This RITA® Reader Challenge 2015 review was written by TheoLibrarian. This story was nominated for the RITA® in the Paranormal Romance category.
The summary:
The Bluestocking
Lady Corinna Mowbray has three passions: excellent books, intelligent conversation, and disdaining the libertine Earl of Chance.
The Rake
Lord Ian Chance has three pleasures: beautiful women, fast horses, and tormenting high-and-mighty Corinna Mowbray.
Neighbors for years, they’ve been at each other’s throats since they can remember. But when a twist of fate forces them to trade lives, how long will it be before they discover they cannot live without each other?
Here is TheoLibrarian's review:
I really wanted to love this book. I’ve enjoyed other books by Ashe but this one just didn’t work as well for me. By the time I finished it, I felt “meh” about it. I felt so “meh” about it that I considered not writing this review. But here we are! So let’s do this thing.
1. The set-up: While this book features more noble people from the Regency, the set-up is a little different than the typical historical. Near the beginning, the hero and the heroine switch bodies. That’s right. All Freaky Friday style. After a spat at a museum, the heroine wakes up in the body of the man she loves to hate and the hero has to learn first hand about what it means to be a lady. How’s that for a conflict.
What I liked: It is different. Ashe does manage a new twist on the familiar Regency historical.
What I didn’t like: It wasn’t a twist that was well explored. This switching of bodies is an obvious problem for both the hero and the heroine and they do what they can to figure out how to switch back. However, they never try to find out why or how it happened. If I ended up in a different body for any length of time, you’d better believe I’d do everything I could to figure out what the hell just happened and why and how.
2. The characters: The hero and the heroine are pretty familiar to anyone who has read any historical romance. Lord Chance is an earl who loves to gamble and rake around. Corinna is a spinster by choice who loves to bluestocking it up at her regular salons for smart, interesting people. The two grew up on neighboring estates and they have issues with each other.
What I liked: Ashe used of the standard Rake/Bluestocking trope intentionally to turn it on its ear. I love reading standard tropes being turned inside out. The body switching does certainly provide a new angle on things while also helping the reader understand how the characters were forced to better understand and appreciate each other.
What I didn’t like: As soon as they got back to their own bodies, there were some major jumps in understanding and feelings especially for Chance. Once he was back to his usual life, the reader gets very little insight on what’s going on with him and it doesn’t work well because the reader has had that up to that point. For example:
3. The Body Issues: When it comes to body switching, you don’t need to think too long or hard before realizing that issues of consent that will come up. Obviously, the hero is going to see the heroine’s body uncovered by clothing without her explicit consent because he is in her body. And vice versa. The force that did this thing to them has taken away consent from both and it is a problem.
What I liked: Ashe deals with this directly. That was really important to me and I’m glad she did. Chance outright tells Corinna after they had switched back that he wanted to explore her body while occupying it but he didn’t because she hadn’t given him permission. This issue isn’t always handled well in the book but I appreciate that Ashe was upfront about it.
What I didn’t like: There were moments when both the hero and the heroine were less sensitive about the consent issue while in each other’s bodies. I didn’t feel like those were handled as well as other moments.
Overall, I liked what was being attempted in this book but parts of the execution didn’t work for me. I really wanted to love it but I couldn’t. Did anyone else enjoy it? I’d love to hear why.
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Thanks!
Great review TheoLibrarian! I probably wouldn’t have noticed this title, but now I’ll go looking. All props to his honorable no peeking, but honestly, if I woke up with one day in a hot guy’s body I’d spend all day playing with it. By which I mean his penis.
On the cover, what happened to his right arm? Was it cut off at the elbow?
@Kelly S.
Her hair ate it.
I really like this book, Even re-read it. I like the idea of Body switching combined with regency. I First Had problems with the heroine as she is extremely Self-centered and arrogant about her lifestyle vs the hero’s. The switching Makes her think about her Own narrow mindedness. The Part wehre the heroine realizes that she and her behaviour stood in the way of happiness for somebody Else was quite a big thing. It made her think about something else beside herself.
Also I really like the idea of them having to work together to solve this problem. Both characters grew with the story and booth become more likeable.
I think Part of the Story evolves with the consent vs non consent Part and that is mit about the sex, but whenever they have ideas to make the other person, in whose Body they are, do something that the real Person World Never do. Even if they execute a malicous revenge Plot, they Do not feel truly good about it, but realize that their antagonism has been driven top far.
It might not be a master work but the Body switching historical is a new way idea and i truly Liked it.
Last i apologize for any strange spelling mistakes created by ms German automatic spelling Control.
Hero might be admirable but totally unrealistic in the switcheroo business. Please. But even as a woman, if I woke up in another chick’s body with assets I didn’t possess in my old one, I’d sure as hell check ’em out.
This one totally worked for me, based solely on the novelty of the plot. Body switching Regency equaled forgiveness for details like those mentioned in the review. And confession – if I woke up inside the body of a man I had long considered my arch nemesis, you’d better believe I’d be checking that junk out. If the guy turned out to be hung like a peanut, and we both knew that I KNEW it, I’d feel like I had won the war. Just saying.