Seven Minutes in Heaven
Desperate Duchesses Novel
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4.4 • 308 Ratings
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
A dazzling new Regency-set historical romance in Eloisa James’ New York Times bestselling Desperate Duchesses series!
Witty and elusive Eugenia Snowe has all society begging for one of her premiere governesses-except the powerful Edward Reeve, who bursts into her office with his arrogant demands.
No question that Eugenia enjoys crossing wits with the brilliant inventor, but Ward wants far more than a governess. He wants Eugenia, and he’ll stop at nothing to have her-including kidnapping.
Will Eugenia lose her heart in the most reckless gamble of her life, or will she discover the sweetest pleasure she’s ever known?
All it will take is seven minutes...
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
James continues her long-running and multigenerational Desperate Duchesses series (Four Nights with the Duke) with an enjoyable romance set in early 18th-century London. Eugenia Snow, a viscount's widow, is free to enjoy herself amid London's social whirl, but she prefers to focus on running her agency for high-end governesses. When Theodore "Ward" Reeve strides into her office demanding a replacement governess for his orphaned half-siblings, she is tempted to be scandalous for the first time since her husband's death seven years before. The attraction between Eugenia and Ward is instantaneous, and they leap into an enjoyable no-strings-attached affair. James avoids the clich of a widow who didn't find sexual satisfaction with her first lover; Eugenia talks frankly about enjoying the physical side of her marriage. Series fans who remember Ward and Eugenia as children will enjoy seeing them united as adults. Eugenia bonds with Ward's kids and showers them with love, understanding, and laughter. She is honest about her feelings as Ward reassesses his prejudices and assumptions. Even though Eugenia forgives him far too easily for his mistakes, their romance is a fine addition to the series.
Customer Reviews
Worth more than 7 minutes
This was a fun, interesting and enjoyable book. I liked the different story line; it stepped outside of the lineage for the most part.
Truly a work of art!
Seven Minutes in Heaven is the first book by Ms. James that I have read and all I have to say now is that I can't believe it took me so long to pick up one of her books! I have no good excuse for why it took me so long, but you can believe that I'll be making time for the stories that are already out and the ones to come in the future. Seven Minutes in Heaven was positively extraordinary and I wholeheartedly loved it!
Eugenia is everything that I love my heroines to be. She's smart and passionate, classy but sassy, and she's kind and warm. Eugenia is strong, she's independent, she knows who she is and she won't let anybody try to change her. She's a true lady and can be prim and proper when she needs to be, but she knows how to be and have fun too. Eugenia is an amazing woman and there wasn't anything that I didn't love about her!
And while there might be a few times when I wanted to shake or smack Ward, you can't help but love him either. He takes in his siblings, cares so much about them, and only wants the best for them. He's honorable and giving, thoughtful and compassionate, and protective and kind. Ward is charming and fun with Eugenia, he's possessive and it's not hard to see that he loves her, even if does bungle things up a little. Ward is wonderful and he stole my heart from the very beginning and I couldn't fall for him more than I already have!
Despite never having read Ms. James before, I knew that Seven Minutes in Heaven was going to be good, but I had no idea how good! Historical romance is one of my favorite genres, but it's also one of the hardest genres to write, well, in my opinion it is, anyway. It's not always easy to connect to characters that exist in a very different time period with very different rules than the ones we live with today and it's sometimes hard to feel the full effect of the book. There was no such problem with this one though! It was easy to connect and get caught up in Ward and Eugenia's world and everything that comes along with it. It was seamlessly written, flowed beautifully, and burned brightly. It was entertaining, funny, heartwarming, a little heartbreaking, and so full of passion, love, and life. Seven Minutes in Heaven was truly a work of art and I can't tell you how much I loved and enjoyed it!
Seven Minutes in Heaven can be read as a standalone, it's told from mostly Ward and Eugenia's POV, and they do get a happy ending that will leave a smile on your face!
~ Sonja, 5 Stars
Unlikeable hero
The hero was a real bastard (and I’m not talking about the circumstances of his birth) He was truly pompous, self righteous and disrespectful to the point where I really didn’t want her to forgive him. I wanted her to find someone else and tell him to go to a hot place. It is bad when you don’t want the hero/heroine to end up together. The love scenes were boring because there was no feeling or tension before. For me the act of making love is like the culmination of a love and desire that’s been cooking up for some time. In this case, since they jumped into bed without any feelings or previous build up it felt like boring mechanics to me.