Title: Tempt Me with Diamonds
Author: Jane Feather
Series: London Jewels Trilogy #1
Could have been better with different characters
Thank you to Jane Feather, Kensington Books/Zebra, and NetGalley for allowing me to read a free ARC in exchange for an honest review a couple years ago.
Yes, a couple years ago I had tried to read the ARC so I could review it, but I hadn’t liked the characters and hadn’t had the patience to persevere to the end, so I’d said I wouldn’t be reviewing it for those reasons and had left it at that. I hadn’t realized at the time that it would count against my completion percentage. So now I’ve forced myself through it so I can mark it complete.
It wasn’t any better than I remembered. Neither Rupert nor Diana are endearing, and neither are that likable either. Diana is spoiled and selfish and immature, Rupert is autocratic and selfish and immature. At times they seemed to approach conflict with a mature, reasonable attitude, and honestly, I might have given them more credit—if it weren’t for the hate sex.
I’m sure hate sex can be well written—maybe?—but it wasn’t here. I wasn’t emotionally invested in either of them, neither of them were well developed, so it was kinda like watching a couple strangers go at it in the seat next to you on the bus. It wasn’t romantic; they did not make love. They fucked. And it was unpleasant. I skipped the last couple sex scenes.
The plot could have been compelling if I cared about the characters, but I didn’t, so it wasn’t all that interesting. Have you ever seen two children fight over a toy? Each has a grip on it and they’re tugging it back and forth between them? That was the plot. That was the conflict between Diana and Rupert—he inherited everything that she had expected to inherit. I did sympathize with Diana on that point—it would be awful to lose your rights to just about everything you own not long after you lost your family. You’d feel powerless and lost and scared. But instead of taking a deep breath and brainstorming viable solutions to the problem, she (figuratively) stomped her foot, crossed her arms, and pouted while brainstorming ways she could undermine Rupert out of spite. And Rupert, since he held all the power, more or less sat back and waited to see what she’d do. It was a game to him. And when she did indeed make moves to undermine him, he got mad at her and scolded her as if she were a petulant child. Then they hate-fucked.
Aside from the plot and characters, the writing was just bad in general. There was no energy; my mind wandered so much I have only a hazy impression of the middle, and though it was a relatively short book, it still felt slow. Also, we were regaled with things we didn’t need to be told, such as Diana’s experience at the inn toward the end. Stop, get information, hire an escort—that was all we needed to see. But we also got to watch Diana settle into her room, got her thoughts about the place and servants, blah blah blah blah blah.
Overall, this was a bad book. I am so glad I’m finally reviewing it so it’s no longer hanging over my head.
