Compromising Miss Tisdale by Jessica Jefferson #review

Pages -  250

Publisher -  Soul Mate Publishing

Published -  Nov 3, 2013

Genre -  Historical, Regency, Romance

Series -  The Regency Blooms Book 1 

Kindle Edition -  Buy Link

Sexual Content -  3/5

Ambrosia Tisdale is the very picture of propriety and the epitome of what a respectable young lady should be. Haunted by a memory and compelled by her family, she pursues perfection to a fault.
The Earl of Bristol, Duncan Maddox, has returned to London after years of familial-imposed exile. As the second son, he has led a life filled with frivolity, leisure, and a healthy dose of debauchery. Now his older brother has died, leaving the family’s flailing legacy in Duncan’s unwilling arms.
At the behest of his uncle, Duncan is advised to do the one thing that could provide instant fortune and respectability—he must marry. But there is only one prospect who meets the unique requirements to solve all the Earl’s problems—the lovely Miss Ambrosia Tisdale. But securing the prudent daughter of a Viscount’s hand proves to be more challenging than this scandal-ridden second son of an Earl has bargained for.
With scandal, extortion, treachery, and even love itself threatening to keep him from his goal, will Duncan succeed or find himself compromised by Miss Tisdale?

My four stars were hard-fought but, I think, worth it.

There are issues here, and it is my understanding that the author went back and fixed a lot of previous grammar, punctuation, spelling mistakes.

Sadly, she didn't find them all, and her Editor doesn't know a THING about who/whom.

Also, I had issues with the youngest Tisdale daughter tramping about London unescorted and prancing her way inside the Townhome of a bachelor rake of 28 who isn't related to her in any way.

She's also there to hand him an invitation, which I'm pretty sure prosperous families had employed servants to handle such matters.

And, the romance itself proved a little on the draggy side, taking far too long to materialize, and even then, the author chose to toss in another dilemma to split them apart... until the very end of the book when the HEA does, at last, occur.

Here's what I did like.

The writing itself was smooth, somewhat charming, and nearly as accurate for the times as most modern authors tend to get.

Duncan Maddox, the H, was a believable character with plenty of charm, looks, and personality to tide me over while Ambrosia, the h, took her time deciding what she would do with him.

I felt that the story itself was a bit over-done but no less engaging, and I wasn't simply eager to finish the book like I would most other works of this particular nature.

I simply wanted to know how it would all turn out, and the ending made me smile.

What I Didn't Quite Understand.

The cover is deceptive in that I expected this to be a mixed-race romance (she appears to be Black to my eyes, not the pale white woman described to me as Ambrosia in the novel) set in Regency times... which would have been rather interesting, don't you think?

A majority of this novel read well, made perfect sense, and flowed at an even pace, but there were a few times when something knocked me right out of the plot and made me wonder what was going on.

I'll work my way backwards as my mind is still fresh from having just finished the book.

When the final chapter is through, we're taken to a tiny introduction for Book 2 in the Series, which I read... about the YOUNGEST sister's romance (there are 4 sisters in all and 4 books in the series).

She's 17 in this first novel, but there are two other sisters ahead of her, so why write the youngest sister's romance ahead of the two older sisters?

Then, I went to Amazon to look into Book 3 and discovered it is Lillian's story... who is supposed to be just under Ambrosia in age and, if I'm not mistaken, is already wed in this Book 1 !!

The Heroine.

Ambrosia behaved the way she did for a few reasons, but not even handsome Duncan Maddox, whoM she fell instantly in lust with, was capable of shaking or stirring her out of her staid lifestyle... not even after she admits to being in love and learning that his Uncle has passed away.

How could she be that cruel to ignore her own heart, toss her emotions aside for that staid purpose, and refuse to go with the rest of her family to pay the grieving man a courtesy visit?

It was a boo/hiss moment for me and the author's mistake as far as I'm concerned.

It happens late in the story, when I was already prepared to root for them both until this scene occurs and then I was more inclined to NOT like the woman anymore.

Poor Duncan will be kissing that one's ass until his own death arrives :(

Here are the rest of the novels in this series, linking to the author's website, and yes, I think I will be reading at least one more Tisdale novel... out of complete curiosity to find out if things have changed in the author's style.