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Fairest of Them All (Fairy Tales #3)
by
Teresa Medeiros (Goodreads Author)
She was rumored to be the fairest woman in all of England. But Holly de Chastel considered her beauty a curse. She had turned away scores of suitors with various ruses, both fair and foul. Now she was to be the prize in a tournament of eager knights. Holly had no intention of wedding any of them and concocted a plan to disguise her beauty. Yet she didn't reckon on Sir Aust...more
Mass Market Paperback, 400 pages
Published
January 12th 2011
by Fanfare
(first published May 1st 1995)
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I was done with this book when the heroine throws an honest-to-goodness temper tantrum, complete with shrieking, thrashing, and banging of fists. That's the behaviour of a five-year-old, not a grown woman.
![.þµŋψà. [Punya Reviews...]](http://d.gr-assets.com/users/1363347489p2/3840999.jpg)
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I happen to love romances written in the late eighties and early nineties. Many of them are long, dramatic, flowery. Fairest of Them All is a good example of the type. The writing itself is a kind of poetry: pretty, descriptive, and with lots of flair. I was in the mood for a medieval, and I've read enough Teresa Medeiros to know that my taste in romance novles match up wonderfully with the romances she writes, so I grabbed this one.
Fairest of Them All is about a hero cursed. All the men in thi...more
Fairest of Them All is about a hero cursed. All the men in thi...more
'From the spellbinding pen of nationally bestselling author Teresa Medeiros comes this enchanting new romance—a tale of adventure, humor, and tender sensuality that sweeps from the pageantry of an English jousting tournament to the brooding mystery of an isolated castle in Wales...
Fairest of Them All
She was rumored to be the fairest woman in all of England. But Holly de Chastel considered her beauty a curse. She had already turned away scores of suitors with various ruses, both fair and foul. No...more
Fairest of Them All
She was rumored to be the fairest woman in all of England. But Holly de Chastel considered her beauty a curse. She had already turned away scores of suitors with various ruses, both fair and foul. No...more
The other reviewers have quite skillfully described the story, so I don't feel that I need to. I like Ms. Medeiros. She's a talented author, and she tells a good story. However, I had problems with both of the main characters. For the first third of the book, I found the heroine to be bratty, spoiled, and inconsiderate. She acted rashly, with little thought to the consequences of those actions on others. By the second third of the book she begins to mature, comes to understand that some of her r...more
I’ve read a few Teresa Medeiros books and I’ve always enjoyed them. Not that I’m saying this was the exception. However, I will be brief in my review of this book.
Overall, the book was a good read. I think the writing, as usual, is excellent. I must confess that midway through this book I started to get frustrated. I felt confused, because at least twice because it felt like the hero and heroine kept flip-flopping on feelings and their actions. It was a see-saw and I couldn’t quite grasp what ha...more
Overall, the book was a good read. I think the writing, as usual, is excellent. I must confess that midway through this book I started to get frustrated. I felt confused, because at least twice because it felt like the hero and heroine kept flip-flopping on feelings and their actions. It was a see-saw and I couldn’t quite grasp what ha...more
Apr 05, 2012
Ronyell
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Fans of Teresa Medeiros' works!
Shelves:
adult-books,
best-books-of-2012,
books-i-want-to-own,
british-hero-or-heroine,
chapter-books,
drama,
favorites,
historical-romance,
manners,
mystery,
read-in-2012,
reviewed-books,
sexy-bad-boy-hero,
sexy-good-girl-heroine,
strong-heroine,
strong-hero,
teresa-medeiros,
welsh-hero-or-heroine,
my-blog-reviews
I have read many books by Teresa Medeiros before, but never have I read a book that was as full of dark passions and trickery as this book! “Fairest of Them All” is a romance novel by Teresa Medeiros which details how a young woman’s desire to get out of marrying any guy gets out of hand when she ends up being married to a rough Welshman! “Fairest of Them All” has all the drama, dark romance and lies that will set any romance novel fan’s hearts aflutter!
Holly de Chastel was known as the fairest...more
Holly de Chastel was known as the fairest...more
Kalo ingatan gw gak salah, ini novel HR pertama yg gw baca si hero nya dr Walse ^^
Holly Felicia Bernadette de Chastel ato Lady Holly terkenal akan kecantikannya…
Sayangnya semua pria cuma tertarik ama penampilan fisiknya itu, dan itu yg paling di benci holly..
Lady Holly menolak menikah dgn para pengagumnya itu krna mrka tidak pernah peduli dgn inner beauty-nya dia..
Ayahnya yg cemas akan status putrinya yg sepertinya tidak akan pernah mau menikah, memutuskan mengadakan kompetisi..
Sir Bernard mengu...more
Holly Felicia Bernadette de Chastel ato Lady Holly terkenal akan kecantikannya…
Sayangnya semua pria cuma tertarik ama penampilan fisiknya itu, dan itu yg paling di benci holly..
Lady Holly menolak menikah dgn para pengagumnya itu krna mrka tidak pernah peduli dgn inner beauty-nya dia..
Ayahnya yg cemas akan status putrinya yg sepertinya tidak akan pernah mau menikah, memutuskan mengadakan kompetisi..
Sir Bernard mengu...more
view all 4 comments
Holly de Chastel has no plan of being married off to any of the suitors who want to claim her hand. Her beauty is spoken of through the lands, but Holly doesn't want to be married so she can be a trophy on the arm of an arrogant man, she wants to be free. Holly comes up with a plan to ward off her father's next attempt only to have it backfire.
Sir Austyn of Gavenmore has no qualms of taking a plain wife, in fact he embraces it. His family is cursed into rages of jealousy and doomed marriages whe...more
Sir Austyn of Gavenmore has no qualms of taking a plain wife, in fact he embraces it. His family is cursed into rages of jealousy and doomed marriages whe...more
Redonk Nutshell: A legendary beauty disguises herself in a hideous costume to deter suitors in a competition for her hand, and inadvertently falls in love with one of them
Fairest of them All is the story of Holly, the legendary beauty who's father wants her wed and holds a tournament to find her a husband. Never one to back down from a challenge, Holly decides to adorn herself as a hideous frump of a woman.
Sir Austyn of Gavenmore is on the hunt for a plain and simple bride, preferably one with...more
Fairest of them All is the story of Holly, the legendary beauty who's father wants her wed and holds a tournament to find her a husband. Never one to back down from a challenge, Holly decides to adorn herself as a hideous frump of a woman.
Sir Austyn of Gavenmore is on the hunt for a plain and simple bride, preferably one with...more
Well, this is one of those books my "BFF" gave me because she just wanted to see my reaction. About two weeks after she gave it to me she says: "So...did you read that book I gave you?" I very dryly commented yes and didn't say anything else and I looked away. And when I glanced at her, she was staring at the floor. And finally after a very long pause and a ton of uncomfortable feet shuffling, she asks me what I thought. I skillfully avoided the question until my dear friend pinned me down and a...more
Jan 14, 2011
Bronwyn Rykiert
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
historical-romance
Another good book by Teresa Medeiros, not quite as good as some others but still a fun read. I find all her stories different though often it makes me think of fairy tales.
Holly de Chastel is rumoured to be the Fairest of them all and suitors from all over the country have asked for her hand in marriage, her father even gave her 12 months to choose her own husband but she does not want to get married so declines all offers.
In the end her father decides to have tournament where she is the first p...more
Holly de Chastel is rumoured to be the Fairest of them all and suitors from all over the country have asked for her hand in marriage, her father even gave her 12 months to choose her own husband but she does not want to get married so declines all offers.
In the end her father decides to have tournament where she is the first p...more
Jun 12, 2009
Corrine
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
medieval,
mail-order-or-arranged-marriage
Holly de Chastel is the fairest woman in all of England during the 14th Century, and as such, she is constantly plagued with suitors. She's come up with some pretty inventive ways of keeping them at bay, and she comes up with what she thinks is her best idea when her father announces that her hand will be given to the victor of a tournament. Holly decides that she will discourage all the men by presenting herself as ugly. She hacks off her hair, blackens her teeth, pads her skirts, binds her bre...more
This is the first book by Teresa Medeiros that I've read and it was great! The characters are fresh and well drawn and the plot is very romantic with an element of the supernatural. The author captures the medieval setting perfectly. The thing I liked best about this book was the humor injected into it. Holly is hilarious in her dealings with Sir Austyn who is as serious as a grizzly bear. The love scenes in this book are amazing. Holly is one of the best romance heroines.
This books was a "re-read" for me. (And I was surprised that there was a lot of plot that I actually forgot about.) At first, I didn't like it and I thought, "Why am I rereading this, and why did I like it to begin with?!" But then I realized that this book is RIGHT ON THE BORDERLINE between what SBTB describes as "Old Skool and New School" Romance (in their analytic study of Beyond Heaving Bosoms). If I were teaching a Romance Genre course, Fairest of Them All would be on the curriculum because...more
Some of the reviews of this had me worried...but I think that this one might be in my top five of Teresa Medeiros books.
(view spoiler)
I'd read this again...more
(view spoiler)
I'd read this again...more
I read some mixed reviews on this book before I took a chance and read it myself and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. I was worried that the characters were going to be too vain and focused on beauty but i found them not so shallow as the description would believe them to be. I thoroughly enjoyed it and find myself wishing there was more to read. I recommend to any fairytale fans.
I am really enjoying my forage through Teresa Medeiros's back catalogue. She has a nice style, successfully grounding some fairly ridiculous romance tropes and crafting a believable bond between her central pair. I liked the idea behind Fairest of Them All, asking questions about beauty, faith and fidelity, though I wish some aspects had been explored a little more deeply. Nevertheless, this book was charming as always and I eagerly await my next dose of Ms Medeiros's writing.
Oh, thou art fair. I truly loved these early novels of Teresa Medeiros. They were beautifully written. True, this novel is not politically correct, but it has the tortured romance and darkness and all the things I love in 1980s-90s romance novels. Brooding hero, gorgeous heroine. Ghosts, castles, and sex. What's more to love?
I LOVED this book. in fact it's one of my top five favorite books. the heroin did seem a bit vain to me, the way she immediately fall in love with the hero after she realized he was exceptionally handsome but other than that, Loved it.
Okay, the plot was great, sexual tension too and all in all a good book, BUT the thing that absolutely DIDN'T do it for me was how Austyn blew the fact that Holly hid her beauty WAY over proportion. That turned me off right clear.
I'm not sure what to write about this book. Parts I really liked, others not so much. Holly was vain and childish, Austyn was brutish and single-minded. The story went on and on and not much happened.
Don't get me wrong - I love T. Medeiros as an author but this was not one of her better books.
Don't get me wrong - I love T. Medeiros as an author but this was not one of her better books.
Mar 15, 2011
Maddux
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
1300-to-1400-historical-romance
This story almost had a satirical feel to it.
The heroine was quite astonished to find out that her husband was better looking than she was.
Good story, but the hero had to suffer a major paradigm shift in order to let go and love the heroine. His curse was rather ridiculous.
The heroine was quite astonished to find out that her husband was better looking than she was.
Good story, but the hero had to suffer a major paradigm shift in order to let go and love the heroine. His curse was rather ridiculous.
sayang sekali bacanya banyak di skip nya
karena terlalu banyak penjabaran2 gitu ceritanya
jadi cpt bosen
sebel ama cowoknya juga sih
masa sangking takut ama kutukan ceweknya ampe dipingit di tower sih :(
karena terlalu banyak penjabaran2 gitu ceritanya
jadi cpt bosen
sebel ama cowoknya juga sih
masa sangking takut ama kutukan ceweknya ampe dipingit di tower sih :(
Not what I was expecting because I didn't grasp what genre I was diving into until too late; if you like harlequin romance, you will love this book. It's a fun story with humor and endearing sideline characters.
This one had a great plot but it was drung out for me. I think it could have summed everything up a lot quicker. But if you need an enjoyable read for a long weekend, this would be a great pick.
I loved this book. I actually had the hard copy first. Then bought it on Kindle. I liked the era of story. Even though some parts were unbelievable and predictable. It was still charming and something I would read again.
Well, I read this one since...12 years or so ago. So I can only remember that I liked it a lot. Planning to reread it when I have time. :)
Sep 04, 2012
Heidi
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
historical-fiction,
2012-goal
How I do adore a medieval soap opera complete with beautiful maidens, handsome knights and fae curses. Totally fun read!!
Not her funniest, but still very light-hearted with characters you'll remember. Well, not so much the guy (he's your basic stock) but she's great.
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New York Times bestseller Teresa Medeiros wrote her first novel at the age of twenty-one and has since gone on to win the hearts of both readers and critics. All of her books have been national bestsellers, featured on the New York Times, USA Today and Publishers Weekly bestseller lists. She currently has over 10 million books in print.
She is a seven-time Rita finalist, two-time PRISM winner, and...more
More about Teresa Medeiros...
She is a seven-time Rita finalist, two-time PRISM winner, and...more
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“He would not kiss her mouth or allow her to caress him in tenderness. He broke his fierce silence only to whisper what wicked magic he was going to work until it took little more than the husky rasp of his voice in her ear to bring her to the brink of fulfillment. Had there been even a hint of brutality in his attentions, Holly might have brought herself to hate him, but his accomplished hands cherished her flesh as if it were his own private altar. She’d never known such unbridled ecstasy. Or such misery.”
—
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