I read nearly this entire book while flying over the Atlantic Ocean, and it was a pretty good read. It has the same style and good writing/characterizations that I have come to expect from Sophie Kinsella.

I was perhaps more interested in the protagonist’s day to day goings-on at work than others might be since I am in that industry. Sadly, the ridiculousness of her work life was only mildly exaggerated. And I actually took a page from her book and applied it to my own life. I had a messy desk before this book. A messy desk where I always thought that I knew exactly where everything was, and I did–all except for the handful of things that I had forgotten about buried under the current work’s rubble.

The Undomestic Goddess is a kind of fun jaunt through a fantasy land. However, Samantha (the protagonist) becomes less and less real as time passes in the book. I like the play on the fantasy that we have all had about what it would belike if we could just pick up and leave it all… leave our life as it stands with nothing but a bus ticket and some cell-phone battery life left. No more possessions that we’re tied to, no job we are committed to, and no dealing with the complications that we’ve made for ourselves. In this aspect, I loved this book. And I loved how when she first arrives at the country house and is taken for a maid applying for work, she rolls with it. I have that same type of “fake it until you make it” personality. Her first disasters in the show more kitchen, in the laundry, even cleaning. I completely sympathize with that because I feel like am the dictionary definition of undomestic.

While it wouldn’t be chick lit without the hot gardener guy, who of course is onto her ruse, I was a little disappointed with how little effort it took for her to become a domestic goddess. I’ve tried cooking, again and again, and I’m here to tell you that what Samantha accomplished in one weekend’s training cannot be done in real life. And I know, I know, this is NOT about the real world, but the fantasy that it could be was going along so swimmingly until that point. And I was a little disappointed.

The point of chick lit is to help you escape, and I’ve found that it generally comes in three varieties. First, it’s utterly fantastical and it could never ever happen to a real person, but it’s well-written and the characters themselves have traits that you recognize in yourself or your girl friends. Second, it’s shockingly realistic, and then it pulls in some fantasy that many women have had and artfully weaves it into a story that almost makes you believe–my life could have been this way. And third, it’s fantastical, the characters are unrealistic, and there’s not a shred of anything in it that rings true to you. Obvioulsy, I like categories one and two. And I felt disappointed a little more than half-way through this book when I realized that it was a derailed category two, turned into a category three. Sad because I really liked Samantha.

My final beef with this story was the back and forth work thing and the whole “pseudo mystery” of how she really screwed up refiling the financing statement. I hated that it wasn’t her fault after all. Faults are what make us human. But then, she did learn how to be a gourmet cook in a weekend, so maybe she’s just not human. I detested her unrealism regarding the gardener hunk and her future, and I really really was let down that he threw over everything that his life meant to him to go to her. Sigh. There was a fabulous story of renewal, acceptance of self and others, and courage to grow that got lost inside this book. And I feel like it got lost because somewhere in the middle, the author started applying the “chick lit” formula to this story. Which is really too bad, because I would love to see this plot line done right. So I’ll have to throw this in the same rejected barrel as I threw The Country Life into a few months ago. Boo. show less

It feels like this was repackaged and resold under a different title. Am I wrong? Just, no. Try again.

Fantastic addition to her series of stories. If you're looking for pride and prejudice, it's not here. But her characters are delightfully flawed and it's an entertaining read.

Not as good as Wild Montana Sky, but still pretty wonderful. I really enjoyed the tension between the main character and her neighbor love interest. I liked that they weren't both--wow this was destiny! But that it took a little more time for them to see how they could understand one another and each be something for each other that they were previously missing. Good, believable adventure and issues that cropped up with the kids of each family. It made it less of a true romance novel to me, which can sometimes be a refreshing change of pace and was here.

I'll definitely read more in this series if there ever is anything, and more from Debra Holland.

This was my first "frontier" romance. And it was fantastic. I really loved getting the POV of the main character and her life back east, how easily her brother tossed aside any thoughts of her comfort in her own home. It really makes you understand why she is willing to make such a long trek from home. The contrast in her life style back east to being on the frontier was very entertaining. I really enjoyed the writing style--I didn't feel like I was being treated like a half-literate as so many books these days are apt to do. This is a great read for a quiet evening or weekend.

The subtitle of this books is: “A Woman’s Journal of Struggle and Defense in Occupied France.” So I'm not sure if this is the exact match for this book--but it seems unlikely to me that she wrote more than one. Whichever way, it’s fascinating, sometimes horrifying and heartbreaking reading.

After reading the Diplomat’s Wife, I became more interested in the resistance movements in varying countries occupied by the Nazis during WWII. While on a trip to France, browsing a most fabulous book store, I came across Resistance and resolved to get it from my local library as soon as I returned home. It was a strange read for me–the kind of book that instantly sucks you in, you read longer than you should, but when you do finally put it down for some reason, you discover that it’s hard to pick back up. After doing that a couple of times, I think I realized that it was because I was so emotionally invested in her story–and I knew that her experience was only going to get worse.

Agnes Humbert was one of the first members of the first resistance cell in France. You see her flee Paris as the Nazis take over and then return with some idyllic and mostly naive sense that there must be something she can do in Paris to help her country. And she does. She had many interesting political connections before the war, which enables her to get in front of the right people at the right time. Initially her work is merely leaflets to be distributed to Parisians who have only heard the show more Vichy french or German point of view of the war–a perspective decidedly out of whack with reality. Eventually, leaflets are no longer enough and she spearheads an underground newspaper–appropriately called resistance. In the final days of her efforts, she harbors a British soldier who is trying to escape and helps coordinate the dissemination of stolen important intelligence documents and maps. With just over a year of efforts to the resistance under her belt, a member of the cell’s inner circle betrays them all and the gestapo takes her away unexpectedly.

Agnes spends about a year in a horrid french prison with vermin, little food, torture, and freezing conditions. Eventually, she is tried with the rest of the cell, but because she is a woman, she is spared the death penalty, unlike her comrades. She then is deported as a political prisoner to Germany, where she discovers that political prisoners there are no different to the Germans than murderers, thieves and other convicts and she is set to hard, progressively dangerous labor. The next many sections of the book cover her movement in Germany to a couple of different work factories, where her greatest accomplishment other than staying alive is knowing that everything she produces in the factory is subtly defective–not enough so that someone immediately inspecting it could tell, but so that as soon as it is untraceable to her and needed for use, it would not meet its function. For which I felt glee for her as well.

The ending is inspiring. She stays on to help with intelligence before going home to France. All told she spent nigh on four years behind bars of some sort for her little over one year’s largely publication efforts at resistance.

I don’t know if I can love a book about so much misery and destruction. But I can say that it was very worth while–one that I won’t forget. And that I am better educated for having read. One commentator to the book praised it saying that the quality of the writing is not what one would expect from the many memoirs made about WWII–rather, it was great literature. I wholeheartedly agree. I think it’s even more important in the grand scheme of important WWII books because it’s a woman’s point of view, who was in the thick of it, who used her brilliance to make a difference. show less

I guess I just didn't know what to expect with a short story. But that was more like a thought than a short story. Far too short. The writing was fine, but there was really no character development or plot. Really disappointed.

I'm giving it two stars instead of one because the writing is good--it's just the plot that I have huge problems with. Also, it reminds me of a Pride and Prejudice fanfic with a strikingly similar beginning (although the fanfic I liked). This is a flawed girl with commitment and intimacy issues who runs almost literally into ex famous celebrity star who is paranoid like nobody's business. He's also a massive control freak in a way that I don't think any woman should find romantic. It's disturbing. Then she's also a boudoir and erotic photographer (and landscape). I don't know. I felt like there was way too much going on. I didn't like the characters. I didn't find the relationship believeable and I didn't want them to work out. Pan this one.

So this was my first reading of this celeb-romance subgenre. And let's be clear from the outset that it's a fairly low-brow subgenre at that. I wanted to really like this. The idea of the story is kind of fun. A sad, lonely no-career young woman is a moderator for a a celeb social media type of site and has her favorite male celeb she likes to bash. She gets an email from his truly and he wants her to be nice for awhile so he can get a different more serious type of part than he's been getting. Through machinations galore, he takes her on as an "everygirl" fake girlfriend and they fall in love.

I think maybe I'm too old for the story--because I detested the whole be famous for being famous storyline with the evil girls that push that through. But the story of the transformation of the main girl is kind of interesting. She kind of comes into her own -- somewhat. The romance is not great though--there's no where why or when of their falling in love and what would make it last other than that they are "comfortable" together. Yawn.

Unless you're a diehard for this subgenre, I'd say give this a skip. I didn't waste my time on the sequel.

Disclosure--I almost gave this 4 stars. I love the premise. Star gets wrong number from another star who doesn't want to hear from him anymore and girl messes with his head a bit. Honestly, the type of "forgive me, I'm an idiot" types of texts from men are generic enough to believe. But then it took a left turn at ridiculous. Texting with friends--playing pass the phone "gosh, who am i actually talking to? The relationship doesn't feel like it's between the two main characters and rather a group relationship between his friends and hers. Then there's the weird stalker guy (why does there have to be a weird stalker guy??). It's all just a bit too much.

How have I not read this book before? Tell me? I'm waiting.....

Ok, clearly, I've had my head under a rock for awhile. I had a colleague recommend this in March and I bought it ($1.99 at Amazon kindle) and had it on there until this weekend. I finally gave it a try--not because I was in the mood to read this book, but because i was sick to death of paranormal and really badly written romances. And I heard the writing didn't suck in Outlander. And it doesn't. I've got a couple of minor bones to pick with word usage, but generally well written enough to make me feel like I heard the dialogue between characters.

And what characters they are. Claire. She's spunky. And far more modern than just post-WWII, really. And Jamie. Sigh. Heart throbbing. Wonderful. Near perfect men tend to irritate me in books, but I like him just fine. I typically also don't like really young male protagonists because I can't handle the selfishness and immaturity, but Jamie. Sigh. He is young, but he's making the best of what he's been dealt I think. And the intrigue with all of the MacKenzies and the evil Lagoiare (tell me she gets what's coming to her eventually??). All good stuff.

There is certainly a bunch of "oh, hell no" factors--like Claire would have been skewered or gutted early on for her forwardness and unladylike behavior I think. But it's so much damned fun and the relationships between the characters are really so interesting, that I can easily overlook the improbabilities that are show more riddled throughout the story.

I also like the herblore and old-school healing--that's just fun to see. So that I don't become entirely obsessed, I'm getting the second book from my library's ebook repository and will have to wait hold times to simmer down! show less

It's cute, I suppose. It's very little in the way of any plausibly realistic plot. They meet night 1 (and do it, of course), they have a "perfect day" (and do it in almost all of the rooms in her house) and then they have until noon on day 3 when he has to get back on the tour bus (and they do it of course again).

The writing was good enough to almost mae me want to buy the next book to see what happens. But that desire is overridden by the lack of plausible real connection. Pass.

I had an interview once with someone for whom I have much respect and who I had heard was very well-read. Naturally, I worked the topic of conversation around to literature, and we had a lively discussion on the merits of several British authors. His favorite book is Middlemarch, which he said that he reads when he’s not in the mood for anything heavy. For whatever reason, I have an image of him very Mr. Bennet-like, enjoying folly and being amused by the profane. I had to confess to him that I had never read that particular book. I did not get the job.

I resolved to read that book around New Years’. I picked up a soft bound copy of Middlemarch from my local library toward the end of February and was surprised at its girth. No light reading after all, it would seem. I read it on the train to and from an internship and then tried a few nights to just give it a few hours at a time. And alas, alack, I could not do it. After 200 pages, I gave up. I more than gave up–I borrowed the BBC adaptation from my local library. Sigh.

So why could I not finish it? The characters were a little too flat. They all had a touch of the ridiculous in them, which I generally like. But the characters all seemed so very one-dimensional to me–so much so that I could never really become interested in any of their stories; I never needed to see what happens next with them. I just didn’t care.

Sister Carrie was one of Dreiser’s first novels. It was not well-received when first published in 1900 for a variety of reasons, my favorite being that people of that day had a hard time with the book’s female protagonist not getting her due (as in negative consequences for all of her naughty decisions). She succeeds and shines to the very end even though she made a series of immoral decisions, which in those days should have ensured her doom. Evidently Dreiser and his wife toned it down a bit and that was why it was published at all. Interestingly, the altered version of the book was published consistently from 1900 until about 1980 when the original version finally became available. And for that, I am grateful.

I loved this story. There was something so soul-full about the characters. The “everyman” quality of Carrie, a very young woman who is initially too silly to know that glamour and and easy lifestyle comes with a price. At the outset she is just what a young woman might have been back then, relatively naive, ambitious to obtain trinkets and beautiful clothes, to be one of the beautiful people, and thus she was a rather silly girl. Carrie meets a Mr. Drouet on the train in from Chicago, beginning a friendship that would lead her to attaining her dreams. Drouet himself is almost the male equivalent of Carrie–enamoured with fine things, clothes, and beautiful women. But since he is making his own way in the world, he does work hard at his trade and makes a show more success of himself. Through Drouet, Carrie meets Hurstwood, a married, successful bar and hotel manager who is a the top of the society food chain in Chicago–at least for those in society who must work to attain or maintain their wealth. Each of the three make a succession of decisions, that in the novel’s time and indeed to a large extent in our own time, are considered immoral and create difficulties to which the characters must react.

I think for me that is one of the most powerful parts of the story. The point at which in anyone’s life, you have made a decision and must “suffer the consequences,” it is usually then where it seems that many future decisions are taken from you. You must then merely react to consequences upon consequences instead of having the upper hand and taking steps to determine your fate.

I found myself waiting many times during the first half of the novel for Carrie’s decisions to catch up with her. For whatever reason, I assumed that a book from this time, focusing on the human element and our penchant for making bad decisions worse, would have Carrie end up having to walk the streets or die of some venereal disease. I am astonished now at the outcome. And I applaud Dreiser’s courage to break away from the “evil fallen woman must suffer a thousand agonies and indignities” formula that literature had proscribed to since the first wronged man ever captured such a story on sheep’s guts. Because let's face it--literary immoral men seemed to do just fine most of the time.

It is not without some tedium though. At first, I was enchanted by the many, many details that Dreiser provided. You could close your eyes and picture Carrie on the train from Wisconsin to Chicago–going to the big city with stars in her eyes. By the 400th page of such description though, I confess to skimming through some of that detail. And yet, it’s not like many other detailed stories where I wish to heavens that the author had just stopped 200 pages earlier. The detail is needed, for the most part, to really get you into the minds and even the lodgings of the characters. It leaves you with a more complete view of the desperation of the two main characters–desperation that leads them in decidedly different ways. show less

Generally, I liked this one. For a small town/returning home or to family type of romance (which I usually don't like), this one was pretty decent. I think that was in large part due to Ms. Brogan's great character development. Dodie is great, the son and his lover are great. Even the divorcee protagonist is growing.

The only thing that fell a bit short was the actual romance development. I never really get the reason for the quick and highly developed connection between the two. He's likeable and she is too, so I suppose it works fine. But I think the story is missing a little something.

That said, I'd recommend it. I finished it awhile ago and this is a series, and I haven't bothered to read more, so I think that speaks volumes.

I’m sitting here making an undecided facial expression and smacking my lips somewhat like after I do make when I’ve eaten something that doesn’t taste bad exactly, but it’s certainly nothing I would try again and I feel like my tongue has been coated unpleasantly so that I get to continue to taste it until I brush my teeth. Yeah, that’s how I feel about this book.

In fairness, I should disclose that I went into this reading adventure with some fairly high expectations because so many Jane Austen fans recommended her so whole heartedly. In fact, they were well nigh as intrigued with Ms. Gaskell’s characterizations as they were with Ms. Austen’s. It has stellar ratings on Goodreads. And I feel beyond let down.

A word about Ms. Gaskell: I was told she was a contemporary of Austen, perhaps on the later end of Austen’s writings. She is not. Elizabeth Gaskell was actually a contemporary of Dickens and contributed many short stories to a circular that Dickens published. And there’s the rub. I hate Dickens. I do. Just. Simply. Hate. Dickens. She also wrote a biography of Charlotte Bronte. I hate Bronte. Either one. Simply. Hate. Bronte. It’s all so dismal and dreary. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good “humanity sucks and should be wiped out” story as much as the next person, but I’ve always felt that Dickens-esque novels were too heavy-handed and ended up focusing on part of a story that I never found that interesting.

North and South was long: 400 show more some-odd small print, larger pages. It was extra hefty on description and meticulously written dialogue with Northern Englanders accent. I actually almost gave up on it out of sheer boredom at around 40 pages. As it was the only book I had with me on the train to and from work, I kept reading another 5 or so pages, and to its credit, it did become more interesting. But for a book that is about social class divisions and the struggles within each group to understand the lot of the other, it was decisively shallow. I felt like many of the “key” scenes were simply too contrived. There is no reason for Mr. Thornton, the male protagonist, to fall head over heals with Miss Hale, the female protagonist. They meet and instantly dislike one another, but, in my opinion, Glaskell is never able to convince me why their feelings change for one another. The author’s contrivance to move Mr. Thornton’s heart is really only a moment where Miss Hale (bravely but mostly stupidly) puts her body between Mr. Thornton and a bunch of rioters to protect him. Really? Hunh? At some point she throws herself at him still to “protect” him and the author has Thornton reflecting much on the feel of her against him. So his hatred for her “superior” ways all vanish in a cloud of smoke over a little lust? Isn’t there a town harlot for that?

Much later, of course only after making Miss Hale an heiress, and conveniently, an heiress over the very property upon which Mr. Thornton works and lives, Miss Hale realizes that he is all that is good in a man. I’m not certain why this change of heart because the author never tells us. It is true that Mr. Thornton does make great personal strides as a human being learning to understand the plight of others. But that she should decide she loves him on that alone seems, well, wholly unconvincing.

I actually had to re-read the last couple of chapters to make sure that I didn’t miss anything because one moment they are without any contact for a few years and the next he sees her in London and kisses her. I was convinced that my book must have been missing a few pages, but no, it just ended quickly. And that is one of my greatest pet peeves: rambling on and on and freaking on only to end the story without properly tying up your loose ends or making the tying up believable. I feel betrayed as a reader who invested my time to slog through your unnecessary detail.

The long and the short of it is that I ought to have stopped 40 pages in when I originally thought to give up. Why do people like this story? Two thumbs down. show less

I waffled a bit on the stars here. The writing was better than most in this sub-genre, so it could have gotten a 4. And it had slightly more plot than most in this sub-genre. Also, in it's favor, but I really hated the girl. And I hated that he was deserving mostly of better but kind of too pathetic to demand it.

It had a fresh take on the meeting--star dashes into her bar to escape crazy fans chasing him down the streets of a seaside town where he's filming a mega film. He kind of settles into normal guydom with her for awhile, and it's nice. He meets the friends, plays a little poker, goes to her special family cabin and fishes with her. Normal things. Where I raise a brow but still stick with the author is the stalker who doesn't like the girlfriend. I get that and it's probably real. Where it took aleft turn at unrecoverable crazytown is the Ryan lying about his latest affair coupled with mega actress conspiring with the random security guy and bellboy?!? And then let's cement our hatred for the protagonist as a total headcase when she nearly gets hit by a car in the rain (of course) thinking he's cheating on her (he's not).

If you take it from the perspective of two flawed people, it's not half bad. But the rest of the contrived action plot pieces get in the way.

I really liked this book. I read it on recommendation of a friend who declared it one of her top three favorite books read in 2008. I’m not certain that it will be a long-lasting favorite, but I liked it.

When I started reading, I groaned audibly and frantically paged through the first few chapters realizing that, blech, it is a book of letters. I detest that format! I do. I hate it. However, it works for this book–and you have to understand how grudgingly I say that. The book has a legitimate reason for being based upon letters that is completely authentic: a man without a local book source, writes a letter to the former owner of a book he came by for more information about the book’s author. I like that. Very much. There is something very comforting about connecting with people over like interests… but in important ways. So this story begins with the former owner of the book being a new authoress herself–in search of her next story. The man and the people from the island where he lives have just such a story.

Set in post-war England and the Channel Islands, Guernsey Literary Society is a historical treasure. For someone my age, I have a vague notion of the sacrifices that civilians were not asked but required to give for their countries during the war, but I certainly didn’t understand the extent nor make the connection that for years after the war, people were still on rations for so many items: food, clothing and so forth. Indeed, given that we have been at show more war/alert/peace action/constant impending action for so much of my daughter’s life and then some, it’s amazing to me that I don’t sacrifice anything in the least little bit on any day for the war mongering we do abroad. I’m so not going down that road in this blog though.

The letters are sent back and forth from this new authoress to several characters who live on Guernsey and who tell their tales about the war. Some are amusing. Some are mostly harmless. Some leave you in tears or make your face distort with horror. This book is able to force your eyes open and educate you on lesser known horrors, or perhaps more accurately, those that time has forgot, without beating you over the head with it–and it leaves a lasting impression.

I think what I liked best about this book is that the characters are so full of life, so real. I laughed and cried and smiled and sat thoughtfully as I read. Their stories moved me. I also really loved watching the new authoress mature a bit and come into her own in so many areas of her life–almost as though her character drew the strength, wisdom, and maturity from the stories the Guernsey folk shared with her.

This is a must read–pick a few quiet, chilly evenings to curl up with it on the couch. Oh, and this is definitely not chick lit. show less

Really 3.5 stars not 4, but I liked it enough to risk the average bumping up.

I just finished this one. I'd put it in the "highly consummable category--ideal for when you've only got a couple of brain cells left to rub together after a hard week.

Emily Weland is a bookshop owner with some ambiguous inheritance that gives her a little cottage, supports her bookstore and gives her half ownership in the bakery next door--enough so that she evidently doesn't concern herself with money with all of the folks she has coming in to run her store while she takes time off willy nilly. She's 28 and paralyzed when it comes to dealings with the opposite sex and with most of life in general. I get the impression that she lives vicariously through the books she reads and the plays she writes. And she seems content enough with the arrangement.

Enter hot California man. Let's let him enter again because I want to watch that. I find it a little odd that he has more character development than Emily, but hey, it's a lovely sight, so I'm not complaining. He's wildly successful, driven and we understand hard parts about his childhood that made him that way. Emily, by contrast, has this mysterious problem with men in her past until the we find out when she tells California man about feeling rejected based on phsycial/sexual issues by her one and only early boyfriend years and years ago. And now, California man and Emily have an instant sizzling attraction--so she decides to use him to get some show more sexual experience and confidence. He's amenable (are you surprised? he's fascinated with her grey eyes). They do the deed, evidently many times but we don't get to hear much about it. And they fall in love. Over a period of 2-3 weeks. Of which California man travels for at least 1. Yeah, I'm not buying it either.

It felt like the author had a few other ideas that either weren't developed or were mercilessly (and wrongly) edited out of the final version. We almost find out why California man goes from thinking this is a fling, meaninful but a fling nonetheless, and we don't ever see what makes him decide to go all the emotional way. I think if we had, and some more character development for Emily, this could have been a much better story.

That said, I don't have that awful "damn, that's 4 hours of my life I can't get back" feeling. I doubt I'll track down the other books in the series though. show less

I'm trying to decide if this was as good as the first one. I think it's just different. The premise is hilarious. Bluestocking sister engaged to the nice, dependable yawn of a man she's not in love with insists on knowing what to expect on her wedding night. So after thorough consideration, she picks a rake of the first order from her brother in law's gaming hall, breaks in and propositions him. Of course, his intellect is a great match for her and he can't help but be attracted to her brains and brash behavior. Then, after many hijinks and bad guys threatening bad things, they fall in love. The end. :)

Ok, not quite so simple. And as much as I just made fun of it, it was a tremendously entertaining read. I'm definitely getting the next book in the series.

I'm laughing at myself right now--since I contemplated for a few moment NOT doing a review. Not sure I want to let the world know that I read it and loved it. This is by far the most "out there" book I've read. I swear I spent half of the book with my head cocked to the side thinking "how do they do that??". Snigger. I'm no light weight when it comes to blue books, but this one was s doozy. And I loved it. I'm generally not a fan of dystopian books (it's like the new "vampire", am I right?) and anyone who has read my other reviews will know that I'm not a fan of "she walked into the room and for some reason I can't explain to myself or anyone else, I fell for her at that moment" kinds of story lines. But I felt like in this book it worked. The female protagonist is so very different from the male, that I think she does shine out to him and, at the very least, legitimately captures his undivided attention from the second he knocks into her. I think she could have as easily fallen for the tattoo artist ;) And I like the idea of the ultimate in dystopian societies where they have had the cataclysmic event and were so arrogant as to name the place of belonging and rightness "Eden".

I kind of expected all the male and female characters in the gang to be badass--uniformly and boringly so, but they weren't. There's still sweetness and there's still independence underneath it all. There was tons of sex in the book, but I didn't feel like any of it was just thrown in so it could show more be a sexy book. It all worked well with the female protagonist's coming of age and into her own concept. This is NOT for the faint of heart. If you're only ok with "love scenes", this is not for you. There are threesomes and more and bindings and public sex and and and. Overall well done, and it has me curious enough to check out the next in the series. show less

This could have had 5 stars. And I generally liked the story. The female protagonist's husband died while deployed before she could tell him she was pregnant with their first child. The story picks up roughly two years after the husband's death and she's struggling. Struggling to make it through each day, to care about joining the living, to do anything other than take care of their child. She has well-intentioned but clueless friends who seem to need her to rejoin life for THEM to feel comfortable. She also has a fairly self-interested mother who wants her daughter to snap out of it already, find a new father for her baby and generally just not be so difficult.

Enter super hot lawn boy--who has grown up well over these past few years. You can almost hear "Stacey's Mom" in your mind as he looks at her from across the super hot lawn. :) There's a significant age difference, and, let's face it--if you actually really really loved your husband, it's going to take some significant effort to learn how to process the grief, honor his memory and move on so you can have hot monkey sex with someone else and maybe even open your heart in the process. All good stuff. The authors do a great job of letting you know what challenges both the widow and hot lawn guy have in their lives and in their psyches. You like both of them--even though they're flawed. You buy into the slow build of their relationship. Again, all good stuff--which is why I gave this three stars.

The editing sucked. I'm show more not just talking about double periods (although there were) or misused words (although there were), I'm talking about magically disappearing babies, magically changed days (I think) and the same old spew 75% of the way through the book. You've got these lovely evolving characters who lapse into almost verbatim verbal diarrhea 50 pages after they have already dealt with that psychosis. You've got scenes where the baby is there and then magically no longer addressed or present. There's one mind-boggling day that I think is really two or three days, but I'm not sure. And that makes me sad because the story is such a great love story. Read it if you think you'll enjoy the story line, but have a glass of wine or two so you don't notice unnecessary repetition or play the "where's waldo the baby" game. show less

DNF. I'm reserving a rating in case I decide to pick it back up. I loved the first bit of this book--enough to recommend it to a friend to really enjoys military guys and romance. But it lost me in Italy. It's just a downright mess in Italy. I overlooked a bunch of it until he takes her back to his secret bedroom/bathtub place and all of a sudden her panties melt and all her reservations are gone...after they just did the shootings and the sewers and the fire and and and. Too far fetched. too much and with characters still not developed well enough for me to care.

Sigh, yet another DNF. Maybe it's me and I'm developing ADD? I have had a thousand people say you MUST read this--it is SO awesome. The series is amazing, blah, blah, blah. Meh. That's what I'm giving it. Meh to just who the f cares. I don't particularly like or hate her, I don't particularly like or hate him and I'm even ambivalent to the bad guy. This is not a good sign. I've picked this up and put it down myriad times over the past year and can't get past 50%.

I'm reserving rating just in case I go on a lark and decide to finish.

I liked it *she says haltingly and with some suprise*. I really did. It's quite a beefy book to get through--small type, large pages and many of those. So I didn't feel like it was the usual throw away type of romantic drivel that has crossed my path lately.

I liked both characters. I felt like they had believable reasons for each of them having the character flaws that they did. I believed that their sexual attraction was strong. I wish we could have understood a little bit more why they originally fell in love/lust, but you can't have everything.

I did not care for a few unfollowed through contrivances in middle and en:
a. who the property damaging person was and why (and why Lord Gray seemed to utterly forget about the danger to Evie even though he had no idea the culprit had been dealt with)
b. the lover putting his loved one in the hands of a known abuser without much concern thereto.
c. the brothers to mind the shop--it felt like the author forgot entirely that she added them to the story.

All that said, it's a rare delight for me to pick up something as well written as it is steamy. So, generally, I approve, and if the author's other books sounded remotely interesting to me (which they don't), I'd read those as well.

This is really a 3.5 star rating. I've read over 100 pride and prejudice fanfics or stories involving an obsession with Mr. Darcy and I have to say this is probably the most original take I've ever read. I liked Kelsey. I think lots of women are confused about what exactly they want from life and from a partner at that age. And I liked that Mark was the type of guy to be able to point out her confusion and get her to face it. While the falling in and out of the characters idea is novel (giggle), I'm not really sure it "worked". I've read other reviews about this book--so I appreciate I'm one of the few the voices of dissent on this point. I liked the characters well enough though, and it was well-written. So if you're a die-hard P&P fanfic reader, give this one a shot.

No. I should have DNF'd this but I didn't because I kept watching it like a train wreck. There's no logical build up here. THere isn't really even a, well, hey, we all go a little crazy on vacations. He an asshole and she evidently has no self-worth. Ew. And!!!! it's one of those tricky the story continues books because it cuts off in the middle of everything. No.

Hmmm. I don't ordinarily write up a review, but I feel somewhat compelled to do so. The book is very well-written. I like her style--I especially like how you can feel the flavor of the book within a book. I can almost believe that Jane wrote the Stanhopes instead of Syrie. In fact, my favorite part of the book is the Stanhopes story. It's delightful--I like the change of fortunes/circumstances so well. Of course, you can see from miles away who will ultimately be Miss Stanhope's life partner, but it's interesting and very well done.

The modern story is what draws the book down and should be 3.5 stars. I won't go into how ridiculous it is that they find the manuscript so quickly. Or that her mentor's housekeeper is a bizarre freak for no purpose we ever really understand. I understand love as convenience and that is what the protagonist has with Stephen, but I really don't think that she could come to know anything about the manuscript owner in that little time. The modern story is very much a launching pad for the meat of the book--which is the manuscript. It's as thought the author coudln't decide whether to make the modern story as brief as possible so she could just get to the STanhopes or whether she wanted to make the mdoern story important but ran out of time? room? inspiration. In any case, I disliked it.

If you love Austen, absoltely read this book, but I think you can just read the chapters that are the Stanhopes story and not the whole enchilada.

This was a great one. I generally like most books by Susan Mallery because she does such a great job building her characters. The tension between her protagonists was fun, each of their respective family dynamics was interesting and believable. I only have two problems with the book--the grandmother sort of fizzled from important and meddling to nothingness with no resolution, and, as always, rape or abuse should not be used to advance the storyline, and certainly not to make the protagonists more hopelessly in love. There's nothing romantic about being abused or being raped (not rape in this book). I was horrified by the fairly blase treatment of what happens to her and her little girl. Very bothered. Espcially given that it was so useless to advancing the story. So--I'd say, read this book--and when you get to the chapter where her ex comes to the apartment at the end skip it--you won't be missing a thing.

I just love all three "summer" books. The brothers are all so different and interesting (and hot, let's face it). And Fool's Gold sounds lovely. I read these three basically back to back and wasn't sick of them at all... but... I haven't wanted to read any of the other fools gold books. I think it's because several of the characters you meet in the summer books met their honeys in prior books--so it feels so "done" already. I'm sure when I'm bored and looking for something to read, I'll crack the rest of the series open.

I read this book last--and again with the prior abuse or rape that somehow draws characters together (and she got over way too simplistically btw). So that's this books flaw.