Simply Angela : The Fall of A Saint by Christine Merrill

Wednesday, July 9, 2014

The Fall of A Saint by Christine Merrill

THE ONLY WOMAN WHO CAN MAKE HIM REPENT!

Honorable—and handsome to boot!—Michael Poole, Duke of St. Aldric, has earned his nickname "The Saint." But the ton would shudder if they knew the truth. Because, thrust into a world of debauchery, this saint has turned sinner!

With the appearance of fallen governess Madeline Cranston—carrying his heir—St. Aldric looks for redemption through a marriage of convenience. But the intriguing Madeline is far from a dutiful duchess, and soon this saint is indulging in the most sinful of thoughts…while his new wife vows to make him pay for his past.

Based on the blurb, I thought I was getting a romance where the duke seduced the governess. As a Jane Eyre fan, I love romances where the duke falls madly deeply in love with the governess.

What I got with The Fall of a Saint was something so different than I could have ever imagined.

Michael Poole, Duke of St. Aldric, just got over a horrible case of mumps. Wanting prove that he still has the ability to produce offspring, he decides that drunkenly rodgering his way across England in hopes of spreading his seed is the best way to prove that he is still a man, which is where Madeline Cranston, the governess, comes in.

She happens to be staying in the same tavern as St. Aldric. He has arranged an assignation with a willingly barmaid but mistakenly enters Madeline’s room where he rapes her. She in turns gets pregnant and marries St. Aldric. She hates him at the beginning but is still willingly to sleep with him and then they finally get together in the end.

Seriously, who starts a romance book with a rape? And while some readers are playing it down, it clearly states on page 16 that he ‘deflowered a governess without her consent’. That is clearly the definition of rape.

I skimmed over the majority of the book. It’s one of those books that make you feel as though you need a shower to wash all of its sleaziness off you. I definitely had a sense of buyer’s remorse with this one.