AAR

[Vanessa]

Just finished it last night, and I have to say, after the horrible disappointment that Sins of a Duke was, I was hoping this one would restore my faith in Enoch. (Aside from the Jellicoe books which I've loved completely)

Well, not so much. The heroine was all about being a spoiled brat, I couldn't stand her from the second she appeared. She reminded me of the heroine from Sins, and I had the same problem with her.

Sullivan (hero) is going around stealing back painting that his mom made that his ass hat father sold from under his nose while Sullivan was away fighting. Chp 1 he breaks into heroine's (family's) house, they end up kissing and she sees his face. They meet accidentally the next day when her brother goes to buy an awesome horse from Sullivan. She recognizes him and coerces him into selling her a horse (when she's afraid of horses and this horse hasnt even been saddle trained yet) and giving her riding lessons. The riding lesson scenes seemed to be more of an opportunity for her to rub in his face that she bought him, he's common, she's got the upper hand bc she's blackmailing him, etc. Somewhere in the midst of all this, he finds her attractive. Apparently these actions are irresistible to him. How?! Why?!

I couldn't get into her character, and I couldn't see why he loved someone so bratty. I''m sure I've read other books where the heroine starts of with a really crappy attitude, but you have to be able to identify with, or at the very least understand, the character. And bc I couldn't identify with her, I wasn't drawn into the story at all.

Enoch will continue to be on my autobuy, cause I'm gonna keep hoping I'll recapture the magic of London's Perfect Scoundrel and England's Perfect Hero. I'm hoping the next one in this series gets me

[Kayne]

I was looking forward to a new historical from Enoch. Many readers love her contemporaries but they haven't interested me the way her historicals have. I almost didn't finish this one because I got tired of the repetitiveness of their problem (commoner and aristrocrat in love) but hung in their to read the final outcome. The book was a disapointment for me but other readers might enjoy it.

[cheri]

I had the same problem with Sins of a Duke that you did. I hated the heroine and it was a DNF. cheri

[Laurieb]

I finished this one yesterday, kinda disappointed not to see a review coming here Anyways, I quite liked it. The heroine WAS spoiled in the beginning, yes, but I thought she was "redeemed" by the end. And I really loved Sullivan--granted, his motives for what he was doing were a bit flimsy, but I liked that he finally realized that and manned up to fix his life. I thought he was absolutely hero material, and the scene in the stable when he's explaining to her why they can't be "friends" ? Phew, I read that one more than once, it was so intense. I also have to say that I was very intrigued by Bramwell. I have a feeling that he is going to be one of those dark characters she does so well at redeeming--somewhat like Valentine or St. Aubyn. I was disappointed in a way that Phin's book is next, as we didn't get to "meet" him really or know what he is like. I was also intrigued by Phins brother Lord Quence; I think he would make a lovely tragic hero, but doubt she will go that direction. All in all, I found After the kiss to be a satisfactory read--I'd probably rate it a solid B. Not as good as some of her previous historicals (IMO) but much better than Sins of a Duke. One thing I will say is missing from the book, though, was her sense of humor--even her darkest books usually have quite a bit of humor, but Bram provided the only bright spots in this one and they were few and far between which was too bad.