pippimonster's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
1.5
lost_goddess's review
It just prattled on and on about forbidden fruit with absolutely no character development.
storieswithsoul's review against another edition
5.0
4.5. Stars
It's an interesting historical romance novel. I had loved book one in Lords of Essex series, and this one is just as good. It can be read as standalone novel. Story is about Princess Svetlanka Volkonsky. She is running away from her Uncle. Living with false identity, she never realised that her past can come back to haunt her. Because of her Uncle she had to leave her home, and everything dear to her behind. All she wants is to keep her sister, and herself safe.
She is living as a maid of Lord Graham Findlay's sister. For some reason he doesn't trust her. May be he knows that she is hiding something and wants to reveal her secret.
It's a very enjoyable read. I liked both Princess Svetlanka (I don't think I'm pronouncing this name right ;) ) and Lord Graham. Story is also very intriguing and well-written. I loved it!
I received a complimentary copy of this novel.
It's an interesting historical romance novel. I had loved book one in Lords of Essex series, and this one is just as good. It can be read as standalone novel. Story is about Princess Svetlanka Volkonsky. She is running away from her Uncle. Living with false identity, she never realised that her past can come back to haunt her. Because of her Uncle she had to leave her home, and everything dear to her behind. All she wants is to keep her sister, and herself safe.
She is living as a maid of Lord Graham Findlay's sister. For some reason he doesn't trust her. May be he knows that she is hiding something and wants to reveal her secret.
It's a very enjoyable read. I liked both Princess Svetlanka (I don't think I'm pronouncing this name right ;) ) and Lord Graham. Story is also very intriguing and well-written. I loved it!
I received a complimentary copy of this novel.
booktineus's review
emotional
lighthearted
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
3.0
fainting_couch's review
3.0
I KNEW I had read this before ok cool I haven’t lost the plot
Uhhh it was fine but the fact that it was set almost at the exact same time as the previous was kinda annoying bc a lot of the same plot was retread.
Uhhh it was fine but the fact that it was set almost at the exact same time as the previous was kinda annoying bc a lot of the same plot was retread.
storytimewithlily's review
2.5
2.5 stars
I absolutely hated the first approximately 25% of this book. And I was fully prepared to write off Amalie Howard.
Let's start with the fact that Howard does not know how to write a hate to love romance. I've read two other books of hers and it was the same in them too. The two main characters "hated" each other for like 1 chapter, and then immediately started kissing and revealing secrets to each other. Like if you want them to get together so quickly just don't even try to make it an enemies to lovers situation.
Also Grey annoyed me throughout the book. And he was dumb. So very very dumb.
Also, this might just be an issue with me, but I didn't like how this story was taking place at the exact same time as book 1 in this series. It covers all of the main plot points from the first book, just from a different perspective. But I didn't find it interesting at all, just boring because I knew exactly what was going to happen.
Eventually, by the half way point, I was enjoying myself. The pacing was still a bit off, but it was fun and I could get into it from then
I absolutely hated the first approximately 25% of this book. And I was fully prepared to write off Amalie Howard.
Let's start with the fact that Howard does not know how to write a hate to love romance. I've read two other books of hers and it was the same in them too. The two main characters "hated" each other for like 1 chapter, and then immediately started kissing and revealing secrets to each other. Like if you want them to get together so quickly just don't even try to make it an enemies to lovers situation.
Also Grey annoyed me throughout the book. And he was dumb. So very very dumb.
Also, this might just be an issue with me, but I didn't like how this story was taking place at the exact same time as book 1 in this series. It covers all of the main plot points from the first book, just from a different perspective. But I didn't find it interesting at all, just boring because I knew exactly what was going to happen.
Eventually, by the half way point, I was enjoying myself. The pacing was still a bit off, but it was fun and I could get into it from then
jamsreadsbooks's review against another edition
2.0
✮ Read this review and more like it on The Last Page ✮
I honestly struggled to finish this book and it was such a damn shame because I actually wanted to like it, I really did. The writing style is polished and the editing is good, I have absolutely no complaints there. The characters are animated and have personality, the main plot about Lana’s escape and her attempts to investigate the traitors is intriguing, and there was genuine heat between the main characters that developed at a good pace between the two leads—so where did things go wrong?
The best I can come up with was simply that it was a combination of several small problems that eventually became big problems for me. It was overlong, tried to juggle too many plot lines at once, and even the love scenes between Graham and Lana started to get tiring to read. In the beginning I was genuinely immersed, but by the halfway point I found myself bored to tears.
It is important to note that I hadn’t read the first book in the Lords of Essex series, and quite frankly I’m rather used to being able to read historical romance novels in any order. It’s obvious that the events in My Darling, My Disaster take place at the same time as My Rogue, My Ruin and readers are given a sort of cliff notes retelling of the first book. I found these extra scenes confusing initially, as they seemed to be of importance and I had assumed they had to do with Lana’s Russia plot. These little pieces of the other story showed up at seemingly random times and were incredibly disjointed. I realized pretty quickly that they had next to nothing to do with the main story line, but it still didn’t help with the fact that I found them pretty distracting. What’s worse is that a major plot spoiler is tossed in later on in the story that I’m fairly certain was a pretty big twist in the first novel. While reading I had considered picking up the first book to learn more about Brynn, but that spoiler at the end really kind of ruined it. Why bother when the mystery is gone?
A casualty of this confused swinging back and fourth was Graham, whose personality and moods would shift so wildly. Speaking of Graham, he came off as kind of dense. There were so many things that were glaringly obvious and he just didn’t see any of it, and ends up making everything worse. He never takes the traitor plot anywhere near as serious as he should’ve. Add on top of that ugly jealousy and he quickly went from being charming to arrogant and it was really unattractive. I couldn’t stand that he so obviously looked down on Lana because of their perceived societal ranks, and because of this he chose to stay blind to the obvious. The more I read, the more I disliked him, and that just doesn’t work in a romance novel. Especially since I actually liked Lana a great deal.
It’s unfortunate that by the end I had completely checked out of the book. I finished in the hopes that the story would redeem itself, of getting a satisfying resolution to an incredibly messy and unfocused plot. I stayed for the climax, which did an alright job wrapping everything up, but then sighed as I was forced to sit through sex followed by a separate discussion of having even more sex. Almost a solid 10% of the the book is spent on this. It’s bad when the spicy bits start to become tiring.
I think that the authors have some promise, they have some good ideas that were simply executed poorly. I think if they had focused the story more directly on the main two characters and separated it more from the previous novel it would’ve gone so much better. It makes sense that it would have to take place in a similar time frame given that Lana is Brynn’s maid, but you’ve got to leave some of the good parts for readers to discover in the other book.
Disclaimer: Received a copy for review from the publisher via NetGalley
I honestly struggled to finish this book and it was such a damn shame because I actually wanted to like it, I really did. The writing style is polished and the editing is good, I have absolutely no complaints there. The characters are animated and have personality, the main plot about Lana’s escape and her attempts to investigate the traitors is intriguing, and there was genuine heat between the main characters that developed at a good pace between the two leads—so where did things go wrong?
The best I can come up with was simply that it was a combination of several small problems that eventually became big problems for me. It was overlong, tried to juggle too many plot lines at once, and even the love scenes between Graham and Lana started to get tiring to read. In the beginning I was genuinely immersed, but by the halfway point I found myself bored to tears.
It is important to note that I hadn’t read the first book in the Lords of Essex series, and quite frankly I’m rather used to being able to read historical romance novels in any order. It’s obvious that the events in My Darling, My Disaster take place at the same time as My Rogue, My Ruin and readers are given a sort of cliff notes retelling of the first book. I found these extra scenes confusing initially, as they seemed to be of importance and I had assumed they had to do with Lana’s Russia plot. These little pieces of the other story showed up at seemingly random times and were incredibly disjointed. I realized pretty quickly that they had next to nothing to do with the main story line, but it still didn’t help with the fact that I found them pretty distracting. What’s worse is that a major plot spoiler is tossed in later on in the story that I’m fairly certain was a pretty big twist in the first novel. While reading I had considered picking up the first book to learn more about Brynn, but that spoiler at the end really kind of ruined it. Why bother when the mystery is gone?
A casualty of this confused swinging back and fourth was Graham, whose personality and moods would shift so wildly. Speaking of Graham, he came off as kind of dense. There were so many things that were glaringly obvious and he just didn’t see any of it, and ends up making everything worse. He never takes the traitor plot anywhere near as serious as he should’ve. Add on top of that ugly jealousy and he quickly went from being charming to arrogant and it was really unattractive. I couldn’t stand that he so obviously looked down on Lana because of their perceived societal ranks, and because of this he chose to stay blind to the obvious. The more I read, the more I disliked him, and that just doesn’t work in a romance novel. Especially since I actually liked Lana a great deal.
It’s unfortunate that by the end I had completely checked out of the book. I finished in the hopes that the story would redeem itself, of getting a satisfying resolution to an incredibly messy and unfocused plot. I stayed for the climax, which did an alright job wrapping everything up, but then sighed as I was forced to sit through sex followed by a separate discussion of having even more sex. Almost a solid 10% of the the book is spent on this. It’s bad when the spicy bits start to become tiring.
I think that the authors have some promise, they have some good ideas that were simply executed poorly. I think if they had focused the story more directly on the main two characters and separated it more from the previous novel it would’ve gone so much better. It makes sense that it would have to take place in a similar time frame given that Lana is Brynn’s maid, but you’ve got to leave some of the good parts for readers to discover in the other book.
Disclaimer: Received a copy for review from the publisher via NetGalley
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