romance novel.  I should have known that before I downloaded it but somehow I missed that fact.  If you like romance novels you will probably like this book.  I don't & I didn't.
1682017
There's much to like about this story. The premise is captivating, and Owen does a great job of using tactile, olfactory and audio images to show readers what's happening. She does a great job of setting up obstacles for the characters, especially Brock. However, about halfway through, the story drags. Usually I can read a romance novel in a day or two. Not so with this one. I put it down often because the story lacked plot points to keep me turning pages.
2792710
I will shamelessly admit that I do enjoy romance novels - when the author abandons category for characterization and cliche for fresh story and depth. TO CAPTURE A RAKE is billed as a steamy romance novel, but in fact the love (sex) scenes are far apart and separated mostly by tedious and endlessly repetitious pages wherein the male prostitute and the innocent-who-is-not-all-she-seems-to-be yearn for each other separately and cannot communicate at all when they're together. Needless to say, this doesn't give the reader much to excite her.

The idea of a romantic hero being a male prostitute living in a gilded cage is a nice twist on the standard romantic setup, though the author makes it very clear from the beginning that Gideon is no pushover and in fact expects always to dominate his female clients. Of course Elizabeth, our heroine who has her own reasons for needing him in her bed, even though she has to buy his time to get him there, immediately and inadvertently (is it ever any other way in romantic fiction?) exerts a bewitching effect on Gideon, and he on her, though they are not together for more than half a page before someone insults or pushes away the other and they separate - and once they separate, the author makes painfully clear how much they're attracted. Try reading this for 100 pages; it's really tough.

I gave it two stars for the unique setup, which unfortunately is not borne out in the rest of the book. The fact is, almost nothing actually HAPPENS in this novel - and unfortunately, when the first third goes by with almost no plot movement, the rest of the book can't save it. The romantic fiction I do admire is fast-paced, plot heavy, and with a sense that the characters have lives to live and things they have to do, apart from their overwhelming attraction. This gives the reader some grounding, not to mention a reason to keep turning the pages. TO CAPTURE A RAKE is romantic fare with almost no plot, clumsy, cliched prose and even worse, very little romance. Without those, what's there to keep a reader around?
3264296
Not what I was expecting, but for what it was, a romance book, it was an ok read.
4860938
A decent, though common plot. The characters are well developed - almost too much so - and the descriptions of the times and period ring true. It's much more of a romance novel than a mystery or thriller, though there are elements of both in the book. Glad I read it,  but would not read it again.
960008
It was okay.  It read more like a romance novel based on history, with little creativity in it.  I was disappointed.
688622
I did like this overall as a romance novel.  Just was a bit bored in the first quarter or so of the book.  Liked the story and characters as it progressed.  Some of the detail of the sex was seeming to be overdone.  I rarely read romance novels but was wanting to compare this to something I'm working on myself.  Found it is really not easy to compare books to mine  thanks might read more romance to see if it catches me into a new type of reading.
310189
If you're wanting a historical novel, this fits the bill great.  The amount of work put into that side of the story is over the top.  I like historical fiction a lot, but the majority of this book is battles and details of those battles, including what led up to them.  honestly don't feel like I understand Sir Geoffroi very well, not as a man.  As a soldier I feel like I understood him more, but he lacked depth to me in this story.

I love romance but I want the heat without the sex scenes, so when I skip the few in this book (thank God she doesn't go crazy with them), the romance is pretty lacking in this book.  It's not really a romance novel but has some romance in it.

It's a very difficult read due to the horrors of what William the Conqueror did and demanded of his soldiers.  I actually didn't really need all those details because that's not what I wanted to read.  It's almost impossible to understand why soldiers felt the need to be part of such atrocities but I know we don't have the comprehension of what it cost them to deny the king.  And thus, the cycle continued.  Fear of denying him led soldiers to commit the unspeakable.

Gotta say, for as hard as Reagan Walker works at her research, her book covers leave much to be desired.  They don't do her skill justice and that's too bad!
870731
I thought the relationship between Jane and her daughter was compelling. Reading the author's description of Jane's pain brought me to close to tears. However, when it came to the romance aspect of this story, I kept thinking of Meryl Streep's character in She-Devil. This is what I imagine "Love in the Rinse Cycle" would read like. I don't find laundry and gardening particularly exciting, even when a goat is involved.
358446
For all of Falconer's pedigree I thought this book would be a lot better, but it comes off as more of a romance novel than that of an adventure novel.

It was well written and easy to read, but pretty boring and overly simple.  Some details would have been nice.

I would give it a 2.5 stars if I could.
3312041
This is a romance novel.  Not literature in the pure Austen sense.  If you are looking for an Austen-like sequel to Pride and Prejudice then look elsewhere. As a simple romance novel that embellishes on the characters we met in Austen's classic I found it enjoyable.  What got a bit tedious was the author's penchat for using obscure or rarely used vocabulary.  Almost as if she was having a contest with herself or her editor to see who could come up with the most complex combinations of words to communicate something rather simple (or simply crude). I found myself skipping whole sentences or paragraphs where the word play just got to be too much.  But overall I enjoyed the characters and dialogue enough to stick with the storyline to its conclusion.
4230404
I received this copy from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book is marketed as a YA novel, but it really reads more like a romance, and not really in a good way. Kricket (I did like her name, as weird as it is) is kind of a stereotypical character - lives a really hard life as a foster child but is amazingly beautiful (she describes herself as a "Barbie") and is actually really important and powerful (in a different universe). The writing was actually fairly engaging, but the book over-sexualizes Kricket, who is 17, in a really gross way. Everyone talks about how smart she is, but really all we ever hear or see evidence of is how much every man she meets wants to bone her. She largely seems unfazed by this overt sexual attention, and even gives her underwear (?!) as a gift to two of the men who kidnapped her that she befriends. Who does that?! Everything she wears is overtly provocative and we have to hear how every man she meets constantly stares at her breasts. There are also weird tests to confirm that she's still a virgin because every man also wants to be her "first." I did think the world-building was fairly good in this novel and we get a good idea of what this new world looks like, although there were a few continuity problems. My main thing that dropped this book down to two stars was when Kricket is so exhausted that she collapses into bed and her love interest, Trey, cuts her dress *and* her underwear and bra off while she's *sleeping*, causing her to wake up naked next to him. Okay, the dress *maybe* I could give him a pass with, but what reason on earth would he have to cut off her underwear while she's unconscious? She wakes up and seems totally fine with it, which I also thought was ridiculous. I guess we can be thankful that there's no love triangle, Kricket only has eyes for Trey, and the cover is pretty, but I can't think of what demographic I would recommend this book to.