Rating: 
Summary: If you like Amanda Quick...
Review: Eloisa James' first book, Potent Pleasures is excellent! She's a wonderful writer and I'm really looking forward to her third novel in this series.
Rating:
Summary: A Pleasurable Book!
Review: Believability has never been a problem for me. If I wanted to read a book grounded in truth and reality I would read non-fiction. This was a good a good story and an enjoyable book. I realize there have been complaints about historical inaccuracies, however, I have to admit I never noticed them while reading the book.
Rating:
Summary: Darling!
Review: Hesitant as i am about reading novels by authors i haven't heard of, i'm glad i chose this one! This novel provided both laughter and tears, with a cast of characters the reader comes to know and appreciate by the end of the story... and one of those frustrating heros you can't help but fall in love with. The inconsistancies in the time period seem to have been cleaned up by the time the paperback was printed, because they aren't apparent here. Definitely reminded me of Judith McNaught's historicals... Enjoy!
Rating:
Summary: Vivid, sexy, delicious
Review: I was enchanted by this book, which is extremely well-written, with a heroine who is so adorable I fell in love with her myself! Not only that, but there's a truly vivid sense of the context of daily life, the richness of a large household, and the places the author depicts. Even the minor characters are vivid and interesting, and the clothing is so arrestingly described that I could almost feel myself wearing it. I can hardly wait to read more by this author!
Rating: 
Summary: Fair - 2.5 Stars
Review: This book was okay. I don't think it was as howlingly bad as some other reviewers, nor would I give it a great review. I tend to lose interest very quickly when characters behave in a way that stretches the bounds of credibility. For example: The hero is so crazy about the heroine, and when she finally admits that she met him long ago, he doesn't press for details and just assumes it was his twin brother? Give me a break. No man is that incurious. However, some of the other characterizations are pretty good, as is the plot. I think this writer will improve with practice. All in all, it might be worth picking up at the library if there's nothing more interesting around.
Rating: 
Summary: An interesting premise, an impotent hero...
Review: This is an interesting premise, this impotent hero. Unfortunately this was not well-developed. The book is quick and carries your attention along with it, but toward the end, it seems to have lost the author's attention. I have seldom read a weaker, more disorganized conclusion to a book. Somebody should spank her editor.
Rating: 
Summary: Trashy
Review: A review on the back of this book says, "Utterly frivolous." This may lead a potential buyer to think this a fun book to read -- people like myself, for example. Unfortunately, this quote is completely misleading. After reading about five chapters of POTENT PLEASURES, I felt as if I had jumped into a dumpster and rubbed rotting vegetables all over myself. Yuck.There are twists and turns in the book, but they're completely nonsensical, and when a character isn't doing something that I reeeeeally do not need to know about, the book is just boring. The characters, meanwhile, are as flat as the paper they're printed on, not to mention as flimsily constructed, and were completely unlikable. In other words, I thought this was a very trashy (and not in a good, entertaining way, either) novel that I fervently wish I had never spent money on. Beware, because you may wish the same, should you buy it.
Rating:
Summary: Visions of Hannibal Lector danced in my head...
Review: I originally liked this book...maybe I was in a desperate mood or something, because when I tried to read it a second time...well, I didn't like it at all. Here's where Hannibal Lector comes in...She is knocked over by the man with the greying hair and he's gone and kissed her. Badly by my measure. She writes: "...he bent his head and a warm, strong mouth descended on hers. She didn't say another word, not even when his lips opened and his tongue lunged (YES LUNGED) into her mouth..." (Lunging tongues!!!!) "A tongue swept around her ear, and a husky voice murmured, "Very nice, a lovely ear," and swept without a pause to reclaim her mouth again, his tongue stabbing into her mouth. Finally, he stole her tongue altogether and sucked it into his mouth." I don't know about you...but disembodied lunging, stabbing tongues, flicking and sweeping, tongue stealing...I half expected her end that last paragraph with "He ate it with some fava beans and a nice chianti!". Save your money.
Rating:
Summary: Dry and Confusing
Review: Couldn't get past the first few chapters, there were parts the author could have removed to speed up the action a little. Granted, she is a new author...however, the confusing part about the story is how the female lead rushes off into the garden with a stranger, without any qualms, and gives up her virginity as if it means nothing, then shortly later refuses to marry, and even refuses the stranger she so hastily rushed to the garden with...out of character. On one hand she had no morals, then she suddenly becomes overly stubborn and won't have anything to do with any of the men who court her. I stopped when the plot kept stalling and the story stopped moving forward, about the first 5 chapters.
Rating:
Summary: The Mind Boggles!!!
Review: This is the most howlingly bad novel of the genre I have encountered. I had to keep reading to see what cliche or historical inaccuracy would occur next. Wow! The great Careme whipping up ball gowns, with what a balloon whisk? Hookers???? That term didn't come about until the Civil War in the US, but she also has dialog between Charlotte and Alexander that sounds just like something between Scarlett and Rhett. I could go on but there is no point in belaboring the reader of the review with errors others have pointed out in previous reviews. The author has not done her homework, she seems to have no idea of the way people of the time period spoke or lived. She simply seems to know nothing about the regency period at all. She has created a pretty fantasy which she should have set in a time period she knows more about or be better at research. I'd recomend that if Ms. James wants to continue to write about the regency period she do some more reading. Start with a really good writer such as Marion Chesney and then do her homework. I'm forced by the star scale to assign this book a rating. I'd prefer to rate it at minus one star. Her editor deserves a decrease in salary and maybe to be sent looking for a new job...maybe a scullery maid?
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