REVIEW: A Kiss at Midnight by Eloisa James

2.5-3 of 5 Stars

Did Not Finish

*WARNING: This review contains a SPOILER of a particular scene in the book which I had an issue with.*

This is a Cinderella re-telling.

I still haven’t finished this, after putting it aside for several months, and I’ve finally accepted that I don’t think I feel like finishing it. *sad sigh* :-(

I'm sorry, friends, I have tried to pick it back up a few times but just can't seem to keep reading.

I don’t know what happened. I think I just didn’t CONNECT with the characters in this book. I know a lot of my GRs friends really enjoyed this, though, and I’m going against the grain here… and not to detract from others’ love of the book… but I struggled with it.

I'm sorry, friends, I have tried to pick it back up a few times but just can't seem to keep reading. 

It was enjoyable enough to start off with; was pretty cute, in fact, but at the same time was all too easy for me to put down. And then… Well…I didn’t like that the prince was going to seduce, and had the heroine waiting in his room, while he had to go and entertain his betrothed princess at the ball. It made me incredibly uncomfortable.

I have forgiven cheating in books, before, because I had truly connected with the characters, felt really strongly for them, and was able to forgive them a grave mistake. But with this? I really don’t know…I just really didn’t like the thought of the prince actually having the woman he had fallen for waiting for him, in his bath, while he went off to meet and dance with another woman; the woman he was going to marry, out of duty. It did not sit right with me. I just didn't feel it fair to any of them. And I hadn’t really realised, at the time that I set it aside, how much this actually bothered me. But now when I think of this book, it's all I can think about, so I find that just can’t bring myself to continue reading to get to the actual love scene between Prince Gabriel and Kate.

This is MY issue and I feel bad for giving up on this book, but with all the books out there I want to read – there are SO MANY! - I just can’t bring myself to continue.

I also feel bad for giving it 2.5-3 Stars, but my rating is based not on an assessment of the author’s writing abilities, but rather on my own level of enjoyment of the book.

I’m sorry, Eloisa James. I will give your other books a go, though.

If you are a reader who hasn’t read this book, as I said, many loved/liked it, so you may, too.

I did, however, love these quotes (below) that Quinn had shared in her status updates On Goodreads and which enticed me to read this. There were some tingly moments between the hero and heroine, but just not enough interaction between them, for my liking, for me to connect with them and care about seeing their Happily-Ever-After.

‘"Do tell," Gabriel said. "Were they kissing the way we do?"

He had pulled off his cravat, and his shirt revealed a triangle of chest. It was vastly improper. Kate pulled her gaze away. "We don't kiss in any particular way," she corrected him. "We may have exchanged a few kisses in the past, but --"

"We kiss as if the bloody room had burst on fire," he interrupted. "We kiss as if making love didn't exist and kissing was all there was.”’
…
‘He took the word from her lips. Their kiss was as untamed as the garden they stood in. It was the kind of kiss that skirted the edge of propriety even though his hands stayed at her back, and hers around his neck.

It skirted propriety because they both knew the kiss was like making love, that there was an exchange, a possession and a submission, a giving and a taking, a forbidden intimacy.’

Great quotes.

P.S. The “bosom friends” were funny. ^_^

P.P.S. Maybe one day I’ll go back and finish this, and maybe I’ll feel differently about it.