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katie_rose81's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.5
juliaegreene's review against another edition
4.0
went in not expecting much but this was acutally pretty good! the ANGST!! top tier
mastersal's review against another edition
4.0
My original review from Amazon back in 2012 which I found and posted here for completeness.
Surprisingly Difficult but Rewarding=
I am not one to review books I read - but Sherry Thomas invariably gets a reaction from me and through this book especially. Like most of her books, this is a "grown-up" romance, full of real adults with real feeling and real hurt. I read the book the day it was released in one sitting even though I had work the next morning; a testament to the author's skill. I warn all readers, that this is not a charming light-hearted fairytale. The hero is struggling through the loss of his "great love" and being forced into a marriage of convenience. No surprises there but want really got me was that I loved him and his character - I am usually sympathetic towards the heroine since she is the one to suffer while the man gets away with being cruel - but Fitz is a real man in that I understood him and loved him despite his faults. Milly is interesting too in that she goes against the recent Regency heroine types - she is quiet and reserves though not week. In that she was refreshing since she was not "feisty" and "different" and all the other clichés that sometime authors can fall under. I do wish she had found her courage to tell Fitz of her love sooner but I understood it.
I would have liked perhaps a few more chapters since the book ended quickly for me. After all the angst I felt that both h/h deserved a little more joy than we got to see - though I must admit, after re-reading the last few chapters again (and again) I do agree that the love that they discover (or Fitz discovers) is not as abrupt as it appeared in the first reading.
Four stars for great characters, a lovely hero and a heroine with courage not often appreciated. 1 star docked for an uneven tone to the book.
Surprisingly Difficult but Rewarding=
I am not one to review books I read - but Sherry Thomas invariably gets a reaction from me and through this book especially. Like most of her books, this is a "grown-up" romance, full of real adults with real feeling and real hurt. I read the book the day it was released in one sitting even though I had work the next morning; a testament to the author's skill. I warn all readers, that this is not a charming light-hearted fairytale. The hero is struggling through the loss of his "great love" and being forced into a marriage of convenience. No surprises there but want really got me was that I loved him and his character - I am usually sympathetic towards the heroine since she is the one to suffer while the man gets away with being cruel - but Fitz is a real man in that I understood him and loved him despite his faults. Milly is interesting too in that she goes against the recent Regency heroine types - she is quiet and reserves though not week. In that she was refreshing since she was not "feisty" and "different" and all the other clichés that sometime authors can fall under. I do wish she had found her courage to tell Fitz of her love sooner but I understood it.
I would have liked perhaps a few more chapters since the book ended quickly for me. After all the angst I felt that both h/h deserved a little more joy than we got to see - though I must admit, after re-reading the last few chapters again (and again) I do agree that the love that they discover (or Fitz discovers) is not as abrupt as it appeared in the first reading.
Four stars for great characters, a lovely hero and a heroine with courage not often appreciated. 1 star docked for an uneven tone to the book.
romancereadinglist's review against another edition
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
4.5
dollydaggerreads's review against another edition
3.0
Riveting but angsty.
I spent most of this book heartbroken for the FMC . It felt like a tragedy until the last few chapters.
Ugh
I spent most of this book heartbroken for the FMC . It felt like a tragedy until the last few chapters.
Ugh
heathenpenguin's review against another edition
3.0
The sticker on the book cover said it won some award for being a tearjerker and so I wanted to read it. After reading [b:The Soldier (Duke's Obsession, #2)|9932662|The Soldier (Duke's Obsession, #2) (Windham, #2)|Grace Burrowes|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1293485803s/9932662.jpg|14825765], I want to get the feels again. Also, the cover is so very purple (which is also part of the reason I read [b:Dangerous|247373|Dangerous|Amanda Quick|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1388452664s/247373.jpg|2028618], LOL).
I was not disappointed, actually; I shed a tear or two, but I admit it took a bit more than when I read those tearjerky parts in the previous book I read.
But is it possible for me to get misty-eyed with the feels AND be disappointed with the book at the same time?
Yes.
Look, I like reading character- and plot-driven books alike, as long as the characters have character and the plots are plenty enough and they make sense. I've read books that are the written equivalent of Dinner with Andre and never felt like I slogged through it.
This book is character-driven, and you can pretty much figure that out after reading the description here on GR. Nothing much does happen, really, but you get to learn much about the characters. A plus point to the book is that I didn't find it tedious in general, although Millie's pining and angst got a tad bit annoying after a few flashbacks. Fitz's pining and angst, I gotta say though, got old even sooner.
On the characters themselves:
As I said above, the MCs angst was understandable and I was there, sympathising with them...to an extent. My patience can endure only so much. I mean...EIGHT YEARS? If I were inclined to curse more sharply than goddamnit (because, hey, you can never take everyone else's deity's name in vain too much) I would've dropped an F-bomb while reading about Millie pining for him and being a doormat for eight effing years and a cluster of F-bombs for all the times Fitz was a dickwad. I can only take so much self-beating and self-pity. I mean, I'd much rather have a quiet, introverted characters with layers of depths than a TSTL adventure/fantasy heroine, yes, but this is just...urgh. As for Fitz...my tolerance for jerkassery is low.
If it weren't for Cresswell & Graves, Henley Park, and actual talk of Victorian-era sanitation (really), I would've flung this book in frustration while cursing at it.
And yes, I stomached the book to the end because I love reading about background information. My favorite parts in the story were actually related to those things:
I also liked those particular flashbacks because they were just starting as a couple, and their friendship was building. I am a sucker for friendship-development plots. Made me get the feels too.
I really liked those parts because--let's face it--I didn't really care for the supporting cast. I didn't care much for the main characters *ahem*Fitz*ahem* either, but the cast was just unremarkable. Well, unremarkable except for Helena and Hastings. Their POV snippets annoyed the hell out of me because they get in the way of reading the main drama, which was the point of the book anyway. No, those snippets didn't make me want to read the next book because I'm only interested in this one because I needed my crying fix and I am not too keen on red-heads (probably one of the reasons I wasn't too keen on Cross either...incredibly shallow, I know. IDK why I don't like red hair, but I don't. It's a post-Harry Potter affliction, though, so I never had this problem with the Weasleys).
...
Anyway, as I was saying, the supporting cast was a blah. What else? That's it.
Admittedly this book was written better than a lot of other HRs I've read lately (especially the embarrassing ones I don't have the interest to add to my "read" pile). But it fell short in some aspects that affected my reading experience.
I was not disappointed, actually; I shed a tear or two, but I admit it took a bit more than when I read those tearjerky parts in the previous book I read.
But is it possible for me to get misty-eyed with the feels AND be disappointed with the book at the same time?
Yes.
Look, I like reading character- and plot-driven books alike, as long as the characters have character and the plots are plenty enough and they make sense. I've read books that are the written equivalent of Dinner with Andre and never felt like I slogged through it.
This book is character-driven, and you can pretty much figure that out after reading the description here on GR. Nothing much does happen, really, but you get to learn much about the characters. A plus point to the book is that I didn't find it tedious in general, although Millie's pining and angst got a tad bit annoying after a few flashbacks. Fitz's pining and angst, I gotta say though, got old even sooner.
On the characters themselves:
As I said above, the MCs angst was understandable and I was there, sympathising with them...to an extent. My patience can endure only so much. I mean...EIGHT YEARS? If I were inclined to curse more sharply than goddamnit (because, hey, you can never take everyone else's deity's name in vain too much) I would've dropped an F-bomb while reading about Millie pining for him and being a doormat for eight effing years and a cluster of F-bombs for all the times Fitz was a dickwad. I can only take so much self-beating and self-pity. I mean, I'd much rather have a quiet, introverted characters with layers of depths than a TSTL adventure/fantasy heroine, yes, but this is just...urgh. As for Fitz...my tolerance for jerkassery is low.
If it weren't for Cresswell & Graves, Henley Park, and actual talk of Victorian-era sanitation (really), I would've flung this book in frustration while cursing at it.
And yes, I stomached the book to the end because I love reading about background information. My favorite parts in the story were actually related to those things:
Spoiler
when Millie and Fitz took over C&G, the times they talked about adverts, and all the scenes where they started to renovate Henley Park.I also liked those particular flashbacks because they were just starting as a couple, and their friendship was building. I am a sucker for friendship-development plots. Made me get the feels too.
I really liked those parts because--let's face it--I didn't really care for the supporting cast. I didn't care much for the main characters *ahem*Fitz*ahem* either, but the cast was just unremarkable. Well, unremarkable except for Helena and Hastings. Their POV snippets annoyed the hell out of me because they get in the way of reading the main drama, which was the point of the book anyway. No, those snippets didn't make me want to read the next book because I'm only interested in this one because I needed my crying fix and I am not too keen on red-heads (probably one of the reasons I wasn't too keen on Cross either...incredibly shallow, I know. IDK why I don't like red hair, but I don't. It's a post-Harry Potter affliction, though, so I never had this problem with the Weasleys).
...
Anyway, as I was saying, the supporting cast was a blah. What else? That's it.
Admittedly this book was written better than a lot of other HRs I've read lately (especially the embarrassing ones I don't have the interest to add to my "read" pile). But it fell short in some aspects that affected my reading experience.
rmc_87's review against another edition
emotional
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
julyavenue's review
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75