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Title: Tender Triumph by Judith McNaught ISBN: 0-671-74256-6 Publisher: Pocket Books Pub. Date: 15 February, 1991 Format: Mass Market Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 2.12 (41 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Cut the hero some slack!!
Comment: Despite what a majority of the reviews have declared, I rather liked this book. I agree that it certainly isn't one of JM's best, but it still (to use the horrible cliche) "pulled at my heart strings" and "left me sighing" at the end. One has to understand that Ramon, the hero of the novel, is a product of his culture and beliefs. I found him to be rather endearing, and certainly extremely proud and quite arrogant in some instances, but honestly, have you read a romance novel yet where the "alpha male" isn't all those things and more? He did not resort to rape, or any sort of physical abuse that involved "spanking" (ridiculous for any author to even consider demeaning their heroines in this way...I HATE rape and spanking scenes). In many ways, Judith McNaught explained Ramon's culturally "archaic" beliefs in terms of their cultural perspectives, and a lot of it, to me, made sense, and cooled my indignant feminist outrage. If anyone has ever taken an anthropology course in college or university, they (as I) would recognize that these types of beliefs still exist in this world (sometimes even more extreme than what JM portrays) and that these beliefs and cultural morals have less to do with archaic "sexist" ideals, and more to do with the anthropological history of the culture.
That having been said, I would also like to point out that Katie, the heroine of this tale, was an extremely irritating spoiled brat, although she had her shining moments, what few they were. I don't know WHAT Ramon saw in her, other than a leggy blonde, but on the whole, the book worked for me in the end. I would have given this book five stars, but for the sad lack of hoochie (although there was a lot of making out) I have to remove one star...i mean c'mon! how can you not include a steamy latin love scene?? ;o)
Rating: 1
Summary: Truly terrible
Comment: I started reading romance novels back in college and McNaught was one of the first authors I read. I have read all of McNaught's books and I did enjoy her stories until I read other romance writers. For some reason, I thought that all heroes had to be abusive, noncommunicative, and stubborn to the point of ridiculousness. Fortunately, I found other authors who showed me that this was not the case. I have to say that if I encountered any of her heroes, I would have given them the boot immediately. Most of them are NASTY to their love interests...makes me think that McNaught believes that women have to sacrifice their pride and dignity to find 'true' love. Her heroines are gluttons for punishment and her heroes behave like donkeys. None worse than Ramon. Halfway through this book I threw it across the room. I did not pick it up to finish it, I picked it up to toss it in the trash...I wasn't even going to pass it on to a second hand shop which is what I do with most of my romance novels. I didn't want to be responsible for anyone reading this book. If you like modern romances with suspense, check out Linda Howard's Dream Man and Mr. Perfect. Her heroines are spunky, intelligent and normal, and her heroes are just that...heroes.
Rating: 4
Summary: not as bad as reviews make it seem
Comment: I was very afraid to read this book because of the horrible reviews that it received. BUT, while it was not her best work, I felt that it did not deserve such a scathing review.
Katie, daughter of an owner of a supermarket chain and Ramon, ex-one of the most powerful men on earth...meet as he saves her from a gropping ex. He asks for a date and Katie agrees...only to be surprised by the force of the emotions that this one man can evoke in her, when so many others have failed.
As Ramon is ashamed that he is now a failure since his business is filing for bankruptcy (because his father is a jealous and evil man), he lets Katie believe that he is only an ordinary farmer with a cottage in Puerto Rico and not a man who had once owned an island, several mansions and villas, and one of the most successful conglomerates in the world.
Katie, who has been married before to a man who she sensed was not himself, is afraid to trust Ramon as she senses that he also is not revealing the whole truth. Because of this, she tries to stall marriage to him, by paying for half of his expenses, making the cottage look like a bachelor pad, and unintentionally demeaning him by asking if he could swim or dance and giving him a $5 bill in compensation for him driving her home.
Not until the truth is discovered, does she realize the depth of Ramon's love for her and how much she wants that in her previously empty life.
He is not chauvinistic and if anyone had read the book closely enough, it is even explained in the end when Katie asks Ramon if he really thinks that a wife's "place" is at home. And Ramon responded by saying that the only reason he said that in the beginning was because he was trying to make her "settle of rless than she has a right to expect" since he barely had anything to offer and desperately didn't want to lose her. I felt that he had a right to be angry with her for spending money on their cottage because 1) he was already seen as a failure by the villagers for losing his company and now it seems as if he has a sugarmama paying his bills and 2) his entire house had not one drop of her personality to make it her space...meaning that she didn't plan to stay.
All in all, my problem was not Ramon's supposed chauvinism, but rather with the palpable hurriedness of the book. Though Matt and Meredith fell in love in a week in Paradise, this time, the length of their acquaintance was stressed a lot more, making it hard to ignore that they had only known each other for less than a week. Also, the ending felt too hurried as all of a sudden, everything was right again. Not enough detail was made to secondary characters, making them seem flat. These reasons made me want to flip through many of the pages so that I could get to the crucial moment when Ramon would reveal who he really is.
It's a fast read, but there is no chauvinist pig in Ramon, so if you were deterred by that, don't be. Not as enjoyable as many of her others, but still a decent read.
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Title: Double Standards by Judith McNaught ISBN: 0671737600 Publisher: Pocket Books Pub. Date: 15 January, 1991 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: Perfect by Judith McNaught ISBN: 0671795538 Publisher: Pocket Books Pub. Date: 01 July, 1994 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: Remember When by Judith McNaught ISBN: 0671795554 Publisher: Pocket Books Pub. Date: 01 October, 1997 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: Paradise by Judith McNaught ISBN: 0671776800 Publisher: Pocket Books Pub. Date: 01 June, 1992 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: Night Whispers by Judith McNaught ISBN: 0671525743 Publisher: Pocket Books Pub. Date: 01 July, 1999 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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