Showing posts with label Pam Rosenthal. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pam Rosenthal. Show all posts

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

TBR Review: Almost A Gentleman by Pam Rosenthal

This month instead of going with the TBR Challenge 2012 theme, New-to-Me Author, I decided to just go with the flow and read what I was in the mood to read. Although I do have quite a few new-to-me authors in the historical romance category in my TBR pile, this is the book that "called" to me.

A DARING MASQUERADE.
For three years, London's haute ton has been captivated by the cool elegance of Philip "Phizz" Marston. Tall, refined, an expert gambler with a cold, unerring eye for style, what keeps the ruthless social climbers attuned to this dandy's every move is something more unsettling.a grace and beauty that leaves women and men alike in a state of unthinkable yearning.

WILL BE DELICIOUSLY UNDRESSED...

Lord David Hervey must be losing his mind. How else explain the disturbing desires he feels whenever his eyes meet the penetrating gaze of Mr. Marston? When he overhears a threat on the gentleman's life, he intervenes and alone discovers the glorious truth.beneath the bindings of Mr. Marston's masquerade hides an exquisite body that is every bit a woman's.

AND EVERY HIDDEN DESIRE, REVEALED.

Armed with desire and entrusted with her bold game, Lord David won't give up till the lady gives in, revealing herself to him completely, surrendering her deepest secrets with every persuasive pleasure he can offer.
I first became acquainted with Pam Rosenthal when I read her Rita Award winner The Edge of Impropriety in 2009. I enjoyed that book and promptly purchased Almost A Gentleman. Unfortunately, it has been lingering in my TBR ever since.

Although Almost a Gentleman has a bit of that same style that I enjoyed in The Edge of Impropriety, I found it to be a vastly different read. First, the trope(s) used in this story are all familiar and then some. We begin with the familiar female to male masquerade and that oh... not so subtle attraction of a man's man who becomes attracted to another man, but doesn't quite know why. This trope has been done well, and it is loved by many.

The success of this past three years' masquerade lay precisely in the fact that she didn't feel like a woman. She didn't stand or sit or act like a woman because she didn't want to feel like a woman. Not ever again.
Rosenthal's gender bending Phizz/Phoebe is interesting in that she doesn't masquerade for a moment or for a short period of time, but instead assumes the life and follows the lifestyle of a gentleman for a period of three years. Successfully. Phizz gambles, drinks, socializes and through an agency that caters to males with 'certain tastes,' engages the services of a boy to service him/her sexually. Phizz is known as a dandy with much influence, particularly at White's where with a comment he can have gentlemen accepted or denied membership.

[...]Three years of Marston had accustomed her to doing things for herself. Three years of educating herself about her own tastes and passionate desires had made her aggressive -- a taker of pleasure rather than its humble recipient.
As you can well imagine, he makes many friends and foes. The one thing you can say about Phizz is that even though he's ruthless, he seems to be both admired and desired (passionately in some cases) by both males and females. Particularly by males. Phizz doesn't want to be a woman, he prefers the life of a man, the sophisticated lifestyle, the freedom, and the power. Phizz resents being a powerless female and for most of the story he fights to stay afloat as the dominant personality. But of course David comes along and changes everything.

David is a country gentleman, a widower nearing 40 and looking for a new wife. He meets Phizz Marston and is both confused and appalled when he's passionately attracted to the young man. He unmasks Phizz as Phoebe pretty quickly into the story, but I found it interesting that before that David went as far as trying to play the hero for Phizz and even throughout the whole story, although he denied it, he was really turned on by Phoebe when she was Mr. Marston.

Stop it, David, he commanded himself. Stop this idiocy at once. For he would certainly lose his oldest friend if John Wolfe caught the merest whiff of suspicion that David hadn't been in any way drawn to the young lady. He winced, imagining how shocked Wolfe would be to learn that what had roused decent, solid Lord Linseley's attention so profoundly had been the elegant posture and extraordinary eyes of a young man in black.
And his ass. Let's not forget the young man's ass!

Although understandable, his denials didn't carry much weight with me particularly when their sexual exploits take place. He loves the woman and insists that the woman is what he wants and needs, but Rosenthal introduces certain ambiguous sexual play as well as reactions in this story that leaves the reader thinking that David enjoys that double/gender bending personality that Phoebe/Phizz projects. David protests a bit too much, no?

The above are the interesting aspects of this story. Unfortunately, Rosenthal doesn't follow through  and leaves much of it unexplored. We rarely see Phizz in action within society, so there's little depth to his character from that perspective. And although Rosenthal's portrayal of how the homosexual male was viewed during those times is more in the historical context than PC, that portrayal is not necessarily well balanced. 

Once Phoebe makes a full time appearance and her real reasons behind becoming Phizz come to light, the story goes into the realm of the ordinary. Her final choices contradict her preferences, the blackmail plot becomes a non-issue, and the 'miracle of conception'? Well... what can I say about that one? I found it a shame that although I enjoyed Ms. Rosenthal's writing style (yes, it is different), and there's great potential and some intriguing moments throughout Almost A Gentleman, as a whole the story ends with a whimper.

April Review
Category: Historical Romance
Series: None
Publisher/Release Date: Kensington/December 1, 2007
Grade: C

Visit Pam Rosenthal here.

Sunday, August 9, 2009

Reviews at Musings


Upcoming Reviews:

















Wicked Gentlemen by Ginn Hale is a book I've had on my TBB list ever since I saw it highlighted at the Galaxy Express last March under their 'Steampunk' recommendations. A book I looked forward to reading and saved to savor like candy for the end of the Challenge. *g*

Out of Bounds by T.A. Chase was an erotic trip through the world of sports. He addresses the prejudices still rampant in that world and the pros and cons of being "out" for an athlete -- but also the decisions that must be made by the man. I'll be reading more T.A. Chase.

Reviews Posted at Musings:



The Edge of Impropriety by Pam Rosenthal, a historical romance from a new-to-me author. I was curious about this book and just had to give it a shot. My thoughts are posted at Musings as more impressions than review mode. A book that surprised me in more ways than one.

No Limits by Alison Kent is a contemporary romance book that I won at the author's website in a contest. This is another new-to-me author and I read this book without any expectations or knowledge as to style. This book had an interesting mixture of characters and atmosphere.

Islands by Samantha Kane, a beautiful love story set in World War II with wonderful characters and atmosphere. This one made me sigh.

Summer has taken its toll and I'm not reading as much as I usually do, but I'm right on track with the M/M Challenge. One more to read, and after this week... one more to review. So, that's okay, right?

After I'm done with those... I'll have to tackle the huge TBR pile this challenge has created... all the wonderful new authors discovered and backlists to investigate. It seems I'll be overflowing with hot new reads to keep me warm come the winter. :) Plus, this second half of the year, I'm planning on reading more Fantasy / Sci-Fi Romance and Contemporary Romance.

See you at Musings!

Edited: All reviews can be found here at Impressions. 

Thursday, August 6, 2009

Review: The Edge of Impropriety by Pam Rosenthal


The ribald private life of novelist Countess Marina Wyatt is the stuff of public scandal -- and it doesn't hurt the sale of her romances either. But she's totally unprepared for her consuming new affair with Jasper James Hedges, noted art appraiser and her former lover's uncle.

In Marina, Jasper sees a work of art of another kind. And for all of Marina's passionate inventions, nothing can compare to what Jasper delivers -- an erotic and dangerous voyage to the edge of impropriety and beyond.
The Edge of Impropriety is a book that took me by surprise. Frankly, I didn't know what to expect since this is my first book by Pam Rosenthal.

I found this to be an excellent historical romance with a mixture of fictional, historical characters, and/or based on real people of the times, peppered with beautiful details of time and place. I loved the way the writer allows us glimpses of the ton from the outside -- through the eyes of those who resided on the periphery, even the tradesmen. Her observations from that point of view were quite refreshing and kept me turning the pages.

Her hero and heroine are presented as mature adults with responsibilities and not-so-pretty pasts. You must keep reading to really get to know Marina, but there is nothing coy or disingenuous about her -- she is who she is and I loved her character. Jasper is easier to know and is presented as straight forward in his dealings with Marina and complex in his relationship with his family. I found their encounters to be very passionate -- nothing coy in that regard either -- although I found the way Rosenthal went about writing these scenes quite interesting.

For me, the way Ms. Rosenthal resolved conflicts in this book were also refreshing. Secondary characters are interesting and add much to this story. There's a secondary romance in the book that was both sweet and unexpected and a twist at the end to a bit of a mystery. The ending to this story was unusual, yet appropriate in my opinion. The only minor problem I found with the book was the length of some of the internal dialogues which were a bit long winded at times.

Visit the author here. Read an excerpt here.

Originally posted at Musings of a Bibliophile August 6, 2009