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A NOTORIOUS PROPOSITION
Adele Ashworth
Avon
ISBN: 978-0-06-112858-5
May 2008
Historical Romance
Adele Ashworth’s newest release, A NOTORIOUS
PROPOSITION returns the readers to the hamlet of Winter
Garden with a new mystery to solve and a new couple to
meet. Garrett Burke has been working with the government
and has been trying to find the mysterious Martello
Diamonds. Two years ago, a debacle of huge proportions
put him in disgrace with the Home Office and separated
him from the lovely, Lady Ivy Wentworth. At the time,
Ivy was also on the case of finding the diamonds. In a
plot the size and complexity of a Gordian knot, these
two pick up where they left off two years ago, hunting
for the elusive diamonds.
I so much wanted to love this book. Ms. Ashworth has
long been a favorite author of mine. In a time when so
few historical books are written, I try to soak them up
whenever I can. In A NOTORIOUS PROPOSITION, there was
too much going on with the mystery, and kept shrouded
until the very end, that the development of Ivy and
Garrett’s relationship suffered. I like books that make
me think, and are not predictable. The past books I have
read by this author have been like that. The conclusion
of this book, however, is so convoluted and
multi-layered that by the end, I almost did not care any
more exactly who did what, I just wanted it to end.
I realize that it is the writing style, but there was a
disjointedness to the plot that got disconcerting after
a while. We would keep popping into people’s heads, but
as a reader, you did not know whose head you were in.
There were misleading clues so you would think it was
one person, but later on (WAY later on), you would
realize that it was not the person you thought it was,
rather it was someone else. While this can be
interesting, it happened too often and started to get
perplexing (to this reader at least).
The bit of banter and character development we DO get
between Garrett and Ivy is well done. Both are wary and
untrusting for different reasons, but under it all, you
could feel that they really did love each other. At this
point, I would have to say it depends what you are
looking for as to whether or not you are going to like
this book. I have pretty high expectations of Ms.
Ashworth’s books, and A NOTORIOUS PROPOSITION fell quite
short of her previous offerings. That being said, I
thought the writing far superior to a lot of the other
writings out there. You will not be bored reading this
story, since you never quite know where you are being
taken.
Reviewed by Sarah Silversmith
Rating: 3 |
