Review: A Novel Seduction by Gwyn Cready

A Novel Seduction by Gwyn Cready

• Mass Market Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Pocket Star; Original edition (October 25, 2011)

Goodreads Description:

When snobbish book critic Ellery Sharpe screws up at Vanity Place magazine, her boss assigns her the ultimate punishment: write an ode to romance novels, a genre she considers the literary equivalent of word search puzzles. To make matters worse, he hires her sexy former party boy ex, Axel Mackenzie, to shoot the photos. Axel really wants the project to succeed. For one, the magazine will double his fee if he convinces strong-willed Ellery to write a story no woman can resist. Besides, getting Ellery to fall for romance novels might be just the push she needs to believe people can change . . . even him. At his sister’s advice, Axel gives Ellery a copy of Kiltlander, a much-adored romance whose warrior hero is utterly irresistible. To her dismay, Ellery finds herself secretly falling in love with the story—and with Axel, who’s drawing his own lessons from the book’s compelling hero. With her carefully crafted image of herself crumbling and her dream job on the line, will Ellery risk it all to make the leap from tight-lipped literati to happily-ever-after heroine?

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I have read a couple of this author's time travel romances and didn't really care for them much. I really liked the idea of this book though and thought that I would give it a chance. Unfortunately, I didn't really care for this book either. There were moments that I had to set the book down and walk away from it for awhile because I was confused about how I felt and what the author's intentions were. The romance was boring and didn't interest me at all and I never really liked the main characters.

Ellery is a book critic who thinks all romance novels are drivel...even though she has never read one. She offends someone important and is forced to write about how great romance novels are. Her ex Axel is a photographer assigned to do the article with her. He picks up a few romances for her to read, one a paranormal, another a Highland romance, and the last one is a typical historical romance. Although she is a very professional writer she is surprisingly reluctant to do the research and actually read any of the books. When she does she just flips it open to random parts and occasionally skips ahead to get to the sex scenes. That really annoyed me. It is a pet peeve of mine when people skip around parts of a book. Even more bothersome is when she would just flip to the intimate scenes. I love romances but I don't think romances are about the sex. I think it is about the building of a relationship. The paranormal romance and Highland romance bit were laughable. They were so over the top and extreme, yet a self proclaimed romance hater ended up enjoying these books. What!? I found it to be confusing because I didn't know if the author meant it to be ridiculous or was she being serious. Since Ellery ended up enjoying them I felt like the author must have been serious but I just can't imagine why she would make the books seem so terrible.

As I previously said, the romance was boring. I found it predictable. Based on the synopsis I felt there was pretty good potential for excitement and an interesting romance but sadly it didn't turn out that way. Others my enjoy this book, however it just wasn't for me.

1.5/5
I received a copy of this book for review. Any opinions expressed are my own.