In Which I Review One Night is Never Enough

I ordered One Night is Never Enough by Anne Mallory based on this review from Dear Author.

I was intrigued by the premise, and considering that the review was favorable (and I am always on the lookout for a new favorite author), I pretty much didn't hesitate.

Charlotte Chatsworth's father is nothing short of a jackass.  He's an alcoholic.  He gambles.  He's in serious debt.  As things stand now, he's basically auctioning his eldest daughter (considered to be one of the most, if not the most beautiful woman in London) to the highest bidder, exchanging the perfect wife for monetary compensation and protection.

Lord Chatsworth finds himself in a perfect storm of a situation one night when Mr. Trant wagers ten thousand pounds against a single night with Charlotte.  Because he's the worst parent in the history of the world (Lohans included!), Chatsworth accepts.  The problem is the other man at the table, Roman Merrick, owner of the fine establishment where the wager takes place.  Merrick has seen Charlotte around and had spoken to her that very day.  And he decides he wants a night with Charlotte too, enough to cheat and compromise his gaming hell's reputation.

Charlotte is a very noble character.  She lives a life in which she knows she's nothing but (very expensive) chattel, but she also knows her worth; she knows she's beautiful, she knows she's liked, and she knows she'll make one helluva wife.  If she's a little "I'll-sacrifice-myself-so-nothing-happens-to-my-family (even if they are all a-holes)," it's vaguely acceptable because she never whines about it.

Roman, on the other hand, is a more elusive character.  He calls forth memories of another boy-from-the-streets-turned-uber-successful-power-magnate, Derek Craven, but without the outward shows of emotion.  And if you know Derek Craven, you know that's a seriously stoic dude.  Roman owns the club with his "brother" (read: not his brother) Andreas, who is annoyingly dour and grouchy.  Roman at least has a sense of humor (and of honor- all he does on his night with Charlotte is talk to her and play chess), but we're not given much by way of character description.

Which brings me to the major frustration with the book.  The Dear Author review says this:

What [the author] does best, in my not so humble opinion, is to narrow the scope of the story to a single, claustrophobic perspective at the beginning of the story—usually the heroine’s. From here, she slowly opens the lens of the camera, widens the picture outward, eventually zooming out to encompass a much larger scene—but one that is always imbedded in that first intense and narrow eye. The result of this perspective being rooted in that first narrow and emotional scope, gives her stories an intensity and an emotional nuance that I find unusual or, at the very least, uncommon. 

It is indeed uncommon.  And in my not so humble opinion, it should stay that way.  I found the lack of perspective totally disconnecting.  We have no idea what propels Mr. Trant to make such an offensive bid for Charlotte's person.  If he wants a respectable wife, why would he risk ruining her reputation?  There is very clearly a rival gang/club to Roman and Andreas' motley crew.  In fact, they attack the club and almost kill Andreas.  And we have no idea who they are and what their problem is.  Andreas has family issues that follow the men around and cause problems.  We never know what those issues are, or why there is such a cause for concern.

Hell, most of the time I couldn't even tell whether or not Roman and Charlotte wanted to be together beyond their super sexy secret affair.  It seems to me that they both spent most of the book preparing to part ways (Or carry on after she's married?  Uh... Not awesome.) and only decided at the last minute that all of the social problems went away they could try to make it work.

I certainly appreciate the thought behind telling the story from a limited perspective.  Why should the reader know more than the characters?  Very little is explained to us because very little is explained to Charlotte.  And I get that.  But for myself, I found that it only served to remove me from the story and the characters to the point that in the end, I honestly didn't care what happened one way or another.