Review: Intolerable

Intolerable by Darcy Burke
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

DNF at 50%.

In one of the previous books two young women sneak into the Phoenix Club disguised as servants to see what happens (unmarried women can't be members). One of them ended up married to her guardian, the other, Lady Cassandra Westbrook, ended up kissed by Ruark Hannigan, Earl of Wexford in a cupboard before he realised who she was (yes I know, the idea that it is okay to kiss servants willy-nilly is a bit distasteful). Neither Cassandra nor Ruark can get the 'incident' out of their minds, unfortunately Ruark is one of Cassandra's brother's best friends which apparently makes her off-limits as a potential bride. In addition, Ruark is Irish and his mother married a Catholic after his father died so that makes him unacceptable to Cassandra's father (who seems to have regressed after his softening in the last book).

Cassandra's father has decreed that she must get married this season, the trouble is his notorious temper has scared away all potential suitors, so Cassandra asks Ruark to pretend to court her, in the hopes that this will encourage other gentlemen to pursue her.

For his part, Ruark is tormented by memories of their kiss, but he promised his father on his deathbed that he would not marry until he was at least 30 years old, so he cannot form an attachment to Cassandra before that date, especially since she is his best friend's little sister (I really don't get this aspect of bro-code, if he's a great guy then why wouldn't you want him to marry your sister, and if he isn't why are you hanging around with him?).

Argh! I tried I really did, but Ruark's promise to his father was so asinine and he couldn't even really commit to it, he and Cassandra behave inappropriately at every opportunity, even getting caught kissing in a cupboard during a game of hide-and-seek FFS!

I am happy to turn a blind eye to the morals of the time in the interests of romance but the sheer hypocrisy of Ruark knowing his sister was compromised, perhaps ruined by being seen kissing a man when he had done much more and got away with it was a step too far in a book that wasn't really grabbing me anyway.

I enjoyed the first two books in this series and would be interested in reading the next book (if, as I assume, it features Ruark's scholarly sister), but this didn't do it for me and I gave up at 50%.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

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