The Enchantment

Rating:
Summary: An Early Work by Hannah?
Review: Emaline "The mad hatter" Hatter is ruthless, cold, experienced investment banker... And... Entirely female!

When Emaline decides to help out an old family friend, by hosting a dinner party for HIS friend, a struggling professor.... Little does she realize that she will be suckered into investing in him, entirely out of sympathy!

Professor Larence Digby has a dream. Finding the LOST city of Cibola. Unfortunately, that means finding rich investors who will finance him, because he is dead broke! When he meets Emaline Hatter he knows that he would like more from her than money- Can Larence convince Emaline to give love a chance?

I /really/ cannot say enough positive things about this book! Emaline Hatter is a really great romance heroine. No 'twittering' virgin, Emaline loves one thing... MONEY! And she intends to have a lot of it! Larence is a naive 'absent minded professor type' who enjoys all the details that life provides. These two make a great pair!

I recommend this novel for people looking for something different in romance!

Rating:
Summary: Awesome
Review: Emmaline is a wealthy investor, cold and untouchable. Larence, a bookish professor, is a dreamer in search of a lost city. Emmaline becomes Larence's financier, the fulfillment of a promise to an old friend. When Emmaline, who had worked hard to overcome the humiliating and degrading poverty of her childhood, loses everything, she decides to accompany Larence on his quest in order to protect her investment and, hopefully, make a fortune.

Larence is a compelling character unlike most romance novel heros. He's a fairly optimistic fellow, in spite of a rather sad childhood, and in spite of what he calls his "deformity;" a malformed ankle which causes a pronounced and painful limp. It is only when he's with the cold and beautiful Emmaline that he becomes acutely self-conscious of his physical deformity and his complete (I do mean complete) lack of experience with women. He was aware of these things, of course, but, in keeping with his good nature, had grown to accept them. Trust, friendship and, eventually, love blossom during their quest together.

I was somewhat surprised at some of the negative reviews because I really felt a true abiding loving connection developed between these two, who taught each other so much; Emmaline gave Larence the confidence and self-worth he'd been lacking and Larence, in return, taught Emmaline how to trust and to love.

There are some mystical scenes which require a brief suspension of reality, and one's appreciation, or lack thereof, of fantasy fiction will determine one's appreciation for these scenes. I was pleased that, though Larence's deformity sort of magically disappeared while in the lost city, it returned again back in the "real world," (and made no difference to the lovely Emmaline.)

Rating:
Summary: Searching for lost Treasure
Review: I am quickly reading everything, which Kristin Hannah has written, yet I have read her most current books first and find them absolutely magical, and am now reading my way through her earlier novels. The Enchantment, her second book, pales in comparison to her more recent books, especially Angel Falls, Mystic Lake, and Home Again, to name a few.

I devoured her other books, but found The Enchantment relatively slow going and a tad bit sophomoric at times. Disappointingly, this book is not as good as her later books in which she draws the reader straight into the heart of her characters as well as into the plot. I really could not find the characters really that believable. Yet, once again and true to form, Hannah delivers her "message" of hope and renewal, as both characters learn to shed their old haunting habits and persona by learning to trust and letting love in. The setting was just not believable at all to me, searching for the lost city of Cibola in New Mexico in the late 1800's.

This is not one of Hannah's better novels and the title of the book would not have caught my eye either. This is an OK story with a few redeeming passages! But don't let this review discourage other readers from reading and savoring Hannah's other books - they are definitely delightful and sure to earn Hannah new fans!

Rating:
Summary: A well crafted, good humored love story
Review: I'm a guy and a reader of "guy" books. You know, Nelson DeMille, Tom Clancy, Ludlum, Follett. I suppose Nicholas Sparks got me started on romanaces with stuff like The Notebook and The Rescue. Then one day I found myself reading Kristin Hannah, and I ended in tears. Me! One thing led to another, and The Enchantment is the fifth of hers I've read. It's not her best - it's only the second book she wrote - but it's awfully good nevertheless. The initial interplay between the abrasive, arrogant rich lady and the calm professor-turned-adventurer is especially well-written and warmly amusing. Well worth your time.

Rating:
Summary: Mildly entertaining
Review: It grabs you in the beginning. But it rambles. I picked this up for the historical element; that was great, the relationship between the characters was fine....it just didn't seem to get to the point soon enough. I didn't finish the end; didn't feel the need to. Was almost done too.
An obsessed professor is taken in and then takes in a penniless Wall Street woman on a very LONG journey to a fabled lost city.
Did I say the journey was LONG!? And the heroine is from New York and shes very annoying? Thats about all thats interesting until they lose you on the trail to El Dorado or wherever they were going.

Rating:
Summary: great story
Review: Others have done a good job summarizing the plot, so let me just say this. I like romance novels, but i don't like pointlessly sentimental tripe. This book tugged my heart strings and made me smile without making me gag. Emmaline's anguish over the specter of poverty, Larence's self righteousness and vulnerability...I recommend it to anyone who still wants to believe in magic.

Rating:
Summary: Original premise but plot is missing.
Review: The hero is unusual, and potentially endearing. The heroine deliberately different, though less endearing--meant apparently to be redeemed in the course of the book. BUT....

The pace is so SLOW, and the plot virtually non-existent. I used to love to read romance, but lately the books seem to drip long overblown blah-blah-blah paragraphs and pages and pages supposedly about emotion while nothing at all is going on, or is about to either. In some books, passages are endlessly repeated while plot is nowhere to be found. Ms. Hannah isn't quite as repetitive as some; but though I need characters I care about, even more I need to read a book that is going somewhere sometime somehow. The snail's pace lack of plot here, or one that could have been handled in about five chapters, just isn't what I want to read.

I will say on a sentence-by-sentence level, Kristin Hannah is an okay writer; but THE ENCHANTMENT put me to sleep. I know this nice lady could do much better.