This book kept me up way too late at night!!! I loved Valentine, he was a great leading man. Eleanor was a good match for him even if she made some crazy stubborn choices.. . This was the first book I have read by this author and I am excited to read more! ( )

Sin and Sensibility was my first read by Suzanne Enoch and the first in her Griffin Family series. Ms. Enoch has long been on my TBR list, so I was really looking forward to trying her work. However, this first foray into her writing left me with very mixed feelings. First, I thought the plot could have been better constructed. It took a really long time for things to get moving. Eleanor takes what seems like forever to make up her mind as to exactly what her adventure is going to be, and during that time, the story moves very slowly with little of note occurring. Even after she has her little adventure, it still plods along for a few more chapters until Valentine realizes that he can't bear the thought of any other man claiming Eleanor and acts upon his feelings. I thought the characterizations could have gone deeper too. While enough backstory was given to help me generally understand where both of them were coming from, I couldn't help feeling like I wanted to know more. Finally, there are some events that occur that IMHO, weren't very well explained. ****************Spoiler Alert****************For instance, the villain interrupts Valentine and Eleanor's mad dash to Gretna Green, but no explanation is given for how he knew where they were going. Since Valentine's decision to kidnap Eleanor and elope was made on the spur of the moment and not one that he seemed to have shared with anyone, I was baffled as to how Cobb-Harding figured it out. Also, it's revealed at the end that Eleanor's oldest brother, Sebastian, was actually matchmaking by throwing them together the way he did, but again no explanation for why he would want to match his only sister with a notorious rake – even one who's his best friend – was ever given. ****************End Spoiler Alert**************** On the upside, though, there were some good moments of sexual tension and a couple of pretty romantic scenes for Valentine and Eleanor, such as their midnight swim in the pond and parts of their elopement, so I did feel a connection between them. However, it just wasn't quite enough to push this one into the realm of greatness.

Valentine is easily one of the most dissolute rakes I've ever read. I've heard some romance readers complain about historical romance heroes who are described as rakish not really being rakes at all, so I don't think those readers would be disappointed with Valentine in that regard. In the opening scene, he's receiving a blow job from one of his numerous paramours, and a married lady at that, at a ball while he indolently watches the proceedings from their hidden alcove. I can't say that he really changed all that much throughout the remainder of the story. It seemed to me that he'd done little else in his life other than drinking, gambling, and womanizing, yet despite his frivolous lifestyle, he'd somehow managed to maintain his family fortune even though we never see him doing any actual work, not even looking over estate ledgers or anything. I suppose Valentine had his charms, but overall, he wasn't a very heroic romance hero for me. I understood that he didn't think much of women because of the parade of women his father brought through the house while Valentine was growing up after his mother died. Because of that, he'd come to the conclusion that all females were conniving and manipulative and only good for one thing. Throughout the story he said some extremely unflattering things about women in general which rubbed me the wrong way. He's known Eleanor for most of her life, but perhaps because she's the youngest sister of his best friend, he's never really taken much notice of her as a woman until she declares her independence. There are a few moments where he seems to realize that she's somehow different from the other women he's known, but by and large, I had a hard time discerning what precisely made him fall for her when he didn't seem to have much of a heart. He says that he enjoys her company, but I felt like that was more told than shown. I would have liked to see more instances of him specifically having a good time with her. Also, he vacillates back and forth between doing something honorable, such as rescuing Eleanor from a man who had drugged her and was about to rape her, and then saying something terrible about women that seems, to some degree, to encompass Eleanor as well. It was just really hard for me to truly like Valentine and understand what Eleanor saw in him when he's all over the board. It was also a little difficult to believe that she truly had changed him when his declaration of love, or even his own realization that he's in love with her, doesn't come until the very end.

Eleanor is a young woman who is tired of her three older brothers constantly interfering in her love life and scaring away potential suitors in whom she might be interested. She wants the freedom to choose the man with whom she's going to spend the rest of her life and not end up with someone who's old or boring, so she writes up a declaration of independence and presents it to her oldest brother, Sebastian. He isn't too thrilled by it, but reluctantly agrees to allow her the latitude she seeks so long as she doesn't cause a scandal, in which case, the agreement is voided and she will immediately marry a man whom he deems suitable. Little does she know, though, that Sebastian has engaged the help of his best friend, Valentine, to look after her, thinking that Eleanor will be more receptive to his presence than that of her siblings. Eleanor did have a point about a woman deserving more freedom, but at the same time, she could be quite the handful. Sebastian became duke when he was only eighteen and Eleanor was just a little girl. She was allowed to run wild on the estate, but when she became a young lady, she had to button down those tendencies, which now chafes at her.

While Eleanor was certainly opinionated, not afraid to speak her own mind, and perhaps even a bit reckless and daring at times, I appreciated that she had some sense of caution. After her run-in with the man with dishonorable intentions, she didn't really go out without one of her brothers or Valentine nearby. I did have to admire Eleanor for her fearlessness, not only in going up against her brothers, but also for taking her own destiny in hand. However, it was a little frustrating at first when she doesn't seem to know her own mind. She knows that she wants an adventure, but what exactly she wants to do eludes her for a long time. There were also a few times when I felt like she was a little too stubborn and dismissive. She seems to have no qualms whatsoever about giving up her virginity to Valentine, even though she fully believes it's a one-time deal. Also, neither of them seems the least bit concerned by the possibility that she could be pregnant or about her future husband being upset about her not being a virgin. Eleanor also says some pretty ugly things to Valentine when she finds out about his agreement with her brother. Much like I had a hard time discerning Valentine's attraction to Eleanor, the reverse was true as well. I just couldn't quite seem to figure out what she saw in him, and I had a somewhat difficult time believing in that forever love when she was prepared to marry someone else right before Valentine kidnapped her. I think that if both of them had opened up about their feelings for one another a little sooner, this would have been a lot better for me.

Sin and Sensibility had it's good points and not so good points, but overall, it was a fairly entertaining read, which is why I decided to give it 3.5 stars. Some parts could have been stronger, leaving my mind wandering at times, but other parts were engaging and fun, almost making me bump it up to four stars. The only real stand-out secondary characters were Eleanor's three brothers, Zachary, Charlemagne, and Sebastian, all of whom get their own stories in the series, in the order in which I've listed them, which is youngest to oldest. Even though Suzanne Enoch didn't exactly hit this one out of the ballpark for me, I still have lots of her books on my TBR list, including a couple more of the Griffin Family series, so I'm sure I'll give her another chance to wow me in the future. ( )

Can't read a book where I find the heroine completely idiotic and immature. ( )

Lady Eleanor Griffin has grown up under the watchful and overprotective eyes of her three older brothers. When, once again, they overreact to one of her less-well-heeled suitors, Eleanor rebels. Before she surrenders to a match with a 'suitable' gentleman as determined by her eldest brother she wants one last adventure - she just doesn't know what it should be or what she truly wants from it.

So she solicits the help of her brothers' good friend with a reputation as a consummate rake- Valentine Corbett - to help her. Problem is, her brothers have decided that he should simultaneously look after her to protect the family name from scandal. But after he helps her out of a disastrous situation, he finds himself more and more drawn to her spirit.

Certainly not the best romance novel I've read recently. Valentine certainly earns the Duke of Slut title - the book's opening scene with him receiving a blowjob during the middle of a party firmly cements that, and given how it is later revealed how his father died horribly of syphilis... I'm just not sure I buy that. It certainly seemed a little iffy.

I loved the fact that her 'adventure' was something purely for herself, that it ended up being a tool for self-awareness and a private sensuality rather than simply a rebellion against her brothers. But I really disliked her brothers' overbearing attitudes. Their motivation was never explored fully enough for me, and the possibility that they were matchmaking all along seems...frightening?

All in all the book was fairly forgettable. None of the characters really made me fall in love or laugh out loud or much of anything, and I found the twist at the very end fairly contrived. Then again...the novel definitely needed some fisticuffs to liven up the ending, so maybe it was a good choice after all? ( )

Synopsis: Sin and Sensibility is the first novel in a series by Suzanne Enoch about the Griffin family. Set in Regency England (the war is still on), this story is about Eleanor Griffin, a young woman who wants to have a taste of adventure before she settles into the mold of being a society wife. With 3 overbearing, overprotective older brothers (one of whom is a rather despotic Duke), she has her work cut out for her. In a bid for some independence, she makes a bargain with them: She gets the freedom to do and say what she pleases, so long as she doesn't cause a scandal of any kind. Her brothers agree, but (unbeknownst to Eleanor) secretly ask their good friend (and handsome ladykiller), Valentine Corbett, to keep an eye on her and see that she doesn't get into any real trouble.

This was a great book. I REALLY didn't like the first book I read by this author (Flirting With Danger), but I'm very glad I gave her another try. I was really impressed with Enoch's ability to create complex characters and so thoroughly describe the changes that they go through as they find each other. He's an *extremely* hardened rake and she's desperate for a bit of independence. The author is careful to demonstrate that Eleanor is not merely just looking to rebel against her brothers. Her quest for adventure is more about finding something special to have just for herself - the idea of doing something because it pleases her without regard for whether it is proper or virtuous or whatever - and NOT about whether it will piss off her family. Valentine's entrenched cynicism is also very believably turned on its ear by Eleanor's open and genuine nature. He finds that he really can care for someone - and that there are people really worth caring for. I will definitely be reading this entire series! ( )