Tempted All Night

by Liz Carlyle

[Amanda]

Hmph. Or should I say "Ummmm," which is what the characters moan in particularly amorous moments?

You know how sometimes little tiny, seemingly inconsequential, things can be extremely irritating? That's what "Ummmm..." did for me. And being that this is the second Liz Carlyle book I've read recently, and both have had it, well...

Something like that -- um is a speech filler, not a moaning noise -- could be overlooked if it were the only minor complaint. But Tempted All Night, like the last Liz Carlyle book I read, also had characters who held their secrets until hundreds of pages into the book. I complain about this because we know there are secrets from nearly the beginning, and yet they're held and teased for nothing more (at least that I could tell) than ratcheting up the tension. If there's a secret, fine, but having it referred to multiple times, then glossed over until the "right moment" for the reveal is... annoying. Considering that happened in the other book I read, well, two doesn't quite make it a pattern, but close.

Then there was Tristan, who I didn't much like at the beginning. He's a scoundrel -- a man who's spent a good portion of his years earning a reputation as a highly sought after ladies' man, and who's caught out pleasuring a woman -- not the heroine -- early on in the book. Nope. I will allow that a character like that offers the opportunity for a lot of character growth, but I've exhausted my tolerance for them, at least at Tristan's level.

As for Phae, I liked her until she started being obstinate about Tristan. Not just ABOUT him, but sticking to her beliefs about what he wants even as he tells her the opposite. All it did was serve to draw out the book longer. And although Tristan managed to prove himself eventually, I spent the last few pages of the book wanting to smack Phae...

Okay.

But.

Now that I've said all that, there's something addicting about Liz Carlyle's books. It's difficult to stop reading them, even when they're pushing my buttons and making me ranty. So I'll probably read another one, just to see if the pattern holds true.