Girl with a Pearl Earring
Average customer rating: 4 out of 5 stars
  • A work of art
  • Skillful fiction
  • Chevalier is wonderful
  • Words of Art
  • Stunning
Girl with a Pearl Earring
Tracy Chevalier
Manufacturer: Plume
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0452282152
Release Date: 2001-01-08

Amazon.com

With precisely 35 canvases to his credit, the Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer represents one of the great enigmas of 17th-century art. The meager facts of his biography have been gleaned from a handful of legal documents. Yet Vermeer's extraordinary paintings of domestic life, with their subtle play of light and texture, have come to define the Dutch golden age. His portrait of the anonymous Girl with a Pearl Earring has exerted a particular fascination for centuries--and it is this magnetic painting that lies at the heart of Tracy Chevalier's second novel of the same title.

Girl with a Pearl Earring centers on Vermeer's prosperous Delft household during the 1660s. When Griet, the novel's quietly perceptive heroine, is hired as a servant, turmoil follows. First, the 16-year-old narrator becomes increasingly intimate with her master. Then Vermeer employs her as his assistant--and ultimately has Griet sit for him as a model. Chevalier vividly evokes the complex domestic tensions of the household, ruled over by the painter's jealous, eternally pregnant wife and his taciturn mother-in-law. At times the relationship between servant and master seems a little anachronistic. Still, Girl with a Pearl Earring does contain a final delicious twist.

Throughout, Chevalier cultivates a limpid, painstakingly observed style, whose exactitude is an effective homage to the painter himself. Even Griet's most humdrum duties take on a high if unobtrusive gloss:

I came to love grinding the things he brought from the apothecary--bones, white lead, madder, massicot--to see how bright and pure I could get the colors. I learned that the finer the materials were ground, the deeper the color. From rough, dull grains madder became a fine bright red powder and, mixed with linseed oil, a sparkling paint. Making it and the other colors was magical.
In assembling such quotidian particulars, the author acknowledges her debt to Simon Schama's classic study The Embarrassment of Riches. Her novel also joins a crop of recent, painterly fictions, including Deborah Moggach's Tulip Fever and Susan Vreeland's Girl in Hyacinth Blue. Can novelists extract much more from the Dutch golden age? The question is an open one--but in the meantime, Girl with a Pearl Earring remains a fascinating piece of speculative historical fiction, and an appealingly new take on an old master. --Jerry Brotton

Book Description

History and fiction merge seamlessly in this luminous novel about artistic vision and sensual awakening. Girl with a Pearl Earring tells the story of sixteen-year-old Griet, whose life is transformed by her brief encounter with genius ... even as she herself is immortalized in canvas and oil.

Download Description

Chevalier transports readers to a bygone time and place in this richly imagined portrait of the young woman who inspired one of Vermeer's most celebrated paintings. "Girl with a Pearl Earring" is the story of 16-year-old Griet, whose life is transformed by her brief encounter with genius, even as she herself is immortalized in canvas and oil.

Customer Reviews:

4 out of 5 stars A work of art.......2007-09-09

After watching the movie a couple of months ago, I decided to read the novel on which it was based. I'm a big fan of visual arts and I couldn't wait to read it. Tracy Chevalier's subjective descriptive style really kept my attention. Elegant, clear, detailed... I could see, hear, feel and smell as Griet did.

The book is about Griet, a girl from a poor family in Delft, Netherlands, and the changes that take place in her. After living all of her life with her family, she's sent to work as a maid in the house of a famous painter to help support her family. At the same time she begins to realize (as others already had) that she's turning into a woman and struggles to deal with it.

At her new home, she has to learn how to deal with each of its inhabitants and still be herself. She finds relief when assisting her master with ink and the paintings, even though it endangers her position in the house. I did like the end of the book, although its resolution felt rushed.

Chevalier's details on light and shadow and color and shape are delightful.

4.5 stars.

4 out of 5 stars Skillful fiction.......2007-08-28

If you have ever seen "the Dutch Mona Lisa", or the "girl with the pearl earring", by Vermeer you will have been struck by it's tenderness. Maybe it is misplaced to say so about a naturalist like Vermeer, but you get the feeling he must have liked this girl. However, nobody knows who she was or why he painted her in such an un-Vermeer-like pose.

Perfect fiction material then, and Chevalier has not wasted the opportunity. The book tells the story of a 16 year old girl in the 17th century Dutch town of Delft who becomes a maid in the Vermeer family. We follow her struggle to keep her dignity in a house full of strife, culminating in the event of her being painted (she, a maid!). I usually like first person narratives, but this is one of the best I know. The historical setting is (to me, a non-historian, but Dutch and knowing Delft) completely convincing. The story is plausible, satisfying and well composed, and the prose has a soft touch that somehow accords very well with painting itself.
The one flaw, for which I deduct a star, is that the protagonist is implausibly mature and confident for her age and social status. Another reviewer on this page remarked that the book reads better when you the girl looking back after the facts on her younger self. This is true, but a writer should not have to rely on goodwill like that.

The book reminded me of "Memoirs of a Geisha", in storyline (although it is less brutal), the ease with which the writer makes fiction feel like reality, and the way in which it makes you wish things will turn out well for a small girl in a big world.

5 out of 5 stars Chevalier is wonderful.......2007-08-23

Tracy Chavalier is a master at having art history come alive and incorporate within it a beautiful story.

4 out of 5 stars Words of Art.......2007-08-10

I think what makes this book so appealing to me is the fact that I was able to see a rare Vermeer collection a few years before I read this book and studied art in college, to really make me appreciate the story. One does not have to have any background in art (it simply enhanced the read), but if you're looking for beautiful words, an unconventional love story, and historical fiction --- I think this just might be the book for you. It's not a nail biter, but you certainly absorb each word and paint a picture of the story in your mind as you read. THe movie is quite good as well, but I'm always a fan of a book before the movie. Enjoy!

5 out of 5 stars Stunning.......2007-07-19

This book is absolutely gorgeous. Chevalier paints with words as Vermeer painted with paint. Her prose and descriptions actually take on the same quality as Vermeer's paintings, luminous, quiet, and very strikingly beautiful. The character Griet is complex and interesting. The descriptions in this book are breath taking. Read this!!! Oh, and I am a teenager. Teenagers will love it too.
Girl With a Pearl Earring: (Deluxe Edition)
Average customer rating: 4 out of 5 stars
  • Pedestrian
  • Over rated!
  • Great book
  • A Winner
  • Which of the "Vermeer books" to read?
Girl With a Pearl Earring: (Deluxe Edition)
Tracy Chevalier
Manufacturer: Plume
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0452287022

Book Description

A Deluxe Edition of the National Bestseller with Over 2 Million Copies Sold:
• Eight Pages of Full-Color Plates Include Every Vermeer Painting Discussed in the Book
• French Flaps
• Rough Front
• Larger Trim Size
• Premium Stock
• With a New Foreword

Celebrate Tracy Chevalier's modern classic Girl With A Pearl Earring, featuring a gorgeous new edition illustrated with eight pages of Vermeer's masterworks. History and fiction merge seamlessly in this luminous novel about artistic vision and sensual awakening. The story of Griet, whose life is transformed by her brief encounter with a genius as she herself is immortalized in canvas and oil, is new again.

Customer Reviews:

1 out of 5 stars Pedestrian.......2007-08-20

I've gotten two-thirds of the way through this book and I'm not sure I'm going to finish it. "Why," I ask myself, "am I reading this unromantic, pedantic, academic book? Nothing about it works, from the telling of the tale in the first person to the unlikely possibility that Vermeer needed help with his subject matter. Lusterless and Pedestrian.

2 out of 5 stars Over rated!.......2007-08-03

This slim book does not deserve the praise heaped upon it. How absurd to imagine a young maid, without any background or instruction in art, will explain to the master-painter Vemeer how his paintings might be improved. Griet sees the flaws in the paintings and wonders why Vemeer does not correct them - yeah, that's plausible. Not once is Griet wrong in her criticism/suggestion on how the painting might be improved.
Unexplained in this lame plot is why Griet's situation is so precarious - the master instructs her to mix the colors - but if his wife finds out Griet is carrying out his instructions, there will be hell to pay! But why? And why is the other servant so jealous that Griet is mixing the colors?? The extra work doesn't sound fun.
One of Vemeer's daughter's torments Griet for no apparent reason (other than to create plot "tension") - oh no! Griet might lose "everything she has" - but what she has is nothing but a low paying, hard working job as a maid. And losing the job is no big deal anyway, she can go marry the butcher's son who lusts after her. (What an anti-romance the courtship of Griet by Pieter is - how dull, how devoid of passion, - their "dates" consist of Pieter groping her body in an alley!)
Usually "literature" that is this weak in plot makes up for it with beautiful prose, but the prose in this novel is merely workmanlike. This is no masterpiece. I was glad the book was only 288 pages in the hardcover edition.

5 out of 5 stars Great book.......2007-03-19

A fantastic book, pure delight. Perfect from the first page to the last: consistent quality. A book one cannot leave aside.

5 out of 5 stars A Winner.......2007-03-05

One of the best books I've read in a long time. Read it in a couple of days. Beautifully written. The story is subtle yet beckons to be read so it can unravel itself to a perfect ending. I would highly recommend it. I felt like I was wandering the streets of Delft. The descriptions were amazing. Chevalier did another great job. I also recommend The Lady and the Unicorn.

4 out of 5 stars Which of the "Vermeer books" to read?.......2005-09-19

Art lovers, and particularly Vermeer lovers, have had two "Vermeer novels" available for the past few years, Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier and Girl in Hyacinth Blue by Susan Vreeland. Both are short, both are well written, both involve a hypnotizingly seductive Vermeer painting, and both tell of the influence of the painting on the lives of the main characters. As for which is better, that may be a matter of taste, though Girl with the Pearl Earring has had the lion's share of publicity, especially after the production of the film. Many readers will be interested in reading both novels.

In Girl With A Pearl Earring, author Chevalier focuses her literary microscope on Griet, a maid in the Vermeer household who becomes an assistant to the painter. Griet is a young woman who maintains her integrity despite the turbulence and social pressures to which she is subjected in the household. Life in Delft and in this family during the time of the painting is replete with petty jealousies, economic pressures, class distinctions, religious differences, and political and social uncertainty, and Griet has to navigate her way through this milieu. It is through her character and domestic situation that one comes to know Vermeer and his painting.

The second Vermeer novel, Girl in Hyacinth Blue, on the other hand, is not a "character novel." Here the author does not concentrate on one character or even the painting as an end in itself. Instead, Vreeland takes a broader, more global view, using the history of a hitherto undiscovered Vermeer painting to work backward from the present to the painting's inception in Delft. The "story" here is a careful tracing of themes--the relationship between personal love and responsibility to mankind in general, the role of art in the lives of ordinary people, and what constitutes lasting value both in art and in human interactions. In seven or eight chapters we see how the painting has affected the lives of its various owners.

Ultimately, comparing these beautifully wrought novels is like comparing pearl earrings to hyacinths. Both are gorgeous; each is unique. Girl with the Pearl Earring is more accessible and more popular, while Girl in Hyacinth Blue is more complex and literary. Lovers of Vermeer are encouraged to read both--and enjoy. Mary Whipple
Cambridge Wizard Student Guide Girl with a Pearl Earring (Cambridge Wizard English Student Guides)
Average customer rating: Not rated
    Cambridge Wizard Student Guide Girl with a Pearl Earring (Cambridge Wizard English Student Guides)
    A. P. di Stephano
    Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
    ProductGroup: Book
    Binding: Paperback

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    ASIN: 0521542014
    Girl with a Pearl Earring
    Average customer rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    • BEAUTIFULLY CRAFTED HISTORICAL FICTION...
    Girl with a Pearl Earring
    Tracy Chevalier
    Manufacturer: HarperCollins Publishers Ltd
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    Binding: Paperback

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    ASIN: 0006513204

    Customer Reviews:

    5 out of 5 stars BEAUTIFULLY CRAFTED HISTORICAL FICTION..........2005-01-17

    This gifted author weaves a mesmerizing tale around Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer's most famous painting, creating an incandescent and luminous work of her own. His painting is a simple, though enigmatic, portrait of a girl with a pearl earring, about which little is known. The author, however, a born storyteller, creates a living, breathing story around it, using a singular, first person narrative. Told in spare, elegant prose, the author leaps into literary renown with this book.

    The events in the book are viewed through the eyes of Griet, a sixteen year old Dutch girl, whose changed family circumstances force her into taking a position as a maid in the home of a renowned painter, the taciturn Johannes Vermeer. There, the painter resides with his tempestuous wife, Catharina, their brood of unruly children, his commanding and shrewd mother-in-law, Maria Thins, and their loyal housekeeper and cook, Tanneke. The author lovingly details seventeenth century life in the Dutch city of Delft. It is here that Griet's story unfolds.

    Sensitive and perceptive, Griet is attuned to the under currents in the Vermeer household and, at first, takes care not to draw attention to herself. Still, she, the daughter of a tile painter, is curious about Vermeer's artistry and is drawn to his work and his methods. Vermeer, sensing a kindred artistic spirit in Griet, draws her into his world of paint, color, light, and beauty, creating an intimacy of the spirit between the two.

    Still, Griet, a girl on the brink of becoming a woman, finds herself confused and breathlessly desiring more than she may have. Her longing for more than a communion of the spirit with Vermeer is palpable. It is, therefore, not surprising that the undercurrents in the Vermeer household should come bubbling to the surface and engulf Griet, much to her consternation.

    This is a stunning literary work that fully realizes the promise that the author showed in her debut novel, "The Virgin Blue". She is an author that understands the less is often more, and she makes every word count. Deliberate and spare, her prose is lyrical in its simplicity, weaving a tale that will keep the reader spellbound. This is historical fiction at its finest. Bravo!

    La Jeune Fille a la Perle / Girl with a Pearl Earring
    Average customer rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
    • A STUNNING WORK OF HISTORICAL FICTION...
    • A Cinderella Story about Life in an Artist's Home
    • Chevalier makes up a story behind the Vermeer painting
    La Jeune Fille a la Perle / Girl with a Pearl Earring
    Tracy Chevalier
    Manufacturer: Distribooks
    ProductGroup: Book
    Binding: Mass Market Paperback

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    ASIN: 2070417948

    Customer Reviews:

    5 out of 5 stars A STUNNING WORK OF HISTORICAL FICTION..........2004-12-29

    This gifted author weaves a mesmerizing tale around Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer's most famous painting, creating an incandescent and luminous work of her own. His painting is a simple, though enigmatic, portrait of a girl with a pearl earring, about which little is known. The author, however, a born storyteller, creates a living, breathing story around it, using a singular, first person narrative. Told in spare, elegant prose, the author leaps into literary renown with this book.

    The events in the book are viewed through the eyes of Griet, a sixteen year old Dutch girl, whose changed family circumstances force her into taking a position as a maid in the home of a renowned painter, the taciturn Johannes Vermeer. There, the painter resides with his tempestuous wife, Catharina, their brood of unruly children, his commanding and shrewd mother-in-law, Maria Thins, and their loyal housekeeper and cook, Tanneke. The author lovingly details seventeenth century life in the Dutch city of Delft. It is here that Griet's story unfolds.

    Sensitive and perceptive, Griet is attuned to the under currents in the Vermeer household and, at first, takes care not to draw attention to herself. Still, she, the daughter of a tile painter, is curious about Vermeer's artistry and is drawn to his work and his methods. Vermeer, sensing a kindred artistic spirit in Griet, draws her into his world of paint, color, light, and beauty, creating an intimacy of the spirit between the two.

    Still, Griet, a girl on the brink of becoming a woman, finds herself confused and breathlessly desiring more than she may have. Her longing for more than a communion of the spirit with Vermeer is palpable. It is, therefore, not surprising that the undercurrents in the Vermeer household should come bubbling to the surface and engulf Griet, much to her consternation.

    This is a stunning literary work that fully realizes the promise that the author showed in her debut novel, "The Virgin Blue". She is an author that understands the less is often more, and she makes every word count. Deliberate and spare, her prose is lyrical in its simplicity, weaving a tale that will keep the reader spellbound. This is historical fiction at its finest. Bravo!





    4 out of 5 stars A Cinderella Story about Life in an Artist's Home.......2004-09-25

    Vermeer's famous portrait of a girl with a pearl earring and her hair covered completely in fabric has always beguiled me. The style of the painting, the expression, the clothes, the earring, the direct stare and longing in the mouth and eyes have always made me want to know more about the model.

    Ms. Chevalier's book dealt with those questions quite well, and took my understanding of the subject to new depths that I had not considered before. If I had only gained that increased understanding of the painting, I would have found this to be a worthy book.

    The story is also filled with interesting details about the artistic methods of the time and preparation of materials. That information was an unexpected bonus.

    Vermeer is known for having produced few works. Ms. Chevalier has provided many intriguing ideas about why that might have been the case.

    On top of these artistic questions, Ms. Chevalier has written a lively story of a young woman whose family falls on hard times so that she has to take up work as a maid in Vermeer's household. She finds herself at the bottom of the pecking order and is often treated unfairly. Like Cinderella, her true qualities are eventually appreciated and she finds her Prince Charming. The story also provides many helpful details about town life in Delft during the 1700s.

    The Cinderella story was a bit overdeveloped compared to the artistic aspects of the story. Had the two aspects been in better balance I would have found this to be a five star book.

    If you normally enjoy historical romances, you will probably like this book better than I did.

    Keep smiling!

    5 out of 5 stars Chevalier makes up a story behind the Vermeer painting.......2004-04-12

    I read "La Jeune Fille a la Perle" ("Girl With a Pearl Earring") because I was so enthralled by the 2003 film adaptation directed by Peter Webber from a script by Olivia Hetreed. When I saw the movie I was impressed by its visual elements but now that I have real Tracy Chevalier's novel I am really impressed by Hetreed's screenplay. Usually when I am inspired to read a novel after I see a film it is to get more of the story, thinking that less than half of what is in the book has made it to the screen. That is most decidedly not the case with "Girl With a Pearl Earring."

    Johannes Vermeer's 1665 oil on canvas painting, which hangs in The Royal Cabinet of Paintings Mauritshuis in The Hague, is considered one of his masterworks. It is a portrait of a young girl, wearing a turban and a pearl earring, looking over her shoulder, her lips parted slightly, set against a black background. But if you are familiar with Vermeer's body of work, most of which represented the corner of his studio in which he worked, then clearly "Girl with a Pearl Earring" is an atypical work. This painting has raised a series of questions ever since it was rediscovered in 1882: Was the pearl real? What is she wearing a turban? Was the painting intended to be a portrait? Nothing is known about whom Vermeer used as his model, so the biggest question of all is Who was the girl in the painting?

    Chevalier answers all of these questions, and more, by creating a young girl named Griet. After her father, a tile maker, is blinded in a kiln accident Griet is sent to work cleaning in the house of Vermeer in the Dutch city of Delft. She is Protestant and the Vermeers are Catholic, which adds another element of strangeness to the young girl when she moves into the house. Vermeer's wife, Catharina, is about to deliver another baby, and Griet is to help with the household work. But she is also given the job of cleaning the master's studio, where she faces the daunting task of cleaning the objects on display without moving them from their position.

    Griet is a smart girl, which for some may well be the Achilles heel in the conceit spun by Chevalier since they may well conclude that neither Greit's education nor her experiences would allow her to come up with the deep thoughts she has at critical points in the narrative. But that intelligence is necessary to the story Chevalier wants to tell and the foundation for everything that follows is Griet's common sense conclusion that cleaning the widow's in Vermeer's studio will change the light that falls on his subjects.

    "Girl with a Pearl Earring" is about the art of painting and we learn, through Griet's eyes, something of Vermeer's technique, especially with his use of the camera obscura. But it is also something of a love story, in that Griet cannot help but be smitten with the man who ends up painting her portrait, even if the thought that something might actually happen between them never really enters her mind. For a time, in Chevalier's story, Griet serves as a muse of inspiration for a great painter who produced a true masterpiece.

    This is not a true story. Most of the characters really lived and you can travel to the Netherlands and see the actual painting, but Chevalier's answer to all of the questions swirling around Vermeer's "Girl with a Pearl Earring" are only creative speculations. Yet in the final analysis Chevalier achieves the ultimate level that author's aspire to when they tell such tales in that we wish that this was indeed a true story. Chevalier makes Griet as memorable as the painting she inspires in this 2000 novel.

    On the back of the my copy of this novel author Deborah Moggach, author of "Tulip Fever," says that she read Chevalier's story with a book of Vermeer's paintings beside me. I read "Girl with a Pearl Earring" after not only seeing the movie but after checking out all of Vermeer's paintings online, so that when Chevalier talks about the paintings "Woman with a Pearl Necklace" and "The Concert" I was able to visualize them. I wish that reproductions of those paintings had been included in this novel as well as the cover picture of the titular artwork, the same way I wish that I could see the paintings and architecture that matter in Dan Brown's novels. Since you can easily find a couple of excellent websites with Vermeer's artwork I would strong recommend that even if you have also seen the movie, that you be able to have the same advantage as Griet and be able to study these great paintings.
    GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING
    Average customer rating: Not rated
      GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING

      Manufacturer: DUTTON & CO.
      ProductGroup: Book
      Binding: Hardcover
      ASIN: B000HP0OI6
      GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING
      Average customer rating: Not rated
        GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING
        Tracy Chevalier
        Manufacturer: Harper Collins
        ProductGroup: Book
        Binding: Paperback
        ASIN: B000J6ZC2Q
        Girl With a Pearl Earring
        Average customer rating: Not rated
          Girl With a Pearl Earring
          Tracy Chevalier
          Manufacturer: Plume
          ProductGroup: Book
          Binding: Paperback
          ASIN: B000NY4H9S
          Girl with a Pearl Earring
          Average customer rating: Not rated
            Girl with a Pearl Earring
            Tracy Chevalier
            Manufacturer: Tandem Library
            ProductGroup: Book
            Binding: Unknown Binding

            HistoricalHistorical | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
            ASIN: 141774829X
            GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING
            Average customer rating: Not rated
              GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING
              TRACY CHEVALIER
              Manufacturer: HarperCollins
              ProductGroup: Book
              Binding: Paperback
              ASIN: B000O8PNCI

              Temptation of a Proper Governess
              Average customer rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
              • A real page-turner ! FIRST book in a series.
              • Nothing To Inspire Our Imagination
              • Engaging story with a good plot and resolution
              • Not for everyone.......
              • trust issue too important to smooth over
              Temptation of a Proper Governess
              Cathy Maxwell
              Manufacturer: Avon
              ProductGroup: Book
              Binding: Mass Market Paperback

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              ASIN: 006009298X
              Release Date: 2004-08-31

              Book Description

              Isabelle Halloran is gently bred, well educated but impoverished, so she does what she has to do and goes out as a governess. But fate lands her in the home of the unlikeable Wardley family, who are rich but ill bred.

              One night, Isabelle discovers her charge has left her own bed and snuck into the bed of houseguest Michael Severson. Michael is extraordinarily handsome, and known to be terribly dangerous. Years before, he'd left England under a cloud of suspicion – had he killed his mistress or not? But now he has returned to clear his name and uncover the identity of the real killer. Isabelle rescues her pupil, but puts herself in a compromising position. And when she is discovered in Michael's room, with Michael himself, she is dismissed. But Michael cannot leave her without resources...he offers to 'protect' her, then becomes determined to wed her...

              Download Description

              "

              Society dictates that a governessshould be modest, quiet, and keep to herself.

              She should never contradict her employer.

              And, above all, she must not attract the attention of any male in the household.

              But Michael Severson doesn't see Isabel Halloran as a governess -- he sees her as a woman, one whose lush curves cannot be hidden behind a dowdy gown ... and whose efforts at hiding her sparkling intelligence are betrayed by her wit.

              Years before, Michael had left Regency England, falsely accused of a crime. Now he is back, dedicated to seeking retribution -- but not to taking a bride. But when his scandalous actions compromise Isabel's reputation, he does the unthinkable and offers her his hand -- a marriage in name only.

              But although his bride's passions are untried, Isabel's sensuality clearly matches his own. And with each day, and night, that passes, Michael becomes determined that every kiss, every caress, will be made with one goal: to seduce his proper wife into tender submission.

              "

              Customer Reviews:

              4 out of 5 stars A real page-turner ! FIRST book in a series........2006-10-05


              What is most important about this book is that it is the FIRST book in a trilogy. Book 2 is "The Price of Indiscretion." Book 3 is "In the Bed of a Duke." I guess there might eventually be a 4th book, but as of Oct 2006, there are just 3 in this series.
              Very enjoyable book; interesting and admirable hero and heroine. Sexy without going overboard. This first book concerns rich shipping merchant Michael Severson; book two is about Alex Haddon, his business partner and Shawnee blood brother; book three is about the older sister of the woman Alex married in book 2. A great series!

              2 out of 5 stars Nothing To Inspire Our Imagination.......2006-05-11

              Michael and Isabel were interesting characters, but the plot was just so weak and predictable. VERY predictable. At least give the readers something that resembles an actual thought process. Even the simplest things- we know Michael's going to knock at Isabel's door, we know as Isabel is walking down the road that Michael's going to pull up alongside her.
              The reader always knows what's going to happen next, which makes for a pretty boring book.

              4 out of 5 stars Engaging story with a good plot and resolution.......2005-06-28

              I enjoyed this story and read it quickly. While not perfect in several aspects, it was well written. I enjoyed the plot and characters and the development of the husband/wife relationship. The author also added a dose of morality which is often missing in Regency novels. Her love scenes were not so discriptive that they read like soft porn. I appreciated the author's use of forgiveness in the plot line. While not an inspirational novel, I found it inspiring. I would recommend this story for people who enjoy Regency novels but don't want to be loaded down with unrealistic sex scenes and bad language. Also, intimacy takes place within the bounds of marriage. How refreshing.

              3 out of 5 stars Not for everyone..............2005-04-06

              Although I liked the idea of this story, it quickly seemed to turn into something completely different. This book seemed to be a summary of a more decriptive book, it left out so much detail on the characters, their thoughts, feelings and surroundings. I really couldn't get into the book either, and I felt like they fell in love not because they wanted to, but because it was required. It wasn't a horrible book, as I have read much much worse, it just isn't for everyone.

              1 out of 5 stars trust issue too important to smooth over.......2005-02-07

              I actually liked Michael and Isabel but for some reason the author lets Michael keep the real reason he proposed to Isabel a secret and of course she finds out and can no longer trust him, which is understandable. But the problem with this devise is that it is boring. The reader knows this fact and because Michael actually likes her would lead one to think that he would be honest with her about knowing her connection. So the reader from the beginning is being set up to have to wade through this garbage. I just started skimming the book at that point. Good secondary characters towards the last half of the book. I do wish, at times, that I could be the editor of these books. So many mistakes. But more inportantly, to give the author a heads up in remembering that yes, there needs to be conflicts resolved in these stories but why make the hero be less trusting that he actually needs to be? In real life, the fact that Michael so obviouly lied would make this one marriage that would probably not survive.

              Books:

              1. Good Harbor: A Novel
              2. Green Lantern: Hero's Quest (Justice League of America)
              3. Half in Love : Stories
              4. Heart of the Dragon (Atlantis, Book 1)
              5. History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
              6. History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
              7. Horse Heaven
              8. How to Make an American Quilt
              9. Ignorance: A Novel
              10. In a Far Country: The True Story of a Mission, a Marriage, a Murder,and the Remarkable Reindeer Rescue of 1898

              Books Index

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