Kiss Me, Annabel

Ewan asking Annabel to marry him when he first meets her was a cute scene. I give major kudos to the author to be able to make Annabel likeable. Annabel is singularly driven to marry a rich man and could just be written off as a gold digger but the author gives background story here and there on how Annabel's father made her keep the accounts and how she had to scrimp and save to make sure the family had enough to eat and survive on. As the reader it was very easy to forgive Annabel's desire to marry for money, she didn't want the life she came from of fighting to survive.

And again Imogen butting her way into what is suppose to be her sisters story. Oh sad, I don't like how Tess wanted to use the Earl of Mayne; told him to have an affair with her widowed sister Imogen to keep her from flaunting herself at parties. The Earl of Mayne suggests becoming acquainted with Imogen would damaged his reputation even more but Tess just shrugs it off saying if he cared he would have improved his reputation years ago. Tess does a good job of subtly insulting him throughout their conversation and Mayne just lets it go. I'm starting to feel bad for the way he has been treated throughout these two books.

Oh when Mayne thinks to himself that he is "tarnished" it made my eyes water a little bit! He decides that he is going to "save" Imogen and is calling it his "penance". I am really looking forward to his redemption right now. Imogen stole the show at the end of the last book and is really stealing the show at the beginning of this book, Annabel is playing second fiddle to her in what is suppose to be her story.

Such an incredible and powerful scene when Ewan comes to ask Annabel to marry him ( a third time) after the scandal. Annabel walks into the room knowing she has to marry him to save her reputation and thinks to herself he's tall and well built he can hire out as a day laborer, he wears black which is a good color to hide how old and repaired his clothes are, basically ways they can survive being in poverty. The whole conversation from then on is very powerful when taken from Annabel's stand point and how she thinks her dream of never having to be poor again are over.

Mayne and Imogen's interactions completely and utterly stole the show for me during this book. I suppose it could be put down to the fact that I will take a bad boy (Mayne) over a nice, good boy (Ewan) any day. Ewan is a great male character but Mayne's darkness obliterates him for me. It doesn't help that every time Ewan and Annabel start to get something going their scenes are cut short and the author goes back to Mayne and Imogen.

At the end of the book it was annoying how Annabel didn't feel Ewan loved her, even though he said he did and acted as if he did. The author explains her insecurities as left over emotional baggage from her father, but I just felt as if the author was reaching for a way to add more strife into the relationship.

Once again this story was really good, but not great. The cast of characters, especially Mayne, kept this story intriguing. I was wishing throughout most of the story that the author would focus more on who were suppose to be the main characters Ewan and Annabel but honestly towards the end I just wanted more Mayne. As was the case in the first book I finished this story feeling a little bit unsatisfied and I think it is because of the lack of focus on who are suppose to be the main characters. I'm not reading or receiving enough of them to really grasp, feel, and become emotionally involved in their story. As the reader I feel like my attention is fragmented because of the abundance of characters, even though they are terrifically written characters.

I see the next book is Imogens story and can I just say thank god! She has butted her way into these last two books and tried to steal the show from her other sisters. Like I said before I hope the next story focuses in on the main characters more; especially since another sister is out of the way now!

Closer to 4 1/2 stars. Loved this book and am anxious to read the next in the series.

Kiss Me, Annabel
3 Stars

Annabel Essex ideas has very definite ideas about who her husband should be - rich, amiable and above all, English. So, what is she doing in a coach on her way to be married to an impoverished, argumentative and most assuredly Scottish Earl!

Eloisa James is a wonderful writer. Her attention to detail is exquisite, her stories are full of potential and her characters are engaging. So why am I having such a difficult time with this series?

The romance in this one is alright - nothing really earth shattering. Annabel comes across as very mercenary at first, but she does grow on you and is quite likable by the end. Ewan is a fantastic hero - intelligent, sensitive and honorable. My one issue with him is his focus on religion. If there is one thing I hate, it is being preached to.

Ewan and Annabel have great chemistry and fun banter. They have some kind of weird argument about halfway through, and I still have no idea what the heck they were fighting about. This puts a bit of a pall on their romance.

The biggest problem with the book is James’s tendency to spend an excessive amount of time developing secondary characters and plot lines that will obviously appear in later installments. This causes the story to drag in places.

The next story is Imogen’s and all I can say right now is that I despise her character. She is whinny and obnoxious. Her hero, Rafe, will either have to sober up dramatically or sink deeper into his cups if he is to deal with her. Only time will tell.

"Kiss Me, Annabel" is the second book in the Essex Sisters series. It follows the story of Annabel, the second oldest daughter. She is the "pretty" one of the group, but is also quite mercenary - she wants to use her affect on men to secure a rich husband so she doesn't have to worry about money for the rest of her days. At the same time Annabel is searching for a rich husband, her sister Imogen, who is recently widowed, is grieving by losing control and rather scandalously trying to find herself a lover. Trying to get Imogen out of a rather uncomfortable situation that she got herself into, Annabel finds herself compromised and forced to marry the supposedly penniless Scottish Earl of Ardmore - who is anything but what she wanted in a husband.I enjoyed this book. Annabel, while mercenary, had a good reason for feeling the way that she did, and her memories of her treatment by her father while she was trying to make ends meet on a very small budget make you sympathize with her. Ardmore, however, is a bit one-dimensional. He's tall, dark, handsome, rich, titled and religious - and I really can't think of any bad qualities he has. It's a bit hard to believe that he's actually real, and also rather hard to sympathize with him. Imogen, who I also liked in book one, is just as passionate in this book (although you really want to slap her sometimes...). Again, the relationship between the sisters is one of the best parts of this book.

This is the first paper book I've read in quite a while, and I was missing the ease of my kindle! Having read and enjoyed Much Ado About You, I was pleased to find this at the dollar bookstore. The story was cute and the characters endearing. It's a lighthearted read, but I doubt I'll feel the need to read it again.

The second of the Essex Sisters stories. Having grown up in genteel poverty as well as being responsible for her father's accounts, Annabel is determined to marry a rich man. Unfortunately a scandal looks set to upset her plans. A fast and fun read.

In this second book of the Essex sisters series, Annabel is having her season in London in 1817 and she is has been calmly calculating the right man to marry. One who is rich enough that she will never have to worry about being poor again and one who is agreeable enough to endure being married to. At a ball, she meets Ewan, the Earl of Ardmore who hails from Scotland and who is in England searching for a bride, which can only mean one thing: he needs a rich dowry because he is another poor Scotsman like her father who did the same thing.Annabel's younger sister Imogen who is in mourning over her two-week marriage to the love of her life, Draven, has been acting outrageously. She has been wearing daring gowns and now she intends to take a cicisbeo or a man who takes her around town and can sometimes be her lover. Draven hasn't even been dead six months yet. Her first thought is the Earl of Mayne her chaperone's brother and her former (though he doesn't see it that way) guardian Rafe, the Duke of Holbrook's best friend. But Griselda, Mayne's sister talks her out of it only to have her decide to try out the Earl of Ardmore. At the ball, Ewan meets up with Annabel and they talk, but Imogen quickly swoops in and takes him off to the dance floor where she makes a fool of herself by draping herself all over him intimating that something was going on between them. That kind of action will get her ostracized by the ton even more than she has been. But Isobel does not care about her reputation.At a garden party that celebrates May Day, Annabel has finally gotten her prized gentleman, Lord Rosseter to ask for her hand and he is going to propose at this fete. Who cares if he doesn't talk and if he's twenty years older than she is. He has lots of money to keep her happy and he is not brutish. But at the party, she runs into Ewan who challenges her to an archery contest for a forfeit. It would be a bit scandalous if she were to compete and she can sense that Rosseter is against it, but she takes the wager anyway and wins. The couple who are having the party are so thrilled with them that they declare them the King and Queen of the May and have them ride around the grounds in a cart bedecked with flowers. The cart goes around the back of the house so the servants can see, but the servants aren't back there and Ewan stops the cart and kisses her quite thoroughly. He asks her to marry him, but she says no because she does not want to marry an impoverished Scotsman. Needless to say, Lord Rosseter has decided to not propose and Ewan is cornered by Imogen who proposes to him that they meet for an illicit rendezvous. He instead asks her to marry him as he sees that she is in a great deal of pain and he seeks to ease her burden and he is looking for a wife and he has no intention of going to meet her to have sex with her. But she wants no marriage with him. And when she tells him she intends to go and ask Mayne and he instead tries to scare her off by being as crude as he can with her about what he expects from her when she comes to his bedchambers that night at eleven.Imogen does see that there is no way she can have sex with Ewan because she isn't capable of doing those things and she tells Griselda. So that night Griselda and Annabel go to his chambers in a hotel on the way to a ball, which could ruin all of their reputations, in order to talk to him. While there a group of robbers arrives and the women run and hide. The robbers take even his clothes and Annabel was near the balcony and called down for help and the robbers heard her and brought her into the room where Ewan was half naked. They are seen by Lady Bechschmidt who was the one to call the police and come up with her coachman. At this time Ewan is just putting his shirt on and things look fishy because Imogen and Griselda aren't in the room. But before Lady Bechschmidt can think of spreading this bit of gossip Griselda reminds her her carriage was parked out front and she is just as open to gossip as they are. But the next day the papers are full of a story about an A.E. who was in the room of the Earl of Ardmore who was buck naked and that she was asking that their relationship not continue. It turns out the manager of the hotel sold his story to the papers. Now Annabel is compromised and must marry Ewan who is more than happy with this turn of events. Annabel, however, is heartbroken, no matter that his kisses leave her breathless. It turns out he has a stable of horses just like her father. And like her father he is a penniless Scot. Which is why her sisters come up with a plan that if she is not happy she can come back to London and live with her older sister Tess and her husband after six months.Of course, the Earl is really rich, but he doesn't tell her that. He decides that he doesn't want to get married to her in England but in Scotland by this monk that he is rather close to, but it will appear as though they got married in England. So the two set off for Scotland and Ewan uses this time to court Annabel until things go wrong when he gets the stupid idea to borrow a one-room home of a couple who is about to give birth and send them to the next town where they can have the comforts of an inn and a midwife present and they would stay in their home and look after everything, such as the cow and the chickens. He thought it would get Annabel over her fear of being poor. But he didn't count on the fact that he had never had to live in these conditions himself ever either. And they had been hoping to wait til their wedding night to consummate it, but can they keep that hope, as with each kiss they give each other for answering questions honestly they come closer and closer to going over the edge.I really enjoyed this delightful book. Annabel had a hard time believing that a man could love her only desire her and that men get desire and love mixed up, so Ewan has a hard road to go to prove that he loves her and he will require help. Ewan is also a religious man whose greatest fear is losing his immortal soul. It's why even though he is a big strong man he didn't overpower the robbers and take their guns because that would mean he might have to kill them and he could never do that. It is much easier to just give them what they want which are things that are replaceable. Annabel is not very religious and worries about measuring up to his standards. These two wonderful characters needed a lot of help to get together. Luckily they had it in spades.

I am disappointed in this book. It lost me about half way, it just got boring. Did not finish.

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!!

By far the least interesting and dullest of James novels. Oh there is a sweet romance at the center of it, but the conflict is a bit contrived.
Romance novels require friction and there is no true friction here.

After years of being her father's accountant, and penny pinching, Annabel, upon his untimely death is now in the lap of luxury under the reluctant guardianship of the Duke of Holbrook, who is a harmless and kind alcoholic. She fears poverty and wants to marry a rich man with a title, and hopefully a castle - far from Scotland, where she grew up. At a ball, she meets the Earl of Ardmore, who is in London to find a bride. Everyone assumes he wants one with a sizable dowry because he's poor. But in truth, he's the richest man in Scotland. They flirt. Annabel turns down his first proposal. But due to a misunderstanding associated with her reckless sister Imogene, Annabel is compromised and must marry him.

Reading this novel made me appreciate Georgette Heyer's The Devil's Cub which plays around with a similar idea but has more fun with it. James' character are more well-rounded than Heyer's...in part because I suspect Heyer was an allegorical/satiric writer more than an romantic one.

At any rate...the Imogene subplot carried over from the previous book, drags this one down much as it did the previous one Much Ado About You. I think part of the reason Pleasure for Pleasure is the best of the series so far - is Imogene is barely in the book. Which makes me think that Imogene may be the problem. The writer attempts to redeem her a little in this book. The previous one - she comes across as a oblivious, romantic, self-indulgent ninny. You just want to smack her.
Here, you sort of do too...but her interactions with the Earl of Mayne do over time help a bit, but not enough to save the story.

In this novel, Imogene is lashing out at the world, because her dead husband didn't love her as much as she loved him and she feels guilty about it. So she throws herself at two men, the Earl of Ardmore, who attempts to scare her off - only to compromise Annabel, and the Earl of Mayne who she kidnaps in a coach and forces to take her to Scotland, without his manservant or any clothes. (This also made no sense, seriously he couldn't have just stopped the coach, ordered it to turn around and pick up the things he needed?) Also apparently Mayne and Rafe are either getting younger with each book or staying the same age, while the women are getting older? Josie goes from 15-16 in this novel, and Mayne goes from 39 to 34. Weirdly in the last book, Pleasure for Pleasure, Josie is 18 and Mayne is 34. Shame the guys couldn't share this anti-aging or youth tonic with the women.

The main problem though is there's just not enough friction or conflict between the Earl and Annabel (who at one point fears he doesn't love her, just lusts after her - this makes no sense and feels like another contrivance). The plot makes little sense and also feels contrived.
There's no discernible reason why Annabel wouldn't want the Earl. She's clearly besotted with him. When they kiss - instant chemistry. And it's clear when they are traveling that he's rich. Extremely rich. Nor does it make sense that her sister's husband, Felton, would help her get out of the marriage - since he knows the Earl is wealthy, and Tess' knows that Annabel's only qualm was the lack of wealth.

The writer doesn't establish the misunderstandings or conflict well. She does a better job in Pleasure for Pleasure and a Kiss at Midnight. This one is a bit weak.

Judging from just these two books by Eloisa James, I think she's at her best wielding the humor and wit that galvanized the interactions of the many characters from Much Ado About You. In this second installment of the Essex sisters' series, the focus is more on the romance between Annabel Essex and Ewan Poley, the earl of Ardmore, than it is on the ensemble cast that surround our hero and heroine. I'm not protesting the shift in focus and loved the two of them together - their romance is original and moving, equal parts piquancy and poignancy. I really liked Annabel - though you should really read the first book in order to get a full sense of her character. She was such fun in Much Ado About You, while in this second book she's not more subdued exactly, just adapting to and grappling with her changing circumstances, and there's less to laugh about in Kiss Me, Annabel. Through no fault of her own, she gets caught in a scandal with Ewan, a Scot who’s traveled down to London in search of a wife. So they have to marry, which is shattering to Annabel, who never wanted to see Scotland again and was determined to nab a rich London aristocrat for herself. So begins a road romance that brings the two of them closer, while teaching some lessons along the way (like the lesson that teaches you that you shouldn't teach lessons... for any Arrested Development fans out there). Ewan is very accessible and human, and he and Annabel complement each other perfectly. They fight and they love each other, and their kissing game I thought was very cute. Besides the central romance, there's poor Imogen, one of her sisters, who continues to deal with her issues as well, and her story is just as compelling as ever. She pulls off a bitchiness that is simultaneously entertaining, aggravating, and understandable – quite a feat, I think. The sisters aren't all together in full force here either, though they do meet up a bit for those heart to heart late night talks. The book really hit its stride for me once Kate and Ewan reach Ewan's home, and there the scope broadens to include his family, and hers shows up soon after in an effort to save Annabel from a marriage they think she doesn't want. All in all a great book and very well written, though for me it didn't sparkle in quite the same way as Much Ado About You. But it made up for this by skillfully intertwining its various powerful, thought provoking stories.

Amusing and sweetly satisfying, even if the Shakespearean tie is tenuous at best. I continue to be delighted at the Essex sisters and their adventures.

This one was just so-so, and the hijinks at the end were kind of awful. Tampering with someone's horse is like tampering with their car today. You don't cut the brakeline just to get a reaction from someone! And the person who did it knew the danger, both to the horse and the rider, and did it anyway. Same with the arranged abduction, people could truly die in a scenario like that! Anyone over the age of 8 should know better.

It's a love story through and through. I didn't care for the secondary story much, with Imogen and Mayne. But the dialogue was immensely entertaining and just as what we've come to expect from Eloisa James. And it is always a pleasure to witness the conversations between the Essex sisters. They're such a lovable, scandalous and adorable lot.

Kiss me; Annabel is the second book in Eloisa James’s hot Essex sister’s series. In addition, I can say without a doubt that it does not disappoint. I came upon this series accidentally and read the third book before I knew it was a series. However, finding out that it was I happily picked up the others. In addition, have yet to be disappointed.Annabel is by far the most greedy of the Essex sisters, seeking to trade her good looks much like a courtesan does for a mans favor. Nevertheless, she is not content to be improper about it she will give her beauty only to a rich Englishman who will marry her. But she gets a shock when a handsome Scotsmen not only gets in her path but there is a scandal and she must marry him.This book was so fun and so touching, I really enjoyed it and had a fun time reading it. The author even states that it is loosely based on Shakespeare taming of the shrew and I do not have a bit of trouble believing that. When you read it, you will know what I mean. However, in all honestly it is a very easy to follow read, in the historical romance genre Eloisa James stands out.The writing has a fun flare to it, and you find some mysteries wrapped in. Nothing to deep but still a little something to make it fun. Moreover, the secondary characters of this story are just as fun to follow around as the main characters. If you are a fan of historical romance, and England and Scotland, you really do need to read this book. You follow the women around from country to country, and see just what Annabel ends up marrying for. Love? Money? Or both.