Review ~~ A Gentleman’s Bidding by Jean Wilde

     reviews, authors, writing                           1 out of 5 quills ~~ A Review

 

The issue I had with this book was the sloppy writing. The author slipped from Regency London language to modern day expressions  frequently. With the first sentence I knew we were in trouble. “I shall check to see if my mistress….” No butler/houseman of that period would use that phrasing. Rather he would say something like: “I shall inquire as to whether or not Madame is at home….”  The hero’s name is James Hughes. NEVER in this period of time would he be called ‘Jim‘ which he is in this book.  Another example: Emily says, “What’s with you….?”  Lady Hughes says: “you certainly are something else.” Another slip into the idioms of the twentieth century.

The sex scenes were SALACIOUS and were used to prop up a weak story plot. No subtlety whatsoever. And Emily performing fe***io was implausible. It was considered a sin up until the 1950’s and against the law in many states. It’s something that men specifically went to prostitutes for. For the author to have a whore demonstrate on a stable hand in front of the heroine was just plain icky. The author seemed to think that sticking in lots of sex scenes of all types (bondage, role playing, etc.) in the same chapter was the path to a best seller. It’s not.  It’s what you don’t say that titillates the reader. 

The plot was predictable. No surprises. The grammatical errors and punctuation (She capitalized the word Pound for no apparent reason) were atrocious and very distracting to this reader.

Blogger’s Note: It pains me to write a bad review. I try to avoid it at all costs. My whole mission here is to uplift and encourage other writers. But this one was so poorly written that I couldn’t let it pass. I returned the book and asked for a refund. 
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