Once Upon a Wicked Night (Donovan Sisters, #1.5)

by Jennifer Haymore

[rakesandrogues]

I picked up ONCE UPON A WICKED NIGHT by Jennifer Haymore from NetGalley because I thought it was a good way to introduce myself to a romance author I was not familiar with.

I thought that almost fifty pages of ONCE UPON A WICKED NIGHT would introduce me to Haymore's writing as well as give a taste of what her series would be like.

The story focuses on sisters Serena and Olivia. For Serena, this ball is important because seven years ago, it was the ball that had damaged her reputation. For Olivia, this was her first outing of the Season and she was determined to keep up her family's reputation. I thought Serena's story to be quite pointless, but it did make me interested in her story. On the other hand, Olivia's chapter was quite scandalous.

Now my problem with ONCE UPON A WICKED NIGHT is basically false advertising. I thought I would get around 50 pages of romance goodness. I got less than 30. The other half of this "novella" was an excerpt from the first Donovan Sisters novel by Jennifer Haymore. What? Yeah. Talk about disappointing.

I understand that ONCE UPON A WICKED NIGHT is a novella, but it failed to leave me with any kind of satisfaction as a reader. I am interested in Serena's story and eventually, I may pick up the first Donovan sisters novel, but overall, ONCE UPON A WICKED NIGHT was a let down.

But if I were to have purchased this novella just to try out a new author, I would have been severely disappointed. I rather would have read the first book of the Donovan Sisters series to see if I liked Haymore's writing than to have been let down just after a measley 25 or so pages.