RUTHLESS by Anne Stuart

PUBLISHER: Mira, 2010
GENRE: Historical romance
MY GRADE: D

SYNOPSIS: Few outsiders will ever witness the dark misdeeds of the Heavenly Host. And among this secret society, where exiled Georgian aristocrats gather to indulge their carnal desires, fewer still can match the insatiable appetite of their chief provocateur, the mysterious Viscount Rohan. Pursuit of physical pleasure is both his preferred pastime and his most pressing urge, until he encounters the fascination of a woman who won't be swayed. And while his dark seduction appalls the pure and impoverished Elinor Harriman, she finds herself intrigued...and secretly drawn to the man behind the desire.

MY THOUGHTS: The heroine is Elinor Harriman, 23, English, and has brown hair and brown eyes. The hero is 39 year old Francis Rohan, English, with brown hair and blue eyes. He’s been living in France for 22 years. Elinor lives with her dying mother and younger sister, 17 year old Lydia and their two servants. They’re dirt poor.  This book was so boring and that’s the truth. I was so excited to read it but it didn’t live up to my expectations at all. I liked the hero and heroine OK but I didn’t like Elinor’s sister Lydia at all. We had to hear about how beautiful and pretty she was throughout the entire novel. I didn’t like that she and Charles got married when they didn’t really know each other at all. I don’t know where that relationship came from or why it was even in the book. I didn’t like that Francis was so obsessed with Elinor. It made no sense to me. The one thing that I did like about this was the big 16 year age gap between the hero and heroine. Authors just don’t do that anymore. Usually there’s just a few years difference in age between them.