Sample Reading #6: Until Paris by Ellen Trubody

This is a new feature on my blog called Sample Reading. This is where I will talk about book samples that I've gotten online. I'll read the sample and will answer the very important question:

Will I buy it?

I found out about Ellen Trubody's Until Paris through this article on Romantic Times: 10 Short and Steamy Reads to Fill Out Your TBR Pile. What I found interesting was the mention of well-drawn characters -- considering that this is a 74-page book, I wondered how the author would achieve this.


The Blurb:

For Emma, Wills is the perfect husband—and a tirelessly sinful lover. At their home, in dark corners at dinner parties, in carriage rides across London, they explore each other’s bodies in a consuming passion that won’t end. But then a devastating illness turns pleasure into peril and Wills realizes one careless mistake could cost Emma her life. He moves far away to Bath, where his unceasing desire can no longer harm her.

Left to her own devices, Emma plans a new life for herself in Paris. She writes to Wills—tearful letters, pleading letters, letters threatening to leave him, letters begging him to return—but he never responds. She decides to confront the stubborn man in the flesh but finds him unwilling to say goodbye. Wills loves Emma and he has until Paris to prove they’re meant to be together—and to show her dark, forbidden pleasures unlike any she’s known before.
- from the Ellora's Cave info page for the book

I got the sample from: a variety of sources: Amazon, Kindle and then Google Books and then the Ellora's Cave info page for the book.
# of Pages: Best sample was from Google Books, which was the first 14 pages of this 74-page e-novella

My Impressions:
Had I relied on the Kindle sample, I would not buy this book. The sample was too short (4 pages + 4 lines on page 5) and didn't reveal anything new about the story. In fact, the summary at the back of the book told a better story than the first few pages.

I'm glad I decided to look around for a better sample and was able to read the first 2 chapters through Google Books -- and it gave me a better picture of the characters and their story.

I love how Emma was portrayed in the first chapter. She's still in love with her husband, despite being separated from him for seven years. Trubody writes her longing and agony very well.

Regardless of how disheveled Emma looked on the outside, her inner landscape was in far greater shambles. Rehearsing the perfect goodbye was never an easy thing. Far harder, considering whom she had to say it to.
- p. 6

Wills is not unaffected either. He's had to stay away from his wife because another pregnancy would endanger her life. He's lived a life of celibacy and has denied himself the pleasure of even corresponding with his wife.

"I wrote, Wills. Several times. I'm going back to France. I've come to say goodbye. I'm leaving you, remember?" She swung her body away from his, her head tilting upward to flash a warning with her eyes. "Surely you got one of my letters?"

...

"Yes I did get your last letter and I wrote back."

...

"You wrote me?" she finally asked. "When? I've received nothing for weeks."

A prickle of hope nudged through her followed by a slight thaw of remorse. Perhaps she'd been wrong to condemn him. Perhaps he'd had something to say about her leaving after all.

"No, you wouldn't have received it." Wills looked away and shrugged. "I didn't send it."
- pp. 7 - 9

It's interesting that Wills is a doctor of "women's medicine" (p. 12) and I wonder how his medical knowledge will translate to sexual knowledge (this is an erotic romance after all) and how he will use his knowledge of medicine to save his wife and their marriage. (From the RT review of the e-novella, it seems it will not be medical science that will save their marriage but something else. So I'm curious how the author will justify his not using medicine.)

Price: $4.59 on Amazon, $4.45 on Ellora's Cave

Will I buy it? At $0.99 to $2.99, I'd probably have gotten it already but, at $4+, I'll wait for this book to go on sale. ^_^