A Season Beyond a Kiss (Nova Audio Books)

Rating:
Summary: Kathleen has done it again!
Review: The writing is excellent. Ms. Woodiwiss's writing and descriptions are so vivid that you can actually feel you are there with the characters. I sincerely hope that she continues writing about the Birmingham family. Maybe a continuation dealing with Jeff and Raelynn's children. It would be great if all her stories on the Birmingham family would be made into movies for the romance channel.

Rating:
Summary: Novel doesn't stand well on its own
Review: For those of you like myself who didn't know any better, this book is a continuation of an earlier short story. Not having read that piece, I can only review this novel on its own merits and leave it to others to review it as a sequel. While the author goes to great lengths to fill in the missing details for her readers, the numerous recountings slow the book's opening chapters and detract from the story as a whole. A short prologue might have been a wiser choice to provide background information and set the stage for the current events. It might also have lent believability to the circumstances of Jeff and Raelynn's marriage. As presented, Jeff's proposal within an hour of meeting Raelynn and their intimacy so soon after are far-fetched. Since Woodiwiss has already introduced her characters elsewhere, that may explain why she fails to develop her main characters, especially Raelynn, in this novel. Our heroine comes across as a rash, foolish girl besotted with her husband and sex. She lacks depth or personality, unlike some of the colorful supporting characters. Jeff fares better, especially when the author uses actions to describe him rather than lengthy expositions on his traits, but I never felt as solid an understanding of him as I did Brandon in "The Flame and the Flower." The story is slow to unfold and lacks direction until a third of the way through. After that, the mystery and plot twists that readers expect and enjoy from Woodiwiss emerge, leading to the unmasking of the villain and final showdown. Unfortunately and strangely, the author robs her own book of some suspense by giving away her villain early. I was disappointed with "A Season Beyond a Kiss." The protagonists failed to hold my interest, even though Jeff was one of my favorite characters in "The Flame and the Flower," the plot took too long to develop, and the book relied on too much material from the prior short story to stand well on its own. The author's recent offerings have failed to match the richly textured stories and well developed characters of her early works. When her next book comes out, I may choose to check it out from the library rather than buy it.

Rating:
Summary: Tedious and Pretentious - tossed it at page 20!
Review: Horrible! The story seemed a bit slow to start with, but what really put me off was the author's constant use of what I can only assume she thought were more classy and literary words than those anyone else would have used. Example: she used "orbs" to describe both eyes and breasts dozens of times (within the 20 pages I read) and rarely used "eyes" or "breasts". Other phrasing seemed overly wordy and pretentious as well, as if trying to impress the reader (or critics) with all the big words and synonyms that she knows - I don't enjoy a book that takes me away from the story with eyes rolling and "oh, brother!" comments regarding the way it's written. Too bad, even though the beginning of it was a bit slow, I would have continued and probably would have enjoyed it, but the writing was unbearable. Tossed into the "donate to the library" pile.

Rating:
Summary: why? why ? why?
Review: I looooved this book!! I cannot believe the awful reviews it got!!! I could not wait for it to come out after reading the first two Birmingham books and on the date it was released I ran out and bought it!!! I read it in one evening and to this day it sits on my favorites shelf with ALL of KW's books!! Thank you KW for another wonderful romance!