Pleasure for Pleasure - Eloisa James

Ever since this book came out I've been entertaining the idea of reading it, however with so many books on the TBR pile I never picked it up till this weekend. I was really curious about this book since we've been watching Josie grow for the last 3 books and Mayne has been around for even longer.

I should now warn you that this review has a lot of spoilers, if that could ruin the book for you please don't read further.

I'm not sure if this was a case of my expectations being too high but I had some problems with the story.

Josie Essex has just made her come out in society but she is far from being a success. Nicknamed the Scottish Sausage she is avoided by every eligible gentleman and can't even find dancing patners at the balls.

Mayne is an old rake who has had lots of affairs and in the past has been linked to 2 Essex sisters (I didn't like that). He decides to help Josie be more seductive and become a society success. During this time he is engaged to somebody else who he says he is completely in love with (another thing that bothered me).

My big problem was with how Mayne treated Josie. I wont go into the age difference thing because I think it could have worked despite that but with Mayne treating Josie as a younger sister for most of the book it was a bit unbelievable when he suddenly decided he was in love with her. That and the fact that he keeps affirming his love for his fiancee till the day she breaks up with him and on the same day he proposes to Josie, I know he does it believing to be saving her from a ruinous situation but it seemed weird to me just the same.

The positive note was Griselda's love story. I think she needed and deserved to find someone to love and that she did. At first I was a bit surprised that her lover is none other than the young man who nicknamed Josie with that awful name but in the end James's really made that story work. I just wished for an apology from him to Josie that didn't happen. Oh and I discovered fairly soon who was writing Hellgate's memoirs...

I'll grade this one a B- just for Darlington and Griselda because with just Mayne and Josie it would be a C story. It's well written and I really enjoyed revisiting the characters but I couldn't avoid disliking Mayne and Josie's scenes.

Oh and by the way I think this cover is totally wrong, the woman on the cover would never be called the The Scottish Sausage!