I knew from the first chapter of this book that this would wring me out emotionally (when I cried in the first chapter). And it did. But it was anI knew from the first chapter of this book that this would wring me out emotionally (when I cried in the first chapter). And it did. But it was an emotional catharsis that I needed at the time.
The idea of a book being written from a dog's point of view isn't a new one, but it's one not often seen in adult fiction. Right from the beginning, the ending of the book (of Enzo, the mixed-breed Lab/Retriever/Terrier who is the narrator) is set up, which is what brought on the first onslaught of tears. If you're a dog lover and/or have ever experienced losing a beloved pet, this book hits right in that soft spot . . . many, many, many times.
Enzo's owner is a semi-professional race-car driver, and Enzo dreams of one day being reincarnated as a person who becomes a driver. So most of the life lessons he learns in his quest to prepare to become a person in his next life come from lessons he learns from listening to his owner talk about racing and from watching videos of races.
Enzo's story follows the joys and hardships of his owner's family and his own part in them. There were parts that were absolutely hysterically LOL funny, and others completely heartrending.
What kept this from being a five-star read for me were the long passages (and some entire chapters) that were only about car racing. They really didn't add anything to the story---they seemed more like the author's intrusion to give anecdotes from the research he did for this book. Fortunately, most of this was confined to separate short chapters which were easy to skip past.
This was a very enjoyable read, otherwise. But do be cautious---it's not an "easy" read by any stretch of the imagination....more
I used to adore Julie Garwood's historical romances back in the 1980s/90s. I stopped reading her books when she switched to writing romantic suspenseI used to adore Julie Garwood's historical romances back in the 1980s/90s. I stopped reading her books when she switched to writing romantic suspense because I didn't read (a) contemporary or (b) romantic suspense.
As part of my 2014 reading challenge, one of the genres which I don't usually read that I challenged myself to read was romantic suspense. I figured since I'd liked JG back then, I'd read one of her more recent books to fulfill this category.
Ugh. Not only was this novel poorly plotted (which was supposed to be the suspense line---the shooting she witnessed or the stalker from her past?) the blatant lack of any kind of morals or ethics in the hero sickened me. As someone who works with law enforcement professionals in a criminal justice education setting, I was appalled by the idea that this man, who's supposed to be a highly respected FBI agent (someone who would be required not only to have passed many, many examinations in his agency but also have completed a certain level of post-secondary/higher education), would not only be coming on to a potential eye-witness in the case he's working, but would be making out with her and then sleeping with her long before the case is over.
That part aside (which, I know is to be expected in this genre), my understanding of the romantic suspense genre is that it's supposed to be equally balanced between the romantic thread an the suspense plot. Unfortunately, that didn't happen in this book. It's about 90% "romance" plot and 10% "suspense." And I use those terms lightly because there's little chemistry between the hero/heroine and not a whole lot of suspense.
For fans of the romantic suspense genre--don't worry, I know this isn't a prime example of the genre. I've read better in the past (even back when I had an unpublished critique partner writing this genre---her rough drafts were better than this published novel). But I won't be reading any more of Garwood's RS in the future....more
Because of the intermixing of backstory and "present" plot, and because I couldn't just sit and listen to this all the way through, I found3.5 stars
Because of the intermixing of backstory and "present" plot, and because I couldn't just sit and listen to this all the way through, I found this difficult to follow. Whenever I'd stop and then pick it up again, I had a hard time remembering if what was happening was a flashback to the past or part of the novel's present-day plot. And that really affected my ability to enjoy any of it. And because of the continuous flashbacks/backstory, it was really hard to get a firm footing in what, exactly, the present-day plot of the novel was supposed to be. Every time the story seemed to be about to get some momentum going, it paused for a long flashback or backstory dump.
As a regular listener of audiobooks, I found the music and sound effects in this quite distracting (especially on a road trip when I kept having to pause the playback to find out what that funny noise was that my car was making---only to figure out it was sound effects in the audiobook).
I found myself jumping from chapter to chapter waiting for the story to actually move along---so much of what's in this is flashback/background. I'd have been much better off getting the book about Obi Wan (Kenobi), as I'm much more familiar with and fascinated by that character. Also, I haven't watched the Clone Wars show or read a lot of the pre-ROTJ EU novels, so I was getting confused by all of the name-dropping of characters, places, and battles that take place after Episode III and before the opening of this book.
Still, it was an interesting portrait of the person who became the destroyer of Alderaan....more
While Hoyt's writing is usually engaging enough to keep me going even when I'm not enjoying the characters and/or story, II'm done with this series.
While Hoyt's writing is usually engaging enough to keep me going even when I'm not enjoying the characters and/or story, I just can't anymore.
There isn't a book in this series (of seven so far) that I can definitively say I loved. I liked Megs and Godric's story best of all seven, but still had some issues with that book.
I'd been hoping that Hoyt was going to match up Apollo and Phoebe in this story---imagine the opportunity for conflict with a blind heroine and a hero who couldn't speak!---but, alas, she introduced a character from completely outside of the "Maiden Lane" world (even though we haven't been in Maiden Lane for ages); a character who was insipid at best, annoying at worst. And, in this book, she also reintroduced the device of the Plot Moppet in the overly precocious and overly annoying Indio and his Italian greyhound, Daff. (And for a precocious seven-year-old, at times he talks suspiciously like a three- or four-year-old)---a plot device that I have never liked in any book I've ever read.
As with many of the other books in this series, I never felt/believed any existence of chemistry (other than sexual) between the main characters. Apollo never lived up to the potential of being a "wounded warrior" character with PTSD the way he was built up in the previous book, which was really disappointing.
I almost quit reading early in the series, but then I got Megs and Godric's story and regained the hope that the rest of the books would improve from there. Unfortunately, this didn't happen. So it's time to cut my losses and give up on the series.
I was really excited to see Ashford McNab back as the narrator of this book. She's one of my favorite audiobook performers, and I'd enjoyed her narration of the first four books. However, she (or the author or the director) made a couple of very disappointing decisions in two of the characters.
The worst was with Lady Phoebe. It's bad enough that the character has gone completely blind over the course of the series. Did she now have to develop a severe speech impediment to rival Sylvester the Cat? I almost quit listening halfway through Phoebe's second scene, it was so bad. Phoebe has never had a speech impediment (this was more than just a simple lisp) in the other audiobooks, and it's not referred to in the book. So this was a poor, poor decision.
The other, not quite as annoying (because she has little page time) is the way Artemis sounds like a bad send-up of a bass-voiced drag queen. The vocalizations of her dialogue were pitched lower even than Trevillion's or Apollo's, making it especially confusing when she was in a scene with a male character.
While this doesn't put me off as a fan of McNab's talents, it didn't help any in a book I was already having trouble enjoying....more
This was probably not the best Elizabeth Essex book for me to start with. Her writing style is enjoyable, for the most part, but this book,2.75 stars
This was probably not the best Elizabeth Essex book for me to start with. Her writing style is enjoyable, for the most part, but this book, even with my own love for the Regency-era Royal Navy, wasn't enough to keep me going for more than a page or two at a time.
As with another book (audiobook) I was reading at the same time, I'd find myself skipping ahead to the next chapter, from the middle . . . just waiting for a plot to appear. Alas, there never was a very cohesive plot. And that was just the beginning of my problems with this book.
As a character, Sally Kent is too good to be true (I hate to re-use the term "Mary-Sue," but if the Sue fits. . .). She can do no wrong! She's a master at everything her hand touches---even all of the work of a Midshipman which she's never actually done before. Yes, I understand she supposedly (in another book somewhere??? but this is supposed to be the first book of a series!) grew up on her father's ships and thus would have a better understanding than a lot of other people of just how things work. But she has no trouble scrambling up and down the shrouds, doing all the physical labor, doing all of the mathematical work, etc., required of her as a mid. Then there's the fact that not only does she immediately fit in with all (but one of) the other midshipmen, she becomes the favorite, the one who protects all the others from the one who's a bully---and she even eventually wins him over!
Then there's the fact that there's no jeopardy in her being a girl disguised as a boy. Right from the beginning, the hero knows who she is. He not only chooses to keep her secret---but he lets her know he knows it. So there's never any tension between them because of it. Then, he eventually learns that the captain has known all along too. And pretty much everyone else on the ship has figured it out. And no one cares! Unfortunately, neither did I after a chapter or two of her absolute perfection.
And speaking of the "hero"----uh . . . I can't even remember his name. Hold on, let me go look it up. Oh, yeah, "Col." Col is so generic and so one dimensional as to be completely forgettable. He has almost no history, no connections, no passions (other than the Navy, of course) . . . nothing that makes him stand out in a crowd (of other romance novel heroes).
Then there's the fact that Essex has done her research. Oh, how she's done her research. She knows everything and then some about the early nineteenth-century Royal Navy---and she wants to use all of it in the pages of this one novel. But even though I spent almost five years researching it myself for my own writings, at times I was lost and confused, because most of the very specific language she uses is used without context to allow even a semi-knowledgeable person (like me) figure out what she's talking about.
I've been assured that these issues aren't as prevalent in the subsequent books in this series, so I might eventually read others. But right now, I think I'll set this series aside.
A space western that has promise, but lost me in the end with no cohesive plot, just a loose conglomeration of vignettes that seem like ideas forA space western that has promise, but lost me in the end with no cohesive plot, just a loose conglomeration of vignettes that seem like ideas for episodes of a TV show, but which never really came together and gelled for me. Also, after having read the descriptions of the other books in this "series," I can't see how this one fits in with the master story-arc at all.
Audiobook reader was wonderful, creating a multitude of characters with many different varieties of accented English, as well as mannerisms and tones. 4 stars for the narration....more
The only thing that kept this from being a 2-star review for me was that I did like the hero, Johnny, for what little I actually got to know about himThe only thing that kept this from being a 2-star review for me was that I did like the hero, Johnny, for what little I actually got to know about him in the story. He was a genuinely nice guy. Way too nice for someone like Chelsea.
Pretty much everything about her annoyed me. From her feminazi attitudes (and I'm a feminist!) to her lack of appreciation for anything Johnny did for her, to her insistence on calling him "John," when his name was Giovanni and he introduced himself to her as Johnny. Also, if you're a vegetarian (or vegan?) and you move into SOMEONE ELSE'S HOME, you don't immediately demand that meat can never come out of the kitchen (i.e., to the dining room table). She didn't even care enough about him that in the few weeks of the timeline of the book---including flying with him to Vegas, from Vegas to the Caribbean, and then back to Boston---to ask him what he did for a living.
What I don't like about Johnny---he's a total pushover for her. He's apparently becoming a culinary star in Boston known for his veal and lamb dishes. In the epilogue, he's now making stuff with tofu. Really? Also, he's turning down an opportunity of a lifetime to go study in Paris for three months because she doesn't want him to leave her. This is the same man she told to go away, that she didn't want to see him or get to know anything about him, when they were on their honeymoon. This is the same man who offered her all of the money he'd saved to go toward his own restaurant in order to help her move her office (a start-up computer security business or something) to a nicer/safer part of town. The same man who agreed, even though they were supposed to be married in name only, for her to move into his place because she was planning to put her house on the market in order to start paying her business loan back. The same man who agreed to stay married to her for a full year so that she could get her inheritance.
Men: It's a huge red flag when a woman has few to no female friends and doesn't get along with her own family at all. Stay away. Stay far, far away.
Poor Johnny. Hopefully he got a good settlement in the divorce (or took her for everything she had), given what she probably ended up putting him through in the three to five years he was able to put up with her....more
This was my first time reading one of Shirlee McCoy's books, and I found it entertaining and enjoyable. I did have a few quibbles with it, though.
This was my first time reading one of Shirlee McCoy's books, and I found it entertaining and enjoyable. I did have a few quibbles with it, though.
First, it sounded like the author has never spent a winter in Maryland or on the east coast because of the many, many times it was mentioned either in the narrative or by the characters how much colder it was in Washington than "back east"---and this is set prior to Christmas. I lived in Northern Virginia for four years and can attest to the fact that it gets bitterly cold in that part of the country every fall/winter.
Second, on the first page, it says it's "three weeks before Christmas." However, it seemed like enough time passed in the book for it to have actually been four or five weeks and for us to be in mid-January.
Third, when Aunt Gertie broke her "leg" . . . again I had to shake my head all the way through that part with the idea that the author has NO experience with this type of situation at all. It's never clearly said what bone she broke in her "leg," but from the way Gertie (a 70+ year old woman) was maneuvering around on crutches and getting up and sitting down with her "leg" being in a cast, it sounds to me like it must have been a minor fracture in either the tibia or fibula, possibly the ankle. It must have been extremely minor for a woman of that age to have been released from the hospital within 24 hours and for her to have not needed surgery.
Fourth, the resolution of the storyline of the angel statuette. Highly implausible resolution.
Fifth, not a ton of relationship development between the main characters, but a lot of that is because they'd grown up together so they already knew each other pretty well.
However, there were many things I liked, too . . .
I did like the fact that Tessa and Cade had grown up together---and yet their relationship wasn't perfect in the present. A couple of times, she made off-hand, snide remarks that really stung him or made him angry. So I appreciated that their relationship wasn't all "sweetness and light."
I liked that Tessa wasn't mired down with grief and guilt the entire story, but there was enough emotion shown to make it seem realistic.
I love small-town settings like this where there's a wider cast of characters (even though some were very obvious setups for the next book in the series). This aspect was well handled, because I never felt overwhelmed with the number of named secondary characters---and they had an active role in the story.
The one major thing that really worked well for me in this book was the overt sexual tension with a couple of hot-and-bothered kissing scenes but no actual sex scene. I really like the fact when authors realize that they can show the characters' love and attraction to each other without making them jump into bed every other page.
I'm looking forward to Charlotte and Max's story in Book 2....more
This was a freebie on Audible last month, and it was SOOOO good, read by TV's Ichabod Crane, Tom Mison. For the first time in this English major'sThis was a freebie on Audible last month, and it was SOOOO good, read by TV's Ichabod Crane, Tom Mison. For the first time in this English major's life, I wished this story was longer! :-D (Story: 3.5 stars, Narrator: 5 stars) ...more
Plain Young Woman in 1850s New York is a severe disappointment to her wealthy, Narcissistic Physician Father. Plain Young WomanSummary of this book:
Plain Young Woman in 1850s New York is a severe disappointment to her wealthy, Narcissistic Physician Father. Plain Young Woman meets handsome, worldly older (she's 18, he's around 30) man in need of money. Plain Young Woman has the potential of a large dowry/inheritance. Scheming Young Man schemes to get Plain Young Woman to marry him by convincing her he loves her and isn't a Scheming Young Man. Narcissistic Physician Father sees through Scheming Young Man's scheme. Tells his daughter. She doesn't believe her father. Plain Young Woman agrees to marry Scheming Young Man. Scheming Young Man draws out the scheme (won't set a wedding date) until Narcissistic Physician Father relents from withholding Plain Young Woman's inheritance if she marries Scheming Young Man. Narcissistic Physician Father tells everyone (including Scheming Aunt) how stupid Plain Young Woman is and that she will eventually come around and realize Scheming Young Man is scheming. Narcissistic Physician Father takes Plain Young Woman to Europe to force her to get over Scheming Young Man. Narcissistic Physician Father insults Plain Young Woman one too many times and she is more determined than ever to marry Scheming Young Man when they return to New York. However, Scheming Young Man decides he doesn't want to marry Plain Young Woman for a livable income (which is what she will have without her father's fortune) and tells her he can't live with himself if he causes Plain Young Woman injury by keeping her from her father's inheritance. Plain Young Woman becomes Suspicious Not-So-Young Woman. Narcissistic Physician Father dies and Suspicious Not-So-Young Woman inherits part of his fortune. Scheming Now-Balding-and-Even Older Man returns and tries once again to convince Suspicious Not-So-Young Woman to marry him (obviously having discovered that a livable income is better than no income at all). But Suspicious Not-So-Young Woman has pretty much had-it-up-to-here with all men and sends Scheming Now-Balding-and-Even Older Man away for good.
The End.
2.5 stars
And thus continues my hate-hate relationship with most American "literature" from the late 19th/early 20th century for its focus on unhappy endings. (Looking at you, too, Edith Wharton, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Sinclair Lewis.)...more
Almost as enjoyable as the first in the series, and it follows almost the exact same pattern for a "plot": there's something mysterious going on outAlmost as enjoyable as the first in the series, and it follows almost the exact same pattern for a "plot": there's something mysterious going on out in the Far West. Eff happens to fall in with the group going out to investigate and, wouldn't you know it, Eff figures it out, saves everyone, etc. She was a bit more Mary-Sue-like in this book, which is what kept it from being quite as enjoyable as the first one.
And I'm still shipping her with Wash, even though I'm probably not supposed to....more
I enjoyed the setup and scenario of this book. But it just seemed super long (even though the audiobook is no longer than most of the romance novels II enjoyed the setup and scenario of this book. But it just seemed super long (even though the audiobook is no longer than most of the romance novels I listen to). I guess mainly because there wasn't really a whole lot of plot---and because I'd figured out the "twist" of the heroine's family issues long before we got to that part of the story. But I enjoyed the idea of the physically disabled hero, so I'm curious to read the other books in the series because I do like Mary Balogh's writing style....more
Review of Audiobook through Chapter 12 (posted on Audible.com 8/22/14)
Story (so far): 3.5 stars Narrator: 1 star Audiobook: Returned
While this is aReview of Audiobook through Chapter 12 (posted on Audible.com 8/22/14)
Story (so far): 3.5 stars Narrator: 1 star Audiobook: Returned
While this is a relatively standard forced-marriage-trope book, the author showed some signs of being able to write a good story. I'm going to try her in print to see if it's just the narrator that's turning me off. I only got through 12 chapters of the audiobook (of around 45 chapters) before I had to give up and download (purchase) it for my Kindle to finish it.
As a narrator for this story, Sarah Coomes is horrible. She's so slow, I had to speed up the playback time to 1.25 for it to even approach something that sounded somewhat normal. I tried it on 1.5, but that was just slightly too fast. About 1.3 or 1.4 would have been better.
In checking out the samples from some of the other books she's narrated, it sounds like British may actually be her real accent. But it's so overwrought, so over-enunciated, so poorly spoken (many mispronunciations---it seemed she just didn't know those words and took a shot in the dark and missed), and so . . . broken . . . up with pauses in strange places. It was. As if there, were; punctuation. Marks indicating ...hesitations. And pauses in weird. Places? Not to mention her bizarrely inappropriate emPHAsis on certain words that shouldn't be EMphaSIZed.
And she seems to have learned her "Scottish" accent from watching Mel Gibson in Braveheart one too many times. Not good at all.
Review of the remainder of the book to come.
Updated Review, upon finishing eBook.
Overall review of book (not including the atrocious narration of the audiobook as mentioned above): 3.5 stars
While this book finally got interesting (and a plot) toward the very end, it wasn't enough to salvage the remainder of the book, which I found formulaic when it wasn't veering off into completely unnecessary (and extraordinarily long) tangent scenes from the heroine's brother's viewpoint, far away from where our hero and heroine were. Perhaps he's the main character in another book, thus the importance given to him in this one; however, in the context of this book, those scenes didn't work. Sure, what happened in those scenes tied into the plot climax at the end of the story, but the climax would have been just as eventful, but it would have been more suspenseful if we hadn't known whether or not to trust her brother.
And, because this is set in the Tudor era (just after the beheading of either Anne Boleyn or Catherine Howard, it seems from a few conversations in the book), it's not a true "Highlands Romance," which is what I was hoping for when I picked this up (i.e., no kilts and battle axes and things we see in the Highlands Romances set in the 11th-14th centuries....more
This is the first romance novel in a long time that had me worried about how the characters were going to work out the "big issue" of the plot. MyThis is the first romance novel in a long time that had me worried about how the characters were going to work out the "big issue" of the plot. My first Tracy Anne Warren book, and definitely won't be my last!...more
I'd set this one aside so that I could finish reading Highland Surrender (which was started on audio, but the narrator was atrocious, so I gaveDNF.
I'd set this one aside so that I could finish reading Highland Surrender (which was started on audio, but the narrator was atrocious, so I gave up and checked it out from the library to read instead). When I finished HS and it was time to go back to this one (after renewing the checkout on this one for an additional three weeks), I just couldn't bring myself to open it up again. So this one goes on the DNF list and I'm moving on to something else.
Aside from the author's penchant for antiquated language, I was very turned off in the beginning of the book by the first chapter, which name-drops at least a dozen characters I don't know or care anything about. (Once again, I managed to pick up a book that's part of a series without realizing it.) The story of this book actually starts in the second chapter. And while it seemed interesting, shortly after the hero and heroine meet, he goes off to the country and she gets kidnapped. I have no reason at this point to care for either of them or to be concerned that they're now separated.
He, being our hero, of course goes after her. And that's where the story really lost me. The setup is so implausible that I just couldn't bring myself to go to the extreme effort that suspending disbelief was going to take for me to get back into the story.
What a fun book! I did find myself wondering where it was going and what the point was as there isn't really much of a linear plot to it, but it wasWhat a fun book! I did find myself wondering where it was going and what the point was as there isn't really much of a linear plot to it, but it was engaging enough to overlook that for the most part. The audiobook had a sample of the second book in the series, too, and now I'm really looking forward to that one....more
Meh. It was just barely interesting enough to keep me listening through to the end. Rather than being a true mystery novel, it's more of a2.5 stars
Meh. It was just barely interesting enough to keep me listening through to the end. Rather than being a true mystery novel, it's more of a "lifestyle of the rich and widowed in Victorian England" story, which is interrupted at the end by the climax of the minor plot of the murder mystery. I never grew to like Lady Julia---she's one step up from a typical Too Stupid to Live heroine. Anytime she's told: "DON'T DO THE THING," of course she has to immediately run out and do the thing. And because it's written in first-person, from her POV, I never grew to like Brisbane all that much, either, because I was so disconnected emotionally from her and from everything she did and thought.
So, at least I avoided getting sucked into yet another series.
The narrator, Ellen Archer, annoyed me with her fake British accent (repetitive mispronunciations and accent slippages made it VERY obvious) and pauses/breaks in odd places in the middle of sentences and paragraphs. I've heard samples of other books she does in a regular (generic American) accent, and she sounds much better--with a better rhythm--in those. (She also does commercial voiceovers, like this one for Met Life: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIYi-...) I'd actually purchased this audiobook back in 2008, before the boom, and before there was much information available about the narrators online. I might have enjoyed the book much more had it been narrated by Charlotte Parry, who did the other book of Raybourn's I've listened to twice and enjoyed both times: The Dead Travel Fast....more
What a fun story! I'd love to see someone like Joss Whedon or Eric Kripke make this into a movie. It was bothStory: 4.25 stars Narrator: 4.5 stars
What a fun story! I'd love to see someone like Joss Whedon or Eric Kripke make this into a movie. It was both snarky and (slightly) creepy at the same time, just like what those two create.
I'm not the world's greatest at solving mysteries (which is why I rarely read them), but even I'd figured out the "twist" at the end of this romantic ghost story. But that's okay, because it was fun watching the characters figure it out.
Harper did a great job developing the characters, too. It seems like she started with the typical two-dimensional stereotype characters (the rich frat boy; the nerdy tech billionaire; the emotionally abused shrinking violet; the hates-all-rich-people, up-by-her-bootstraps sassy girl; and the hippy-dippy bohemian) and then built from there--and then made all of them sympathetic, relatable, and three-dimensional.
I really enjoyed the author's humor, evident throughout the prose---and even the chapter titles had me grinning or outright laughing.
I look forward to reading more books by this new-to-me author!
I gave this 2 stars instead of 1 because the audiobook was narrated by Ashford MacNab, one of my favorite readers. This book was horrible.
First, ifI gave this 2 stars instead of 1 because the audiobook was narrated by Ashford MacNab, one of my favorite readers. This book was horrible.
First, if I'd known it was a re-release (with a new title) of a book published in 1988, I would have skipped it. (Ugh, Ugh, Ugh---the HEAD HOPPING and PURPLE PROSE!!!) But that wasn't the worst part of this book.
The worst part of this book is the so-called hero. Not only does he start eyeing the heroine the first time he sees her---when she's TEN YEARS OLD---but then, seven years later (because SEVENTEEN is so mature) when he kidnaps her, he waits a whole week before seductively raping her.
Yes, that's right, I called it what it is---RAPE.
While she doesn't fight against him, she doesn't consent, either. So most of the book is about her being his captive and his mistress---and not caring because, you know, what else is she supposed to do but gladly share her captor's bed and get pregnant and almost fall for his brother's seduction, and other really stupid and random plot points/holes?
I have no idea how this book has a 4.09 average rating. Either people rated it based on their memory of reading it twenty-plus years ago, or they read a different book than I did.
Even at the end of the book, there's no declaration of love from the "hero." He never feels guilty for what he's done to the heroine (who is, of course, a perfect-yet-feisty angel and who, naturally, has a wicked stepmother) nor over the fact that his former mistress keeps popping up. He calls the heroine a slut and a whore when she merely talks with other men, even though he's nothing but a man-whore himself, having slept around plenty before capturing her and making her his sex slave. Ugh. Blech. I hated him SO much and really wished she'd just kick him in the nuts and go off to become a nun or something. That might have made this meandering, pointless story interesting.
The only redeeming part of this was the brilliant-as-always narration by Ashford MacNab, who did wonderful Scottish and Irish accents....more
The actual information in this book barely scratches the surface of the topics it purports to cover. However, it was worth the $1.99 for theThe actual information in this book barely scratches the surface of the topics it purports to cover. However, it was worth the $1.99 for the bibliographical references contained herein....more
When I was making notes on the Kindle within the first couple of pages of "Ugh" and "Get over it" when the hero is having stirrings down under atDNF
When I was making notes on the Kindle within the first couple of pages of "Ugh" and "Get over it" when the hero is having stirrings down under at the mere sight of the heroine, I knew I probably wasn't going to enjoy it. I was right. I gave up around 40%....more
**Slight Spoiler** This is the first marriage-of-convenience story I've ever read in which the h/hn don't actually get married until the end3.5 Stars
**Slight Spoiler** This is the first marriage-of-convenience story I've ever read in which the h/hn don't actually get married until the end of the book.
There was so much potential in this story, aside from the MoC trope: a wounded, scarred war hero; an unattractive wallflower; an ultimatum to marry from the hero's uncle. It's a standard setup for what has the potential to be both a humorous and emotionally engaging story.
Unfortunately, this story didn't quite live up to that potential.
Caine Morleigh, a captain in the Royal Army, was injured in battle right at the end of the war. It scarred his eyes and possibly blinded him. The prologue opens on the day he's to have his bandages removed for the first time. He doesn't know if he'll be able to see, but it's the moment of truth. A moment that is made all the more important by the arrival of his intended. When the bandages are removed, Caine is relieved to be able to see---but the twit of a girl he's supposed to be marrying screams and faints . . . and then goes about town telling everyone how he's a deformed, horrendous beast.
A month later (chapter one), Caine has received an ultimatum from his uncle, to whom he is heir, that Caine must marry or he'll only receive the title while all the unentailed lands and wealth will go to his wastrel cousin (who has recently married). With his best friend, Trent, as his accomplice, Caine goes to the last ball at the end of the season and tells Trent to find him the ugliest, stupidest, most desperate spinster there to arrange an introduction so Caine can marry her. He wants a marriage in name with someone who will leave him alone and because she's just so content at the change in her status/name. (At this point, he's wearing an eye patch over one eye, while there is still visible scarring around the other.)
This, of course, is where our heroine comes in. Homely, dressed in a shapeless, ugly yellow gown, and looking as if she's not long for the world, Lady Grace is only at the ball because her guardian/uncle has trotted her out to ensure the world that he hasn't done away with her. (Do you sense where this is going?)
Long story short, Caine makes a public proposal in front of everyone at the assembly so that her uncle cannot gainsay them.
It's at this point that the story starts failing in its potential. While Grace is set up to be an ugly duckling who must learn to become a swan, it's quickly (almost immediately) apparent that she's actually just a swan who stepped in a mud puddle and needed a quick rinse to be back to her majestic, beautiful (Mary Sue) self. She can do absolutely no wrong.
Carriage with her and two other women attacked on the highway by an armed assailant? No problem. She'll kick him in the balls and save the day.
Country house in disarray when she arrives? No problem. She'll whip everyone into shape (and set guards about the estate at the same time for protection)---and they will all love her for it.
Major General of a housekeeper? No problem! Grace will win her over and have her eating out of her hand in no time.
Fiance with an eye patch and horrible scarring? No problem! Grace will remove the eye patch to discover he still has his eye (and sight) and that he's just being vain and covering up the worst of the scarring, which, of course, isn't nearly as bad as he thought once she doesn't react negatively to it.
Uncle with a failing heart and not much more time to live? No problem. Grace knows how to use foxglove to treat him and bring about what seems a miraculous recovery.
Suffice it to say . . . Grace not only meets every challenge she faces in this book head-on, she easily overcomes it.
Oh, and once she's away from her evil guardian/uncle and can start eating again without fear of being poisoned and, thus, regains her health, it turns out she's physically beautiful, too.
As far as Caine and his scars/injuries go---it's a convenient plot device in the beginning to set him up as a "beast," yet it doesn't actually seem to affect his life at all. There's no lingering social stigma from it, nor is there any lingering physical effects or emotional trauma from it. A good example of a hero with PTSD this is not.
Then, there were all of the attempts by the villain of the piece to kill Grace and/or Caine. Shootings, stabbings, and explosions, oh my! And how this mystery was solved and the perpetrator brought to "justice" in the end . . . ridiculous. I've read multiple stories with almost the exact same trope---the villain has done something evil and is either blackmailing the heroine into marrying someone of his choosing, keeping her from marrying someone she loves (the hero), or is trying to kill her in a way that won't throw suspicion onto the villain. As a matter of fact, Julia Quinn used this same type of situation (pretty much down to what the villain had done) in On the Way to the Wedding.
Toward the end of the book, I found myself skimming (after the villain had been revealed and he'd pontificated about his motivations/other crimes) just waiting for the wedding to actually happen and the book to end (which it did at 92% on the Kindle---there was a sample chapter for another book that, along with the backmatter, took up the remaining 8%).
I never really liked or connected with either of the main characters---nor did they really seem to have true chemistry between them. The story takes place over the course of about three or four weeks (hard to tell since they kept postponing the wedding, which was supposed to take place three weeks after the opening, but then after postponing it, they then sped it up at the end). For at least half of that time, Grace was out at the country house and Caine was in London. Not a great setup for relationship building. But, oh, it was instalove, once Grace was no longer the ugly duckling wallflower and had put her Mary Sue powers to work in making everyone else around her adore her.
Caine has the personality of a wet paper towel, and is about as useful. If he's not confined to bed recovering from a bullet wound, he's just sitting around thinking about how hard his life is going to be as an earl and how he needs a wife who isn't going to put any additional expectations on him and who isn't going to want any kind of a social life whatsoever and who will be content living in the country while he stays in London and how Grace is so exquisite now and so vivacious that she's not the right woman for him even though he wants her and how someone is trying to kill either her or him or both of them. If it weren't for his best friend and cousin, he'd never have figured anything out or been able to make any decisions on his own.
All of that said, it was an entertaining read---for the sheer WTFery of it if nothing else....more
When I found myself highlighting all of the places the "hero" thinks about (a) how the heroine is now more accepted by/a member of his1 star = DNF
When I found myself highlighting all of the places the "hero" thinks about (a) how the heroine is now more accepted by/a member of his family than he is; and (b) how many women he had and/or could get at court, how easy the women at court were to seduce, and how much the women at court liked him, I realized it was time to quit reading (at about 30%) and move on to something I might enjoy more....more
This is the first time I've re-read this book since it came out thirty years ago. As a YA reader, I1983 Rating: 4.5 stars 2014 Rating: 3 stars
This is the first time I've re-read this book since it came out thirty years ago. As a YA reader, I absolutely adored it and the first two or three sequels (I think I read four books in this series as they came out); it went quite well with the Sunfire romances from Scholastic that I was reading at the time. I do remember that I enjoyed them much more than the Love Comes Softly series that I was reading around the same time. (I went to a very small, very conservative Christian school for junior high, and Oke's books were available in the school library and so were acceptable to carry around and read on breaks; most of the rest of what I read at home wasn't.)
I've been . . . well, "enjoying" is a bit strong of a term . . . entertained recently by the Hallmark series inspired by When Calls the Heart, so I thought now would be as good a time as any to re-read it. I'm going to count this as my Inspy Historical Romance in my 2014 Genre Reading Challenge, though there are a few things about this book that, even by my definition, disqualify it from that genre.
First, it's written in first-person. I'm not a big fan of first-person historicals and I have a hard time counting anything but those in the Gothic subgenre as "romance" novels---because for me, romance novels need to include the hero's POV as well as the heroine's.
Second, though she gets a glimpse of the hero about 1/3 of the way into the book, she doesn't actually meet him and have a conversation with him until 50% of the way in. There's "insta-love" (because, let's recall, this is an Inspy romance, so it's definitely not insta-lust) on her part. His? We don't know---because, again, we don't get his POV.
Third, there's very little relationship development between the two of them in the last 50% of the book because they're so rarely together. A picnic here, a family dinner there. All the while, he's maintaining his attitude that Mounties shouldn't marry because it's selfish---unfair to the woman, who won't be able to handle the kind of rough living that a Mountie in the outback of Canada (can I call it that?) would have to deal with.
Other than those things, it's pretty standard Prairie Romance fare: City Girl goes West to teach in Country Town and has to learn how to rough-it while falling in love with Local Law Man. It even includes the Big Misunderstanding trope: she believes he's married and the father of one of the boys in her school. This Big Misunderstanding carries through most of the last half of the book because, let's face it, there is almost no relationship development, so there's no conversation in which the truth can be revealed. And Wynn never uses the terms "my sister-in-law" or "my nephew," which might clue her in. If he's as interested in Elizabeth as he's supposed to be, you'd think that, after continually getting the cold shoulder from her, he might take the opportunity to drop a few terms like that into a conversation to see if that makes a difference.
This book is basically Christy-lite: first person, wide-eyed, naive heroine; country school house; learning the quirks of a small town, etc. The good thing here, though, is that there's no love triangle forced upon the heroine. (Oh, and as far as that goes, in Christy, I'm Team-David all the way!)
Revisiting this book, I was really surprised by how little a presence the Mounties have, and what little attention is paid to the fact that Wynn is a Mountie. I guess because I have the memory of the story as it continues after they're married in the sequels, and because that's a huge draw of the TV show (ahhhhh, Mountie Jack!), I expected it to be more of a...thing in the book. The red serge coat, the boots, the hat, etc. But it's really downplayed in the book.
Another thing that surprised me going back to this one was how light it is on the Inspy part. It's clean, she goes to church, she prays, she's shown reading her Bible. There was one long "internal sermon" section that I skipped over (when she's having a long internal monologue over what she's just read in her quiet time), but other than that, there isn't any Bible thumping, verse quoting, witnessing/evangelizing, or sermonizing in this book (unlike in Love Comes Softly, where there's a full presentation of the gospel so Marty can get saved to be worthy of Clark's love).
All said, this was a quick, light read, and, while at twelve years old, I couldn't wait for the next book in the series, I do believe that a revisit to the first volume is quite enough for me now....more
Let me start this review off by saying that, as an author, if you have to write a scene in which your characters have a seriousRating: 3.5 stars
Let me start this review off by saying that, as an author, if you have to write a scene in which your characters have a serious discussion about all of the "coincidences" that have happened to them in the last twenty or thirty pages . . . YOU HAVE TOO MANY COINCIDENCES!
This was only my second non-paranormal historical romance by Mary Jo Putney. I really do enjoy her writing style; but I, like many of the other reviewers at Goodreads, apparently, was somewhat disappointed in the lack of follow-through on the promise of the story premise.
The Amnesiac First, let's talk about the elephant in the book: Adam's amnesia. I'm not someone who's drawn to this trope in romance for one very important reason: for me, the idea of someone falling in love without knowing who he is or where he came from or who might be waiting for him at home isn't palatable. Then there's the idea that once the memory comes back, it's necessarily going to change the person and, thus, the relationship. So I have to take a huge leap to suspend my disbelief when I read a book with this trope.
That said, I think Putney handled Adam's POV scenes very well. Although we're "told" Adam's identity and ethnicity (half-English, half-Indian) through the (unnecessary) first chapter featuring his three BFFs and Lady Agnes, the surrogate mother and head of the school where the four men met, we do get to discover who he is along with him as his memories slowly come back to him through small sight/sound/smell triggers and through dreams. I thought this part was well done and it made me more comfortable with the idea of his developing a romantic attachment during this time. (Oh, if only there had been an actual development! But I'll get to that later.)
A Crazy Person Lives Here In Mariah's first scene, I was a little concerned that she was slightly off her rocker---she has an "imaginary sister" named Sarah who "talks" to her in her head and chides her for being too much of a wild child (because, after all, isn't that what all romance heroines are supposed to be?). Around the time that this got to be annoying, however, Putney toned this part down in favor of a somewhat more sane Mariah.
Mariah lives in a big house by the sea in Cumberland (northwestern England) which her father won gambling. Her father has dragged her from pillar to post---from city to country house---most of her life as he moves from game to game to game. Apparently, he's been relatively successful yet this has put them on the fringes of society. The women at these house/gaming parties give Mariah all of their castoff gowns, so she has good clothes, but out of fashion, so she's learned how to alter them to be stylish.
Let the Coincidences Begin! Her father goes off to London to try to reconcile with his family (whom Mariah knows nothing about because he's never talked about them). But shortly thereafter, George Burke, Hartley's former, neglectful, owner appears to tell Mariah that her father has been killed by highwaymen. She doesn't believe him initially, even though he shows her her father's ring, but then she receives a letter from her father's lawyer confirming it. Burke hangs around and presses himself and a courtship on Mariah. To try to dissuade him, she tells him that she's already married but that her husband is away at war. (This takes place in 1814-15 between the end of the Peace of Amiens and Waterloo.) Of course, she has no way to back up that claim. Worried about this, she takes the incense her (Roma/Gypsy) grandmother left to her and goes outside to burn it to pray about the situation (for a husband).
As soon as she finishes her prayer, she feels an "urging" to go down to the beach. And, lo and behold, there's a man in the water. She rescues him and he's still alive! She assists him up to the house and, once she realizes he has amnesia, she asks him if that means he doesn't remember that she's his wife.
Here's where the development of the relationship should be. She comes up with the name "Adam" (oh, how coincidental!) for him with her own last name, telling him they're cousins. Even though he doesn't remember her name or her face or anything about her, he immediately feels that being married to her is "right."
Even though it's not specifically called it in this book, the "fated to be together" trope is one that really doesn't work for me in romance novels---usually because it means that the author opts out of the hard work of showing the building of a relationship and growing attraction between the two main characters. While Adam and Mariah enjoy being around each other and feel a frisson whenever they touch (and, eventually, have sex) I was never convinced that they'd actually built a deep relationship that would sustain a lifelong partnership.
Then, there are the breakaways to the viewpoints of his three friends who are searching for him. These were scenes that you'd expect would build suspense and add to the tension of the book (would they find him before Maria told him the truth?) but in all actuality, they just took up pages in what little space was given to the time in which Maria and Adam's relationship should have been developing.
After M&A finally consummate, she reveals the truth to him---after all, even though he has amnesia, he doesn't miss the fact that she was still a virgin. And here's where the timing/plotting of the novel goes awry. Instead of concentrating on the new obstacle of rebuilding trust, while still trying to regain memory, Putney brings the three friends swooping in to tell Adam who he is and whisk him back to London. (And his name is really Adam---what a coincidence!)
Adam tells his friends that Mariah is his fiancee (which they are none-too-happy about, assuming she's a fortune hunter and nowhere near good enough for their Adam), so she is invited to go with them to London. She takes Julia, the midwife in town, as her chaperone(apparently they're supposed to be really good friends---enough that Julia knows the truth about Mariah/Adam's relationship---but they don't really interact that much in the book either before or after they go to London, and there were hints at a scandal in Julia's past, and one of Adam's friends wouldn't look at her much less talk to her politely, so she and he must be a setup for another book in this series).
Oh, and I should mention at this point, that the three BFFs discovered evidence of sabotage in the wreckage of Adam's prototype steamship (the one that blew up and gave him amnesia and deposited him so conveniently on Mariah's beach), so there's someone trying to kill him.
M&A have made a pact that because they're not really married and because they're not sure what's going to happen once they get back to London (and because Adam is a duke and Mariah, they believe, a commoner) that they won't sleep together again.
No, wait. What? Really? What the . . . ? At luncheon the day they arrive in London, Adam's aunt and cousin Hal (his heir and the prime suspect in the plot to assassinate Adam) arrive to welcome him home. When Adam introduces Mariah to them as his fiancee, the aunt drops the bomb that she can't be---Adam is engaged to her daughter. (Someone's read Pride & Prejudice a few too many times, but I can't tell if it's me or Putney!) So, now things are even more strained between M&A. If Mariah hadn't gone to London hoping to find out about her father, she would have left on the next coach out of town.
M&A go riding in Hyde Park the next morning (did I mention that Adam owns the largest private home in all of Mayfair?). It's all going well---until the groom shouts to Adam that there's a gunman in a tree. They gallop the horses away, but not before a bullet grazes Adam's shoulder. Another man tries to help the groom catch the shooter, but to no avail. The other man turns out to be a retired Army officer who knew Adam's father and asks if he can call on him, to which Adam agrees.
M&A go to visit Mariah's father's lawyer---who didn't send Mariah the letter and didn't know her father was dead. So, what happened to all the letters she sent to the lawyer that were never answered? Hmmm . . .
At this point, I pretty much kept reading for the sheer enjoyment of all of the WTFery that was going on in the book. The Army officer appears with his wife and stepdaughter---who just happen to be Adam's real mom (supposedly dead in India) and sister (he never knew about). He also has two half-siblings. Ooh, how coincidental that the man who just happened to witness Adam getting shot at in the park is married to Adam's long-lost mother! (Oh, as soon as he sees his mother, he regains most of his memories.)
Then, when they're still trying to figure out who wants to kill Adam, Mariah's father bursts into Adam's office and accuses him of holding Mariah against her will, all because he went with her to the lawyer's office and was watching her "closely." What a coincidence! Not only is Adam's mother (reported dead when Adam was a child) alive, but Mariah's father (also reported dead) is alive!
But that's not all!
Mariah's father has something he wants to show Mariah, and she invites Adam along (of course). He takes them to a townhouse on the other side of Mayfair and unlocks the front door with his own key. Inside . . . (wait for it) . . . are Mariah's mother (whom Mariah believed died when Mariah was two) and her identical twin sister who's name just happens to be . . .
are you ready for it?
have you guessed it yet?
SARAH---remember the voices in Mariah's head in the beginning that led me to believe her a nutter? Yes, that Sarah.
How coincidental is that???
There are a few other coincidences along the way that I won't bother boring you with, and, of course, the person trying to have Adam killed turns out to be the most obvious person ever. And, of course, the aunt turns out to have lied about Adam being engaged to his cousin. So, all works out hunky-dory and Adam proposes to Mariah as they lie in bed together, using the Hindu idea of reincarnation and loving beyond lifetimes as part of his wooing strategy (not that he needs to because, obviously, they were fated to be together---thus all the coincidences, right?).
Putney is a good writer and I enjoy her style. I do plan to read the other books in this series, because I am interested in the BFFs, and to see what happens with Julia. I just hope that there aren't as many "plot twists" in those books as there were in this one, because the ones in this book wore me out!
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My rating matrix: 5 STARS = one of the best I've ever read 4 STARS = a great read, highly recommended 3 STARS = it was okay/not a favorite 2 STARS = I didn't enjoy it all that much, not recommended 1 STAR/DNF = I hated it and/or Did Not Finish it...more
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