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The Penwyth Curse

The Penwyth Curse

List Price: $32.95
Your Price: $21.75
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Two-dimensional writing at best
Review: I have been a Catherine Coulter reader for 15 years, starting with her regency novels (very rare now). They were engaging and well-written. Her current offering is neither. I purchased it, more fool I, fully knowing that it wouldn't stand up to the Song trilogy that it relates to. I just wanted to see Dienwald & Phillippa again!

As in the most recent novels, The Penwyth Curse lacks real depth and character development. The reader is only able to see the surface of the characters, and, given the off-the-wall ways that these characters act and react, this only serves to frustrate the reader. We can only guess at what motivates Merryn to accept Bishop - lust, perhaps - when we could have been treated to a rich internal dialogue about how she doesn't want to be alone anymore, or how she would love to fill her keep with red-headed children, or how she needs a big strong warrior to kill all the spiders in her tower room. Since only the lust is apparent, Merryn doesn't make a particularly sympathetic heroine. Nor is Bishop a sympathetic hero: he lies and says he's a wizard (from whence did that errant though spring?), he threatens repeatedly to rape Merryn, then to stake her out on a hill until she drowns from torrential rain. Who wants to read about these people?

Not me. This one goes to the second-hand bookstore, where I will get all my Coulter in the future. I cannot stomach paying full-price for this quality of writing any longer.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: I am SO disappointed!
Review: I have most of Ms Coulter's books and love to read her, but the Penwyth Curse just didn't cut it.
The Prince-Brecia story was totally far-fetched and took up too much of the book, when I really wanted to hear about Merryn-Bishop, or at least more about Merryn's wacky family.
I thought the reason why the Prince-Brecia and Merryn-Bishop are connected was pretty lame. It would have made more sense to me if Prince-Brecia were ordinary people from an older time so it became a time-travel type of story.
I also read fantasy and cannot understand why there are people who loved the Prince-Brecia story. You want fairy tales, there are better ones out there. The things the Prince and Brecia and Mawdoor do don't advance the story, they merely take up space. The way they get out of trouble is essentially to snap their fingers, use a bit of magic and hey presto, let's do something else so the reader can turn the pages.
A properly-written magical story would have had more rules for the magic.

Please let her next book be better!! I'm not going to buy another magic-related book of hers.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: What a disappointment!
Review: I love Catherine Coulter. Her books have always been a joy to read. This book does not reflect the Catherine Coulter I know. The story line and the characters were boring. It is obvious that the time was not taken to develop this story the way it should have been. Catherine Coulter and other romance writers have started focusing more on writing suspense books while still trying to write romance. If this is what romance readers get in the bargain then please leave the romance writing to those who will put the time and effort into giving us great stories with great characters.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: THE PENWYTH CURSE
Review: I LOVED THE PENWYTH CURSE. IT WAS MY FIRST CATHERINE COULTER BOOK AND FOR THAT MATTER A FIRST IN HISTORICAL ROMANCE. IT CAPTIVATED ME FROM THE START. I LIKED ALL THE CHARACTERS AND ENJOYED THE "OTHER TIME" WITH THE WITCH A THE WIZARD AND THEIR STORY. I THOUGHT IT WAS WELL PACED WITH ANSWERS TO THE MYSTERY OF THE CURSE AT THE END.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Ho hum....
Review: I must say, I always look forward to Coulter's books. I scooped up this book with high hopes. Needless to say, I barely could make myself finish the book.
I had no sympathy or liking for any of the characters and the plotline was just too confusing...jumping back through time to wizards and the like. Coulter needs to stay with formulas like the one she used for "The Sherbrooke Bride". Now, that was a good book!!

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: The Penwyth Curse
Review: I usually love Catherine Coulter's work, but this was unsatisfactory. I did'nt even finish it. I got to CD #7 and gave up. Too many witches and wizards for me. And the plot was hard to follow. I donated it to my local library. Maybe someone will enjoy it.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: What a great adventure!
Review: I was a little discouraged after reading other reviews here but I was glad that I stuck with reading this one. What a great adventure! This is the reason I read. To go to the unknown, know that anything can happen and enjoy the happy ending. I enjoyed both stories very much. It makes me again a believer that EVERYTHING happens for a reason. I enjoyed all the charaters in these stories and the way the author wrote them. I loved the name "Bishop", how unique!

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Not Coulter's Best - Pass on this one!
Review: I was very disappointed in the much anticipated book. I had hoped for an exciting story about a curse and people in love. What I got was a time travel story with Witches, Warlocks etc... And a character who kept pulling one of the main characters back in time.
I found this story confusing and disappointing. Not up the Coulter's usual excellent writing. There seemed to be parts of the story that were missing and that she had to force some aspects of the story to get things to match up. There were sections where things mysteriously appeared with no real explanation etc... At the same time I kept listening in hopes of being more interested.

I recommend that you either look to the Legacy Series or read the Song series.

Don't buy this one new. I'd wait until you could get it used.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: The Penwyth Curse
Review: I'm glad to hear others share my opinion of the book. I made it as far as chapter 6 and gave up. I've never put a book down without finishing it but I made an exception with this on. I've read many of C.Coulter's books, enjoyed most of the, made it thru all of them but this one was a hugh disappointment. Hope she doesn't have a sequel in mine..

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Difficult Read
Review: I've read many books by this author and have enjoyed most of them. This book was enjoyable but it also dragged out much longer than it should have. There were two stories incorporated into one and this was not always done smoothly. Cute idea and shows much imagination.


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