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While You Slept
Reclusive Sion Sinclair, who scorns the haute ton and all women in general, finds his life forever changed by a carriage accident that leaves a mysterious woman in his care who convinces him to pose as her lover - a deception that brings about danger and passion. Original.
480 pages, Paperback
First published February 1, 2003
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
January 22, 2012
I loved this book....i dont know why it only has 3 stars...i thought the characters were complex and probably more true to the time period than most historical romance novels....she is fat, lack of excercise and to many sweet cakes at tea time, and he is an alcoholic, iam sure most people back then were with all the drinking they do, and accused of murdering his ex wife... The heroine is hated by her father and her husband because she is fat and wont produce an heir, which is hard to do when her husband wont touch her, she is in a carriage accident and almost dies.. the hero nurses her back to health an in turn they heal eachother...a wonderful read....
March 4, 2014
While You Slept seemed like everything I wanted from a romance novel when I first cracked it open. The writing was good and the characters were really unique and three dimensional at first glance. The shy, bookish, overweight, unattractive heroine with low self esteem; the hero who's an angsty, raging alcoholic; the hero's sassy housekeeper who has had it up to here with his drunken escapades.
Then the plot kicked in. Chapter one, Heroine leaves home in a carriage, gets in carriage accident, winds up in a coma. Chapter two, Hero finds her, his housekeeper looks after her for awhile (offscreen) and then ditches because she's sick of his shit, so he has no choice but to take care of her himself (also mostly offscreen.)
Chapter three, Heroine wakes up to find she's thin and gorgeous because comas are totes awesome for weight loss and beauty. Hero, meanwhile, has cleaned up his act and is no longer a drunk, because seriously heavy addiction is totes easy to completely kick in the space of a couple of weeks.
Literally in the space of three chapters, everything interesting about the book is stripped away to reveal a standard "Oh, noes, I have amneeeeesia but not really I'm faking" story. Boy, I'm glad we wrapped up all the characters' problems and flaws in a neat little bow in less than a hundred pages, and offscreen to boot. But that's okay! Who wants to see character development anyway?
ARGH.
I really, really want the book that was promised by those first couple of chapters--a hero having to rehabilitate the heroine and himself simultaneously with no one to help him; a heroine who has to work to find her self confidence, not have it handed to her with a magically smaller dress size. As it stands, the disappointment in finding myself in the middle of what certainly reads like yet another rote, formulaic romance made it impossible to even finish the damn thing.
Perhaps sometime I'll return to it and find it's crazy awesome after the point where I gave up--it has enough good reviews floating around to give me pause--but right now, it's just too disappointing to continue.
--Jupiter
Then the plot kicked in. Chapter one, Heroine leaves home in a carriage, gets in carriage accident, winds up in a coma. Chapter two, Hero finds her, his housekeeper looks after her for awhile (offscreen) and then ditches because she's sick of his shit, so he has no choice but to take care of her himself (also mostly offscreen.)
Chapter three, Heroine wakes up to find she's thin and gorgeous because comas are totes awesome for weight loss and beauty. Hero, meanwhile, has cleaned up his act and is no longer a drunk, because seriously heavy addiction is totes easy to completely kick in the space of a couple of weeks.
Literally in the space of three chapters, everything interesting about the book is stripped away to reveal a standard "Oh, noes, I have amneeeeesia but not really I'm faking" story. Boy, I'm glad we wrapped up all the characters' problems and flaws in a neat little bow in less than a hundred pages, and offscreen to boot. But that's okay! Who wants to see character development anyway?
ARGH.
I really, really want the book that was promised by those first couple of chapters--a hero having to rehabilitate the heroine and himself simultaneously with no one to help him; a heroine who has to work to find her self confidence, not have it handed to her with a magically smaller dress size. As it stands, the disappointment in finding myself in the middle of what certainly reads like yet another rote, formulaic romance made it impossible to even finish the damn thing.
Perhaps sometime I'll return to it and find it's crazy awesome after the point where I gave up--it has enough good reviews floating around to give me pause--but right now, it's just too disappointing to continue.
--Jupiter
May 1, 2017
I'd give this 3.5 stars though I'm surprised it doesn't have a higher rating here. I'm unusually picky about a few things and this book really had me on one of them or I would have rated this much higher.
It's almost 500 pages which is great but it didn't really take me much longer to read than a normal regency romance. I do feel that it has 2 distinct parts before London and in London and I would have loved to seen a "Part 1" and "Part 2" in this novel. That's where I really think a better editor would have been handy along with cutting out one or two scenes that seems to take away from the book instead of add to it.
Since it happens withing the first few pages I don't consider it a spoiler that the heroine's father is both physically and mentally/emotionally abusive and has been since she was about 3 when her mother died. Her inattentive husband, while not physically abusive to her is uncaring and emotionally/mentally abusive. I think this is a big point, though while focused on as why she has a hard time trusting men, the author fails over and over to really show what a victim of this kind of abuse for over 20 years needs in a partner. I really wanted to love Sion, and I think he is a good hero, but a few times knowing her past he rubbed me the wrong way. Once time he physically put his hands on her when he was angry with her (for a reason he shouldn't have been) not only did he scare her but he also hurt her which she voiced and he wouldn't let go. This points to signs of an abusive relationship as well though from reading the book it's easy to tell that is not what the author is going for. She wants them to have "tension" or "chemistry" it just missed the mark which is why I had to mark it as a book needing trigger warnings.
There is another point where he locks her in her room, (mind you they are not married, she is still married to another man, and is trying to get her inheritance so she can be independent) and a few other things that point to cutting her off, blaming her for making him angry, and other key signs of an abusive relationship. Again I really don't think this is what the author is trying to do, she just need a better editor or more research into growing up with abuse and how those people processes it as adults and what kind of support they need.
The points I did love were the plot. It was such a unique idea and I loved it, I just wished it had been pulled off a little better so I could have given it just a little better rating.
The length. I love reading a good long book when it's well written.
It's well written even with the few flaws in the editing and the abuse angle.
Over all it was enjoyable and I would recommend it, like I said I just have a few things I'm extra picky about (grammar, continuity, abusive H or h/doormat h or H) and this one just hit on one of those so I had to knock it down a star.
I would read this author again.
It's almost 500 pages which is great but it didn't really take me much longer to read than a normal regency romance. I do feel that it has 2 distinct parts before London and in London and I would have loved to seen a "Part 1" and "Part 2" in this novel. That's where I really think a better editor would have been handy along with cutting out one or two scenes that seems to take away from the book instead of add to it.
Since it happens withing the first few pages I don't consider it a spoiler that the heroine's father is both physically and mentally/emotionally abusive and has been since she was about 3 when her mother died. Her inattentive husband, while not physically abusive to her is uncaring and emotionally/mentally abusive. I think this is a big point, though while focused on as why she has a hard time trusting men, the author fails over and over to really show what a victim of this kind of abuse for over 20 years needs in a partner. I really wanted to love Sion, and I think he is a good hero, but a few times knowing her past he rubbed me the wrong way. Once time he physically put his hands on her when he was angry with her (for a reason he shouldn't have been) not only did he scare her but he also hurt her which she voiced and he wouldn't let go. This points to signs of an abusive relationship as well though from reading the book it's easy to tell that is not what the author is going for. She wants them to have "tension" or "chemistry" it just missed the mark which is why I had to mark it as a book needing trigger warnings.
There is another point where he locks her in her room, (mind you they are not married, she is still married to another man, and is trying to get her inheritance so she can be independent) and a few other things that point to cutting her off, blaming her for making him angry, and other key signs of an abusive relationship. Again I really don't think this is what the author is trying to do, she just need a better editor or more research into growing up with abuse and how those people processes it as adults and what kind of support they need.
The points I did love were the plot. It was such a unique idea and I loved it, I just wished it had been pulled off a little better so I could have given it just a little better rating.
The length. I love reading a good long book when it's well written.
It's well written even with the few flaws in the editing and the abuse angle.
Over all it was enjoyable and I would recommend it, like I said I just have a few things I'm extra picky about (grammar, continuity, abusive H or h/doormat h or H) and this one just hit on one of those so I had to knock it down a star.
I would read this author again.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews