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Summary: This is another Keeper Ms. Schone!
Review: If your heart yearns for tormented heroes, The Lover is a must read! Not since D.H. Lawrence has there been an author with boldness of pen and the courage to create. Ms. Schone has defined the human spirit so completely and so well. There is nothing more beautiful than two battered souls finding one another, discovering trust, pleasure, and the true meaning of love. Bravo, Ms. Schone! The Lover will long be remembered by those who read it.
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Summary: Gripping mystery, but not perfect
Review: I'll start with what I like about THE LOVER: the story construction, the use of foreshadowing, and the sense of dread that builds throughout, which were all handled very effectively. And no one writes hotter or franker sex than Robin Schone. But unlike THE LADY'S TUTOR, this is far from a perfect novel. The premise is sound. Anne, a middle-aged spinster has spent her life caring for her elderly parents. Now that they are dead she has the money to spend on Michel des Anges, the male prostitute she's fancied since her coming out at age 18 and has purchased to fulfill all her womanly desires for one month. Michel/ Michael has a deadly secret. Scarred in a fire, he has spent the last five years celibate, lonely, and hungry for the unflinching touch of a woman. Upon discovering that Anne desires him despite the scars, he wants more -- one month as her lover, not as a whore...assuming his secret won't kill her first. While I found Anne and Michael as sympathetic as Elizabeth and Ramiel from THE LADY'S TUTOR, I didn't get to know them. THE LOVER happens over a period of days, not months, during which time Anne and Michael are having sex more than talking. Thus, at the end I felt cheated of the emotional connection between them that would guarantee a "happily ever after." I also felt cheated by the price. Even with Amazon's generous discount, paying this much for a 310 page novel is robbery. Still, the mystery here is gripping, disturbing, and well-executed and, upon reading THE LOVER a second time, I felt Ms. Schone did almost as fine a job at dropping clues as did M. Night Shyamalan with "The Sixth Sense."
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Summary: Passion and evil abound
Review: Robin Schone's THE LOVER is proof that erotic romance can be about more than just sex. Ms. Schone's ability to combine explicit sex with heartbreaking emotion is astounding. I'm not a fan of erotic writing in general, however, Ms. Schone caught my attention with THE LADY'S TUTOR and did not disappoint with THE LOVER. Along with the erotic, the author doesn't skimp on emotion, characterization or plot. The underlying message in both novels is the empowerment of women in a time when women had little or no control over their own fate. It's a stunning read, although some people probably won't be able to appreciate the richness of the story because of their inability to get beyond titilation.
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Summary: Where is the love in "The Lover?"
Review: I'm not sure how to classify this book. Maybe it's a murder mystery. Maybe it's an erotic novel. But I know what it's not. It's not a romance. For me, a book is a romance only if the protagonists profess their love. In this book, they speak only of "making love," not of how much they love each other. "The Lover" contains several elements found in romance novels. There is Michel, the dark, tormented hero who's been wounded by his past. There is a feisty heroine who thinks and acts in a manner ahead of her time. There is a truly evil villain who gets what he deserves in the end. However, the hero here is SO haunted by his past, SO tortured that he seems beyond redemption, too far gone for the herione or anyone else to help him. Anne, the heroine, never seems to lose her selfconsciousness and timidity. To me, they were not likable main characters. I didn't CONNECT with them any more than they connected emotionally with each other. Yes, there is a lot of CONNECTING in this book, but just the physical kind, not emotional bonding. There is much emphasis on the senses- taste, smell and touch, but the reader doesn't know what the characters are feeling emotionally. The LOVE scenes are SEX scenes and are so clinically described as to make this reviewer blush! I much prefer passionate scenes that leave the mechanics of sexual union to the reader's imagination. The plot resolution is hurried, wedged into the last quarter of the book in order to get to another sex scene. Read "The Lover" if you are interested in erotica, but pass it by if you are a lover of romance.
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Summary: Mortifying
Review: I bought this book at the local bookstore, stuck it under my arm, walked all around the store with it and finally bought it and walked out with it, thinking it was a romance novel. I read two pages of it at home and I realized I had paraded all over the store with "PORNOGRAPHY" snuggled in my arms! I was mortified! (Also electrified - I then read it cover to cover in one sitting...)What a joke on me! My reputation will never be the same - but now I'm at Amazon, searching for everything else she's ever written...and I'll take it home in a plain brown wrapper, hee hee. The writing is very similar to Anne Rice's erotica. I wish, however, that the book had been fleshed out a little more - Ms. Schone gives us teasing glimpses of "the rest of the story"...I want to know what Anne thought as she watched him dance at her come-out. I want to know about all his other lovers. I want to know about Michel's education in the brothel. I want more!
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Summary: SCHONE SHINES AGAIN!
Review: First Ms. Schone gave us Awaken, My Love, a foray into erotica and time-travel romance that has yet to be surpassed (if you want to know what it'd really be like for a woman to go back in time with no modern conveniences, read this). Then she gave us The Lady's Tutor, a lesson in erotica and sexual love driven by a very dark mystery. The Lady's Tutor followed (in Captivated) and showed us how sexual acts that we normally shun can be both beautiful and healing. But now . . . now Ms. Schone brings us THE LOVER, and I for one will never be the same again. I have never read a book--either erotica or romance or women's fiction--that summed our needs up so perfectly. We all want, and we all want to be wanted, whether we're young or old, beautiful or plain. Anne is 36 years old, a plain virgin spinster who cared for her parents. She's never been carefree, never laughed, and knows that a man would only marry her for her money. Anne wants to experience passion, so she hires Michel des Anges, a beautiful man who she saw at a ball in her youth, to be her lover for one month. Michel has since been scarred in a fire, but when she sees him, Anne still wants him. But Michel knows that the man whose responsible for the fire that burned him will kill anyone who comes near him. After years of having to pay women to allow him to touch them, he now has to chose--to find joy in a willing woman's arms or to continue to be alone, knowing that anyone who ever comes into contact with him will be put in danger. Michel choses to become Anne's hired lover, and to stop "the man". The intimacy that evolves through their sexual encounters is breathtaking. Every minute we feel the danger and the growing need they both have to simply be loved. Yes, it is dark. Yes, it is erotic. And yes, it is romantic. I would have named it an "erotic romantic thriller" had I been the publisher. Whatever category it goes under, it is unforgettable. Ms. Schone's characterization is breathtaking--we feel Anne and Michel's need. Her story is the most unique I have ever read. Her ability to create and hold tension is incomparable. Ms. Schone, you have surpassed yourself. Bravo! ps Don't want to spoil any mystery, but your next book is going to be about you know who, isn't it?
Rating: 
Summary: Not Worth The Money
Review: Very disappointing and not worth the money. This book is allforeplay, hardly any romance, character development or actualintercourse. And the last few pages of the book when the heroine is becoming sexually aroused as the hero describes to her the awful abuse he suffered as a child is positively revolting. The hero needs some serious mental health counseling but by the time we finally figure out what his dire mutterings throughout the book are about, it's too late. Last chapter of the book character revalations don't let you come to understand or care for the character. Also, the heroine of this book seems to be a clone of Abby from Schone's last short story. Right down to the color of their hair with grey in it both of them spinsters desperate for sexual touching. No one can write a sex scene like Schone, but hopefully she will soon move on to other plotlines than "man as sexual tutor" because it's getting old. This is her 4th story with that same basic plot. She needs to come up with something new.
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Summary: This book was enjoyable
Review: I have enjoyed Robin Schone from her first book. This one was enjoyable, but had alot of darkness to it. Not for everyone, but very well written and HOT, HOT, HOT.
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Summary: Brilliant story, Ms. Schone
Review: Michael is the most engaging hero I have come to know through books in years. Tormented, dark, and very intriguing, he sweeps the reader into the fantasy you have created until my heart cries out for him. This novel will long be remembered by all who read it. Like Rochester, or Heathcliff . . . you have created a hero to love and remember for years and years and years to come. This is sure to become a classic! Brilliant work, Ms. Schone. I am in awe of your talent!
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Summary: Ms. Schone does it again with a compelling erotic thriller
Review: I've just finished reading The Lover and found it one of the most compelling books that I have read. Robin Schone has surpassed herself with this complex, disturbing and extremely erotic romantic thriller. Anne Aimes is the type of heroine that we've come to expect from Ms. Schone. Brave, intelligent, and of course, passionate, Anne is a 36 year old "spinster" who is not content to live the colorless life that is dictated to her by Victorian society. After seeing her parents live joyless lives, Anne is determined to experience true passion, if only for a short time. So, after her parents' deaths, Anne uses part of her sizable inheritance to hire the services of the notorious Franch male courtesan Michel Des Anges. When Anne was eighteen, she glimpsed Michel dancing at a London ball. He was the most beautiful man she had, or has, ever seen and Anne's desire to be with him overcomes her shame at having to hire a man to sleep with her. Michel Des Anges has been in seclusion for five years following a fire that scarred him. Michel, who has been reduced to paying prostitutes to sleep with him, craves physical contact with a willing woman and agrees to service Anne for a month. For Michel, sex is the only thing that helps him forget the horrors - what horrors exactly we do not know - from his past. As Anne and Michel enter into a passionate liason, the evil force from Michel's past arises to threaten both he and Anne. Michel is an amazingly complex and well-written character and I was compelled to turn page after page to discover more of his secrets and of his past. I was transfixed by the story of Michel and Anne's liason, by the erotic and imaginative love scenes, and by their growing intimacy. And, I wanted to discover the secret of the mystery that unfolds around Anne and Michel as they spend time together. Anne and Michel's world is joined by several compelling supporting characters and fleshed out with well-researched and interesting details of Victorian life. What an incredibly well written book! I will definitely keep this one and read it again (and again). I would warn potential buyers that this is more of an erotic thriller than a romance novel - actually to call it a "romance" does it a disservice. This book is so good on so many levels, but is definitely not the light read that the usual romance novel is. Once again, another great book from Robin Schone. Thank you Robin, I can't wait for the next one!
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