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Title: Finding Home by Lowell & Michaels Howard ISBN: 0-373-48443-7 Publisher: Silhouette Pub. Date: 01 April, 2001 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.67 (6 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: Three Tales of Lost and Found...Love Does Conquer All....
Comment: First up is Linda Howard's 'Duncan's Bride'. Mind you, this was written late in the 80's, so the content is 80's male chavanistic romance; which I am not complaining about by any means, its just a different style of writing, but some people are sensitive to it, so I thought I might warn those out there. But anyone who's read Howard knows even her older novels are amazing and worth the read.
Extremely heartwrenching and full of distrust and turmoil, the two characters worm themselves right into your heart. Mail-order bride Maddie moves to Montana answering an ad in the paper from divorced Reese Duncan who is looking for a hardworking wife to live on his failing ranch with him in name only.(note, this isnt a historical, its based in the 1980's) What he gets is a beautiful woman who drives him crazy and surprises him with her heart and devotion. Maddie makes it her mission to heal his bitter soul and to become more than his wife in name only. I give this story 5 Stars.....
The second is by Elizabeth Lowell called 'Chain Lightening'. A woman named Mandy has lost everyone she loved in a horrific plane crash over the ocean years ago and is still reeling from it. Her boss tricks her into taking a much needed vacation to the Great Barrier Reef hoping to heal her wounds, what she doesn't expect is to get shacked up with enigmatic Damon Sutter in the process. Good writing, but I couldn't get myself interested in the story, it moved too slowly for my tastes. The tale was riddled with angst and too much talking. In the end, I would give it three stars...
Third in the book and last was Kasey Michael's 'Popcorn and Kisses'. Not sure why this story was mixed in with the others since it really wasn't related plot-wise.
It was an 'okay' tale about an old drive-in theatre and two mismatched people trying to save it. It seemed to move very slow and I became bored instantly with the plot and dialog. The writing was decent, the plot was much to be desired. Very tame and I have to agree with another reviewer on this being very 'Sweet Valley Highish'. It did not fit in with Howard and Lowell's steamy stories. Not sure how the characters had to 'find home' again in this story either, but oh well. I gave this one two stars...
Rating: 4
Summary: Great reads for a new romance reader!
Comment: Having read only a few novels so far by Nora Roberts and Linda Howard, I do not have the reservations about reading a compilation of novels already previously published that some of the other reviewers have. Since several of the novels I've read so far were originally published in the mid-1980s, I have learned to read the original published dates in the front pages of each book, to give myself some perspective on the time in which the book was written.
Even though I am new to reading romance novels, I greatly enjoy Linda Howard's work. Unfortunately, my last experience with Howard's work before "Duncan's Bride" was "Almost Forever," a real stinker as far as I'm concerned. So I was a little reserved about reading "Duncan's Bride." Now this is my favorite Howard book thus far.
Most romances I've read so far revolve around a couple meeting, finding that they each have reservations about one another. Then they have sex within a week or two of meeting, and are married within a couple of months. End of story. But "Duncan's Bride" is far different from the typical formula. It deals with the characters over the course of a year or so of their lives. Madelyn finds rancher Reese Duncan's personal ad both revolting and intriguing at the same time. She travels to Montana to meet him, and winds up marrying him after a few days- more a marriage of convenience than a soul match. She figures he will warm up to her soon, but he was very scarred by his previous marriage to a money-grubbing woman who took most of his ranch, along with his heart. Both characters are highly complicated, and Howard's character development is great for such a relatively short novel (only about 200 pages). The sex scenes, true to Howard's reputation, are very steamy, but the read leading up to the sex scenes are well worth the time as well.
"Chain Lightning" is also very well developed. As I had never read anything by Elizabeth Lowell, I had no idea what to expect, but this book was very well paired with "Duncan's Bride." Although neither character seems ready for any kind of relationship, they work together well. Mandy is severely traumatized from the deaths in an ocean plane crash of both her husband and her unborn baby, and she nearly drowned as well. Now the former oceanographer is terrified of the sea that she once loved.
Unwilling to tell anyone about her fears, she is sent on a surprise trip to the Great Barrier Reef with Damon Sutter by her boss, who does not know of Mandy's past. Sutter, an adventurer, feels that he will be terribly bored being forced to stay in a small tent with Mandy, the bundle of fears. But time brings them closer together, making for a heartwarming story, and some very hot sex scenes as well.
"Popcorn and Kisses" is seemingly mismatched with the other two books in this compilation. I won't say that Kasey Michaels is a bad writer, because she's not. I enjoyed reading about the seemingly mismatched Sharon and Zachary St. Clair. But after having read two very steamy novels, "Popcorn" was very tame- in movie rating terms, "Duncan's Bride" and "Chain Lightning" were rated-R (or perhaps even NC-17), while "Popcorn and Kisses" was PG. Perhaps this would have been better paired with similarly tame novels. Having just read the other two novels, "Popcorn" reminded me more of "Sweet Valley High" than an actual romance novel.
If you have not read any of these books in the past, this is a great deal to get all three at once. My recommendation, though, would be to read "Popcorn and Kisses" first rather than last. It really is a good book; it's just a let-down after the steaminess of its predecessors.
Rating: 3
Summary: Take care : stories written in 1988 and 1990
Comment: I did rate only three, not because they are not well written, but I do believe it is tricking the reader to put is "published in 2002 and writen by Lowel, etc. when in fact they just take old stories and put them together with a new title.
I would like to be sure when a book is writen, the style had changed and so the writer's skills too. When I buy an older of her book, it is because I want to compare. But I do want to know before I buy what is in it, when it is written.
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Title: On His Terms by Linda Howard, Allison Leigh ISBN: 0373218044 Publisher: Silhouette Books Pub. Date: 01 February, 2003 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: White Lies by Linda Howard ISBN: 1551667339 Publisher: Mira Books Pub. Date: 01 October, 2003 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: Cutting Edge by Linda Howard ISBN: 155166478X Publisher: Mira Books Pub. Date: 01 June, 1998 List Price(USD): $5.99 |
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Title: Under The Boardwalk : A Dazzling Collection Of All New Summertime Love Stories by Linda Howard, Geralyn Dawson, Jillian Hunter, Mariah Stewart, Miranda Jarrett ISBN: 0671027948 Publisher: Pocket Books Pub. Date: 01 July, 1999 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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