1 to 20 of 504 -
Page:
Review Date: 8/14/2010
Helpful Score: 1
I found this book deadly boring. About a third of the way in I just started skimming to see if anything interesting happened. None of the characters are likable and there is little story to grab your interest. The title suggests maybe a little spanky-panky, don't get your hopes up.
Review Date: 4/9/2012
Pretty good. Alec and Julia are fairly well flushed-out and interesting characters. The plot flows along well but the highs and lows are not particularly high or low. I'm not sure if that is good or bad but it wasn't a terribly emotional story. I liked them, rooted for them, rooted against the bad guys, but it wasn't very dramatic. Karen Hawkins did establish the foundation for a series and the side characters were also interesting and I look forward to reading about them in the future.
The sensuality in the book was OK, not very hot but not completely glossed over. The historical accuracy - hard to tell because there weren't too many details in the book. There are a few situations and a few pieces of dialogue that seem unlikely for the time but those can be forgiven for a good story.
Overall a B for story, B- for sensuality (if you can grade sexiness), and B for overall writing style. I'll read this author again. I wasn't bowled over but I liked it enough to stay up late to finish.
The sensuality in the book was OK, not very hot but not completely glossed over. The historical accuracy - hard to tell because there weren't too many details in the book. There are a few situations and a few pieces of dialogue that seem unlikely for the time but those can be forgiven for a good story.
Overall a B for story, B- for sensuality (if you can grade sexiness), and B for overall writing style. I'll read this author again. I wasn't bowled over but I liked it enough to stay up late to finish.
Review Date: 11/6/2010
I made it to about page 80 in this book. I don't know how anyone could read this boring drivel. Cheryl Holt is off my list.
Review Date: 1/22/2011
An interesting story that is about details of ship life and privateering in the 16th century with some real historical characters and situations mixed in. The love story between a French/English lord and a woman who is the helmsman of her father's ship progressed with a very slow and steady pace. There was a sweet and unique love scene and a smattering of others more typical. The book was quite interesting and educational but wasn't a particularly riveting romance.
I read a review that gave this a sensuality rating of R. I suppose that could be true but if you were to compare to a Lisa Kleypas book, this was fairly tame.
I read a review that gave this a sensuality rating of R. I suppose that could be true but if you were to compare to a Lisa Kleypas book, this was fairly tame.
Review Date: 11/6/2010
I read lots of vampire romance and this was the first "period" vampire book that I've actually liked. It has flavors of both, the historical romance and the forbidden love element that comes with vampire romance. Warmly sensual, not hot. I didn't LOVE it and although I have the next book in the series, I'm not in a hurry to read it. But it was worth reading.
Review Date: 1/27/2011
Helpful Score: 4
I ordered this book based on an effusive PBS-reader review. It is a great book! Thanks readers who give detailed reviews!
The story features a very private, solitary gentleman, on the brink of financial ruin in search of a rich wife to prop up his family fortune. Instead he meets a poor common woman who is a widow. But oh the sweet chemistry! The book has a subplot with a mystery which is not particularly important, but the slow burn of the love story is what great romance novels are all about. This book is particularly interesting, writing-wise, because there is not a major secret between them, as you see in so many romances. What lies between them is clear to both from the start - the vast canyon of wealth and class. In a way, it makes their love story that much more bitter sweet and emotional because you can't see how it will ever work for them. What each would have to give up to stay together is too much. For her it would mean becoming a whore (mistress) and for him it means giving up family fortune.
There is a lot of sensuality and love scenes in this book. They're not very graphic but the lead up to the "deed" is smoldering and probably the main reason to read this book.
The story features a very private, solitary gentleman, on the brink of financial ruin in search of a rich wife to prop up his family fortune. Instead he meets a poor common woman who is a widow. But oh the sweet chemistry! The book has a subplot with a mystery which is not particularly important, but the slow burn of the love story is what great romance novels are all about. This book is particularly interesting, writing-wise, because there is not a major secret between them, as you see in so many romances. What lies between them is clear to both from the start - the vast canyon of wealth and class. In a way, it makes their love story that much more bitter sweet and emotional because you can't see how it will ever work for them. What each would have to give up to stay together is too much. For her it would mean becoming a whore (mistress) and for him it means giving up family fortune.
There is a lot of sensuality and love scenes in this book. They're not very graphic but the lead up to the "deed" is smoldering and probably the main reason to read this book.
Review Date: 12/5/2010
Helpful Score: 2
I feel the magic, again, in reading another awesome Lisa Kleypas book (sorry i had to say it). Again the Magic is not only a great romance about McKenna and Aline but throws in another entire story about Livia and Gideon. Kind of a two-for-one book. As always she combines great historical romance with hot love scenes and a real love story and great dialogue.
I became a Kleypas fan during the Hathaways series and have been kind of reading her books in reverse order. I loved Marcus when I read about him in the Nick Gentry book and then in the Wallflowers series. I was so glad to see him again in this book and learn about his family and sisters. (I guess technically this would be the introduction of Marcus, but like I said, reading them in reverse.)
I'm never that wild about romances that begin when the characters are but teenagers and then reunite as adults. Personally I would never date today anyone I dated in high school, hard to imagine finding your one true love at that age. But Kleypas can do no wrong and this story was as good as any of her others. A keeper for me.
I became a Kleypas fan during the Hathaways series and have been kind of reading her books in reverse order. I loved Marcus when I read about him in the Nick Gentry book and then in the Wallflowers series. I was so glad to see him again in this book and learn about his family and sisters. (I guess technically this would be the introduction of Marcus, but like I said, reading them in reverse.)
I'm never that wild about romances that begin when the characters are but teenagers and then reunite as adults. Personally I would never date today anyone I dated in high school, hard to imagine finding your one true love at that age. But Kleypas can do no wrong and this story was as good as any of her others. A keeper for me.
Review Date: 4/9/2011
Ugh. I have read worse books but this can't even hit the mid-level of quality historical romance. Go read Lisa Kleypas, Loretta Chase, Karen Raney, Lorainne Heath - so many good authors. This one - not so much.
The characters were so unlikeable. I thought the heroine, Juliana, was the most stupid and gullible character ever. She fell for every trick and game the "hero" played. Further not one female or other person Juliana knew suggested that maybe her behavior was inappropriate, or that his character was extremely questionable. There is no Love in this love story. Never do these characters learn anything about each other, no personal history, no facts of character or personality - just that they are attracted to each other and she gives it up for him like a cat in heat. The book was pretty long for a story that NEVER has the main couple having a conversation. Finally, the mother of the heroine essentially sells her daughter, twice, and ultimately both hero and heroine forgive her and actually seem to think maybe it was "clever". ICK ICK ICK.
Alexandra Hawkins apparently has never read Jane Austen or Charoltte Bronte or done any research on how people behaved in the early 19th century. The gentry were extremely uptight, to put it mildly. So why is a mother letting her young, virginal daughter ride alone in a carriage with an unmarried man, with not even a maid as chaperone? And then lets her daughter leave a ball with same man, to go off alone in his carriage and stay away all night? It makes no sense. And for heavens sake, a mother wouldn't let a strange man give her daughter a valuable string of pearls TODAY much less 200 years ago. The lack of faithfulness to the period of which Alexandra Hawkins writes is jarring and takes you out of the story to wonder what the heck she's thinking rather than care about the characters.
2 stars.
The characters were so unlikeable. I thought the heroine, Juliana, was the most stupid and gullible character ever. She fell for every trick and game the "hero" played. Further not one female or other person Juliana knew suggested that maybe her behavior was inappropriate, or that his character was extremely questionable. There is no Love in this love story. Never do these characters learn anything about each other, no personal history, no facts of character or personality - just that they are attracted to each other and she gives it up for him like a cat in heat. The book was pretty long for a story that NEVER has the main couple having a conversation. Finally, the mother of the heroine essentially sells her daughter, twice, and ultimately both hero and heroine forgive her and actually seem to think maybe it was "clever". ICK ICK ICK.
Alexandra Hawkins apparently has never read Jane Austen or Charoltte Bronte or done any research on how people behaved in the early 19th century. The gentry were extremely uptight, to put it mildly. So why is a mother letting her young, virginal daughter ride alone in a carriage with an unmarried man, with not even a maid as chaperone? And then lets her daughter leave a ball with same man, to go off alone in his carriage and stay away all night? It makes no sense. And for heavens sake, a mother wouldn't let a strange man give her daughter a valuable string of pearls TODAY much less 200 years ago. The lack of faithfulness to the period of which Alexandra Hawkins writes is jarring and takes you out of the story to wonder what the heck she's thinking rather than care about the characters.
2 stars.
Review Date: 1/8/2014
Helpful Score: 2
I kind of wish I hadn't read this book. It SUCKS as a resolution to any of what happens in the previous two books. Suspension of disbelief isn't enough, you have to suspend a lot of higher brain function for this story to make sense or be any fun to read at all. The whole book is just so unsatisfying. What they find outside the city is not very interesting, doesn't make good story, and so these other stories are then told which also aren't very interesting, not character driven, and do nothing to advance resolution to the overall situation or the Tris/Tobias relationship.
The writing isn't very good, Veronica Roth decides to tell this story with two points of view - Tris and Tobias. Unfortunately the "voice" of each character sounds exactly the same so you get confused who is talking and there's nothing added to the story by switching points of view except to make you lose respect for Tobias. Eventally you read some stuff that was written by Tris's mother and even she sounds exactly the same as Tris and Tobias.
Sort of spoiler follows so if you really want to read Allegiant without any idea what will happen stop reading here. If you're hoping for a happy ending, forget it. My bad review isn't just because of the unhappy ending but because it was sloppy writing and bad storytelling that delivered a crappy ending. I suggest you Finish reading Insurgent and then make up your own ending to resolve what's outside the city, to resolve why everything happened and what happens to all the characters. You will be much more satisfied.
The writing isn't very good, Veronica Roth decides to tell this story with two points of view - Tris and Tobias. Unfortunately the "voice" of each character sounds exactly the same so you get confused who is talking and there's nothing added to the story by switching points of view except to make you lose respect for Tobias. Eventally you read some stuff that was written by Tris's mother and even she sounds exactly the same as Tris and Tobias.
Sort of spoiler follows so if you really want to read Allegiant without any idea what will happen stop reading here. If you're hoping for a happy ending, forget it. My bad review isn't just because of the unhappy ending but because it was sloppy writing and bad storytelling that delivered a crappy ending. I suggest you Finish reading Insurgent and then make up your own ending to resolve what's outside the city, to resolve why everything happened and what happens to all the characters. You will be much more satisfied.
Review Date: 1/8/2014
I kind of wish I hadn't read this book. It SUCKS as a resolution to any of what happens in the previous two books. Suspension of disbelief isn't enough, you have to suspend a lot of higher brain function for this story to make sense or be any fun to read at all.
The writing isn't very good, Veronica Roth decides to tell this story with two points of view - Tris and Tobias. Unfortunately the "voice" of each character sounds exactly the same so you get confused who is talking and there's nothing added to the story by switching points of view except to make you lose respect for Tobias. Eventally you read some stuff that was written by Tris's mother and even she sounds exactly the same as Tris and Tobias.
Sort of spoiler follows so if you really want to read Allegiant without any idea what will happen stop reading here. If you're hoping for a happy ending, forget it. Finish reading Insurgent and then make up your own ending to resolve what's outside the city, to resolve why everything happened and what happens to all the characters. You will be much more satisfied.
The writing isn't very good, Veronica Roth decides to tell this story with two points of view - Tris and Tobias. Unfortunately the "voice" of each character sounds exactly the same so you get confused who is talking and there's nothing added to the story by switching points of view except to make you lose respect for Tobias. Eventally you read some stuff that was written by Tris's mother and even she sounds exactly the same as Tris and Tobias.
Sort of spoiler follows so if you really want to read Allegiant without any idea what will happen stop reading here. If you're hoping for a happy ending, forget it. Finish reading Insurgent and then make up your own ending to resolve what's outside the city, to resolve why everything happened and what happens to all the characters. You will be much more satisfied.
Review Date: 9/9/2010
Mine is the only NEGATIVE review of this book. Feather's description of "hero" Jack makes him sound so effeminate, affected, effete, superficial, and flouncy. I keep picturing a guy wearing satin high heeled shoes and a fake mole. He carries a cane, just for fashion. He carries a sword out in the country, as if he needs a sword in the farmland. He takes a "delicate" pinch of snuff. He spends an inordinate amount of time putting on fancy clothes and dressing up each day, again out in the country. His nails are manicured and the manicure has a name. He is so affected in his countenance he is almost unbearable. To misquote Aerosmith: "Duke looks like a lady". This guy doesn't sound like much of a manly man to me. I literally could not finish this book. I read Lisa Kleypas, Loretta Chase, even Suzanne Enoch and Claudia Dain with pleasure. This book was horrid in comparison. I won't be reading more Jane Feather books. Sorry to the many of you out there who like her writing. Ick.
Review Date: 1/13/2012
Cute and charming, not terribly deep. The style and pacing were a bit old-school, the characters not even really attracted to each other until about 100 pages into the book, the sex scenes reserved for the last 70 pages or so.
The characters were fun, I liked Guhrke's take on the period and the characters attributes and foibles. I will read more by this authors.
The characters were fun, I liked Guhrke's take on the period and the characters attributes and foibles. I will read more by this authors.
Review Date: 2/5/2011
Enjoyable variation on the theme of vampires and angels with a new mythology of who and what they are, how they come into being. A strong female lead character and interesting dynamics with the male lead. Nice pacing into love scenes and development of love story. I liked the happy ending yet knowing that their love story continues into other books. I also enjoyed the side characters and feel eager to know more about them. Certainly kept me looking forward to further books. Negative side is that the love scenes themselves are fairly superficial. A bit more tell than show, that was the only disappointment. But definitely will keep reading.
Review Date: 8/5/2012
Disappointing.
Archangel's Consort was definitely about family. Elena's bitter relationship with her father and his family, her self-made family of Guild-members, Raphael's relationship with his mother, his self-made family of his Seven, and the nascent "family" of Raphael and Elena themselves. There is certainly a lot of story to be told in all of that but this book was slow bordering on boring. I've read the other Guild Hunter books and all of the Psi/Changeling books and this is the first Nalini Singh that took me more than a week to read. It just didn't grab on the way she normally does. The ending sped up in the last few chapters and it was a nice payoff with enough open-endedness that there is certainly room for further books, but this was a real disappointment from an author I count on for great reading.
Archangel's Consort was definitely about family. Elena's bitter relationship with her father and his family, her self-made family of Guild-members, Raphael's relationship with his mother, his self-made family of his Seven, and the nascent "family" of Raphael and Elena themselves. There is certainly a lot of story to be told in all of that but this book was slow bordering on boring. I've read the other Guild Hunter books and all of the Psi/Changeling books and this is the first Nalini Singh that took me more than a week to read. It just didn't grab on the way she normally does. The ending sped up in the last few chapters and it was a nice payoff with enough open-endedness that there is certainly room for further books, but this was a real disappointment from an author I count on for great reading.
Review Date: 4/23/2011
Good but...
I enjoyed this book as much as I did Angels' Blood and with the same complaints. I think Singh does a great job of building the romance and sexual tension between the main characters. However I feel like the payoff is weak.
Possible spoilers follow**
The main tension between the already established couple, Raphael the Archangel and Elena the Hunter made Angel, is that he doesn't want to have sex with her because he's afraid it will be too much for her. Since they have already had sex in a previous book, and since he's got her out practicing hand-to-hand combat every day, you think this sex is going to be something out of the ordinary if she suddenly can't handle it. Powerful sex. So when they finally have sex, it is pretty ordinary. I think with that much build up, Singh should have described something extraordinary. I felt like it was build up for nothing and then you feel kind of tricked by the author, a distraction from the story.
As to the good, I loved the way the unresolved things from the previous book were carried forward and explored (e.g. "drip, drip, drip"), the continuity with tensions between Elena and other secondary characters. I really liked learning about the Angel world, their backstory, and exposition about the Seven. I keep wishing those Seven would get their own books, Singh has made them very compelling and interesting.
Overall a very good book.
3.5 stars
I enjoyed this book as much as I did Angels' Blood and with the same complaints. I think Singh does a great job of building the romance and sexual tension between the main characters. However I feel like the payoff is weak.
Possible spoilers follow**
The main tension between the already established couple, Raphael the Archangel and Elena the Hunter made Angel, is that he doesn't want to have sex with her because he's afraid it will be too much for her. Since they have already had sex in a previous book, and since he's got her out practicing hand-to-hand combat every day, you think this sex is going to be something out of the ordinary if she suddenly can't handle it. Powerful sex. So when they finally have sex, it is pretty ordinary. I think with that much build up, Singh should have described something extraordinary. I felt like it was build up for nothing and then you feel kind of tricked by the author, a distraction from the story.
As to the good, I loved the way the unresolved things from the previous book were carried forward and explored (e.g. "drip, drip, drip"), the continuity with tensions between Elena and other secondary characters. I really liked learning about the Angel world, their backstory, and exposition about the Seven. I keep wishing those Seven would get their own books, Singh has made them very compelling and interesting.
Overall a very good book.
3.5 stars
Review Date: 6/24/2014
I didn't love this book as much as the previous three. I felt like the story dragged a bit and Annie never seems to grow or develop through the series. She seems naive and has so little impulse control I can't figure out why these two guys like her so much. Speaking of the two guys, the love triangle is getting old and you can't help but wish that Annie would pick one already. The details about art and the history of San Francisco are interesting but not enough to overcome the sluggishness of the story. This is probably the last of the series, I wish it had ended with more resolution.
Review Date: 12/9/2010
I love this series and Cat and Bones. There is a gripping torture scene at the beginning of the book and several events that reinforce the love story. That said, this is the weakest of the series. I am re-reading them all and I found myself wishing this one would hurry along. I did like the introduction of Vlad and while I am not loving the Night Huntress World books AT ALL, if Frost writes one featuring Vlad, I will certainly buy a copy!
Review Date: 4/25/2014
Helpful Score: 1
I liked this much more than I expected to. I wasn't sure about Meg. She always seemed old, even when she was young. Her story didn't seem like it could be very romantic. But Balogh reveals the girl inside the woman who had to become mother to her siblings at a young age. She and Duncan have chemistry and while Balogh does her typical "pretend to be engaged" story, it was still fun to read. Duncan has a backstory that was pretty easy to guess but the resolution was nice and it was sweet how Meg helped him reconcile with his family.
Review Date: 8/14/2010
I enjoyed this book but I honestly think it would be better if you watched the BBC Pride and Prejudice mini-series with Colin Firth first. I've read the book many times but never saw the series and I think I missed some subtleties in the book because of that.
I also kind of didn't like any of the men she hooked up with but it was a good way to remind us that we probably wouldn't much like the "real" Mr. Darcy.
I also kind of didn't like any of the men she hooked up with but it was a good way to remind us that we probably wouldn't much like the "real" Mr. Darcy.
Review Date: 2/11/2011
Helpful Score: 2
Anita Blake meets...more concise writing with less sex. Mia, alien hunter, out to kick butt meets super hot alien dude. Action, mystery, and sexy hijinks ensue (if you can call a fist fight that leads to a kiss hijinks). Actually much better editing than I've seen in any of the Lords of the Underworld books, must be a different publisher because there is a significant reduction in malapropisms and just plain typos by comparison. Great introduction to a new series but looks like following books don't include any characters from current books so no major thread to connect them, story-wise. Will certainly read more.
1 to 20 of 504 -
Page:
