The Look of Love by Meara Platt Series: The Book of Love #1
on March 27, 2019
Genres: Fiction / Romance / Historical / Regency, Regency Romance
Pages: 248
Format: eBook
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A dingy old book tucked away in an old Regency London bookshop holds magic and love for those who use the 'recipes'!
When Lady Olivia Gosling finds The Book of Love in a musty bookshop, she is most eager to try out its love "recipes" on someone safe.
Did she say safe?
Well, Beast isn't really safe, but with her odious guardian about to marry her off to one of his unsavory friends, Olivia needs her childhood friend to fall in love with her... fast. If Beast can love her, then any man she chooses will surely do the same.
Alexander Beastling, Duke of Hartford, is known as Beast among the ton. He is big and muscled, and there is a dark aura of mystery about him that he makes no effort to dispel. Now that he's returned from battle, he's appalled to learn of the marriage plans Lady Olivia's loathsome guardian has for her. Beast has decided that he will help her find a proper husband, even if it means putting up with her ridiculous experiments taken out of a book she refers to as The Book of Love. Olivia calls them magical recipes for love.
Is it possible they actually work? Because suddenly, Beast can't seem to get Olivia out of his mind... or his heart.
I was inspired to start this series after a reader question about one of the books (Regency Reader Questions: Bee in the Skirt Compromise). And because I almost never start at book 1, I decided to also give that a try.
Much of the story takes place in the countryside as six friends (three men, three women) and two elder Aunt chaperones enjoy the outdoors. Well, a little bit. The young women spend a lot of their time with the Book of Love working up a plan to test it out on their friends. Since this is Olivia’s (Goose) story, she gets to go first and try out the techniques on “Beast”, the Duke.
The book is kind of like a men are from mars type book. I mean, I have never read that but I imagine it’s what it’s like, a litany of ways the sexes are different and how one can better engage the opposite sex. The Book of Love seems particularly intent on describing women as a vessel for men’s seed. Ick. But it’s a funny concept.
I didn’t love the execution, which felt stilted and clumsy to me. Olivia (Goose) was very sweet, good, kind, honest– it wasn’t enough for the mood I was in. Like I wanted to character depth and growth. The Beast was equally near perfect. Their childhood friends to lovers was sort of believable yet could’ve been sold with a bit more character development. But I enjoyed the first three quarters of the book well enough.
The last quarter I skimmed. The plot was too predictable, with a kidnapping attempt from villains, and a near death resulting in the cementing of love. I have seen this done so many times at this point, it didn’t do much for me.
I recognize that I have been reading this genre for years and it takes a lot to surprise me. And maybe I don’t represent the average reader. Because the GoodReads average rating is 4.04. For the first portion of the book, I probably would’ve rated it at a 4 or a 4.25, but the end really knocked it down for me. I was honestly unsatisfied with the HEA, which is kind of the point (for me, anyway).
There is on the page sexual content, mature themes, and some sensitive content like the loss of parents, war injuries, and near childhood drowning. The sensitive content is not over stressed, so I didn’t provide a CW, but it still might trigger some readers. This is not a great book for kisses only readers, although as one GoodReads reviewer pointed out it does read a bit like a YA.
This is the first Meara Platt I have read, and has a healthy backlist so may be an author worth exploring if you have the patience for some of the above issues. And they might not be issues for you, especially if you like childhood friends to lovers stories.
I wanted to add that I sort of thought this might be going in a Beauty and Beast direction, as there were hints to it, but there was no conflict between the MCs to carry that theme through.
