October 28th, 2009 — 4 Stars, Australia/New Zealand, Book Review, Category, Contemporary, Executive, M-O, Secretary, Virgin Heroine
This romance takes place in New Zealand. Our young 20 year old heroine is striking out on her own in the Queen City far away from the one horse town she grew up in Manawatu. She’s looking for adventure and excitement and finds more than she bargains for in Stuart Newman.
Their first meeting is a chance encounter when he whips by her on the street drenching her in ice cold puddle water. In apology he takes her to his place to freshen up before dropping her home. Using information he learned that night about her he manages to place an ad in the paper and lures her to his office. She becomes his secretary despite the plethora of warnings about Stuart Newman.
Stuart Newman is drawn into a bet by his friend Paul to make Cindy fall head over heels in love with him within a month. He accepts. His only saving grace is that he warned Cindy twice in conversation about “his own personal interest and a bet” when it came to them. She was simply too naive to put two and two together.
Stuart is a hard man, jaded, cynical, and above all scornful of women, love, and finer emotions. He simple doesn’t believe in them. His issues arise from his mother and from one crash and burn relationship, the last time he’d ever open himself willingly to a woman.
It’s a jazzy little category. I enjoyed it thoroughly. The ending has a tangy bittersweet feel to it. I wish though that it had another ten pages to really tie it off. It felt a tad rushed, and a bit jerky, but oh well.
Rating: 3.5 Stars
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July 11th, 2009 — 4.5 Stars, A-C, Business, Comedy of Manners, Gentry, Great Britain, Guest Reviews, Jane Austen, Regency, Virgin Heroine
What I love best is seeing multiple perspectives on books that I'm reading, have read, or intend to read. When Sasha sent me this guest review, I was pleasantly surprised. Without knowing it, we were reading the same book trilogy within days of each other! Check out my review of An Assembly Such as This and Sasha's below!
By: Sasha Muradali, guest blogger
This is not your typical romance novel, nor would I classify it as romance per se because An Assembly Such As This (Fitzwilliam Darcy, Gentlemen) by Pamela Aidan is the author's take, from the point-of-view of Fitzwilliam Darcy, on Pride and Prejudice, a classic novel, by Jane Austen. However, well-acknowledged, Pride and Prejudice is a love story.
An Assembly Such as This is the first part of a trilogy (Fitzwilliam Darcy, Gentlemen) that takes us through the all too familiar journey so many of us have come to love. The other two novels are called Duty and Desire and These Three Remain. This specific volume ventures into the first third of Pride and Prejudice up until when Darcy and the Bingley family leave Hertfordshire for London after the fiasco at the Netherfield Park Ball.
You cannot truly appreciate or understand the depths of this novel without having had read Pride and Prejudice previously. There is a lot that the author takes for chance that you already know.
While, many of us have had our assumptions on that Darcy feels, we've never really seen it in writing before. And as someone who is very skeptical about anything that interprets Pride and Prejudice, this first novel of Aidan's trilogy is nothing short of absolutely fantastic.
The author takes her readers through Darcy's first meeting with Elizabeth, why he behaves they way that he does, and how often, what was once seen as him being tough and perhaps cruel, was his natural decorum, or way of flirting holding on to that very decorum.
Specifically, Aidan is able to add some of her own little quirks into the story - consistent letters between Georgiana and Darcy, a look into Darcy's private life as male head of house. This is actually one of the most unique aspects, and what I enjoyed reading the most, because as a reader you get to see an illustration of how Georgiana was really feeling post-Mr. Wickham. These letters also serve as a means to understand how truly and deeply Darcy cares for Georgiana - they also show how often he really puts others before himself.
This fact helps the reader understand further his decision to separate Bingley from Jane Bennett; in An Assembly Such as This, Darcy is working together selflessly with Caroline to protect Charles, not harm him. It would be important to remember that in the original Pride and Prejudice, the ball at Netherfield Park turned into somewhat of a fiasco between the younger Bennett girls running wild with the officers, Mrs. Bennett running her mouth off and, the Bennett's cousin, Mr. Collins, becoming a public laughing stock. These circumstances are part of what fuels Darcy's opinion of country manners being 'savage.'
If you are looking to laugh, gain a near flawless interpretation of Pride and Prejudice through the eyes of Fitzwilliam Darcy, try your eyes on An Assembly Such As This.
Here on Love Passion Romance we will be featuring reviews on the other two in the trilogy shortly. So stay tuned and don't forget to remember the tag 'Fitzwilliam Darcy Gentlemen.'
4.5 of 5 stars.
Buy: An Assembly Such as This
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July 8th, 2009 — 3.5 Stars, Book Review, Comedy of Manners, Contemporary, Convict, G-I, Love Triangle, Teacher, United States of America
If you’re in the mood for a cute, light, sweet, and fun read, Too Good to be True is for you. It’s a very chaste contemporary. There’s no sex. In fact the hero and heroine don’t begin to even get together until two thirds the way through the book. The book is full of witty dialogue and funny scenes.
Grace is in a no-win situation. Her ex-fiancé, Andrew, dumped her twenty days before their wedding. He’s now dating her youngest sister, Natalie. Ever the martyr, Grace puts up a good front. She is not over Andrew and she’s not going to get in the way of her sister’s happiness. It’s not like you can help when the big klabammy strikes. Still, it doesn’t mean she wouldn’t like to kick Andrew in the groin. He doesn’t deserve a gem like Natalie.
In the meantime to get everyone off her back and stop staring at her with pitying looks, Grace invents the perfect boyfriend. She’s done it in the past, but never was a situation more called for than right now. Enter Wyatt Dunn, feral cat rescuing pediatric surgeon.
A new neighbor arrives next door and his name is Callahan O’Shea. Of course their first meeting goes a little awry when she smacks him on the head with her hockey stick—what? He looked like a burglar! Turns out Callahan, sexy though he may be, is an ex-con. Definitely, not acceptable boyfriend material!
Higgins writes in a similar manner as Janet Evanovich with her Stephanie Plum novels. There are obviously some key differences besides series versus one-shot. Instead of a shockingly funny grandma, we get an appalling awful one. Instead of a long suffering mother dealing with her crazy daughter, we get a long suffering father who deals with his wife and her embarrassing nude art, etc.
There’s some weird drama at the end of the novel, which I feel was just thrown in to extend the book a few pages. Callahan gets all funny about Grace’s harmless little pastime of creating imaginary boyfriends. It was an over the top reaction to say the least.
Additionally, I got a little irritated by the dog, but dog lovers should be okay with Angus McFangus.
Rating: 3.5 Stars
Buy: Too Good To Be True
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