Night of Sin by Julia Ross

I actually started and finished this book yesterday after whining that I haven't been able to finish anything in days. Having said that you may think I loved this book--ah, no I didn't love it. Actually I shouldn't say I didn't like it, because for me this is almost three books, the beginning, the middle and the end. The beginning and the end are wonderful, the middle sucked.

Ms. Ross has a beautiful writing style, the plot and storyline are interesting.

The back blurb:

Years of roaming the Far East have forged Lord Jonathan Deveoran St. George into an intrepid, solitary world traveler, estranged from family and homeland. Yet the theft of a precious fossil has forced Jack unwillingly back to England. Now the thief slips the prize to an unsuspecting young woman, innocently minding her own business. Seconds later, the man is murdered--and Miss Anne Marsh becomes the unkown killer's next target.

A perilous guardian angel, Jack sweeps Anne off to his ancestral estate...all in the guise of protecting her. Safely engaged to another, she's never met anyone like Wild Lord Jack. Trapped in this handsome aristocrat's company, why not seize the chance to learn something new--about the world, about love, about wickedness...

This is a perfect description of this book. Sounds great doesn't it. And it is great up until the point they reach "his ancestral estate" which happens to be filled with his obnoxious family, a dying father, a controlling mother and judgmental brother. Oh, what a joy it is to visit these people. The first thing he lets everyone know is he knows Anne in the biblical sense, and the book goes down from here. It doesn't matter that Anne was fascinated and curious and wanted sex with him. His family basically spends what seems like 1000 pages beating him up for being a horrible seducer of women. I found myself doing mea culpas for the poor man and saying Hail Marys as I was reading, honestly I'm not kidding. And most of these confrontations in the end turn out to be part of some weird powerplay between Jack and his mother, for Jack's continued independence. No wonder he's a world traveler, who the heck wants to be around these people.

Finally, Jack and Anne get married leave "his ancestral estate" and the book picks up again has a great, but rushed ending.

The beginning of this book would get an A, the end of this book would get an A. The middle, well it gets a C because Julia Ross has a great writing style, average it out to a B. But, it could have been so much more.