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vilvery's review against another edition
2.0
Följande text innehåller spoilers.
Okej, lite besviken är jag. Jag har ju så himla höga krav på Courtney. Jag gillade en hel del och jag är tillräckligt intresserad av Turner-bröderna för att vilja fortsätta med serien. Men det fanns också mycket som var ganska blah.
Här är det som är blah:
- Någonstans halvvägs in i boken slutar jag köpa att Margaret inte berättar för Ash vem hon är. Faktum är att jag slutar köpa det ungefär samtidigt som hon till sist bestämmer sig för att berätta. Det känns varken trovärdigt eller intressant när hon springer runt och ba nuuuu ska jag berätta men neeeej jag kaaaan inte. Det blir inte bättre av att Ash i minst en scen hindrar henne från att berätta genom att inleda sex kombinerat med "jag behöver inte veta vem du är"- dialog. Så billigt sätt att på bästa Harlequin-manér dra ut på hemligheten längre.
- Hela Ash inre monolog kring sex är jättekonstig och tröttsam. Jag är en hederlig man, så det så! Men jag tänker ändå ligga med henne. Fast nej, jag avbryter för jag är hederlig och god. Men jag fortsätter göra allt för att förföra henne? Illa skrivet från början till slut och hans så kallade respekt för consent (som Courtney tycks nöjd med/stolt över i extramaterialet) ger jag inte mycket för.
- Margarets bror måste givetvis dyka upp på godset och komma på dem halvnakna precis när Margaret ännu en gång misslyckats med att tala om sanningen för Ash. Billig så kallad spänning igen. Möjligen hade Sherry Thomas kunnat få det att kännas dramatiskt.
- Efter att Margaret och Ash tar upp kontakten igen i London följer några kapitel (tack och lov ganska få) som lever upp till varenda klyscha i en riktigt dålig ballrom-Harlequin. Smita från balen för att ha sex i ett förråd med hela societeten utanför dörren? Smyga iväg i trädgården i mörkret för ett hemligt slagsmål med brorsan? Snälla, snälla, snälla Courtney lägg av. Det här är helt ärligt så pinsamt dåligt. Jag hade nästan lust att sluta läsa för ett tag. Och morr på alla konversationer där Margaret försöker samtala med Ash om vad som pågår och han bara kör över henne med sitt prat om bröllop och sex och att han inte kan hålla sig borta från henne vilket han även demonstrerar. Mitt i detta ska jag köpa att han har sååå mycket respekt för hennes intellekt, åsikter och "unbent will" etc, etc. Ughhhh.
Tack och lov är mycket som sagt också bra:
- Ash är trovärdig och stundtals väldigt charmig och lovable i sin bufflighet och sin stora kärlek till sina bröder. Hans värme och alla hans små quirks gör att jag ändå gillar honom. Dyslexi-grejen är fantastiskt fint skildrad. Här ser man tydligt början till Courtneys enastående förmåga att skriva enaståendemän karaktärer.
- Relationen mellan de tre bröderna är superintressant, viktig och angelägen. Jag vill ha mer av den och jag vill läsa mer om både Mark och Smite. Allra mest spännande är Smite.
- Släktfejden och relationen mellan Turners och Darlymples (minns inte stavningen, får kolla upp den sen) är även den intressant och väl genomtänkt. Överhuvudtaget är själva konflikten i denna bok (Ash vill stjäla duke-titeln) välplanerad och kreativ. Jag älskar hur Ash ambitioner knyts samman med hans känslor för både sina och Margarets bröder.
- Språket är mestadels bra och dialogerna lika rappa, skarpa och smarta som i senare Courtney-böcker (åtminstone nästan).
Okej, lite besviken är jag. Jag har ju så himla höga krav på Courtney. Jag gillade en hel del och jag är tillräckligt intresserad av Turner-bröderna för att vilja fortsätta med serien. Men det fanns också mycket som var ganska blah.
Här är det som är blah:
- Någonstans halvvägs in i boken slutar jag köpa att Margaret inte berättar för Ash vem hon är. Faktum är att jag slutar köpa det ungefär samtidigt som hon till sist bestämmer sig för att berätta. Det känns varken trovärdigt eller intressant när hon springer runt och ba nuuuu ska jag berätta men neeeej jag kaaaan inte. Det blir inte bättre av att Ash i minst en scen hindrar henne från att berätta genom att inleda sex kombinerat med "jag behöver inte veta vem du är"- dialog. Så billigt sätt att på bästa Harlequin-manér dra ut på hemligheten längre.
- Hela Ash inre monolog kring sex är jättekonstig och tröttsam. Jag är en hederlig man, så det så! Men jag tänker ändå ligga med henne. Fast nej, jag avbryter för jag är hederlig och god. Men jag fortsätter göra allt för att förföra henne? Illa skrivet från början till slut och hans så kallade respekt för consent (som Courtney tycks nöjd med/stolt över i extramaterialet) ger jag inte mycket för.
- Margarets bror måste givetvis dyka upp på godset och komma på dem halvnakna precis när Margaret ännu en gång misslyckats med att tala om sanningen för Ash. Billig så kallad spänning igen. Möjligen hade Sherry Thomas kunnat få det att kännas dramatiskt.
- Efter att Margaret och Ash tar upp kontakten igen i London följer några kapitel (tack och lov ganska få) som lever upp till varenda klyscha i en riktigt dålig ballrom-Harlequin. Smita från balen för att ha sex i ett förråd med hela societeten utanför dörren? Smyga iväg i trädgården i mörkret för ett hemligt slagsmål med brorsan? Snälla, snälla, snälla Courtney lägg av. Det här är helt ärligt så pinsamt dåligt. Jag hade nästan lust att sluta läsa för ett tag. Och morr på alla konversationer där Margaret försöker samtala med Ash om vad som pågår och han bara kör över henne med sitt prat om bröllop och sex och att han inte kan hålla sig borta från henne vilket han även demonstrerar. Mitt i detta ska jag köpa att han har sååå mycket respekt för hennes intellekt, åsikter och "unbent will" etc, etc. Ughhhh.
Tack och lov är mycket som sagt också bra:
- Ash är trovärdig och stundtals väldigt charmig och lovable i sin bufflighet och sin stora kärlek till sina bröder. Hans värme och alla hans små quirks gör att jag ändå gillar honom. Dyslexi-grejen är fantastiskt fint skildrad. Här ser man tydligt början till Courtneys enastående förmåga att skriva enastående
- Relationen mellan de tre bröderna är superintressant, viktig och angelägen. Jag vill ha mer av den och jag vill läsa mer om både Mark och Smite. Allra mest spännande är Smite.
- Släktfejden och relationen mellan Turners och Darlymples (minns inte stavningen, får kolla upp den sen) är även den intressant och väl genomtänkt. Överhuvudtaget är själva konflikten i denna bok (Ash vill stjäla duke-titeln) välplanerad och kreativ. Jag älskar hur Ash ambitioner knyts samman med hans känslor för både sina och Margarets bröder.
- Språket är mestadels bra och dialogerna lika rappa, skarpa och smarta som i senare Courtney-böcker (åtminstone nästan).
kingabee's review against another edition
2.0
This must be the only historical romance whose hero’s great weakness is his extreme dyslexia.
It was fairly well-paced and hot but we ultimately didn’t get along because of three themes existing in this novel, that I am not a fan of.
- ‘From the first moment he knew she was the one’: this meant to be and love from the first sight crap is just not for me. If you tell me on page one that he knew she was the one, then you don’t have to really build your characters and their relationship with each other because their fate is sealed. God, I know it is a romance novel and they will overcome all and be together in the end, I get that but convince me why they should!
- Hero who loves his heroine unfailingly from the first to the last page, not once doubting himself or her. It’s just boring. Give me hate, give me angst, give me indifference at least. I prefer when it’s the heroine who needs to do the work to win the hero’s heart because I have enough of men who are blindly in love with me in the real life, thank you very much.
- Heroine who needs her hero to validate her as a person. Now, I don’t mind my heroine a little damaged, even completely broken in the area of romantic relationships but I want her to be strong and secure in all the other spheres of her life. I want her to need the guy just for love and not to basically make her into a person. This whole thing in ‘Unveiled’ where the hero tells the heroine that ‘she matters, she is important’ and it causes her some epiphany that yes, in fact she is a human being and not a doormat, rubbed me the wrong way. Also, I found her behaviour to be inconsistent with her supposed personality. (Given her doormat-like qualities she should make a great servant that she is pretending to be, yet even though everything depends on her playing that role this is the only time she decides to shows some signs of having some cojones which would totally blow her cover if the hero wasn’t so daft /so much for his famed ‘instincts’/)
All of this probably tells you more about me than about the book. I guess, I do like to have the same story told to me over and over again. I just couldn’t fall in love with the hero. I found his seduction technique crass, he was just a creepy stalker really (but what to expect from a guy who from the first moment ‘knew’) and, I suppose, I prefer my men literate. However, I did enjoy the theme of loyalty conflict in ‘Unveiled’.
It was fairly well-paced and hot but we ultimately didn’t get along because of three themes existing in this novel, that I am not a fan of.
- ‘From the first moment he knew she was the one’: this meant to be and love from the first sight crap is just not for me. If you tell me on page one that he knew she was the one, then you don’t have to really build your characters and their relationship with each other because their fate is sealed. God, I know it is a romance novel and they will overcome all and be together in the end, I get that but convince me why they should!
- Hero who loves his heroine unfailingly from the first to the last page, not once doubting himself or her. It’s just boring. Give me hate, give me angst, give me indifference at least. I prefer when it’s the heroine who needs to do the work to win the hero’s heart because I have enough of men who are blindly in love with me in the real life, thank you very much.
- Heroine who needs her hero to validate her as a person. Now, I don’t mind my heroine a little damaged, even completely broken in the area of romantic relationships but I want her to be strong and secure in all the other spheres of her life. I want her to need the guy just for love and not to basically make her into a person. This whole thing in ‘Unveiled’ where the hero tells the heroine that ‘she matters, she is important’ and it causes her some epiphany that yes, in fact she is a human being and not a doormat, rubbed me the wrong way. Also, I found her behaviour to be inconsistent with her supposed personality. (Given her doormat-like qualities she should make a great servant that she is pretending to be, yet even though everything depends on her playing that role this is the only time she decides to shows some signs of having some cojones which would totally blow her cover if the hero wasn’t so daft /so much for his famed ‘instincts’/)
All of this probably tells you more about me than about the book. I guess, I do like to have the same story told to me over and over again. I just couldn’t fall in love with the hero. I found his seduction technique crass, he was just a creepy stalker really (but what to expect from a guy who from the first moment ‘knew’) and, I suppose, I prefer my men literate. However, I did enjoy the theme of loyalty conflict in ‘Unveiled’.
heydebigale's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
This book was so messy, I loved it!
This book felt like a loose Cinderella retelling. We got a deception plot, a woman who lost her fortune, etc.
I really liked how nuanced the antagonists were. It was very grey, which I loved!
I’m excited to read the other books in this series
This book felt like a loose Cinderella retelling. We got a deception plot, a woman who lost her fortune, etc.
I really liked how nuanced the antagonists were. It was very grey, which I loved!
I’m excited to read the other books in this series
echidna's review against another edition
adventurous
lighthearted
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5
Decent, especially for a regency, but overall more mid than I would hope for from Courtney Milan. Why does he like her? Where's the chemistry? What's the point of hidden identity if there's no proper angst?
yourbookishbff's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
It's such an interesting experience to read backwards through an author's catalogue. Having already read Milan's indie-published series, like The Worth Saga and Wedgeford Trials, and most recently, The Brothers Sinister, I'm familiar with her emotionally-charged but delightfully-over-the-top humor and her willingness to tackle political nuances of the time period (particularly dominant forces of imperialism and colonialism) head on. To return to her early Harlequin series is a shift, only because you can see the restraints she's writing within. This feels very classically "historical romance" - male main character instantly lusts after female main character, a woman in disguise and intent on betraying him before she even meets him. You can feel the glimmers of her voice and style here, though not nearly as much of the humor as I've come to love in her books. That said, she executes the primary conflict exactly as I always trust her to - with respect and care for both of her main characters and an innate understanding of how real people operate off-page. She leaves a few notes unchallenged (which surprised me only because she challenges similar scenarios so forcefully in her indie published books) - a backstory for the male main character that has him earning a fortune in India and some deep-rooted classism in the female main character (which is ultimately part of her arc but never feels fully resolved) and side characters. All that said, the power negotiations and explicit discussions around consent are so well done here, as expected - there, Milan never misses!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Emotional abuse, and Sexual content
Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Grief, Death of parent, Abandonment, and Classism
unsuccessfulbookclub's review against another edition
emotional
funny
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Very angsty for a Milan but I loved the exploration of family and loyalty.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Grief, Death of parent, and Abandonment
bhnmt61's review against another edition
4.0
I spent most of my adult life looking down my nose at romance novels. I have Taste, I thought. I don't have time for that drivel.
Until about five years ago when I actually started to read them, and discovered that there are some terrific writers out there writing romance novels. Not all romance novels are good, of course, but that's true of any type of book.
So I read through all of Loretta Chase, Elizabeth Hoyt, Joanna Bourne, and Jennifer Crusie. Tried a bunch of others, found some good, some mediocre, some awful. Then my favorites started to fail me, either by not writing or churning out serialized books that didn't live up to their previous standards. I'd just about given up on ever reading a well-written, intelligent romance novel again.
Enter Courtney Milan. Her books remind me why I love the romance genre. I could quibble about some details, but really every one of hers I've read has been worth reading. Unveiled, the first in her Turner Brother series, is one of the best. It was so good I was even willing to forgive Milan for using one of my pet peeves--the heroine has a secret, and she just can't bring herself to tell the hero because then he'll leave her. (Blecch. Grow a spine and say what you need to say already.)
Ash Turner discovers that the current Duke of Parford's wife is really his second wife, and the first marriage was never ended--making him a bigamist, and his children illegitimate. Parford treated Ash (a distant cousin) horribly when he was a child, so Ash relishes the opportunity to destroy the duke's reputation and depose his children. As the only legitimate next of kin, Ash is in the process of applying to Parliament to become the heir to the dukedom, and he sends the current sons packing while their father is in the ducal bedchamber dying.
Parford's daughter, Anna Margaret, stays behind, pretending to be the duke's nurse, but really to spy on Ash and figure out how to defeat his claim to the title. But of course she discovers that Ash is really not a bad guy, and they fall in love.
*minor spoilers ahead* (I'm giving some things away, but this is really only a sideline of the plot, not the main point--the bit about who Anna Margaret really is has been known to the reader since the first chapter.)
It's not exactly an earth-shakingly original plot, but it's good enough that I was thoroughly absorbed. But finally it becomes clear that she won't be able to keep the secret of her true identity any longer. The reason why I'm giving Unveiled four stars instead of five is because even at the last minute Margaret is such a lily-livered coward that she can't bring herself to 'fess up. She marches in to tell him, but oh no, he's seducing me! I can't think straight! The next morning, she's about to tell him, but oh no! she hears her brother coming up the drive! Oh no he's coming up the stairs! and still she can't bring herself to say the words. *rolls eyes*
Which is just dumb. It buys Milan the moment of shock--Ash finding out who Margaret is from Margaret's brother-- but it's at the expense of any respect we might have had for Margaret. So it says a great deal about how much I like Milan's writing that I still say I loved this book. Margaret's personal issues are movingly addressed and the way Ash finally resolves the question of who will inherit the title is perfect. So ignore the lame resolution to the secret, and enjoy the rest of the book. Highly recommended.
Until about five years ago when I actually started to read them, and discovered that there are some terrific writers out there writing romance novels. Not all romance novels are good, of course, but that's true of any type of book.
So I read through all of Loretta Chase, Elizabeth Hoyt, Joanna Bourne, and Jennifer Crusie. Tried a bunch of others, found some good, some mediocre, some awful. Then my favorites started to fail me, either by not writing or churning out serialized books that didn't live up to their previous standards. I'd just about given up on ever reading a well-written, intelligent romance novel again.
Enter Courtney Milan. Her books remind me why I love the romance genre. I could quibble about some details, but really every one of hers I've read has been worth reading. Unveiled, the first in her Turner Brother series, is one of the best. It was so good I was even willing to forgive Milan for using one of my pet peeves--the heroine has a secret, and she just can't bring herself to tell the hero because then he'll leave her. (Blecch. Grow a spine and say what you need to say already.)
Ash Turner discovers that the current Duke of Parford's wife is really his second wife, and the first marriage was never ended--making him a bigamist, and his children illegitimate. Parford treated Ash (a distant cousin) horribly when he was a child, so Ash relishes the opportunity to destroy the duke's reputation and depose his children. As the only legitimate next of kin, Ash is in the process of applying to Parliament to become the heir to the dukedom, and he sends the current sons packing while their father is in the ducal bedchamber dying.
Parford's daughter, Anna Margaret, stays behind, pretending to be the duke's nurse, but really to spy on Ash and figure out how to defeat his claim to the title. But of course she discovers that Ash is really not a bad guy, and they fall in love.
*minor spoilers ahead* (I'm giving some things away, but this is really only a sideline of the plot, not the main point--the bit about who Anna Margaret really is has been known to the reader since the first chapter.)
It's not exactly an earth-shakingly original plot, but it's good enough that I was thoroughly absorbed. But finally it becomes clear that she won't be able to keep the secret of her true identity any longer. The reason why I'm giving Unveiled four stars instead of five is because even at the last minute Margaret is such a lily-livered coward that she can't bring herself to 'fess up. She marches in to tell him, but oh no, he's seducing me! I can't think straight! The next morning, she's about to tell him, but oh no! she hears her brother coming up the drive! Oh no he's coming up the stairs! and still she can't bring herself to say the words. *rolls eyes*
Which is just dumb. It buys Milan the moment of shock--Ash finding out who Margaret is from Margaret's brother-- but it's at the expense of any respect we might have had for Margaret. So it says a great deal about how much I like Milan's writing that I still say I loved this book. Margaret's personal issues are movingly addressed and the way Ash finally resolves the question of who will inherit the title is perfect. So ignore the lame resolution to the secret, and enjoy the rest of the book. Highly recommended.
lady_smith's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent
mommytaco's review against another edition
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0