SHA
3.5 stars. Love the beginning but then the story kind of dragged and the end was a bit too crowded with too many characters.
I don't usually write a review for books I didn't enjoy but this book is so much of a mess I decided to write a short one just to warn others off this book.
The setting of the era was superfluous at best, only the mentions of Almack's pointed to Regency era, otherwise it could have been set up whenever.
Characters were flat, villains coming and going as needed and there was no explanation on how the Martine thing was resolved. I suppose the author thought the H and h saying Iwuvyu to each other in the end will keep the reader happy and forgot other parts unfortunately it wasn't enough since there were so many things left dangling.
And to think I paid for this book a bit more than I did other books. Makes me mad just seeing the cover.
Note: I read the kindle version and I don't know how much it differed from the 1981 version.
3.5 stars however I decided to rate this 4stars in order to increase the average rating since I think the book deserves better. I really enjoyed this book up until the H and h meet again in Brazil. The Napoleonic Wars being my favorite historical fiction era, I thoroughly enjoyed the historical aspects (which I rarely do in Harlequin historicals, the books' atmosphere mostly not much different from Contemporary romance). Unfortunately it seemed as if the editor found the unHarlequin characteristic unsatisfactory and ordered a pointless love scene and from then on ordered the author to focus more on the romance and leave off the history. This change felt very abrupt and could have been written more smoothly.
This one has too many characters with contrived plots, I felt like I was reading one reaally long soap opera.
Changed 3 stars to 2 because even after finishing the book I still don't remember ever reading it until I saw my Goodreads list.
I read this book not knowing it was Christian romance. At first it didn't feel much different from my usual historical romance novels but then nearing the end the prayers suddenly came every several pages (at least it felt that way to me). It was as if the writer felt it was not religious-y enough so decided to crank up the prayers, which felt weird. Or maybe that's just the way these books go. Never read one before this and I don't think I will again.
3.5 stars. This book caters to fans of Sebastian-Evie and Kleypas spoil us with Challons galore every now and then I feel like this book's main objective is to please said fans above. New readers might find it a bit tedious to find the book focusing more on showing someone they do not know (Gabriel's family) than on Gabriel and Pandora. And Pandora was also a disappointment since in the previous books she was shown to be an independent-minded girl and her boardgame was referenced a lot that you expect to see it here. Instead it was merely used as a lead-in to a poor facsimile of the key plot in [b:Devil in Winter 114166 Devil in Winter (Wallflowers, #3) Lisa Kleypas http://images.gr-assets.com/books/1309220205s/114166.jpg 1823830], you can't help but feel it was forced as some sort of a homage. There was no part dedicated to describe how the boardgame venture was undertaken. The reader just gets told at the end of the book how successful Pandora's game was. I also found the character Nora Black pointless because Gabriel said the reason he had a married woman as a mistress was because she was the only one that can keep up with his "perversions". I had no idea what these perversions are since he didn't seem to be doing anything out of the ordinary with Pandora.I enjoyed this book for the appearances of Evie and Sebastian and their children but I could not identify with Pandora or Gabriel. On its own, the book feels just like a run-of-the-mill bodice ripper where a rake seduces an innocent. Also, you can't help feeling the book being used as a showcase for a whole new series of the Challons. Being Sebastian-Evie's fan I will surely be reading them though I'm worried the books will again be used merely as a peek to Sebastian and Evie's happily ever after and will not be able to stand on their own (assuming the books were actually written).
I decided to read this because it was the first of a series. Little did I know that it's a spinoff of another series.
Quickly decided to dnf this early on (around 3rd or 4th chapter, I think) because obviously if you haven't read the other series you'd be lost since there were too many siblings mentioned in the beginning. And I know this is fiction but almost all of them are titled or married into titles?? Come on.
DNF. What was I thinking?? The last Winston made me give up Penny Reid but since this book was technically before that one I was hoping this might turn out okay. NOT.
I decided to give this one a try months after this came out, even though SPACE was maddeningly disappointing. Read the first chapter and realized that I didn't remember how the previous one ended (which is why I went back and changed SPACE rating from 2 to 1). I also found out that I was (again) very annoyed with Penny Reid's style. This told me that my decision to give up on her was actually correct the first time.
I think I'm done with Penny Reid. I haven't been able to enjoy all her recent books and I couldn't even finish this one. Either her style changed or I just outgrew her tryingtoohardtobefunnyandsexy style.
This series has something that somehow makes you keep reading to the next book. I got annoyed with so many minor errors almost each book has but this one has a really glaring one. The previous book stated that Nelly was having her seventy-fourth birthday but suddenly she's sixty-three in this book??
Yet I continued on to the next book...
NO, BIG NO.
I felt weird right from the beginning with characters appearing in sequences badly written you'd think you're watching a made-for-TV movie. It's as if the author was just pointing out what characters A, B, etc. were doing instead of telling a story.
If this is the way the author writes a suspense, she really should stick to romances.
4 chapters in and thinking to dnf this book. I'm sick of racist stereotypes on “exotic” groups.
A really cute fantasy short story. This reminds me of my childhood stories, giving me the warm feeling.