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Summary: Belladonna and Aconite
Review: Im only halfway thru this book, but already Im enjoying it and I find myself hopelessly sinking into its psychosexual mesmerism. The book is dark, intense, and very abstract. The age old cliche of a woman scorned is brought into a new light here. Belladonna proves as deadly as her namesake.
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Summary: If you like the exotically erotic kink,read this book
Review: In 1935, American Isabella Ariel Nickerson and her cousin are visiting London. They are invited to a masquerade party that seems to have all the makings of a great time for the innocent Midwesterner. Instead of the social event of the season, Isabella is abducted and sold off at an auction hosted by the members of the Club, a bunch of wealthy, sadomasochistic aristocrats. Her time with the hedonsitic Club members turn the sweet Isabella into the ferocious Belladonna. Over the next four and half decades in America and Europe, Belladonna enacts vengeance on the individuals who ruined her life. BELLADONNA is a kinky novel of vengeance starring a fascinating lead protagonist whose motives are made very clear by author Karen Moline. Though the story line moves briskly through five decades, it fails to leave the reader with a whiff of a feel for that decade. Still, anyone who enjoys a novel filled with kink (without the Kinkster) and a avenging female set in erotic/exotic places, BELLADONNA is the book to take you there. Harriet Klausner
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Summary: Smart, sexy novel connects with every-day emotions
Review: In an age of pulp-romance paperbacks it's not often a book manages to be sexy and smart at the same time. As a writer myself I really responded to the author's intelligent yet accessible style, which goes easily from gently-paced descriptions of beautiful clothes and houses to heart-racing suspense. The plot moves from London to Italy to New York to Virginia, all the time in the company of exotic characters who are either incredibly rich, incredibly interesting (like two of the main characters are castrated) or both. Belladonna escapes from the clutches of an English Lord who had kept her locked up for sex and founds her own fortune that becomes the basis for her revenge. Although the story may be set fifty years ago, readers will recognise the emotions in the book as ones they've felt many times themselves. But how many of us get to act out our fantasies of revenge like Belladonna? Quentin Geredt
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Summary: Delicious Novel
Review: Isabella Ariel Nickerson is kidnapped and auctioned for 1 million pounds in 1930s England. She finds herself the unwilling play thing of a club of men who get their kicks out of forcing sexual tortures on women. Isabella is actually purchased by a man she knows only as "His Lordship", a man she will dedicate the rest of her life to finding and destroying once she escapes her hell. The story is narrated by a man named Tomasino, one of the few men that Belladonna truly trusts (along with his twin Matteo). They were castrated in the war, and therefore, Belladonna doesn't see them as a threat. Belladonna finds herself the heir of a large fortune, and she dedicates her money and time to Club Belladonna, a popular club, where she hopes to lure one of the members into her club. One member is all it will take to find the rest. I went into this expecting that I wouldn't like it, and honestly, the very beginning, the chapter before the actual story of Belladonna begins, was quite dull. It had that same rambling, verbose, tedious style as Middlesex did in the beginning, which sort of throws me off for a second because I like to get immediately sucked into a book. After that first chapter though, I was thorougly engrossed with Belladonna's story. Tomasino is a witty narrator. He loves to talk. He loves to gloat. He loves to be right. Honestly, I'm glad he was the one telling the story. It gives it a flair that I think would be missing if Belladonna, or even his brother Matteo, told the story. Belladonna's diary is also scattered throughout the book; the diary she kept while she was imprisoned. The diary format was an interesting one as well, as it was written in third person rather than first. I think the concept of revenge appealed to me, as it would many people. How many people get the chance to get their revenge against someone who wrongs them? Many of us have wanted to, but we've never had the satisfaction of doing so. Sure, Belladonna's methods seem a little out there, but wouldn't we all go to great lengths, if we could, to get payback? You can't help but root for Belladonna. So, while this book seems a little extreme, it is a good novel. I wasn't too satisfied with the ending. It seemed a little rushed, a real let down to the climatic events that were taking place before it. Still well worth the read.
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Summary: Great treatment of a classic theme from a woman's view point
Review: It's nice to see classic tales reworked for women and Belladonna is a wonderful example of that. I read in a magazine that Moline adapted the plot for her book from Alexander Dumas' The Count Of Monte Cristo, and the character Belladonna is a worthy inheritor of such a great literary tradition. Rather than being locked in a castle, in Belladonna the central character is locked away as the sex slave of a rich man and his friends. After 12 years she breaks free, and begins to take her revenge. Moline has a wonderful eye for nuance, and her descriptions of the opulent lives of Europe and America's super-rich are intoxicating in their detail. The author deals with emotions which are complex, yet at the same time disarmingly straight-forward notions like desire, lust and revenge. The magazine said Moline is also bringing out a perfume to go with the book, based on the aphrodisiac the evil aristocrat uses when he imprisons the heroine. The sex certainly was steamy!
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Summary: Deliciously decadent, an arsenic chocolate of a book
Review: Like a Jackie Collins novel on acid, this baroque drag queen fantasy run amok will amuse any former reader of romance. Just when you think the plot could not possibly get any more ridiculous, it does, with delightful results. There is a dark theme, but the book is so over-the-top that it is impossible to take seriously. It reads as high camp. The perfect, by-the-pool page turner. As soon as I finished reading it, I bought a dozen copies to give to my friends. I have yet to hear a bad review from them. This book has no redeeming qualities whatsoever, but it's so much fun you won't care. Enjoy!
Rating:
Summary: Deliciously decadent, an arsenic chocolate of a book
Review: Like a Jackie Collins novel on acid, this baroque drag queen fantasy run amok will amuse any former reader of romance. Just when you think the plot could not possibly get any more ridiculous, it does, with delightful results. There is a dark theme, but the book is so over-the-top that it is impossible to take seriously. It reads as high camp. The perfect, by-the-pool page turner. As soon as I finished reading it, I bought a dozen copies to give to my friends. I have yet to hear a bad review from them. This book has no redeeming qualities whatsoever, but it's so much fun you won't care. Enjoy!
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Summary: One of the best of 1998
Review: Ms. Moline has a true gift as a storyteller. I would compare her writing to John Fowles. That says it all.
Rating: 
Summary: Sexy, decadent novel runs from red-hot to barely warm.
Review: Rarely does a book cross my desk and leave with the proclaimation, "It was OK." BELLADONNA could have been great. It has a rich psychosexual dynamic, a new and interesting narrative voice (you can almost hear Tim Curry as Tomasino reading each line), and a plot that, while not uncommon, has enough of an interesting cast to keep it lively. Yet somehow, it falls flat. The ending is very trite, with the beautiful, menacing Belladonna transformed as if by a fairy godmother into a docile wife and mother who has "let go" of her past as conveniently as an Oprah Winfrey guest. The climax winds up very anti-climatic, a disappointment to most readers. If there were some kind of letting-go involved, for all the main characters, there might have been a greater release of tension for the reader as well. Read this book for its deep, blackened undercurrent of domination/submissive psychology and for its wonderful prose narration. Ignore the ending.
Rating:
Summary: Sexy, decadent novel runs from red-hot to barely warm.
Review: Rarely does a book cross my desk and leave with the proclaimation, "It was OK." BELLADONNA could have been great. It has a rich psychosexual dynamic, a new and interesting narrative voice (you can almost hear Tim Curry as Tomasino reading each line), and a plot that, while not uncommon, has enough of an interesting cast to keep it lively. Yet somehow, it falls flat. The ending is very trite, with the beautiful, menacing Belladonna transformed as if by a fairy godmother into a docile wife and mother who has "let go" of her past as conveniently as an Oprah Winfrey guest. The climax winds up very anti-climatic, a disappointment to most readers. If there were some kind of letting-go involved, for all the main characters, there might have been a greater release of tension for the reader as well. Read this book for its deep, blackened undercurrent of domination/submissive psychology and for its wonderful prose narration. Ignore the ending.
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