World Famous Comics: After the Kiss: The Notorious Gentlemen
After the Kiss: The Notorious Gentlemen
By: Suzanne Enoch Publisher: Avon Average Rating: Binding: Mass Market Paperback Label: Avon Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 384 Publication Date: July 01, 2008 Release Date: June 24, 2008
Sullivan Waring wants only two things: his rightful inheritance, and revenge against the man who stole it from him. By day, Sullivan is the most respected horse breeder in England; by night, he plunders the ton's most opulent homes to reclaim his late mother's beautiful paintings. His quest is going swimmingly . . . until the night he's discovered by Lady Isabel Chalsey. Clad only in a revealing nightdress, she's an entrancingly different kind of plunder, and how can a thief resist stealing a kiss?
A Curious Lady . . .
Surprised by a masked man in her own home, Isabel should be quaking with fear. Instead the sight of the sinfully handsome Sullivan makes her tremble with excitement. Who is this man, and why is he so set on this reckless pursuit? Lady Isabel loves a challenge, and she'll dare anything to uncover Sullivan's secret—but she may instead convince him that she is the greatest prize of all.
Marquis's daughter and the horse trainer "After the Kiss" is the first of a series of books about 'The Notorious Gentlemen'. The hero of this book, Sullivan Waring, isn't exactly notorious - instead he's overlooked. A renowned horse breeder and trainer, despite the rumours that he has an aristocratic natural father he is ignored except for his expertise with horses. Lady Isabel Chalsey can't overlook him though - not when she catches him red-handed burgling her family's house. But Isabel doesn't want to see him hung or transported, not when he gave her a kiss, so instead she decides to keep an eye on him by employing him to teach her to ride a horse. It's the only reason she can think to spend time with him and find out more about him but unfortunately Isabel is almost phobic about horses.
Sullivan Waring is on a mission to revenge himself against his father who sold all his mother's possessions when Sullivan was fighting the Peninsular war. Each time he steals one of his mother's paintings he knows that it irritates his father. But now there is someone else involved, someone who knows that he is the secret thief known as the Mayfair Marauder, and someone who is getting closer to him. But there's absolutely no future between the daughter of a Marquis and a horse breeder, especially when Sullivan's legitimate half-brother is after Isabel as well. Can they find happiness? Can Sullivan get away with his thefts without being caught? Can he ever find a place in society?
It took me a while to get into this book, despite an exciting first chapter during the Peninsular War. I didn't find myself warming to Isabel Chalsey and her dictatorial and bossy manner and was too perturbed by yet another random man's name in an American-authored Regency (although there was an explanation for why he was called Sullivan). There were lots of errors in dialogue, for example using the American word 'burglarize' rather than the English 'burgle' and other similar mistakes. However the underlying story was actually quite good, even if I wasn't convinced of the probable reality of the events that led to the happy ending. It was, however, a reasonable read with an enigmatic hero, a varied cast of supporting characters and some interesting vignettes into horse training.
Forbidden fruit As stated by many other reviewers, I have been disappointed in a number of Suzanne Enoch's recent books. I accidently read this series out of order starting with Before the Scandal, having bought them together on Amazon and assuming a book title beginning with "Before" would precede a book beginning with "After." While I enjoyed Before the Scandal, I LOVED After the Kiss.
It pairs two unlikely central characters, an unacknowledged bastard son of aristocracy, Sullivan, with an aristocratic and haughty young woman. Isabel catches Sullivan stealing from her home and he gives her a kiss to try to distract her. Though she is disconcerted over her first kiss, she steals his mask during the kiss and can therefore identify him. Sullivan, unbeknown to her, is trying to retrieve paintings that are his inheritance, paintings by his mother that were illegally taken by his unacknowledged father after her death.
Isabel sees Sullivan again the next day, while with her brother on a trip to purchase a horse. Sullivan is a recognized horse breeder. She insists on buying a second horse for herself and having the horse breeder train the horse for her to ride. She hopes to blackmail him into explaining why a man with obvious livelihood would steal from the same aristocrats who are his purchasers.
As they get to know and admire each other, they are caught in an impossible situation - they cannot legitimately express fondness for one another because he is a nobody. As the story weaves and unfolds, she is shunned by society and has to come to grips with the cattiness of gossip. He must come to grips with not being able to love her freely.
Each character has obvious flaws, but sensitivity to each others issues. As they come to know each other, their initial attraction becomes more than that, and they each have to deal with their inherent biases. His bias is against aristocracy, hers is that of a spoiled rich girl who can usually get whatever she wants.
Even today, many families object to sons or daughters pursuing a relationship with a person of the wrong color, religion or social set. For this reason, the story rang true to me. Both main characters have to overcome natural biases to realize that the other person is right for him/her.
On a petty note, I wish editors would correct little grammatical errors. Enoch often says "like" instead of "as," "different than" rather than the correct "different from." She also writes either with a plural verb. It should take a singular. Sometimes, I have to throw a book away mid-read because the grammar so detracts from the writing. Fortunately, that was not the case with this. There are some distractions, but they are minor.
the book girl reviews After The Kiss This is the beginning of a new series by Suzanne Enoch. I really love how the title fits into the book. After the kiss is exactly when the book takes place. Lady Isabel encounters Sullivan as he is robbing her home and the only way he thinks of to distract her is by kissing her. Lady Isabel comes across a little spoiled and bratty in the beginning of the book, but changes throughout the book as she falls in love and comes to realize what is important. Sullivan is living his life for revenge, but he too comes to realize what is important. This is a story of overcoming your past and learning who you really are. I really liked this book, and can't wait to read the next in the series.
Main Character Lady Isabel Chalsey is by far one of the more interesting characters in recent romance novels. She has a belief in love and is one of those women that find easy to believe. She falls in love and stays in love in her youth. I find her extremely realistic in the portrayal of her youthful love with the dark man, or bad boy in our modern society. This is the captured time of young love. The only problem with the tale was that I did not find Sullivan Waring very appreciative of the great love he had and then damaged.
An Exercise in Character Development! Like another reviewer, I too had been disappointed with Ms. Enoch's recent historicals (see my reviews on Sins of a Duke and Something Sinful). However, being an equestrienne with a love of Regency romances, the basic premise certainly piqued my interest.
I thought Isabel's (or Tibby's, as she's frequently called) character was well developed and the majority of her actions made sense from that perspective. So often, romance heroines are inconsistent and leave readers scratching their heads. Isabel's motivations for her actions were always in tune with her character, which can be especially difficult when writing a character who undergoes such a drastic shift in personality and beliefs during the course of a novel. Isabel shifts from a sheltered, spoiled princess to a more mature, worldly woman in the course of 384 pages. Throughout it all, she remains likable, as Enoch gives us plenty of indication as to why Isabel acts and thinks as she does. By allowing us to understand her, we are able to like her better.
Sullivan too is a character who develops over the course of the novel, going from a scorned, bitter son bent on revenge to a man who is capable of loving the very sort of girl he was determined to hate. What might have started out as a desire to see one of Society's princess fall from grace morphed into something else as he saw that she too had vulnerabilities and she too was at the mercy of Society's mercurial temperaments.
The secret, forbidden courtship of Isabel and Sullivan also made things enjoyable. Both knew what they were doing would be seen as wrong (which of course made it all the more delicious) but the attraction between them was simply too strong. This is a common device, I'll grant you, but in After the Kiss, you really believe that their attraction cannot be denied. What's more, both characters understand that what their doing is wrong and that there will be consequences, causing a realistic amount of hesitation and thought on the part of each. So often, characters leap into romance without a thought as to what their friends and family might think, which, I'm sorry to say, just isn't how real life works.
Finally, as with most of Ms. Enoch's novels, the secondary characters are not just a distraction but truly enhance the novel. Tibby's family, her friends/enemies, even the requisite 'villain' all helped to both move the plot forward as well as present obstacles which forced Isabel and Sullivan to make choices that furthered their growth. This novel is truly an exercise in character development. Sullivan and Isabel are dynamic characters whose actions ring true with whatever the current state of their personalities is, a rare thing in the modern romance novel. I highly recommend this novel, both for those who have never read Suzanne Enoch and need an introduction and for those who have been longtime fans recently disappointed by her latest historical fare.
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