With her usual wry sense of humor, Shakespearean references, delightful dialogue and highly heated love scenes, James creates an emotionally powerful romance destined for readers’ keeper shelves. Some may find the heroine’s apparent change of character distracting, while others will feel more connected to the woman at the end than the girl in the beginning. However, fans of James’ romance will not want to miss any of her memorable romances.
There’s an interesting mix of substance and fluff in this book—serious conversations about North’s experiences in war serve as a contrast to comic encounters with an irascible peacock. Although I’ve always enjoyed Ms. James’ sense of humor, it was the more serious, emotional moments that kept me interested in this book ... well worth a read, particularly if you’re interested in a light-hearted book to take your mind off things.
It was so angst free that I got bored. Oh, okay. The drama (what there was of it) is Diana insisting that she doesn’t want to marry North because she has no desire to ever be a duchess. That’s about it. They fall into bed regardless and North is positively entranced with her, but she’s like ‘we can do this, but I ain’t ever doing that.’ Complete honesty. Which is refreshing, but boring nonetheless. There was some really nice steamy moments between this couple, and I liked how they were with each other, I just could have used a bit more drama.
Too Wilde to Wed really was a fun read, although I did struggle a bit with some of it. Overall, though, this was as well-plotted out as I would expect from James and of course had some nicely placed references to Shakespeare as well. This was an easy romance to read with lots of intriguing, eccentric characters to chuckle over. And I liked that there was an easy flow to each passage so it was truly a pleasure to see the cast interact and then see where their actions would lead them ... With a nice blend of laughter, sultry moments, and family drama, Too Wilde to Wed was a solid addition to the Wildes of Lindow Castle series.
The first half of the novel is a delightful second-chance romance that captures the wonder of coming to know someone intimately, body and soul. Both characters suffer a bit in the second half, which shifts to recovering North’s reputation. North’s post-traumatic stress evaporates, and Diana takes rash actions that seem less and less in character. Extended sensual scenes disrupt coherent plotting. However, the pleasures of spending time with the large, loving, and very funny Wilde clan compensate to some extent. An uneven but ultimately rewarding second-chance romance.
