rubya

This book really didn't do it for me.Although I thought the initial premise was good, a beautiful courtesan found half dead in the Thames, and the subsequent quest to find her attempted killer, etc., it all just began to fall flat for me very quickly.1. I thought Victoria's character just a terrible bore. Self-effacing, meek, weak, dependent. I couldn't see what he saw in her, except her looks. She reminded me of Emmaline in Devil in Winter, except unlike Emmaline, she doesn't come into her own by the end of the novel. She is the same throughout. Yaawn.2. I thought Grant despicable. When he finds who he thinks is Vivian in the water, half-dead and drowned, he takes her back to his home and attempts to revive her. As she is half-conscious and hypothermic, he decides that he will use this opportunity to take advantage of the situation by seducing her. Why? Because he wanted to get back at her for starting a rumor about him. I found that simply disgusting. Then, as he uncovers more and more information about who Vivian "is" he is angered by her promiscuous ways and judges her, even as he wants her.I don't know, the whole thing fell very flat to me. The book seemed inconsistent, the characters were weakly constructed, and there didn't seem much of a story there for me except for the mystery of who tried to kill Vivian. Furthermore, Keyes motive for killing Vivian just didn't make sense to me. He wanted to kill her for money so he could retire?? I don't know- weak.I wanted to read more about Vivian- the Scarlett O'hara of the novel. I almost wish that it was really Vivian he fell in love with- it would have been fun to see them clash and to see him get over the fact that he was falling in love with a courtesan who he had hated and to watch her become a one-man woman.