Secrets of Seduction - Review

Secrets of Seduction by Nicole Jordan

Rating: 2 Stars
Source: NetGalley
Description:  
This is loosely a retelling of Beauty and the Beast.  The beautiful Lady Skye Wilde has decided that she must convince the physically and emotionally scarred Earl of Hawksworth to fall in love and marry her.
Genre: Romance
Why I Picked This Book:  Back when I first started reading romance I remember enjoying a Nicole Jordan book but for was never able to find any of her other books.  I thought I'd give this one a try when I saw it on NetGalley
My Impression:
Pro:  I liked that Hawk's first marriage was happy.  His grief seems genuine but not overdone.  The romance of Skye's uncle and the quest to find his lost love was interesting and kind of sweet.  I liked that Skye wanted to shake Hawk out of his rut of grief and that he not only realized what she was doing but appreciated it.  Even when I wasn't enjoying reading it I did want to find out how everything got resolved and managed to read this one in about a day so it's a quick read.

Con:  Other than feeling mildly grateful to Skye for helping him get past his demons a bit and really having some serious lust in her general direction Hawk doesn't seem to like Skye very much.  I didn't like how contrived their meeting was.  This would have worked for me if they had known each other for years but as it was they had seen each other once when he was newly married and she was a child.  15 years pass and Skye decides that he fits her whole Beauty and the Beast story tale ideal and decides that he's going to fall in love with her.  Her appearing on his doorstep under somewhat false pretenses seemed too much contrived for me as did her quest to get him to fall in love with her.   I also had a hard time believing that she would have willingly stayed alone in a house with him and then later traveled with him.  I'm aware that she and her family are supposed to be somewhat wild but she is a young unmarried aristocratic woman.  It seems a bit unlikely.

Overall:  This book just didn't work for me.  I found it readable but never really connected with any of the characters which I think is important in a romance.

Would I Read More of this Series/Author?: No

Would I Recommend this Book?:  No