Wicked All Day

What do you do when you compromise your best friend? If you are a carefree, sometimes careless young man (Robin), you give up your mistress and propose marriage with an imposing sense of dread. If you are a adventuresome woman (Zoe) who has long disappointed your parents, you accept the proposal and pledge to make an amicable marriage - but with little enthusiasm. If you are the older brother (Mercer) who has always tried to rescue the two during their youthful antics, you feel a sense of betrayal, anger and jealousy? Ah, and so the plot brews around characters who genuinely care for each other and find themselves in a difficult situation in which they each are trying to be honorable and sensible, yet in truth are miserable with their choices. Carlyle writes an excellent story with complex characters who begin to evolve and come to some self-awareness because of a scandal. It marks a turning point in a love triangle where Zoe, Robin and Mercer must take stock of themselves and take responsibility for what their lives have become in order to come to a reckoning of what their futures will be. I disagree with other reviewers who felt the story was too long. Carlyle allows her character's to unfold,to examine their choices and roles from childhood to adulthood and to grow up and change the dynamics of their relationship. Carlyle's story is what happens in life when faced with obstacles and crises and the difficult choices people make - sometimes for the what seem to be the right reasons, but with hurtful consequences for those you love. I applaud Carlyle for taking the risk to weave a tale of depth and fleshing out her characters rather than take easier shortcuts and settle for boilerplate prose. After reading and discarding so many recent mediocre romances, this book is refreshing. It's a keeper.

I've read a bunch of romance novels in recent months and perhaps a quarter of them were to my liking. Yet I see many of those I disliked have 4- or 5-star average ratings. Many of the reviewers here are critical of this new novel by Liz Carlyle because its story does not appeal to them as much as some of her previous romances. OK, I can see that I would not want to BE this heroine and I don't find some of the actions taken by the hero to be what I would want him to do. But, for gosh's sake, it's a novel. I'm reading it, not living it. The thing is that even if these people are doing things we don't want them to do, their actions are plausible and this author has decided that this is what her characters are going to do. The story is well written, the characters (although only minimally for Robin) grow and mature, the love and affection the family members feel for each other is pleasant, especially since they are characters we have met in other Liz Carlyle romances. The slow development of the story (which I did not feel was overly long) was needed so that the characters could grow and develop. That takes years in real life and in the book only required 400 pages. I enjoyed reading a character-driven novel, rather than having the usual villains trying to kill the hero or abduct the heroine. So I liked this book. Perhaps not 5 stars worth, but that's my attempt to counteract one or two low ratings by other reviewers.

I really enjoyed this novel the connection between Zoë and Rowland was great. Zoë sits on the fringes of ton because of because of her of her birth and therefore pushes the boundaries of the society. Zoë and Robert have been childhood friends and after an intense encounter they are forced to marry. Zoë does love Robert that way but had unexplored feeling with Stuart Rowland, the Marquess of Mercer; Robert's older brother. Fun, exciting, romantic read - Enjoy! If you enjoy this genre I would also suggest; To Wed a Wicked Earl, Sleepless in Scotland (The MacLeans) and How To Tempt A Duke.

I cannot agree more with Joy's review, especially her statement: "No one is heroic in this romance; this is problem-solving done by flawed and very human characters, which I think makes it a more interesting book." Liz Carlyle has woven a very human tale. Stuart and Zoe's story is very much about flawed individuals and their capacity to love strongly in the face of their misguided ways. I love that Robert's story is entertwined and I love the repeated theme that you cannot choose whom you love. Plus, the lovemaking scenes are steamy and had me falling a little in love with Stuart Mercer myself. Now, wishful thinking or not, I hope Stu and Zoe play a role in any of Ms. Carlyle's future books. Maybe in one of Zoe's sister's treatments?

Liz Carlyle is an auto-buy for me, but this is one of her very best, reminiscent of some of her earliest in how character-driven it is. It's a very simple, classic storyline -- girl gets herself into scandalous situation with a good friend, tries to make the best of it, but discovers she's being forced into marriage with the wrong brother. There are no gimmicks or big plot hooks, like an exotic background for the H/H or a sadistic villain or a terrible secret. No action/suspense or heroic rescues or Big Misunderstandings. No big external plot drivers or deus ex machina solutions. Rather, it's all about the choices of a number of complex, flawed but attractive characters -- choices that have been impulsive or thoughtless or based on wishful thinking -- whether from immaturity or as a way of dealing with repressed anxieties, or overcompensating for unhappiness or constraints of early 19th century society. Even the external "villainess" of the piece is only in a position to do harm because of choices made by the hero. And then all of the main characters (not only the H/H) have to face the consequences of their choices -- consequences not just for one's self but others. In the process, each of the main characters learns about him or herself, about what's really important, and how to reconcile their fears and desires, come to terms with their internal contradictions, and make better choices. Part of what makes Wicked All Day special is that much of it deals with how the families of Zoë and the brothers, Stuart and Robert, handle the situation. Key family members are as well-developed and important characters as the leads. Zoë and her parents, Evie and Rannoch, are from the very early novel, My False Heart (Sonnet Books). Carlyle readers also know the other family well -- they're Jonet and Cole Amherst, and Jonet's sons, from another early Carlyle, A Woman Scorned (Sonnet Books). The boys in A Woman Scorned are two of my favorite child characters in romance fiction. We are now meeting them almost twenty years later (which places the new story in the mid 1830s). The adult Stuart and Robert are clearly recognizable personalities, both in behavior and speech patterns, as the boys from twenty years before. Carlyle has quite realistically made them into plausible adult characters, adjusted for the experiences each would have had after the end of A Woman Scorned, with Jonet as their brilliant, fiercely protective but demanding mother, and Cole as a beloved, intelligent, stabilizing step-father. Some of the scenes with Jonet, Cole, their butler Charlie Donaldson, their nurse Nanna, and the two sons are particularly amusing or poignant if you've read the earlier novel. The centrality of the families in the story is one of the ways Carlyle deals with what is a frequent theme in her writing -- love in all its myriad forms, not just romantic love. Here, the possibility of true, deep, abiding friendship between a man and a woman is one of the central drivers