Book Description
476 a.d.: The Roman Empire, riddled with corruption and staggered by centuries of barbarian onslaughts, now faces its greatest challenge---not only to its wealth and prestige, but to its very existence.
In his riveting novel The Sword of Attila, Michael Curtis Ford thrilled readers with his recounting of a cataclysmic clash of ancient civilizations. Now, in The Fall of Rome, he takes on the bloody twilight of empire, as the legacy of Attila---once thought destroyed on the battlefield---emerges again to defy the power of the Western World.
In this powerful saga of Roman warfare, the sons of Attila’s great officers wage battle with one another as the dramatic confrontation between Rome’s last emperor and Rome’s barbarian conqueror leads to the thrilling dénouement that becomes the fall of a mighty empire.
Pulsing with intrigue, saturated with historical detail, The Fall of Rome brings readers to new places—pressed into the trenches as catapult bolts fly overhead, lurking within the palace where betrayal is plotted, imprisoned in a tower stronghold where an emperor turns mad.
Once again, Ford demonstrates his mastery as a chronicler of battle, honor, and ancient worlds in this masterfully plotted epic novel that will leave readers begging for more.
Praise for the Novels of Michael Curtis Ford
The Sword of Attila
“Supremely well executed . . . again, Ford offers solidly researched and lustily violent military historical fiction.”
---Kirkus Reviews
The Last King
“Michael Curtis Ford’s love for the ancient world emanates from every page: in his magical settings and spectacular re-creation of monuments and landscapes, in his bold portraits of the protagonists, and in his intriguing and swiftly moving plot.”
---Valerio Massimo Manfredi, author of the Alexander Trilogy and Spartan
“This is Ford’s best so far, and only those who have read his first two know just how good that makes this book.”
---The Statesman Journal
Gods and Legions
“Powerful and passionate. A truly compelling story---one not just of gods and legions but of men.”
---Library Journal (starred review)
“Thanks to the author’s excellent research of both his subject and era, the reader experiences this great man’s transformation step by determined step. Highly recommended.”
---The Historical Novels Review
The Ten Thousand
“A worthy successor to Steven Pressfield’s Gates of Fire.”
---Library Journal (starred review)
“Michael Curtis Ford’s moving account of the fighting and dying of these heroic Greek mercenaries is not only historically sound, but very human, in making Xenophon’s tale come alive in a way that no ancient historian or classicist has yet accomplished.”
---Professor Victor Davis Hanson, author of The Soul of Battle
Customer Reviews:
barbarian view point.......2007-08-23
This was an interesting book, but it left me wanting more. Seeing it from one man's viewpoint, while exciting, doesn't begin to answer why the political climate allowed this to happen. Good Story.
Solid, entertaining, good battle sequences (a history teacher's review).......2007-08-20
While not as strong as Stephen Pressfield in "Gates of Fire", Michael Curtis Ford makes a strong contribution to the burgeoning collection of historical fiction books set in ancient times.
In this case, we follow Odoacer, a real-life German/Hun who variously fights against and fights for the Roman Empire in its last days. The fight sequences are strong and with the exception of a couple of slow spots early on, this book hums right along. If readers are unaware of Odoacer's true place in history they may want to delay researching him until they have finished the book in order to avoid spoilers.
Part of Ford's style is to narrate without necessarily telling you the year or how much time has passed. From time to time he gives dates but oftentimes you have to guess how many weeks/months/years have passed. This is annoying at best and sometimes confusing for several pages.
This book is not an overall sweeping epic that covers all aspects of the fall of Rome. There is minimal discussion of corruption, except at the very highest levels. There's no discussion of cultural aspects, financial troubles and any of the other myriad issues that caused the collapse of the Roman Empire. The book focuses almost exclusively on the military aspects of the time.
One glitch lept out at me - on page 84 Ford has the Huns using "compound bows". The compound bow was not invented until the 20th century. I am sure this was a misstroke of the keyboard, perhaps he meant a similar word such as "compact" or "composite." The only reason I mention it is to warn readers who are familiar with the true destructive power of a compound bow - the Huns would have loved them but they did not have them.
Disappointed.......2007-07-11
After being gripped by Robert Harris's lastest book, Imperium, the Fall of Rome failed by far to do the same. The book's main characters jump around with 10, 20 year gaps and the writing just isn't up to snuff. It could be unfair to compare Ford to Harris and Pressfield but Ford is not in the same league.
I doubt I'll read other of Ford's books.
An outstanding read for those that enjoy tales of the Roman Empire.......2007-07-02
The reviews above do this book justice - the writing is compelling and detailed but not cumbersome - I could not put this book down. If you enjoy it, also read " A Time of Rome - The Empress Galla Placida" by Aniello Agostino Oliviero. It chronicles - in similar style and fashion - the period of time prior to Attila's reign.
Good Read and seemingly historically accurate.......2007-06-29
It's been a few weeks since I read this book, but I recall that I loved it. It ran through the last few years of Rome until the empire actually falls and a new "king" is in place. I later checked out a history of ancient Rome book from the local library and found that the novel was accurate in terms of the names of characters, sequence of events, etc. The book follows the main character from when his village is destroyed by the Romans, and follows him up to the point where he is at the gates of Rome with the power to do the same to Rome. I would recommend this for all of you who love reading about ancient Rome, but want to read other than a history text.
Book Description
Latin instructor Jerome Washington is a man out of place. The lone African-American teacher at the Chelsea School, an elite all-boys boarding school in Connecticut, he has spent nearly two decades trying not to appear too "racial." So he is unnerved when Rashid Bryson, a promising black inner-city student who is new to the school, seeks Washington as a potential ally against Chelsea's citadel of white privilege. Preferring not to align himself with Bryson, Washington rejects the boy's friendship. Surprised and dismayed by Washington's response, Bryson turns instead to Jana Hansen, a middle-aged white divorcée who is also new to the school -- and who has her own reasons for becoming involved in the lives of both Bryson and Washington.
Southgate makes her debut as a writer to watch in this compelling, provocative tale of how race and class ensnare Hansen, Washington, and Bryson as they journey toward an inevitable and ultimately tragic confrontation.
Customer Reviews:
Shades of Colour.......2007-09-06
This for all intents and purposes is my first foray into African-American literature and it was well worth it.
The first thing I really did like about this book is that the story is told in the first person narrative by three different people.
Secondly, the plot is taut and engaging and it is a serious piece of work that makes you think. It is not a breezy, summery read. It deals with racism, class relations, death, inequality: socio-economic-political topics in a fictionally real setting.
Thirdly, the writer does not disguise or water down her truth or beliefs and I greatly admire her boldness and obvious brilliance.
However, I felt the ending was quite unsatisfactory. Not in the sense that I didn't agree with her ending, but it felt a lot less thought out than the rest of the book. I did not really understand why Jerome Washington, a victim himself, was made out to be a monster.
Neither did I take the character of Jana Hansen too seriously. She just kind of seemed tacked on. Maybe because the writer couldn't express her character as well as she hasn't lived in that skin but I don't know why but I just wanted to reach deeper into Jana's character and draw something more out. She was just a less deep character than the others.
Another gripe I have with it is that sometimes, Martha Southgate's psychology of her characters fell short and seemed amateur.
Also, I preferred my book-cover to the one displayed here :D
All in all, a great book, highly recommended and maybe could be required reading for high school if not for the 'naughty' bits.
Insightful musings on self-identification.......2007-05-24
I bought this book after stumbling across another of Southgate's novels, Third Girl from the Left. That book was one of the most exciting books I had read in a long time, but the experience of reading The Fall of Rome was a bit of a disappointment. Although the underlying story was good, it dragged a bit in the beginning. More importantly, the characters all seemed a bit stereotypical. They weren't so much flat, but there seemed to be slightly pat explanations for their personalities and life choices, with each seeming to be a bit of a charicacture of himself. Having said that, in the end I was powerfully affected by the book and the characters have stayed with me for a while.
The story follows three characters with diverse backgrounds whose lives intersect with disastrous consequences for one--the main protagonist, Jerome. Jerome is the only black man teaching at an elite boys high school. He has the requisite rough background, with an emotionally abusive mother, poverty, and general inferiority complex. His approach to overcoming his disadvantages was to completely reject everything he could identify as part of his blackness. It is this that makes him the character with whom I identify the most, as it leads to important questions about how we define ourselves both for others and for ourselves. He struggles mostly with how other people perceive him and in the end this leads to him effectively deny major parts of himself and then punish a fellow human for having the same traits. This other person is Rashid, a smart black kid from the inner city who has his own recent urban underclass experiences. Although I sympathized with him, he was a less interesting character, though Southgate does reveal some insights into life as a young black man that a lot of non-black readers may not have stumbled across. The final character of importance is Jana, a white woman who is drawn to both of the others. Really, she was kind of boring.
The best thing about the book is its musings on the effect of racial self-definition on interactions with other people both of the same race and of a different race. Southgate seems to understand the guilt that a lot of white people have, and how that can come across as well-meaning but misguided attempts at inclusion. People--not just racial minorities--sometimes have to reject various aspects of who they think they are to "succeed", or simply to become a part of another arena of life that is different from where they started. What they have come from, what their families still are, anything that distinguishes them from the group they are trying to become a part of. They overcome these "disadvantages". But in doing so, they often come to hate those things, which can ultimately lead to self-hate. I've experienced this myself both as an American living abroad and as a woman interested in typical geek stuff, and Jerome's experiences serve as one of the best illustrations of how the self-hate comes about and how it is ultimately such an absurdity.
Skillfully written and excellent for those seeking insight on the private school experience.......2006-08-05
Fall of Rome considers the experience of a Rashid, a black student at an elite private boarding school through the eyes of his assimilating black Latin teacher, his English teacher, and himself. Rashid, who comes from an urban environment and is wrestling with the recent death of his brother, raises challenges to the established norms of the private school environment. Seeing his experience through the eyes of all three characters allows for the reader to have a subtle understanding of what Rashid goes through and how there aren't simple answers to being an outsider in an elite institution.
For his Latin teacher, Rashid challenges his often naive rationalizations for being the lone black teacher at the school. He tries to work with Rashid to turn him into an outstanding cross country runner, but he is harder on Rashid than his other students and is uncomfortable that Rashid raises spectres of the black community that he has left behind to teach at Chelsea.
For his English teacher, the private school leads her to question her own failed marriage and her fatigue with her prior work in a public school. Seeing this type of character, a white liberal teacher who has had some success in urban schools, in this elite environment makes her an intriguing character.
This book would be an excellent book to recommend for high school students and any black family who is wrestling with the decison to attend private school. Rashid's situation highlights the challenges of anyone who decides to leave your neighborhood and family behind to be a relative outsider in private school.
I was pleasantly surprised by this book, and Southgate must have taught or attended a private school like Chelsea at some point to compassionately capture the challenges of administration, students, and teachers so well.
Strongly recommended...
4.5 stars.
--SD
Exceptional !.......2005-12-28
The tragic loss experienced by the young student from Brooklyn, the quality of formal education he received prior to arriving at the Chelsea School, and the hope once held by his grieving parents are among the powerful forces driving this character's determination. How he struggles to gain a sense of balance is a compelling story that can motivate a young man coming of age. It's an excellent book for parents or mentors to read and discuss with their high school or college students.
In love with this story.......2005-10-21
I read a page, put it down, read another page, trying to stretch the story out. I am so drawn in by the characters Ms Southgate has created. So many layers, so thought provoking. One of my real favorites.
Average customer rating:
- Glimpses of the future master
- The sad story of Paul Pennyfeather
- "Monty Python" for People Who Think
- The Decline of an Empire & The Fall of Morality
- Deliciously scathing
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Decline and Fall (Everyman's Library (Cloth))
Evelyn Waugh
Manufacturer: Everyman's Library
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
 Satire, Classic
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Rome
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Waugh, Evelyn
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ASIN: 067942041X
Release Date: 1993-02-23 |
Book Description
(Book Jacket Status: Jacketed)
Decline and Fall (1928) was Evelyn Waugh's immensely successful first novel, and it displays not only all of its author's customary satiric genius and flair for unearthing the ridiculous in human nature, but also a youthful willingness to train those weapons on any and every thing in his path. In this fractured picaresque comedy of the hapless Paul Pennyfeather stumbling from one disaster to another, Waugh manages the delicious task of skewering every aspect of the society in which he lived.
With an Introduction by Frank Kermode
Sir Frank Kermode, formerly Lord Northcliffe Professor at London University, is now Professor at Cambridge and Columbia Universities. His books include The Uses of and Continuities.
Customer Reviews:
Glimpses of the future master.......2007-07-18
This is the novel that made a young Evelyn Waugh's reputation in 1928. "Decline and Fall" is dripping with early glimpses of the comic satire that Waugh would come to produce. The story follows the improbable events of Paul Pennyfeather's life after he is sent down from Scone College, Oxford.
Pennyfeather, a meek and polite divinity student, runs afoul of a group of drunken students after a raucous old boy dinner of the Bollinger Club. After a misunderstanding about a school tie, the students take Pennyfeather's pants there on the school quad. Pennyfeather is expelled for indecency.
What makes the hapless Pennyfeather so, for lack of a better word, huggable, is that events happen to him, not the other way around. He meets a bizarre cast of repeating characters, in this funny if somewhat moody book. If you read "Decline and Fall" as the satire that it is, even the casualness with which a grizzly murder is handled is funny.
"Decline and Fall" is well worth reading, but it isn't Waugh's best work. His rather scattershot lampooning of every aspect of upper-middle class British life will be honed to perfection in later works like "Scoop."
It's a great read and a zany adventure for Paul Pennyfeather, and while it appears that the story ends where it starts, it doesn't. That is the key the satisfying conclusion that Waugh gives his tale that at times seems little more than a Monty Python skit. Penny feather is a changed man, even if England is the same. Evelyn Waugh was a great novelist, even in 1928.
The sad story of Paul Pennyfeather.......2007-01-16
This bitter farce tells the story of one Paul Pennyfeather, a young man who is expelled from an Oxford-like university due to a misunderstanding. Ever since this first scene the reader understands that he's reading a novel of the absurd. The point is never to tell a credible story with a tight plot, but to develop a savage satire on the British society, especially the educational system. After being expelled, Paul finds himself with no money and so is forced to get a job at a school of the worst level. His colleagues are pathetic and their small misadventures are hilarious. Of course, Waugh's humor is very British: caustic, understated, and at the same time some passages, like the athletic event, are excessive to the point of ridicule. At some point, Paul makes the acquaintance of the mother of one of his pupils, a rich and beautiful widow who proposes to him in marriage. This seems to be Paul's lucky break of a lifetime, and he eagerly accepts. But the woman runs a strange business which will produce the decline and fall of the title.
What develops as a hilarious farce ends up being a sad story. Waugh aims his mockery at every person and system included in the novel. Education, prostitution, jail, politics and business are all the target of this first novel which promises much about the future work of Waugh. Recommended.
"Monty Python" for People Who Think.......2006-08-20
Waugh's notorious first novel, "Decline and Fall" brutally satirizes British society of the 1920s with his characteristic black humor. Based in part, upon his own experiences at Oxford and teaching at a private school in Wales in 1925, it lays waste British notions of honor, educational excellence, sportsmanship, the Church, and the upper class generally. In an age when most "humor" is visual slapstick, it is refreshing to read a writer who could be screamingly funny using words alone.
Readers with Politically Correct views, will probably be offended by this book (or any of Waugh's other novels for that matter), but those who believe that the only test of humor is whether or not it is funny will find it an enjoyable read.
Note: The movie version of another great satire by Waugh, "The Loved One," has only recently been released on DVD. With a screenplay by Terry Southern (who also wrote the screenplay for "Dr. Strangelove"), it is definitely worth buying, although you will enjoy it more if you read the book first. It is one of those rare films that does the book justice.
The Decline of an Empire & The Fall of Morality.......2006-08-12
When the First World War ended in 1918, Evelyn Waugh was fifteen years old. Over the next decade, he saw a continuation of the wrenching that England had suffered first on a material level, then on a moral and social one. In DECLINE AND FALL, Waugh expresses his dismay that the psychic underpinning that had bolstered England for the fighting proved incapable to lead it in the years that led to the Great Depression. Everywhere Waugh looked, he saw a gradual disintegration of the English social fabric, and for him, this fraying of that fabric allowed him to use his new found sense of biting satire that could lash out in all directions.
DECLINE AND FALL (1926) was Waugh's first novel. His protagonist Paul Pennyfeather is the contemporary English Everyman, a basically decent sort of chap who seeks to do the right thing, but finds out that all too often that he is the only one interested in doing that. Pennyfeather's approach to life is a passive one. When dire events happen, he tries harder to deflect their severity than to eradicate them altogether. The opening chapter sets the tone for his inability to confront dire evil with purposeful resolve. He is a student at Scone University who is subject to a mean trick by a group of consciousless upperclass cads, the result of which is that he is expelled for moral turpitude. Rather than fight to stay in school he meekly accepts his fate. From this point on, the novel descends into a series of events whose reverberations and ripples drag him ever more deeply into the muck and slime of existential disarray. He finds a job teaching vicious urchins at a tenth rate school, where he predictably encounters both students and teachers whose only purpose is to bedevil him. Eventually, he meets a woman who promises to be the Great Love of his life. She unwittingly involves him a white slavery deal that results in his imprisonment. By the time the novel ends, Pennyfeather has gone in a big circle. He returns to Scone University in a disguise (he needs one since he escaped from prison), but this disguise is external only. Inwardly, he is the same passive but good hearted naive youth that he was in the beginning.
DECLINE AND FALL proved to be the first in a series of novels that allowed Waugh to explore the bitter angst that bubbled beneath the surface in an English middle class society that increasingly came to see itself as having lost its moral compass in an age that prized breaking the rules over following them. As with all good writers, Waugh depicts a society that draws the reader inwardly, all the while urging that reader to judge the worth of that society as viewed through the bitterly satiric lens of a man who wants his reading public to feel the same sense of outrage that he does. In DECLINE AND FALL, Waugh succeeds admirably.
Deliciously scathing.......2006-08-10
In this his first novel, Evelyn Waugh lampoons the English education system, sporting events, theological study, the landed gentry, and prison reform, to name just some of the targets of his razor-sharp satirical barbs. Paul Pennyfeather, a third-year divinity student at Scone College, is kicked out after a prank is pulled on him leaving him indecently exposed; he then gets a job as a teacher in a prep school where his past is ignored ("I have been in the scholastic profession long enough," says the school's head Dr. Fagan, "to know that nobody enters it unless he has some very good reason which he is anxious to conceal."). From there the craziness only multiplies: a student is accidentally shot in the foot with a starter's gun at a track meet (and dies); Pennyfeather gets involved with the debauched Margot Beste-Chetwynde and goes to prison in her place as a white slave-trader (the truly insane practices of the prison seem right out of a Marx Brothers movie); he is somehow legally declared dead on an operating table in prison where he was to have his already-removed appendix taken out; and then miraculously finds himself back at Scone none the worse for wear.
As I read the book I was reminded often of ALICE IN WONDERLAND: the Caucus race and the track meet, the nonsense poems in both, the "reforms" that are worse than the problems they are addressing, the return to "normalcy" at the end as if nothing of consequence ever happened. Waugh's satire is biting and very, very funny, but never excessively cruel or mean. One begins laughing while reading this novel right on the first page (the party scene is hilarious in its destructive foolishness, "a lovely evening") and continues to do so with few interruptions to the end. It's scathing, brilliant comedy - something Waugh was a master at.
Book Description
Mueller delivers a well-written collection of stories that reflect the bittersweetness of life through his central male protagonists. Whether on the streets of Washington, D.C. or the alleys of Italy, he effortlessly transports readers to interesting locales where the setting is intricately woven into the story. ROME REVISITED transcends the mainstream literary fiction genre. Moving...With splendid evocation of place and time, fine writing, and a compelling mixture of adventure, tragedy, and romance. A must for any current or former adherent of Dewey Beach, Delaware. A particular strength of Mueller is his ability to change voices in order to reflect a new story. The stories revolve around a military man, but readers won
Customer Reviews:
Events parallel America today with Rome of yesterday.......2006-02-20
Reading the recent book is like walking the streets of Alexandria, Virginia, as the novel describes its byways and haunts with a flourish. That the special haunts are usually bars and restaurants reflects the lifestyle of the book's twenty- to thirty-year-olds as they search for love, the best career choices, and, eventually the ultimate values of existence.
"Rome Revisited," the novel, and its additional four short stories range from Northern Virginia, Washington, D.C., and Delaware to New York, London, Naples, Italy, and Heidelberg, Germany.
The book features the "greed is good" era of quick dot-com wealth, and an emphasis on material success that encouraged an anything-goes lack of restraint in the heedless rush for self-gratification. The absence of "Rome" anywhere in the book was puzzling at first, but its relevance was gradually revealed through the characters' bull sessions and their actions. Parallels between the America pictured here and ancient Rome and its fall become clearer, and the book underscores it by quotes from Roman poet Virgil that preface the novel and each of the stories.
The novel's Charlie Young is a West Point man infatuated with beautiful, selfish and unpredictable Lisa Cravant. They carry out their affair against a backdrop of Charlie's friends, men and women with all their virtues and vices. And the vices include betrayal of friend and country. The scene shifts to Dewey Beach, Delaware, to shenanigans at a shared beach house over a revved-up Fourth of July weekend, with results as explosive as the holiday.
Military protagonists are in all four stories. His "Claudius Maximus" shows an army career that turns into a tool for profiteering, to the destruction of the man who would bring it to light. "The Spirit of Naples" uses unwise love for a stunning beauty to teach the hero a lesson. In "Dear John," a man's career costs him everything. "The Crusaders" focuses on a young couple that sets out to avenge 9/11.
The book shifts from interesting philosophical arguments to slam-bang action. Moreover Mueller handles his narrative in fascinating and thorough detail.
Average customer rating:
- Great love Story
- BRILLIANT STORYTELLING!!!
- Fun Little Western Romance
- Classic romance with a great plot!
- HOT HOT HOT!!!!!
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A Heart So Wild
Johanna Lindsey
Manufacturer: Avon
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
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ASIN: 0380750848 |
Book Description
Courtney Harte is certain her missing father is a alive, lost somewhere deep in Indian territory. But she needs a guide to lead her safely through this dangerous, unfamiliar country, someone as wild and unpredictable as the land itself. And that man is the gunslinger they call Chandos.
Courtney fears this enigmatic loner whose dark secrets torture his soul, yet whose eyes, bluer than the frontier sky, enflame the innocent, determined lady with wanton desires. But on the treacherous path they have chosen they have no one to trust but each other--as shared perils to their lives and hearts unleash turbulent, unbridled, passions that only love can tame.
Customer Reviews:
Great love Story.......2006-04-19
I have been meaning to review this for ages, and I'm finally getting around to it! If I could I'd give this book like 20 stars! I think I have read this one 8 times. I've read almost all JL's (Love her!) and this is the best. If you like romance, this story is a must. I came across this book in a hotel when I was twelve years old. I was a bit shocked by it at first, but I ended up loving it. This is the book that got me hooked on romance. I loved it then and it is still my favorite book. The characters are extremely memorable and there is loads of chemistry between them. The way their relationship evolved and they fell in love was very believable and convincing. I love westerns, but sometimes the plots are confusing/ repetitive. Not this one!
Chandos is the hottest fictional character ever written, in my opinion. I REALLY WISH HE WERE REAL! What's so engaging and memorable about him is that he's extremely manly, strong-willed, and even sometimes brutal, but he is very protective of Courntney, and "gentle when it matters". It's so cute the way he calls her "Cateyes"!
Courtney, the woman he falls in love with, is adorable. She starts out quite shy and timid around him, which is understandable, considering he's a studly, macho gunfighter-type guy. It's a wonder she even manages to ask the intimidating Chandos to guide her across Indian territory in the first place. However, as their journey progresses, I was glad to see courtney show a side that wasn't originally apparent-very passionate and brave.
It's very romantic how these people meet after a chance encounter four years prior, and fall in love. The plot was deep, complex, and greatly enriched by the story of chandos's past and his struggle for revenge and justice. Some might say the ending is sappy, but I loved it! this book is terrific from the first sentense (even though it's kind of graphic!) to the last, including all the components of a great and memorable romance: passion, true love, adventure, heartbreak, an engrossing plot, interesting secondary characters, a happy not sappy ending, an engaging leading lady, and an extremely hot, on-fire, out-of-this-worldly attractive hero. READ IT! YOU WILL NOT BE DISSAPOINTED! YOU WILL END UP READING IT OVER AND OVER!
BRILLIANT STORYTELLING!!!.......2006-01-16
Loved it, loved it, loved it!
Chandos was the perfect hero. This is my all time favorite Johanna Linsey romance. The story had everything you could ask for in a romance - adventure, tension, suspense, danger and above all love and passion!
I read it in one sitting, (till 5am) I couldn't put it down. I wish I could read it again and again as if I hadn't read it before. I try, I read it every year or so. This is the kind of story that you hold in your heart for a long time after you have finshed reading.
A pure gem!
Fun Little Western Romance.......2005-12-20
I enjoyed this book, but I hestitated to give it 5 stars since the characters could have been written with a little more depth. Chandos is the dark, strong, and brooding hero that romance fans continue to slobber over. Of course his heart is melted by the too beautiful herione before the story ends.
Classic romance with a great plot!.......2005-09-08
Picking up this book to read, I had great expectations since it was a Johanna Lindsey. And she definetely didn't disappoint. The book started out great if a little graphic but it drew me in instantly.
The relationship between Courtney and Chandos was electric. Their chemistry so perfect. Chandos was the ultimate hero. Is there anything he couldn't do? Courtney was a lady through and though. She was written very realistically for a lady of her time, struggling with the feelings Chandos created in her and also with allowing herself to give in to him.
The plot was great as well and made me turn page after page in anticipation of what would happen next. I enjoyed reading about life in the west during that time period. Ways of surviving the travel in Indian territory and the hardships of the vast empty land were truly an interesting read.
I'm all for a happy ending and Johanna aimed to please. Never a boring moment. Definetely worth the money and the time to read. I'm reading its sequal now and hoping it will be as good. Keeping fingers crossed.
HOT HOT HOT!!!!!.......2004-12-28
Wow! This was an awesome book! I have read a LOT of Romance novels and a lot of Lindsey's books in particular. Memorable romance novels are few and far between. I have to say, this is one of the best books I have ever read. It has everything I look for in a romance novel: a dangerous, manly hero, a beautiful, intellegent leading lady, and lots of exciting scenes where the hero saves his lady. Chandos is my dream man. He has a "don't mess with me" attitude, but loves and protects his woman with an intensity you could sigh over. I will most certainly re-read this book after a little time has passed. Lindsey writes so vividly, you could actually picture yourself in the scenes living it right along with the characters. Take my advice, buy this book. You will NOT be disappointed I assure you!!
Average customer rating:
- a very unheroic "hero"
- A really good romance story, but a rushed ending
- A Great Beginning In The Series!
- Candace Camp IS HABIT FORMING
- A real page turner, not to be missed!!
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So Wild A Heart
Candace Camp
Manufacturer: Harlequin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Camp, Candace | ( C ) | Authors, A-Z | Romance | Subjects | Books
General | Romance | Subjects | Books
Regency | Historical | Romance | Subjects | Books
General | Historical | Romance | Subjects | Books
Single Women | Women's Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
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The Hidden Heart
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Secrets Of The Heart
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A Stolen Heart (Hqn Romance)
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Mesmerized
-
Swept Away
ASIN: 0373771606 |
Book Description
Generations ago, the Aincourt family was given a title and land for their loyalty to the king. But the former abbey they received came with a price -- a curse that no family member would ever know happiness.
Devin Aincourt, Earl of Ravenscar, makes no apologies for who he is -- a drinker, a womanizer, a gambler. Having been cast aside by his disapproving father years before, Dev is content to live out his cursed life in this hedonistic manner. Until his mother asks him to make a bold move to restore the family name and fortune: marry a rich American heiress. Believing it will be a marriage in name only, Dev agrees to marry Miranda. But he never imagined that this feisty, unconventional foreigner would have plans of her own: to restore Blackwater, the old abbey, to its former glory, to extricate Dev from the clutches of a devious mistress and to win his heart for her own. All while risking her own life to an unknown enemy.
For Dev and Miranda, love may be the most lasting curse of all.
Customer Reviews:
a very unheroic "hero".......2007-05-01
Wow, it was really very hard to like the "hero" of this book. He spent years and years mounting anything that didn't move in every hellhole in London and all of its slums, he was completely manipulated by his controlling mistress, he was a raging consumer of alcohol and deeply mired in self hatred. Could my heart beat any faster? Yes, I concede that Miranda made him change once he got away from his mistress, but that really just makes it worse for me. What that really boils down to is that this man can be manipulated by anyone. And, I know the author never calls him an alcoholic but really. You drink that much for that long ....
Anyway, Miranda was great. So very nice to see a determined woman who is not a petty, spiteful whiner. I adored her. But, I just couldn't get past Devin's past. And really, he must have picked up several STD's on his way through the scores of myriad women, not to mention those he contracted from his mistress who was even more flagrantly promiscuous. All in all, loved the heroine, couldn't get past the hero's past.
I know it is a romance novel and so I am supposed to suspend my belief in reality but there is a limit past which I just cannot return. This was a decent read, but I felt the need for a strong dose of penicillin when it was over.
A really good romance story, but a rushed ending.......2007-03-24
Overall I really did like this book, and I would read more by this author. Devin and Miranda were great characters, and the "who's the bad guy?" mystery that was the backbone of this story was quite interesting and hard to guess. Devin is quite the desirable dark hero too, and Miranda was intelligent and spoke her mind (but not in an annoying way.) The passion between these two was heated, but don't read this book looking for a "sizzling read". It's not that type of romance book. Bedroom scenes come very late in the book, and they were rather glossed over. My ONLY true complaint was that the ending was wrapped up with such hyper-speed. The last 30 or so pages had many of the main characters confessing and purging their hidden secrets at an alarming pace just to wrap up the story. There was no reason for much of the confessions either - they were just spewing stuff like "I never wanted anyone to know, but I must confess!" It just felt so phony. The conclusion of the story was quite cleaver though, I just didn't like the style of delivery.
A Great Beginning In The Series!.......2006-03-05
SO WILD A HEART is a wonderful beginning to a terrific series! I recommend you follow up with THE HIDDEN HEART and then SECRETS OF THE HEART. All three books are easy to read regency romances with a flare of mystery. The stories are closely connected that it's best to start with the first in the series.
Candace Camp IS HABIT FORMING.......2005-05-09
I have to admit I am someone who has their nose stuck in a book a good majority of the time ... I have read so many excellent authors over the years (I am proud to be a grandmother) however, for some odd reason I have missed reading Candace Camp ...I picked up So Wild a Heart with my last grouping of romance books and once I started it I didn't want to put it down ... it was darling! I was "caught" from the very beginning which is something I really like in a book. I didn't think I was going to like Dev to begin with, (which often makes it difficult to really enjoy a book) however, like everyone else I fell in love with this man who was taught that he had to hide his feelings to be a "real man" ... it was so nice when he started showing that a "real man" shows his feelings (speaks a wife who is still head-over-heels in love with her sensitive husband of 35 years). ... books like this are a dream come true ... Miranda is a woman much ahead of her time, which I personally enjoyed ... not just pretty face without a thought in her head, which so many of the women of that era are portrayed as (and sadder yet, they actually were). There is so much anticipation of happiness, mixed with the frustration (you would like to reach through the book and grab a couple of people by their necks ... no I am NOT a violent person!!!) ... and topped off with excitement of a love fulfilled ... and so much more ... Where this may have been my first Candace Camp book I am now 3/4 the way through the 3rd book of this trilogy "Secrets of the Heart" and I am finding it just as wonderful. As I am writing this I am thinking that the one thing that this book definitely has is the ability to make one want to keep turning the pages ... I couldn't put it down ... and I am going back to the bookstore to purchase more ... what an absolute joy from beginnng to end. I truly don't think this is a book you would be disappointed in reading.
A real page turner, not to be missed!!.......2005-03-11
Devin might start out to be one of the more contemptable rouges I have read about - he really did some BAD stuff. And Leona was one of the worst mistresses - she was so controlling and nasty. When you start to realize how she manipulated Devin and worked her wiles on him, and underminded him at every turn, you began to feel sorry for him. Miranda was just what he needed, strong lovely, intelligent, and she just happened to realize that she could totally loose her heart to Devin. So, she agrres to marry and unknown to Devin intends to win him over 100% - no more Leona. This is just such a different kind of love story - and the characters of Miranda and Devin you want to make it. I was actually quite surprised by a few of the plot twists at the end and it was necessary for Devin to finally be free of guilt and also to understand how loathsome Leona had always been. I have hurried out to buy the next two books in this series - I feel Camp has several winners!!
Product Description
1986 Avon BCE. 243 pages. Courtney Harte has lived a life of drudgery with her harsh stepmother in Kansas ever since her father disappeared after a brutal Indian attack. When she sees his picture in a Texas newspaper, she can hardly contain her excitement and determines to travel to Waco. The trail is fraught with danger and the only man brave enough to take her is a mysterious visitor in town, Chandos--a man with a quick draw and an even quicker temper. Courtney is stung by his cold aloofness...for she has found that even his slightest touch sets her pulse racing. She doesn't know that Chandos can barely keep from ravishing her golden beauty...and that it is only a dark secret from his past that keeps them apart. But on an isolated part of the trail, passion overcomes duty and honor, and Chandos at last takes the woman who has tempted him for so long into his arms...Then Chandos abruptly leaves Courtney with some friends outside of Waco while he attends to some unfinished business. He is driven by a terrible vow he must fulfill--a vow he made on that fateful day four years ago, when he spared Courtney's life during a brutal Commanche raid....
Product Description
Three volume set -- So Wild a Heart; The Hidden Heart; and Secrets of the Heart
Average customer rating:
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So Wild a Heart
Manufacturer: Mira
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: 0739423207 |
Product Description
JOHANNA LINDSEY Books: Savage Thunder, A Heart So Wild, Once a Princess, A Pirate's Love, A Gentle Feuding, Until Forever (Unboxed Set of Romance Novels), in either Hard or Softcover, (See Seller Condition Comments), Shipped in one package to save on shipping costs.
Product Description
A rare collection of historical romance novels
Average customer rating:
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SO WILD A HEART
Veronica JASON
Manufacturer: Signet Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: B000GZA2V6 |
Books:
- The Forty Days of Musa Dagh
- The Four Loves
- The Honorary Consul: A Novel (Simon & Schuster Classics)
- The Keepers of Truth: A Novel
- The Lake, the River & the Other Lake: A Novel
- The Last Noel
- The Lost Library of Cormanthyr (Forgotten Realms: Lost Empires, Book 1)
- The Manhattan Hunt Club
- The Music Lesson: A Novel
- The Obscene Bird of Night (Verba Mundi)
Books Index
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