Abandoned by a cruel fate, lovely Dougless Montgomery lies weeping upon a cold tombstone in an English church. Suddenly, the most extraordinary man appears. It is Nicholas Stafford, Earl of Thornwyck…and according to his tombstone he died in 1564.
Drawn to his side by a bond so sudden and compelling it overshadows reason, Dougless knows that Nicholas is nothing less than a miracle: a man who does not seek to change her, who finds her perfect, fascinating, just as she is. What Dougless never imagined was how strong the chains are that tie them to the past…or the grand adventure that lay before them.
Ok Guys, this review took forever, I had a wonderful hand written version of this, that I lost due to an unfortunate turn of events involving a boy, shoes, and a hungry goat-dog.
So finally here it goes:
I once read or heard, can't remember which, that if a romance novel takes you more than 6 consecutive reading hours to finish, the author did something wrong. I agree with this so much. I have a certain proclivity for reading fairly quickly, my fellow renegade can read something with 400 pages in about 2 hours, so of course there are exceptions to this "rule". This book however, took me about a week to finish. I was off from work, I had (finally) nothing but time on my hands. And I wasted it. And I never say that romance novels are a waste. The sad thing about this is, is that I generally like Jude Deveraux's work. She puts out a very consistent and fun read just about every time, but something is off for me with this novel. Jude, you are better than this.
Now before I continue I need to say that I 100% understand that this book was written during a time that (really) the only type of romance novels that had been previously written were harlequin. (Shudders). I also understand that perspectives of women from the time of this books first publication and now are completely different. That being said, here I go (again)( I am very bitter).
Spoilers will probably be in this review somewhere, be aware.
The Good:
I loved the references to tape players and different high tech gadgets that were available when this book was published. It was fun to read about something from a completely different generation. I don't normally read older romances, I have no aversion to them I've just never had the chance to sit down and read one.
The childlike wonder which Nickolas displays for everything made the novel so much more interesting. He reacts the way I would think a time traveler would act. I actually liked the interesting historical references made within the book. There were a few things that I didn't know, and it made the story much more involved and gave a depth that the plot was lacking.
I liked the idea of two soul mates traveling through time to be with one another. I love a good time travel and this ones concept I love. I loved the fact that Nicholas wanted to be an architect, it was interesting that he got to visit his houses hundreds of years after they were built. I felt like alot of research went into this book, and it really did shine through. I love when my historical romance time travelers are actually believable historical characters.
I really did enjoy the last 2 pages of the book, the soul mates through death concept was actually really touching in a surprising way. I enjoy bitter sweet endings every once in a while.
This book was harder to pin down exactly what was going to happen next, predictability in romance novels is almost comical, but Jude did a good job of performing a well executed plot twist.
The Bad:
Almost everything else.
Dougless.
Just about everything about Dougless made me angry. She goes through the entire book crying or feeling sorry for herself or being weak. I like my romance female protagonists to be strong and independent, with just a bit of vulnerability that they show with their guy. Its like the bread and butter of a good romance novel. (For Me) She doesn't have it. She comes off vain and self centered and that takes away from the story in a big way. I was never able to feel what she was feeling, there was no connection between myself and this character.
The chemistry between Nickolas and Dougless was lacking in a major way. It went from one extreme to the other almost over night, and was almost like a punch in the face for the reader. They went from hating each other and wanting to get away from each other as fast as possible to being lovers. I never saw them really fall in love, they mainly went from hate to lust. The story line with Nickolas and her ex (but kind of not really ex) who takes her on this vacation that she has to unexpectedly pay half of, with his daughter who is a snot, is my least favorite part of this story. The whole story line could have gone bye bye and I would have been happier for it. It weakens Dougless' character development in this really detrimental way that she never comes back from.
Also, having both of the characters names be what many people consider to be masculine names, was incredibly confusing. I kept getting the characters mixed up in my head while reading. ( I don't normally have this problem.) That wasn't as big of a deal it was just another thing on top of everything else. I feel like it was mainly because there was no true emotional connection for me with either character.
A Question: If you knew that a main part of your time traveling is based off of being in a certain place, a church for example, would you go back to that place if you decided that you wanted to stay?
Answer: If you're the main characters in this novel then why not? What COULD GO WRONG?
SPOILER AHEAD
They go back to the damn church guys. WHY would they do that? you ask, I have no good answer. Because they are dumb perhaps?
The author does a thing that I hate in this book. And she does it in a way that wasn't so bad but she still did it.
The author sends Nicholas back through time to his own time. The catch? It's a few years before the year he originally leaves, so therefore he doesn't remember Dougless right away. That's right, I said right away, Dougless follows him, and it takes like another 100 pages for him to stop hating her again. This trend is so annoying, and my least favorite thing about time travel romances.
The Sexy times were up to Jude's standard, I didn't like them as much because of the off chemistry between the protagonists but I can live with that.
All in all, I would give this book a 4.5 out of 10, I would not recommend this book to people my age, I believe that our perspectives now really do interfere with any enjoyment you may get from this book. All in all, I didn't get involved in this book like I normally do, but you win some and lose some.
My next rough draft will be saved electronically. Never again. *still bitter*
Renegade Arielle.
Drawn to his side by a bond so sudden and compelling it overshadows reason, Dougless knows that Nicholas is nothing less than a miracle: a man who does not seek to change her, who finds her perfect, fascinating, just as she is. What Dougless never imagined was how strong the chains are that tie them to the past…or the grand adventure that lay before them.
Ok Guys, this review took forever, I had a wonderful hand written version of this, that I lost due to an unfortunate turn of events involving a boy, shoes, and a hungry goat-dog.
So finally here it goes:
I once read or heard, can't remember which, that if a romance novel takes you more than 6 consecutive reading hours to finish, the author did something wrong. I agree with this so much. I have a certain proclivity for reading fairly quickly, my fellow renegade can read something with 400 pages in about 2 hours, so of course there are exceptions to this "rule". This book however, took me about a week to finish. I was off from work, I had (finally) nothing but time on my hands. And I wasted it. And I never say that romance novels are a waste. The sad thing about this is, is that I generally like Jude Deveraux's work. She puts out a very consistent and fun read just about every time, but something is off for me with this novel. Jude, you are better than this.
Now before I continue I need to say that I 100% understand that this book was written during a time that (really) the only type of romance novels that had been previously written were harlequin. (Shudders). I also understand that perspectives of women from the time of this books first publication and now are completely different. That being said, here I go (again)( I am very bitter).
Spoilers will probably be in this review somewhere, be aware.
The Good:
I loved the references to tape players and different high tech gadgets that were available when this book was published. It was fun to read about something from a completely different generation. I don't normally read older romances, I have no aversion to them I've just never had the chance to sit down and read one.
The childlike wonder which Nickolas displays for everything made the novel so much more interesting. He reacts the way I would think a time traveler would act. I actually liked the interesting historical references made within the book. There were a few things that I didn't know, and it made the story much more involved and gave a depth that the plot was lacking.
I liked the idea of two soul mates traveling through time to be with one another. I love a good time travel and this ones concept I love. I loved the fact that Nicholas wanted to be an architect, it was interesting that he got to visit his houses hundreds of years after they were built. I felt like alot of research went into this book, and it really did shine through. I love when my historical romance time travelers are actually believable historical characters.
I really did enjoy the last 2 pages of the book, the soul mates through death concept was actually really touching in a surprising way. I enjoy bitter sweet endings every once in a while.
This book was harder to pin down exactly what was going to happen next, predictability in romance novels is almost comical, but Jude did a good job of performing a well executed plot twist.
The Bad:
Almost everything else.
Dougless.
Just about everything about Dougless made me angry. She goes through the entire book crying or feeling sorry for herself or being weak. I like my romance female protagonists to be strong and independent, with just a bit of vulnerability that they show with their guy. Its like the bread and butter of a good romance novel. (For Me) She doesn't have it. She comes off vain and self centered and that takes away from the story in a big way. I was never able to feel what she was feeling, there was no connection between myself and this character.
The chemistry between Nickolas and Dougless was lacking in a major way. It went from one extreme to the other almost over night, and was almost like a punch in the face for the reader. They went from hating each other and wanting to get away from each other as fast as possible to being lovers. I never saw them really fall in love, they mainly went from hate to lust. The story line with Nickolas and her ex (but kind of not really ex) who takes her on this vacation that she has to unexpectedly pay half of, with his daughter who is a snot, is my least favorite part of this story. The whole story line could have gone bye bye and I would have been happier for it. It weakens Dougless' character development in this really detrimental way that she never comes back from.
Also, having both of the characters names be what many people consider to be masculine names, was incredibly confusing. I kept getting the characters mixed up in my head while reading. ( I don't normally have this problem.) That wasn't as big of a deal it was just another thing on top of everything else. I feel like it was mainly because there was no true emotional connection for me with either character.
A Question: If you knew that a main part of your time traveling is based off of being in a certain place, a church for example, would you go back to that place if you decided that you wanted to stay?
Answer: If you're the main characters in this novel then why not? What COULD GO WRONG?
SPOILER AHEAD
They go back to the damn church guys. WHY would they do that? you ask, I have no good answer. Because they are dumb perhaps?
The author does a thing that I hate in this book. And she does it in a way that wasn't so bad but she still did it.
The author sends Nicholas back through time to his own time. The catch? It's a few years before the year he originally leaves, so therefore he doesn't remember Dougless right away. That's right, I said right away, Dougless follows him, and it takes like another 100 pages for him to stop hating her again. This trend is so annoying, and my least favorite thing about time travel romances.
The Sexy times were up to Jude's standard, I didn't like them as much because of the off chemistry between the protagonists but I can live with that.
All in all, I would give this book a 4.5 out of 10, I would not recommend this book to people my age, I believe that our perspectives now really do interfere with any enjoyment you may get from this book. All in all, I didn't get involved in this book like I normally do, but you win some and lose some.
My next rough draft will be saved electronically. Never again. *still bitter*
Renegade Arielle.