A Season Beyond a Kiss

Rating:
Summary: Who wrote this book?
Review: as needlessly wordy as my unchecked title. Ok, please dear God someone wrest the adjectives and adverbs from this woman!!! Not every noun needed to be preceded by an adjective and not every verb needed an adverb. Also, for once I would have liked her to use just the charaters name when they were described in the dialogue. Does Jeff really need to be called Raelynns devestatingly handsome specimen of maleness? We already know he's a devestatingly handsom man so why couldn't she just say his name? I'm no writer but even I think I could have done better than this book. I read the whole thing just out of habit and boredom but it took sooooo long and I kept putting it down in disgust and then picking it up again. If you want a good read try Julie Garwood or Vicki Lewis Thopson, two excellent authors!

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: Where is the book that should have preceeded this one?
Review: I am so glad that I read the review by 'airgeadach' from Bangor, PA. I was beginning to think that maybe I was missing something but now I know that it wasn't just me who thought there must have been a previous book that wasn't mentioned anywhere. I'm only on page 74, but from the beginning I have wondered where the first part of this story is.

The story is okay, but nothing like Brandon and Heather's stories in the first two books.

Very disappointing.

Rating:
Summary: A GREAT ADDITION!!
Review: I AM SO GLAD THAT WOODIWISS DECIDED TO DEDICATE A SINGLE NOVEL TO BRANDON'S BROTHER, JEFF!! I REALLY LIKED HIM IN "THE FLAME AND FLOWER" AND IT LEFT ME WANTING TO KNOW MORE ABOUT HIM. MANY PEOPLE SAY THAT IT WASN'T HER BEST WORK, BUT IF YOU HAVE READ ANY OF HER BOOKS ABOUT THE BIRMINGHAM'S, THEN YOU SHOULD DEFINITELY READ THIS ONE!!! IT MAKES YOU FEEL EVEN MORE CONNECTED TO THW WHOLE BIRMINGHAM FAMILY!! I REALLY LIKED THIS BOOK!

Rating:
Summary: why? why ? why?
Review: I AM STILL TRYING TO READ THIS BOOK.. I'VE HAD IT FOR OVER SIX MONTHS... I AM SOOOO GLAD THAT THIS IS NOT THE FIRST BOOK I READ OF KATHLEENE WOODIWISS......I JUST WANT TO KNOW IS WHY DID SHE NOT START FROM THE BEGINNING OF HOW THE TWO MAIN CHARACTERS MET.... AND WHY WAS THE VILLAIN/STORY LINE SO WEAK? I WAS JUST SO SURPRISED THIS CAME FROM HER....(ARE WE SURE SHE WROTE THIS?)I HOPE SHE THINKS ABOUT REWRITING THIS BOOK..

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!

Rating:
Summary: I have to give this book five stars!!!
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!

Rating:
Summary: This is a continuation of a short story from an anthology...
Review: I noticed that some of the reviewers mentioned that they felt like they were missing some of Jeff and Raelynn's storry. If you don't read Three Weddings and a Kiss, Woodiwiss's anthology with Lisa Kleypas, Loretta Chase, and Catherine Anderson, then you will indeed miss the beginning of this book. The story in the anthology is named The Kiss, hence the title for this book - A Season Beyond a Kiss. I didn't realize that either, I read them in the wrong order and so I thought I'd tell you about it. Be forewarned though, The Kiss is very, very short - the shortest story in the anthology consisting of only a few pages.

Rating:
Summary: An almost painful read...
Review: I too am a Woodiwiss fan from way back. So Worthy My Love, and the Wolf and the Dove, were two of the books that sold me on her originally. Her descriptive writing style in the past has been lush and poetic. I also enjoyed The Flame and the Flower, but this book was just not worth the read. It's practically Heather and Brandon's story written with different characters and we completely miss what happened in Raelynn's and Jeff's early relationship. I was constantly feeling as though there was another book I had missed somewhere. The whole plot is so similar I began to wonder if Woodiwiss even bothered to put any effort into this book. 1. Man and Woman meet and suddenly find they must marry. 2. Something keeps Man and Woman from sharing the "marriage bed" and as a result "tension" mounts. 3. Woman is harrassed by a another man who lusts after her. 4. Man finds himself accused of murder. How many times must we tread this old, tired paths. I can't count how many times I kept skipping through portions of the book just to get it over with. Please Woodiwiss, give us a new, original love story to cherish, like you've been so able to do in the past.