Much Ado About You

When starting a series, the first book needs to be a knock-out. This one wasn’t. Tess is perfectly fine in that’s she’s bland and boring. Another woman who can’t just admit what she wants. She was about to marry the wrong person and would have, but for the saving by a man. The only other sister that is remotely tolerable is Josie. I loathe Imogen. She is petulant, childish and narcissistic.

I did breeze through a few chapters at the beginning. I agree with some of the other reviews, it drug on a bit or slow started. However, I sincerely enjoyed the two main characters (Tess & Lucius) and also really disliked a few of the other characters (sister included, won’t name to spoil).

Nevertheless, Lucius & Tess’ love story is heartwarming in every way — and worth fighting it through to the end.

This was my second time reading this book and I didn’t love it any less. The reader’s voice kept me engaged and the story was great. Poor Imogen, selfish Imogen, to be widowed so young and so soon after her marriage. This broke my heart. Great book as usual from Eloisa James

More like 3 1/2 stars - it was a slow start but once Lucius and Tess actually got together, I found myself enjoying the book much more.

I was not crazy about this book at first. It seemed to take forever for the main romance to get anywhere. The story of the heroine's sister dominated the book. However, towards the end the romance gets better. The characters' love for each other is a gentle revelation to the main characters which is a nice change from the struck by lightning realization that is typical for romance novels.

This book is further proof that I will enjoy anything by Eloisa James. With Susan Duerdan’s portrayal of those wonderful, witty, intelligent and eminently likable characters and Miss James talent for storytelling this book, as with all the others, leaves me wishing it was longer. Than goodness for the rest of the Essex sisters! Their stories will be like endless epilogues.

Loved every moment of the story. Loved Tess and Lucius. The narrator was so much better than the narrator of the series of Duchess in Love. Although her voice was a bit of a sing song, but she was good., especially in all the dialogues.
Will definitely be finishing this series. Now on to the next one.

Deeply amusing regency romance -- somehow manages to take the usual romantic comedy mix-ups (and yes, it is very like Much Ado About Nothing in that respect) and pulls them into a pleasing new story. I like, also, how James works within the series format, and how the sisters' relationship is at least as important as the romantic one.

I like how this book started out with describing the Essex sisters and how they are all different. Series which have lead ladies with different personalities are always fun reads for me. (Wallflowers anyone?)

I don't mind when it becomes apparent right off the bat who the heroine is going to fall in love with, in fact I kind of enjoy how giddy I get when they are about to meet or are meeting for the first time. When Lucius is about to walk into the dining room and meet a slightly tipsy Tess the smile on my face was unstoppable.

The discourse between Derwent, Lucius's manservant, and Lucius is hilarious. I definitely hope Derwent sticks around in this story. I love how Derwent's eye twitching means to him calamity in the worse form, or to him marriage and just wants to escape the house while everyone is still a bachelor.

I'm quite enjoying the feistiness between Lucius and Tess, especially when Tess responds with "Much ado about nothing.." in regards to their kiss and Lucius's marriage proposal because of it. I love when author's work in the title of the book into the story somehow, adds a little something for me.

Such a plethora of characters that the main ones, Lucius and Tess, get lost in the mix at times. There is not much interaction between the two, but boy howdy when there is action it is intense. This is the first book in a series, the cast of characters are just getting introduce which is why Tess's other sisters get so much attention. Usually I get annoyed when the author gets to busy pimping her other characters for future books but the characters here are so interesting and intriguing as to where they could possible end up that I didn't mind…..at times.

I don’t know, after I finished reading the book I felt like Lucius and Tess's story was unfinished somehow. I felt like this couple had so much more to give! I would have also liked to have had more of Lucius and his thoughts and feelings throughout the book. The whole deal with Lucius and his parents felt completely unsettled, in fact the whole ending felt unsettled. There was a cutesy epilogue but it didn't satisfy me. This was a really good book but like I said before Lucius and Tess were pushed to the back by everyone else's drama. (My God Tess's sister Imogen certainly stole the show towards the end of the book for sure). Lucius was such an intriguing sexy character that for him not to be rewarded with a bulk of the spotlight, in his own book no less, was a shame. I would have loved to have read the conversation between Lucius and the Earl of Mayne on Tess's wedding day; at the end of the book we learn Lucius told the Earl of Mayne "to leave" but I still would have liked to read that scene!

This was once again sooo close to being a keeper for me; if only Tess and Lucius had spent more time together! I am excited to read the next book in this series, it's Annabel's story. Hopefully, with one sister out of the way that book will be less crowed and there will be more focus on who are suppose to be the main characters.

Oh, I almost forgot! What the hell happened to Derwent!?! I hate when authors introduce characters, get you interested in them, but never mention them again. Derwent and Lucius needed to have many more witty misogynist slanted conversations!

Much Ado About You
3 Stars

Following the death of their father, the four Essex sisters become the wards of the Duke of Holbrook who soon realizes that they re not the demure children he was expecting. The eldest, Tess, has her hands full keeping exquisite man-magnet Annabel, foolishly romantic Imogen and highly intelligent Josie under control, so it comes to as no surprise when all hell breaks loose and Tess finds herself married to someone completely unsuitable in order to save her family from disgrace. However, Lucius Felton, a man disowned by his own mother, may just be exactly what Tess really needs …

Tess and Lucius are exceedingly likable characters and their romance is sweet and steamy. They have some really wonderful banter going.

Unfortunately, the rest of the cast leaves much to be desired. Annabel is a mercenary wench, Imogen an ungrateful and obnoxious cow and Josie a sulky brat. The male characters don’t fare much better as Rafe is drunken sot and Garret a womanizing adulterer. Both seem to care more about their horses than their fellow human beings.

It is difficult to see how these characters can possibly redeem themselves but as I have the rest of the series on hand, I will probably be finding out.

This is the first book in a quartet about four Scottish sisters, set in 1816, whose father, a poor "horse-mad" Viscount", has died and left them in the care of the tipsy Duke of Holbrook, a man he met years ago. None-the-less, the Duke takes this responsibility seriously and sets up a nursery for the four girls and hires each a nanny. Both the girls and the Duke are rather shocked by each other. Tess, Annabel, and Imogen are all in their twenties and Josie is fifteen. Their father had promised them over and over that when this horse or that horse came through in the races, he would take them to London for their Season and find them, husbands. Their papa had rather horrible luck with his horses, though fine animals they are. The Duke received one for taking the girls in and each girl has one for a dowry. It's a very odd dowry, but the horses are worth something, but cannot be sold for at least a year. Tess had made plans to sacrifice herself and marry someone so she could use her husband's money and position in society to help her sisters, but that would prove to be unnecessary.Annabel has her heart set on marrying a title, or someone with a great deal of money. She is the practical one of the family. Her father had her do the accounts for the household and that may have affected her outlook on the whole thing. She does not seem to really believe in marriage, even though her mother loved her father and left a position in society to run off with him to Scotland. Her and Tess are the only ones who really remember her, though.Imogen is madly in love with Lord Maitland who visited Scotland on his travels for derby races and looking for horses to try to buy with the money his mother tightly controls. He has made it quite clear to her that he is already engaged to Miss Pythian-Adams. At this point, they have been engaged for two years, and Imogen has not given up hope, especially when she has discovered that the Duke's next door neighbor is the Maitlands and that Lady Maitland will be coming over to stay for a few days as chaperon until a more permanent, and likable one (she is hellbent on marrying the Duke, but no matter how much he drinks, he has never gotten drunk enough to marry her).Josie is a bookworm who adores her father. The rest of the sisters try to protect her from the truth about some of the things he did. Except for Annabel, of course. Sometimes she is too blunt for her own good. The Duke hires a governess for Josie who disapproves of her reading and Josie, of course, hates what the governess is making her learn, but a compromise will be met.The Duke has two other friends besides Maitland: Garret Langham, the Earl of Mayne, who is recovering from a heart broken by a married Countess, and Lucius Felton, one of the richest men in England (he's very successful on the stock market) who claims to be incapable of having deep emotional feelings toward anyone. And yes, they all have horse stables and race them. (Horses are a character in this book themselves.) The Earl has a widowed sister and it is quickly agreed that she should be the chaperone so they can get rid of Lady Clarice.Tess and Rafe (the Duke) hit it off immediately--as a brother and sister would. Rafe's parents are long gone and his older brother, whom he considers the Duke, died five years ago, which is when his drinking started. He does not need to marry and produce and heir like Mayne and other noblemen do because he has a distant relative who can inherit. He has no interest in marrying. In fact, up until they entered his life, he has had little interest in much of anything but horses and the bottle.When a group of them go to see some old Roman ruins, Tess meets Miss Pythian-Adams and finds that she likes her very much and that puts her in a difficult situation for a different reason. While there, Lucius kisses her and immediately proposes marriage, which Tess turns down. That is not the kind of marriage she wants; one built upon an obligation of an imagined threat to her virtue. Besides, Mayne is actively pursuing her, mostly because of the horse that is part of her dowry.Mayne has seduced most of the married women in London and when he tries to use his wiles on Tess they fail miserably. He is now forced to just be himself, and oddly enough, that seems to work. When he sees her ride her horse, a Thoroughbred that threw a seasoned man off its back once, with utter control, he has forgotten why he wanted to marry her in the first place and has become interested in her. It's a bit of a whirlwind courtship, but before he proposes Tess gives Lucius another chance, because she feels something special with him, even though she knows she can have a happy life with Mayne and come to care for him. But Lucius passes, so Tess accepts Mayne's proposal.And then one of her sisters heads off to Gretna Green to elope with a man which will bring disaster on the rest of them. To save her sisters Tess goes ahead and decides to have her wedding immediately, while Lucius rides off to try to stop her sister. Luckily Mayne has an uncle who is a Bishop, who is quickly sent for. Vows are said and at least one sister gets married, but is it to the right man?At the beginning of this book, the sisters seem intent on not marrying "horse-mad" men like their father, but that is just the men they seem to meet right away and be pushed toward marrying. When Tess decides to let Mayne court her, Anabel goes after Lucius, who also has quite a stable and races them at the derby, as does Rafe. I grew up in Lexington, Kentucky where all the horse farms were and where Secretariat is buried. This book brought back so many fond memories.Each sister is different in temperament, looks, and interests. Tess, though beautiful, has never felt so because she has always stood next to Anabel and Imogen who have a beauty that is more striking and not subtle, like hers. She also feels a bit lacking in other areas such as education. The girls would read the books in their father's library but only got to the letter H. It will take a certain type of man to see how special Tess truly is.QuotesThe first thing Teresa noticed was that the Englishmen were playing with toys. Toys! That fit with everything they’d heard about Englishmen: thin, puny types they were, who never grew up and shivered with cold during a stiff breeze.--Eloisa James (Much Ado About You p 7)There was nothing more to Annabel’s taste than a man in possession of all his limbs and a title.--Eloisa James (Much Ado About You p 11)Perhaps—just perhaps—all men weren’t mad in the same ways.--Eloisa James (Much Ado About You p 17)I’m not being immodest. I’m simply being practical. One of us must marry, and I have the attributes that make most men dazed enough to overlook lack of dowry. I’m not going to pretend to posses ladylike virtues that I don’t have in front of you three. It’s too late for that. If Papa truly wanted us to think like ladies, he wouldn’t have trained us to do exactly the opposite.--Eloisa James (Much Ado About You p 22)Miss Pythian-Adams is quite, quite charming. Any woman with five thousand pounds a year is, by definition, a dazzler.--Eloisa James (Much Ado About You p 61)You never paid enough attention to gossip in the village, Tess. But from everything I learned, one would wish one’s husband to be experienced and yet not so energetic that he cannot be pleased at home. A tired rake is precisely the best sort of spouse.-Eloisa James (Much Ado About You p 132)Oh no. There’s no reading minds about it. Horses are affectionate creatures, after all, but just creatures. They’re not like humans. They don’t betray, and they don’t hide their motives.--Eloisa James (Much Ado About You p 156)Now Tess looked at the little spark in her husband’s eyes and had no doubt that if ripping clothing was a prelude that indicated interest he was likely to start ripping. She had never felt stupider in her life. How does one say: please do not destroy my clothing until I have more?--Eloisa James (Much Ado About You p 260)Why didn’t he ever show any signs of wishing to make love to her other than after twilight? Was he on a schedule of some sort?--Eloisa James (Much Ado About You p 297)

What a great story! I laughed and cried many times! Such wonderful writing and really engaging characters!! I love this authors work!!

I am currently on a Regency kick and this one was terrific!!

Still on a historical romance kick. They're starting to feel formulaic, but still easy to swallow.

I didn't like this one as much as the Duchess Quartet, but I think that's partly because it was all setup. Looking forward to the rest of the quartet anyway.

The Duke of Holbrook has become guardian to four girls, the daughters of an acquaintance. Rafe prepares a nursery and hires nursery maids, but is shocked to discover that the girls aren't babies, but young ladies, headstrong and determined. A fast, fun and undemanding read.

I enjoyed this Regency romance despite it being a variety of the marriage of convenience trope. The style wasn't bad in romance terms--not flowery or purple anyway even if with the too often seen point of view glitches. I liked the period detail, literary allusions and how life among the horsey set figured in. The author says it was inspired by Little Women and I could see that in the way the four Scottish sisters featured in the novel; they felt like sisters in how they interacted and each had a distinct personality. It was refreshing to read a romance novel where the heroine had important relationships with other women. First book in a series about the sisters. Not sure I'll ever look the rest up.

Romantic, fun and witty - I love James' writing and adore that her heroines are smart and independent.Tess is the oldest sister of four, and realizes that now, after their father's death, it is up to her to marry well and wealthy in order to support her sisters. She's determined to marry a title to help her sisters into society (and to better the possibility that they are received well), but when her gaze is caught by a handsome and wealthy business man, she's facing a losing battle with her attraction to him.Tess is a well-rounded character, as are her sisters and the men in her life. This is sexy, funny and charming. Recommended.

Somehow this book was much better when I read it first time, now I found myself most of the time just annoyed by the mass of minor characters, who took half of the story. Tess is my favorite of all the Essex sisters and I also like Lucius, so I would have liked the book to concentrate on them. Many books of Eloisa James suffer from the same problem: there are too many charecters and if you don't find them interesting the plot starts to drag. That's a pity, because otherwise I like the way James writes, she is witty, funny and fluent writer.

The most fun I've had reading a book in a long time. Much Ado About You is a pure delight. I was laughing, sighing, even tearing up a bit. It is witty, intelligent, humorous, light and fun, but underscoring all this is a keen insight that gets to the heart of human emotion and tragedies both small and large. I loved how this book provides a diverse range of characters - it's just as much about the recently orphaned Essex sisters Tess, Annabel, Imogen, and Josie, their guardian Rafe Jourdain, the Duke of Holbrook and his friends Garret the Earl of Mayne and Lucius Felton, along with an engaging cast of other secondary characters, as it is about the primary romance between the hero and heroine. I thought James balanced these many different story threads very well. The book is enthralling, entertaining, and original, a refreshing take on the usual stereotypes. Part of the fun of Much Ado About You is that you never quite know how things are going to turn out and the characters are always surprising you. For a while I wasn't even sure who would end up with whom - a remarkable feat in a book. James deftly explores the sundry relationships among her characters. The sisters' relationships in particular were spot on, so genuine and real - their love for each other bound up with playful squabbling and heartbreaking ruptures. And the romance isn't half bad either, full of touching moments that are breathtaking and beautiful. My only complaint is that we don't get inside the hero's head enough - though this slight imbalance didn't interfere with my enjoyment of the book at all and I was able to get a good sense of his character anyway. To put it simply, I loved this book. It's my first by Eloisa James, and I'm definitely going to track down more.

I wanted to like this book, I really did! But, it fell short of my expectations, I thought it was a pretty ho-hum regency romance. I've decided not to read further about the exploits of the Essex Sisters (there are two sequels out there). The characters were undeveloped and the romance was lacklustre at best - there wasn't even much humor in the book to make up for the lack of passion! The sex scenes were in that vague sort of manner - nothing explicit but they still had a hint of raciness in them. Overall, they were wanting in feeling. This book was about a family of four sisters who are orphaned when their horse-mad father dies. He was a nobleman who was addicted to horses and racing, although he had the good sense to ensure they'd be cared for by the Duke of Holbrook, a horsey friend of his. At first, I was thoroughly confused by which sister was who. Who was the pretty one? Who was the oldest? Who was the mercenary one - who was in love with Lord Maitland? I just couldn't keep them straight, there seemed to be so many of them! After I settled into the book I got them straight, and I can't say I liked any of them except Tess, who was the main heroine of this book.The setting of this book centers on horse racing. All the men in the book are really into it and will do almost anything to get a good racehorse - including marrying. Each of the sisters has a horse for her dowry and naturally they are all great equestriennes themselves. I must admit, I'm not that interested in horseracing and Lord Maitland, one of the men that younger sister Imogen is madly in love with, is hopeless when it comes to horseracing - the worst of the lot. He has a one track mind and comes across as shallow a bit stupid. He was just annoying to me and I didn't have any sympanthy for him until the very end (I don't want to spoil it.) I felt sorry that Tess' sister, Imogen, was so in love with him. I also had a problem with our hero, Lucius Felton. Good looking, blonde and rich as anything, I found him annoying because he kept on insisting he was incapable of feelings - well, maybe he was right! Why would someone want to read about an emotionless romance hero - we barely got inside his head so we could tell what he was really feeling. There wasn't enough to interest me. It's one thing for a Mr. Darcy to come across as someone who's emotions are always in check - but Pride and Prejudice is not a romance novel and we don't get Mr. Darcy's point of view in it either. In this book we do, but it was sadly lacking - sometimes he'd do something unexpected, but not until the end did he finally come to life and show some passion - but that was the point - he finally came around. It was just kind of dull getting to that point. And whatever happened to his valet? We see him in the beginning bemoaning the fact that his master is in a houseful of unmarried women on the marriage market, and then we never see or hear from him again. Not even much later in the story - I think he became a lost thread.Tess, the eldest of the quartet, seems to be the only normal one of the lot and the only character I liked. She has a romantic streak in her and learns how to get her way with her husband eventually. Is she witty as the description of the book on the back of it suggests? Maybe, but I don't recall any real indication of it. She's got a good head on her shoulders - though she has her lapses of reason. She seems to think she should marry Lord Mayne, even though the handsome Mr. Felton had asked her to marry him and she keeps kissing him (what is it with some of these nit-wit regency romance heroines who continue to kiss the men they don't want to marry?) I was so relieved when Lord Mayne ran off - sketchy about why he did, though we sort of get our answer at the very end of the book. Which reminds me, the ending really seemed to read as if it was just tacked on, kind of a family related, money doesn't buy happiness sort of thing. It ends satisfactorily - but it's not totally resolved and the epilogue is predictable. Mr. Felton still has his family problems and Tess' sisters are still up in the air - leaving room for the sequels - of which I have no interest in reading.Another little gripe I have is that I felt this book was disjointed - there were so many different characters and their little plotlines going on, some of became lost threads - Tess and Felton, Tess and Mayne, the Duke and Maitland's mother, Imogen and Maitland, young Josie, the youngest sister still in the schoolroom, Miss Pythian-Adams (Maitland's fiancee) and the fact she really doesn't want to marry Maitland - it was such a jumble - and not in a good way like a Shakespeare comedy (which I guess the Much Ado title is supposed to allude to.)I didn't dislike this book, but I felt it was a waste of my time. There are much better regency romances out there than to read this disjointed, dull and passionless *code for not enough sex* romance novel. Much ado? Hardly.

Not much plot or dialogue. Hero and heroine appear to come together by default.

"Much Ado About You" is the first book in the Essex Sisters series. At the opening of this book, the reader finds that the four daughters of Scottish Viscount Brydone, who is recently deceased, are moving in with their guardian, Raphael Jourdain, the Duke of Holbrook. While a good man at heart, "Rafe" is a terrible alcoholic, and not the best role-model for four growing girls. This book follows Teresa (Tess) Essex, the oldest daughter. Feeling it important to marry for the sake of her younger sisters, Tess finds herself engaged to Garret Langham, the Earl of Mayne. Good-hearted, but a total rake, Mayne is marrying her mostly for the sake of the horse that is her dowry. In the meantime, her lovesick little sister, Imogen, elopes to Gretna Green with a man she has been in love with since childhood (but who is, in fact, a bit daft). And to complicate things further Tess also discovers that there is a mutual attraction between herself and the quiet, seemingly emotionless Lucius Felton...I enjoyed this book. What I found most interesting looking back on it was that while very, very, very little actually happens in this book by way of plot, it was incredibly enjoyable and a fast read. The interaction between the sisters is charming - they each have distinctly different personalities and are all at least moderately well developed by the end of this first installment. The Earl of Mayne is also a fun character. The only problem is that the one character we want to like is somewhat poorly developed. While I am quite fond of Lucius Felton, it is hard to know him, and his relationship with Tess seems a bit forced and seems to spring out of nowhere. Eloisa James' writing is fun and witty, and I found myself giggling at points simply due to James' writing style. As in many of Eloisa James' books, there are two love stories happening simultaneously - Tess's, which is primary, and then the love story between Draven and Imogen. While in some of her other books I find the secondary love story distracting, I did not feel that way in "Much Ado About You."A good read.