Slightly Wicked - Mary Balogh (Bedwyn Saga #2)

After the Unapologetic Romance Readers group read Slightly Married for one of our July reads, I thought I might as well continue on with the series, as some of the other side characters seemed interesting.  Unfortunately, the hero of this book, Rannulf, wasn't one of them.  He wasn't nearly as prominent in the first book as some of the other Bedwyn siblings, so I was a bit disappointed to see the second book was about him; I might have liked him more if there'd been more of an intro to him in the first book.

The plot here follows Rannulf, of course, and our heroine is Judith Law.  Judith has been exiled from her family home to go serve as a poor relation to her aunt, because Judith's brother has run up bills that are driving her father into poverty.  On the way to her aunt's, the stagecoach Judith is traveling in overturns and the passengers are stranded.  Rannulf comes along and offers to fetch help, and to take Judith with him to another town; she agrees, wanting a bit of adventure, and immediately makes up an alternate identity--as does Rannulf.  The two have a brief, steamy affair, and then part ways...only to find out that they're to be neighbors, which also leads to them discovering each others' true identities.  Oh, and Judith's aunt is trying to marry Judith's cousin off to Rannulf, a plan that his ailing grandmother supports.  Drama ensues.

Ultimately, the problem with this book is that neither Rannulf nor Judith is that interesting of a person.  Judith is a long-suffering young woman resigned to being a spinster and suffering for her family, who tell her that she's ugly and that men leering at her is because she's doing something wrong, though clearly it's only because she's gorgeous.  And Rannulf is a long-suffering young man who wants to party but has decided to settle down and make his grandmother happy.  His family, who are full of colorful characters, also isn't very present here.  The side characters, instead of running the whole gamut from amusing to annoying like they did in the first book, are instead just insufferable.  Judith's entire family deserved a good punch to the face with the exception of her grandmother, who instead just deserved a slap.  Rannulf's grandmother was equally tedious.  There's a sub-plot here involving Judith's brothers debts and a lecherous step-cousin, but it's not enough to salvage a story full of boring characters.  And because Judith and Rannulf hook up so early in the story, there's no real tension there to pull the story forward, either.

Ultimately, this was a boring second book, and it manages to suffer from second book syndrome in a series that doesn't even have a continuous plot.  It's not terrible, but there's nothing there to make it really sparkle.  The first book was good, but clearly served a launch for the rest of the family characters, and this one is boring.  Hopefully the third book will be better or this might be a series that I'll be abandoning.

2 stars out of 5.