Fool for Love

By: Eloisa James

Narrated by: Justine Eyre

The Woman:

Lady Henrietta Maclellan longs for the romantic swirl of a London season. But as a rusticating country maiden, she has always kept her sensuous nature firmly under wraps -- until she meets Simon Darby. Simon makes her want to whisper promises late at night, exchange kisses on a balcony, receive illicit love notes. So Henrietta lets her imagination soar and writes...

The Letter:

A very steamy love letter that becomes shockingly public. Everyone supposes that he has written it to her, but the truth hardly matters in the face of the scandal to come if they don't marry at once. But nothing has quite prepared Henrietta for the pure sensuality of...

The Man

Simon has vowed he will never turn himself into a fool over a woman. So, while debutantes swoon as he disdainfully strides past the lovely ladies of the ton, he ignores them all...until Henrietta. Could it be possible that he has been the foolish one all along?

©2003 Eloisa James (P)2012 HarperCollinsPublishers

My favorite Eloisa James! Yes, I've read them all.

This is an extremely humorous but still quite romantic book. James has a gift for sly humor and the careful observation of the not-always-so-delightful way in which children enliven our lives. I read this book a few years ago and liked it so much I wanted to hear it performed. Of course, the reader couldn't outperform the voices in my head but she came very close. Wonderful! There is an order to these books. Cam and Gina's story comes before this - Duchess in Love. Esme's story runs through these books -Duchess Quartet series. Although there is no Duchess at the heart of this story

Great second book in fantastic series

I loved the first book so immediately ordered the second one. I loved it also. In the first book we met all four women: Geni, Espe, Carol and Helene - the spelling is probably wrong on most of the names. We also met their lovers, husbands, and many secondary characters. Geni and her husband were the focus of the first book and it was enthralling. In the second book Espe and her lover are the focus, sort of, but new characters in the form of Espe's nephew Simon and a woman named Henrietta take center roles. Simon may be on the verge of losing his inheritance since Espe is pregnant and, if the baby is a boy, he will be the new heir instead of Simon. Henrietta is beautiful and very wealthy, but is lame and will never be able to have babies. She wants Simon very badly because he is gorgeous and he has two ready made children for her to mother. Simon has two very young step sisters that have become his wards because their parents died. He needs a wife to serve as mother to the girls. Seems that Henrietta and Simon would both be good for one another. The story is most entertaining and can be very funny at times - but also can be sad. All in all, it was a great listen and I did not want to shut off my device until I was through. I am now off to the third book, which should wrap up either Espe or Helene's story. Can't wait!!

Love it! But then again I love this Author

Where does Fool for Love rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

I loved the first book so I am trying to read these in order. I would rate this book near the top. It's an easy book to listen too and not get lost if you like to work and listen. While this book is definitely about Henrietta and Simon It also builds on the relationship of Esme and Sebastian. I was ready to read the next book in this series.

What did you like best about this story?

I liked the heroine. Henrietta was a strong character. I had a little problem with Simon being into so much lace but the reason came out and made sense. I tend to like the darker characters but this was a great romance story in the middle of a series.

Have you listened to any of Justine Eyre’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I love Justine Eyre and often look for a good book through her.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes, I can listen to her books while I work and loved it.

Any additional comments?

Looking for more stories by this author. I own them all!

I'M A FOOL FOR E.J.'S BOOKS

Because of a hip problem Henrietta is unable to have children as her mother had the same condition and died in childbirth so this takes her off the 'marriage mart' but she dreams of motherhood. However, she doesn't plan on meeting Simon, a devout bachelor and longs for a love that just cannot be - but she writes herself a love letter which has dire consequences for them both.

Enjoyable and fun romance with likeable main characters and a good supporting cast of other characters. It also catches up with Esme and Sebastian's story from book 1 but it could be a stand alone book.

Worth a credit? It's all you want from a Regency romance and it's written by E.J. so it's a definite YES from me.

Two plots randomly thrown together

Read from June 11 to July 14, 2012

Started audiobook 6/11/12. Switched to ebook 7/11/12. I switched to the printed version of this book because there was a secondary storyline that had nothing to do with the main romance and which I was not interested in at all. For some reason, James's usually tight POV is absent here, with scenes (and backstory) from random minor characters--including a newborn baby in the last chapter! I'm now 1 for 4 with James's full-length novels.

hard to rate

I liked a lot of this book and found a lot of it boring. It starts off ok the really begins to drag. Doesn't really pick up until near the very end.

Good enough story, annoying narrator.

I like this book. It’s predictable as they almost all are but the characters are interesting. The narrator has an annoyingly blasé sound to her voice and expresses male passion with a strange waver.

Loved the story

Great story of overcoming so many obstacles. What a strong heroin knows what she wanted and FOUGHT FOR IT!! Narration was perfect 👏👏❤️

pity party with unlikable children

What would have made Fool for Love better?

The characters were so dumb. The heroine just assumes that she can't have children, even though you hear how miserable this makes her. She does not want to go to an experienced doctor to have this confirmed.
The children are miserable and don't really add anything to the storyline, so why have them just making you have the thought " why is the heroine so upset not to have these brats?"
The baby keeps vomiting. This just gives the author an opportunity to describe the awful smell.
How any of these points create the setting for romance, I will never know.

Would you ever listen to anything by Eloisa James again?

I think her stories are very "slapstick". After you read authors like mary Balogh or courtney milan, Ms James seems very sophmoric.
There isn't even the witty dialogue that is found in an Elizabeth Hoyt or Loretta Chase novel.
This is just candy floss.

How could the performance have been better?

I don't like this narrator and should not have bought the book. Every time she has to pronounce anything that starts with "H" or ends in "R", there is such a stress on the sound it is annoying. She also reads the dialogue in an quavering and over-wrought manner. It makes everything seem a little over the top and extremely dramatic.
I have come to terms with the fact that R landor can't read every book, but I still don't like it!!!

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Fool for Love?

I would remove all the Esme / Sebastian scenes. Either give them their own book or don't bother adding them into this one. I can see some minor scenes, but there romance at times, is more interesting than the main couple...that's never good!
These two just make the over dramatic quality of the book more into the relm of unbelievable. If two people who love each other and want to be together can't find happiness it hjust makes the other events in the book pale by comparison.
These two extremely beautiful people ( and yes, I wish that this was not always the case) put road blocks in their own path and I just can't feel sorry for them

Any additional comments?

I had this in my wish list for over a year and was hesitant to buy it. I should have known that anything that took me so long to purchase was not going to be a good read...and it was not. I will follow my instincts in the future and just remove anything sitting on my list for that long.
This was not a very joyful book until the last few chapters for the main characters and even the secondary characters.
It is also very bad for the term "happily married". Not many of the couples have happy marriages and this is a little disturbing for a "romance.

review

Not her best, I had to struggle to get through it. To drawn out. I usually enjoy her books. Hoping the rest of the series is better since I already purchased.