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Rating: 
Summary: Publisher's Weekly Review
Review: "...charged with well-wrought and electric eroticism."
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Summary: HEARTWARMING!
Review: I have just finished this book and I can't say enough even if I could find the words. The story is so beautiful, warm and soul searing. I have read almost all of Ms. Dodd's books and each one was my favorite until the next. I thought this was as beautiful as Candle in the Window. As to her closing thanks to the nurses of Vietnam (I include from WWII) I can only add "Amen". Thank you so much for all your truly wonderful stories.
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Summary: tear jerker
Review: I love when a story can make you laugh,cry, keep you in suspense... and you just don't want to put it down. I enjoy Christina Dodd's books because all of her charaters are different. Its not just the same people in a different setting or a different year.
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Summary: Great and then it fizzles
Review: I usually love Christina Dodd's books as her stories are interesting and the characters are well-developed. However, 2 of her books I recently read have similar plot devices that I feel torpedo the story. In the case of Heaven and Earth I loved the story of Sylvan and Rand -- she had been hired by Rand's brother(the duke of something or other) to help rehabilitate Rand after the Battle of Waterloo had left him paralyzed. As the daughter of a wealthy merchant and a field nurse at Waterloo, Sylvan found herself ostracized. When she arrives at the ducal estate, there are ghosts (for a gothic touch), a misogynistic minster, and attacks on the family's attempt to begin the Industrial Revolution in the local village. Sylvan is a bold, sardonic character and one is in full sympathy. Then she and Rand marry and in order to persuade her to go to London for her own safety he insults her gravely and deeply in the way that only a lover could and she duly flees. This is the moment the book falls apart for me and continues to fall apart nearly to the very end -- especially when Rand goes to London to retrieve her, he assumes that she will have figured out he was "just joking" -- and that it was all a ruse. And immediately after retrieving her they have sex in the carriage. Honestly. This plot is similar to Rules of Surrender, in my opinion, when the "hero" degrades the woman and causes a personality change to make her do something "for her own good". I don't enjoy this type of "romance" and was especially disappointed after the first 1/2 was so great.
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Summary: A Truly Moving Love Story...
Review: Once vibrant and full of life, Lord Rand Malkin returned from the Napoleonic Wars a hero, and a traumatized man. Unable to walk and seething with anger, his tantrums and rudeness were not improving. So Rand's brother, the duke of Clairmont, hired a new nurse to care for him. Sylvan Miles had tirelessly worked to heal the men wounded in battle, men who still haunt her dreams. She can remember a more uncomplicated time, when she attended parties, danced and flirted. A time when she first met Rand. They had shared one unforgettable waltz in a Brussels ballroom, before the breath of scandal, combined with her father's cold, domineering rule forced her to flee. Not only will she now have to deal with her feelings for Rand, but also the ghost of the first duke rumored to still roam the halls of Clairmont Court. Soon it becomes apparent there's a very real threat at Clairmont. Together, Sylvan and Rand will need to discover the source of the danger, as well as heal their own emotional scars. Ms. Dodd has done it again by writing a beautiful, riveting and emotionally charged love story. She has an uncanny knack for combining great romance between well-developed characters, along with humor, believable intrigue, and highly erotic love scenes. Both Rand and Sylvan were quite enjoyable characters, and the spark between them burned throughout the pages. From the beginning when Sylvan walked into the house, and handled Rand's tantrum with humor and consummate skill, I was hooked. I also greatly enjoyed the secondary characters of Aunt Adela and Lady Emmie with their constant bickering, but they could conspire to bring Rand and Sylvan together. The only part I found difficult to read was where Rand said some pretty terrible things to Sylvan, in his misguided effort to protect her by chasing her away. But this is only minor, and certainly does nothing to change my opinion of how wonderful this book is. A definite must read.
Rating: 
Summary: Could her love heal his damaged soul?
Review: Sylvan Miles had danced with Lord Rand Malkin once, before her reputation was in complete tatters and before Rand was wounded on the battlefield and left confined in a wheelchair. So when Rand's brother, Gavin, convinces her to become Rand's nurse, she is expecting a physically and emotionally broken man. Instead, she finds Rand more than physically fit, and very vocal (and physical - when he breaks windows constantly!) about his displeasure of having her as his nurse. Nevertheless, she is determined to help him in any way she can, even though she thinks she is an abject failure when it comes to nursing, since so many of her patients died.
Lord Rand didn't want a nurse - and he most certainly didn't want Sylvan as his nurse! She had entranced him when he had last seen her, but now his bitterness doesn't allow him to see her as a respectable person, and he is determined to hurt her and chase her away. Sylvan seems to be hardier than he expected, though, and before long he finds himself madly in love with her. But there is something wrong with Clairmont Court - a man is stalking women and attacking them at night - and Rand must discover who this man is before he can settle into happiness with Sylvan.
This book didn't really do much for me. I thought I'd like it because of the summary on the back, but I never clicked with Rand or Sylvan. Rand was a jerk and never really apologized for saying some really hideous things to and about Sylvan, and he just expected her to forgive him because of his injuries or because he thought to protect her from something else. And Sylvan was too weak for my tastes. She might have been strong, once upon a time, but being exposed to the horrors of war, losing her reputation and incurring society's wrath, and being placed near the acidic Rand didn't do anything for her personality except harm it even further. Furthermore, I felt like I was being told about the romance, rather than experiencing it through the eyes of one of the characters. The author's writing style and I never meshed well.
The whole "ghost story whodunit" plot was absurd and disappointing. Not only had I figured it out within a few chapters, but the whole melodramatic scene at the end was just silly. And as for who Gail's father was - geesh, as soon as she was mentioned I figured that out, how ignorant could Sylvan be? There was a lot of promise in this book, but it just didn't work for me.
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Summary: The inspiration for this book
Review: The inspiration for this book came from the stories of the nurses who went to Vietnam and saved lives. I read a newspaper article about it, and the women interviewed said they still had nightmares and flashbacks, very few felt comfortable talking about their experiences, and of course everyone wants to forget that war so they get no credit or appreciation. The book is a thank you.
Rating:
Summary: HEART FELT
Review: The story of Sylvan and Rand was everything a love story should be, you have secret past, mystery,ghost,and a lesson in trust. I thought that the setting of the story was great and the story was just as beautiful. A must read.
Rating:
Summary: HEART FELT
Review: The story of Sylvan and Rand was everything a love story should be, you have secret past, mystery,ghost,and a lesson in trust. I thought that the setting of the story was great and the story was just as beautiful. A must read.
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