The Heir

Rating:
Summary: Sweet Story About Friendship & Love
Review: Contrary to popular opinion, I enjoyed "The Heir." While in no way does it stand up to JL's greatest novels ("Savage Thunder," "Once A Princess," to name a few), it stood out on its own as a different kind of Lindsey: a more subdued, introspective story of friends falling in love. It was very sweet.

My favorite JLs are the ones with adventure, steamy banter, and searing passion. "The Heir" doesn't have any of these qualities, yet it was still a captivating read. What it does have is a realistic approach to romance. Here are two young people (the hero is 21, the heroine younger) finding love with the girl/boy next door. That's what happened to me in real life (and at the same age). Just like Duncan with Sabrina, I was initially attracted to my honey because he made me laugh. And again, just like Duncan and Sabrina, it only took me a week to know I wanted to be with him forever.

My personal experience aside, "The Heir" had many fine qualities. The heroine is likable and down-to-earth. The hero is stuck in an unenviable position of fulfilling both his grandfather's wishes, whether he wants to or not. The grandfathers are easily distinguishable from one another, with personalities of their own. The villain is so awful, vain, and self-centered that it is a pleasure to watch her in action. And the sidekick, Raphael Locke, is just as exciting and intriguing as the many scene-stealing sidekicks that JL has devoted full-blown novels to later on, like Angel ("Angel") and Vasili ("You Belong to Me"). I definitely want to read Rafe's sequel.

What I thought most interesting about "The Heir" was JL's new writing style (also present in "Home for the Holidays"), where she is now beginning to delve more into the psyches' of the characters. Instead of her characters running about exacting revenge or whatever, they are now thinking things through - over-analyzing them, as Sabrina mentioned a couple times. JL spent a lot of time on their inner thought processes. I think this was what "bored" other reviewers.

That said, "The Heir" does suffer from some problems. For instance, the ransom situation was a weak plotline, adding nothing to the story. I suspect JL thought she needed to throw in a punch-out scene for Duncan to give him more of her "Hero" qualities, since Ophelia's manipulations and his penchant for drinking away his misery could make him look weak to some people. I also felt that the passion between the two lovers, once they finally came together, was rather subdued (or more likely, was overwhelmed by the whole Ophelia-will-be-compromised situation). It WAS Sabrina who was compromised, and why this never became a significant plot point was beyond me. There are some other problems with the story, but not important enough to discourage people from reading it.

Overall, "The Heir" is a pleasant read. I would never classify it as her worst (having read or reread all her books these past 3 months, I can honestly say "Captive Bride" and "Paradise Wild" are the worst EVER), nor would I say it ranked among her best work. But I thought it was different, charming, and more realistic than many of her other romances, much better than "Keeper of the Heart" or "Joining," to name a few I rated as 3 stars, but not as good as "Until Forever" or "Love Only Once," which I rated as 4 stars as well.


Rating:
Summary: A bit bland for Lindsey, but still good
Review: Duncan MacTavish is shocked to learn that he is now expected to travel to England to take over his ailing English grandfather's duties as a marquis. He is even more shocked to learn that he is expected to marry Ophelia, a reportedly beautiful woman who he has never met. Thanks to his half-Scottish ancestry, however, Duncan is determined that he will pick his own wife!

Sabrina is not a great beauty, but she has a gift for making others laugh. Unfortunately for her, the little family scandal in her past is making the rounds of the London ton, and she'll have no chance of marriage there. She lives with her two spinster aunts, and she doesn't really care if she becomes a spinster too - until she meets Duncan by chance. The pair become fast friends, but there is so much working against them - will they ever be more than friends?

I liked this book, as I like all of the Lindsey books I have ever read. As others mentioned, this book was bland compared with other Lindsey romances - when I picked up this book I was expecting a scorching romance that Lindsey so excellently authors on most occasions. Unfortunately, I was disappointed in that regard - the book is very sweet, but there's little fire in the romance, even at the end.

Still, not all was lost. The book has other great qualities - I did like the main characters, Sabrina and Duncan, and I also greatly enjoyed the witty exchanges between Duncan and his friend Raphael Locke (I'd LOVE to read a book about Rafe!). Lindsey is great at describing what the characters are feeling at particular times, and explaining why they do what they do, and I love that. There was a lot of witty sparring in the book - Duncan and Rafe, the two spinster aunts, and the two grandfathers were all quick witted and funny. The plot was good and moved along quickly, never becoming stagnant. The book would have received five stars, in my opinion, except for the lack of passion in the book...it just didn't seem like a typical Johanna Lindsey book at all! Other than that, though, I really did enjoy the book :)

Rating:
Summary: The Heir. One of The Best...
Review: I have to say "The Heir" was one of the best books I have read. It was my first Joanna Lindsey novel, and it definately has gotten me interested to read more of her books. It is a must read on my list.

Rating:
Summary: A quick light read
Review: I love Johanna Lindseys writing style and find her very easy to read and "The Heir" is no exception. I found that this book, like Johanna's other books to be a page turner with no dull moments and I would still buy any Johanna Lindsey book published. Having said that I do agree with many of the previous reviewers that the characters did not have any zing. Both were sweet characters in a sweet story, the problem is that Johanna's past books have some of the best romantic characters ever created where the sparks fly and you compulsively read without thought to anything else. Buying this book in hardcover and expecting that kind of chemistry between the characters you will be dissapointed. I love Johanna's previous Mallory novels where the heros are flawed and yet loveable and the heroines are feisty with hearts of gold. While reading this book I found myself interested in the outcome and yet detached from the characters, the hero in particular seemed one dimensional and the supporting characters appear to have been better thought out than the main characters. In the end I enjoyed the read but was left feeling slightly cheated.

Rating:
Summary: An easy light read
Review: I'm not a huge fan of romance novels, as they can be kind of cheesy, but this one really appealed to me. The characters are funny and, with the exception of the villianess, genuinely human, relatively believable, and likeable. The dialogue might not be 100% historically accurate, but there were many spots that I found to be absolutely hilarious--didn't think I'd be laughing at a romance novel because it was =purposely= humorous. If you're looking for a light read that is by turns interesting and funny and includes some not-to-gratuitous bedroom scenes, I'd reccommend 'The Heir.'

Rating:
Summary: Sweet story
Review: This book reminds me of Julia Quinn's style - sweet, lovely, witty dialogue, innocent and fairly wholesome. I find some parts a bit draggy, eg. when Mavis relating her history with Ophelia etc. The pace could improve though.

Rating:
Summary: One of the Most Boring, Stupid Novels I've Ever Read
Review: This book starts out fine, but it quickly goes downhill. I really loathed Sabrina, almost to the point that I was rooting for Ophelia. If Sabrina is stupid enough to fall for such blatant manipulations, I think she deserves exactly what she gets. Her character was too whiny for me. So what if she wasn't beautiful, she was (supposedly, although after reading the book, I would disagree with that characterization) intelligent and witty. As for Duncan, I never quite understood why anyone would fall in love with him. He came across as callous and insincere. Especially after he takes Sabrina's virginity-he doesn't seem to care at all! Then the ridiculous scandal with Olivia. There is no comparison between which scandal is bigger, but because he was caught wtih Ophelia, it seems that he miraculously forgets what he just did with Sabrina. He doesn't even seem that upset about it, he resigns himself to marrying Olivia. I suppose the author wanted to create some tension, but come on. I agree with another reviewer who called Sabrina a doormat. That is the perfect description. I like my heros and heroines to love each other, passionately and completely, and that was missing from this book. The characters liked each other, sure, and were friends, but that just isn't very romantic. Avoid this novel if you like your plots to make sense and your characters to have dignity and pride.

Rating:
Summary: Syrupy Sweet
Review: This book was a vast improvement upon Lindsey's last 2 books, but it was still missing something. I think she took the criticisms from her last book ("Joining") to heart and went off to the extreme in the opposite direction. We go from the constant tension, mistrust, and fighting of the hero and heroine in "Joining" to a perfectly sweet and utterly passionless relationship (until the end) between them in "The Heir". Give us some middle ground Johanna!

"The Heir", a sweet story about two friends who fall in love, but find themselves unable to be together due to the hero being engaged to another, lacked the fire and passion that is typical of Lindsey's characters.

This is an author capable of putting out 5 star material, so I find myself more critical of her than I would be had someone else written this. Still, Lindsey not at her best is better than most at their top par performance. "The Heir" is an okay one time read, but not the Lindsey book you will pull off the shelf and read over and over again.

Rating:
Summary: Johanna Lindsey Gone Wrong???
Review: This book was decently charming, so how can so many people be saying it's not worth reading at all?

With an unmarred prespective, I can say that my opinion of this book was a fairly high one. Sabrina Lambert is a nice girl with a calm temperament, who tries her best to make people laugh. She's not bold, she's not incredibly beautiful, and she's not exactly frivilous with sex. She's what I would consider realistic in a time when women were pretty chaste.

Her love interest is the new Marquis of Birmingdale, Duncan MacTavish. He's tall, a bit muscular, and a bit unacustomed to having his new and old grandfather both pushing him for a wife. He, like Sabrina, and is an all-around pretty sweet guy. The news of his engagement has just reached him in the Highlands of Sctoland, his home, and he is none too pleased at having to pack up for England and settle the matter. It's possible that, had he not latched onto Sabrina like she was a life savor in an ocean of terribly flavored candies, we might have seen a more brooding side to him because of this. However, not very many people can stay unhappy around Sabrina. She has that effect on people.

The romance of this story is like so: Sabrina, although loosely related to gentry, doesn't expect to get much out of her coming-out Season (especially when Ophelia, the most exquisite lady a man could ever lay his eyes on, is the one taking her to all of the parties). Promised to Duncan, Ophelia is still determined to be the life of the party, and the fact that dowdy Sabrina has attracted a few stray admirers spurs her to spread the story of an old scandal. This pretty much ruins any chance Sabrina had of finding a husband. She relaxes and accepts this fact with only a little disappointment, having been raised by two maiden aunts. At the last party of her incredibly short Season, though, she meets Duncan. They become friends, and eventually fall in love.

In the end, I was left with a light little read that doesn't get too taxing, and doesn't get too long. I was surprised that the flavor of Lindsey's book was so different, but I still believe it was worth reading.

-Embyr Bradson (1/29/04)

Rating:
Summary: A bit bland
Review: This isn't a bad book. It's a fast read, but nothing interesting happens. This is strictly a story of finding a friend and falling in love with a silly conflict for formula. I wouldn't not recommend this as an intoduction into Ms. Lindsey's work. Her earlier novels are much more exciting.