Product Description

Lady Arabella Blydon has beauty and a brain, and she's tired of men who can see only one without the other.When a suitor tells Arabella he's willing to overlook her appalling bluestocking tendencies on account of her looks and fortune, she decides to take a break from the Marriage Mart. During an extended stay in the country, she never expects to meet Lord John Blackwood, a wounded war hero who intrigues her like no other man.Lord John has lived through the worst horrors of war...but nothing could have been as terrifying to his tormented heart as Lady Arabella. She is intoxicating, infuriating...and she makes him want to live again. Suddenly he's writing bad poetry and climbing trees in the pitch-dark night...just so he can dance with her. And even though he knows he can never be the sort of man she deserves, he can't help wanting her. But when the harsh light of day replaces the magic of midnight, can this tormented soul learn to love again?

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #36016 in Books
• Published on: 2008-07-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 384 pages

Review
"'Delightful' - Nora Roberts"

About the Author
Julia Quinn started writing her first book one month after finishing college and has been tapping away at her keyboard ever since. The New York Times bestselling author of numerous Regency-set romantic comedies, she is a graduate of Harvard and Radcliffe Colleges and lives with her family in the Pacific Northwest.

Customer Reviews

Not your best!
I think Julia Quinn's books are generally very engaging. I like her character portrayals and the amusing dialogues. I thought after 'Splendid' that Belle Blydon deserved her own story. However I wish the authoress had waited until a real plot had occurred to her before putting pen/fingers to paper/keyboard! The premise of the story is of a dark tortured hero unable to love because of a terrible crime committed during the war. I just couldn't get with the idea that failing to rescue a girl from a rape, that he didn't commit, would make him into this lost person. He wouldn't be very strong as a character.That he then made the guilty officer desert also seems weak, surely he would kill him! or challenge him to a duel! Belle, likewise acted in a wholly unlikely manner for the period, visiting a man's home at 9.00 in the morning. John Blackwood loses his dark brooding manner far too quickly, to gain my sympathy for him as a character, and Belle deserved a better role. The resolution for the climatic ending lacked credibility. I agree with other reviewers about the Americanism's in the grammar. To have someone say " I like that you.. or I want that you .." jars me very rapidly from the 18th century into 21st century America. Still I will continue to read Julia Quinn's books in the hope that this is just a one off aberration!

Enthralling
This is a brilliant book that I could not put down.
The reason why I only gave it four stars was the occasional use of bad english grammar by the english characters. If the book was set in America and/or the characters were American, I wouldn't have a problem, but it is the English characters, in England, saying the word 'gotten' in the middle their sentence. English people in this period NEVER used this word, along with several other American phrases and words. However, I do appreciate that Miss Quinn is an American author, writing for the American market.
I still found this book highly amusing, great fun to read, and would recommend it to anyone.

Not the best
I have read many of Julia Quinns books and have enjoyed them, however I was sorley disappointed with this one. John seemed to get over his 'promblems' regarding marrying Belle to quickly for me to find it believeable. Also I am afraid that I do not like a 'desperate' women, you never would have guessed that Belle had received dozens of marriage proposals from the way that she chases John.