From one of America’s most beloved storytellers comes a classic love story—the breathtaking tale of a man and a woman caught in a web of temptation and seduction.

All she wanted was to escape the hot, crowded London ballroom. But moments after stepping into the bitterly cold night, she is seized by a pair of strong hands and spirited away. Fully expecting to be ravished, sheltered Alexandra Purnell instead finds herself at the mercy of the man who saved her from certain scandal. Edmund, Earl of Amberley, is bold and sensual, tempting Alexandra to be reckless for the first time in her life. But as passion ignites, Edmund’s offer of marriage takes Alexandra completely by surprise. Now a woman who craves her freedom above all else is about to discover how far one man will go to protect and possess the woman he loves.…

Customer Rating:
Summary: A Total Bore.........
Comment: "She entered a web of secrets, seduction and a passion that broke every rule" (on the cover of the novel)

What? This cannot be a description of the same book, that I just read!

Boring! In one word, that simplifies what I thought of the book! The plot had potential. Alexandra, "Alex" was mistakenly abducted and was forced into a marriage with Edmund. When I read the outside of the book I thought this could be really interesting. That was until I opened the book.

Alex was plain, cold, boring, and selfish, and had no personality whatsoever. She was brought up by a strict Christian father and throughout the book, the author never lets you forget it. If I heard one more time about her father and what or what he didn't like, I swear I was going to chuck the book into the trash! I go to church and really didn't need a sermon in the middle of a romance novel! I understood her personality and how she acquired it by the first couple pages of the book and I did not need it repeated over and over and over.......

Edmund wasn't much better. He kept to himself and didn't let his feelings show. We were told over and over how great he was but he had no endeering qualities. He was lifeless. Yes, he picked up the gauntlet and showed true character by offering marriage to Alex, but that is about all he did. When you can't even root for the two main characters, the book is pointless. I really couldn't have cared less if the Alex and Edmund had ended up together.

I actually had to skip pages to get through this book and if you have ever read any of my other reviews it is not something that I do often. There was no chemistry between the hero and heroine, and certainly, no passion!! And then all the sudden at the end of the book, they had somehow fallen madly in love with each other. Huh? Where did that happen? It must have been the few pages I skipped!

I enjoy it when the characters are funny, likeable, charasmatic, and charming. They were dull, and lacked any kind of excitement! There was no humor, no passion, and no seduction, all the things you look for in a good novel.

It was the first of three in this set and that is exactly what it felt like. It went into too much detail of other characters that it left the two main characters totally lifeless. The secondary characters were more interesting than the main characters.

This isn't my first Mary Balogh novel and so even though the reviews were not great I decided to try it. This was an old novel that they put a new cover on and re-released. Authors improve over the years and I think that is exactly what happened. I enjoyed many of her newer novels.

Do not waste your time! It is truly a boring book. She is an excellent writer but this one totally missed the mark.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Ick, yuck, blech!
Comment: Mary Balogh is one of my favorite authors, but if I had to base my opinion on based on this book, I'd say that you should use it as kindling to start a fire & she should get a job in any field but writing. This book is one long yawn. Mostly people sit around yammering about how they feel endlessly. There is little romance or sizzle. Instead of focusing on one romance, there are three of them slowly clunking along. As soon as one fills about ten pages, there's a lurch and suddenly you're reading about another of the romances. The backup characters vary in character between humorless tyrants to cutesy idiots. This book stinks and by the end I was hoping all the characters would just spontaneously combust so I could end my misery.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Quite a difference!
Comment: I had just finished reading "The Devil's Web" and didn't realize it was book 3 in this 'Web' trilogy. So now having just finished book 1 "The Gilded Web" all I can say is "What a major difference!"

My biggest disappointment in "The Devil's Web" was the constant bickering, hate, insults, and negativity from start to finish. And while Jame's character is pretty much the same in this book ["The Gilded Web"] Madeline was absolutely adorable! She was a completely different person in "The Devil's Web" to the point where I didn't even recognize her. You'd think they were two completely different people.

"The Gilded Web" had non-stop interesting situations and events and you felt the depth of personality and feeling normally associated with Mary Balogh's characters. There were ups and downs, hot and colds, and a sense of balanced love, friction, conflict, etc.

I'm glad I picked up the other 2 'Web' books now because everything that was missing or lacking in "The Devil's Web" was absolutely there in "The Gilded Web!"

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Not her best book
Comment: I love Mary Balogh's books ... but not this one! I undestand its one of her first novels, and its not as good as her more recent work.
The story is predictable, the dialogues are repetitive and boring...
If you read for the first time a Mary Balogh book, do not get this one.. she has great novels.. get her more recent works and skip this one.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Odd pacing and awkward dynamics
Comment: The Gilded Web was one of the second Mary Balogh books I had ever read, and honestly, really put me off her work entirely. I am a huge fan of Regency romance, and read as many as I can get my hands on, but this book was difficult to get into. The heroine is supposed emotionally repressed from her strict and moral upbringing, and the hero is "without passion". Neither of these characters were particularly endearing, and even their inner thoughts were icy and distant, making it hard to really love the characters, just as the characters find it hard to love each other. They finally click, and come together, but from the first few chapters until the very end, is this block of ice. Regencies are often fun and frothy, or full of angst, but always with an element of give and take, or a bit of chasing the one you love. This book had none of that, instead it was extraordinarily slow reading, and the only reason I wanted to finish it was not because I had any attachment to the characters and wanted a happily ever after, but because I just wanted to see if it could salvage itself in the last few chapters. I have never been so disappointed. Hopefully, the Gilded Web is atypical of Mary Balough's work, but if not, I am going to stick to my favorite authors and leave Mary Balough on the shelf.

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