Beyond Seduction by Emma Holly

For this month's TBR challenge we needed to read a book that had been in our TBR pile for over 6 months. The book I selected is the sequel to lasts month TBR challenge selection. This particular book had been sitting in my TBR pile for close to two years, so I think it qualifies. LOL!

Title: Beyond Seduction
Author: Emma Holly
Year published: 2002
Why did you get this book? It was part of a series. The Sequel to Beyond Innocence, so I had to purchase it because I would have felt that my reading was incomplete without it. Yeah, I know, I'm weird like that.
Do you like the cover? Yes. It was much better than it's predecessor
Did you enjoy the book? I did, but not as much as the first book.
Was the author new to you and would you read something by this author again? Author was not new to me and I have so many of her books in my TBR pile it's disgusting!
Are you keeping it or passing it on? Already posted it in Paperback swap.

Anything else?
Here is the recap: We met Merry Vance in Beyond Innocence. She fell hard for the hero in that book and offered herself to him in a thoughtless act of rebellion. He refused her and lived to marry Florence. Some years have past but Merry still has that high spirit. She is determined not to wed because she wants to become an independent woman. She would like to breed horses. This is a change in character from when we first had met her since she wanted to marry Edward Burbrooke back then.

Merry's mother is being blackmailed by an old lover to promote the marriage of his son with Merry and therefore she has alienated most of her suitors with rumors of her daughters wild escapades, but Merry is not having it and refuses Ernest's proposal. When Merry finds herself cornered she strikes back in the only way she thinks she can. As she sees it the only way to get her parents to back down is by making herself unmarriageable (is that even a word?). She decides to pose nude for the most notorious rake in London, who also is one of the most gifted artist in the area.

Nicolas Craven has been running from his past for over 15 years, which is half of his life. He has renounced his family to make a name for himself as an artist and has been successful in doing so. When he saves a young girl from being attacked outside the Duke of Monmouth's home he assumes it's a servant but her unusual beauty charms him and the artist in him sees a specimen that is itching to be painted. He offers her his card in hopes that she will come and model for him but in truth he doesn't expect nothing to come out of it. The next day she appears on his doorstep with the tale that she has been let go, and he seizes the opportunity to have her model for him.

In truth Merry really didn't expect to give up her virginity to Nic but his charms were too much for him and after he falls into a bout of depression she finally gives into him. Her tenderness and her dedication to him makes Nic regard the encounter as more than his usual paramours and thus begins their romance.

This book was not as erotic as it's prequel. They definitely got it on but in truth it was not as spicy as the first book. While you are reading Merry seems to be the stronger character with a stronger sense of what is right and wrong but in truth, she lied to Nic during the whole of the relationship. Nic never lied to her and when he finally discovered his feeling for her he told her outright that he loved her, but even when Nic spilled out the truth about his life and the relationships in his past, she did not step up to the plate and tell him who she was. So when everything blew up in her face and we actually realize that she was the one with the weak moral fiber, it's hard to sympathize. She appears to be a spoiled brat.

I guess that realization made me lower the grade of the book. It was an entertaining read but it left me a bit of a sour taste in my mouth. Nic really deserved better.

Grade: B-