ARC Review: Seduce Me with Sapphires – Jane Feather (The London Jewels Trilogy #2)

Rating 3.5 stars

Review
Seduce Me with Sapphires is the first ‘modern’ historical romance I’ve read by Jane Feather. All of the others were written in the 90’s so I was excited to see how Feather’s writing developed over the years. In terms of writing style, I enjoyed it and felt quite nostalgic for her other beloved series.

However, I was a little confused as to the time period of this story. I had to do further research to discover this book is set in the early 1900’s and I’m not overly familiar with society’s rules for this era. There were many moments in the story that had me wondering if the characters could really act like that in public; for example, at the beginning of the book, Fenella storms out of a play reading and when chased by Edward, she immediately tells him he can buy her a hot chocolate at the nearby cafe. As previously mentioned, I’m not too familiar with the early 1900’s but since I’ve read a lot of regency, this behaviour and freedom seemed strange to me. I’d definitely like to read the previous book in this series to compare behaviours and social etiquette.

The characters themselves were constantly butting heads but I loved how Feather used this behaviour to work through their own individual issues and become better together as a pair. And boy, did they have a lot of personal issues! Fenella was at times hypocritical and didn’t like it when Edward would point this out. She was also ashamed to be seen with him for quite some time and came across as a little spoilt. Edward, on the other hand, was quite scornful towards society due to his upbringing but it didn’t stop him from working hard in his job while writing plays in his free time and I admired his determination.

Overall this story did have a few issues but Feather’s ability to weave a story is wonderful. I really enjoyed this one and I look forward to reading more from Feather in the future.

Disclaimer: Thank you to Kensington Books and Netgalley for the free copy in exchange for an honest review.

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