Tangled

Rating:
Summary: Book description
Review: Her beautiful eyes flashing with hate, Rebecca faced Lord David Tavistock. He had come back, wounded but still vibrantly, sensually alive, from the Crimean War. Julian Cardwell, her sweet, gentle bridegroom-and David's foster brother-had not. She blamed wild, reckless David for Julian's decision to enter the Queen's Guards, and for the devastating loss of her perfect young husband, whose memory even now broke her heart and filled her dreams.

His blue eyes shadowed by dark secrets, David had come to claim the woman he had always loved. All his life he had protected the charming Julian, hiding the truth from Rebecca about the women Julian dallied with, the child he had fathered, the scandalous way he died. Now David offered Rebecca a life of privilege and wealth-as his wife. She wanted a marriage of convenience, but he intended to awake her deepest passions, to make her forget Julian Cardwell...and to find in his bed all the ecstasy of a man's true love.

Rating:
Summary: Tangled is Wonderful
Review: i could not put this one down. The twists and turns were excellent. I can not see anyone not wanting to read this book.

YOU MUST READ IT
wonderful!

Rating:
Summary: Balogh does it again: this is a wonderful book
Review: It reminds me in some ways of the Robert Frost poems the one about the two roads, except in Rebecca's case she was given a chance to taste what her life could have been like if she married David instead of Julian. When Julian came back it seemed to be the end of the type of life she had always craved for.

The story is heart breaking in some part, as Rebecca and David were placed in a situation which they could not escape from because they were not ruthless enough to place their own happiness infront of others. The use of circumstances was wonderful and Balogh was incredibly consistent throughout the whole story.

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Summary: HEART-CRUNCHING ROMANCE AT ITS BEST.....!
Review: It's hard for me to pick which Balogh novel is the best, because she writes such compelling characters in her every book & scintillating but gut-wrenching stories. I must say this one is my favorite 'cuz I'm sooo crazy for David. Wish every hero in every romance novel could be as terrific & passionate like him. I don't find Rebecca interesting enough, she should've chosen David over Julian (one of my favorite names, by the way =P) if she could just see him clearly as the kind-hearted guy who's been in love with her since they were growing up together. She's also too skittish when it comes to lovemaking. Even when she has the baby & all the wonderful things David has done for her, how could she still have split feelings when Julian showed up out of the blue ? I guess there wouldn't be much of a story if all went well early on. I agree with most of Ms Balogh avid fans out there, no one can write more poignant, touching, endearingly human heroes & heroines better than her. She knows how to describe every nuance of feeling the character has to suffer for love. Pls treat yourself to this magnificent classic & it'll never leave your keeper-shelf. I'm just amazed not too many readers set aside time to review this beautiful book !

Rating:
Summary: The Magnificent Balogh does it again!
Review: Tangled is a beautiful and complex love story that resonates with honesty and poignancy. I never felt I was reading about Rebecca, David and Julian; I felt as if I knew them. Balogh gives a better feeling for the Victorian period than any other writer of the genre. Rebecca leaves you feeling such sadness for what it must have been like for women in that era and David is truly the most magnificent antidote to Victorian repression. We should all have a David in our lives! Balogh does not create black and white characters. The heroine, Rebecca, is flawed and the villain, Julian, does have a heart and a good soul in the end. Truly a tangled, but satisfying love story.

Rating:
Summary: A reflection of personal taste not Ms. Balogh's talent
Review: This book may well have been the most accurate portrayal (to my limited knowledge) of the Victorian era I have ever read.
Unfortunately that means I was grinding my teeth through the entire book.

Had it been any other author I probably would have tossed it by pg 100. But I know how well MB can put a story together, how touchingly real, and so I kept going. And truth be told it was an excellent story, I suppose. But I read a love story for warmth and passion. The overwhelming stiffness here, the self-denial, the inability for the heroine to acknowledge truth vs duty EVEN to HERSELF just left me empty. And OH LORD the sex scenes just made me cringe.

Again, it is NOT the author's skill but my personal taste. If anything she did TOO well here. If one can appreciate that utter Stepford-ness and moral imprisonment of the Victorian era you will no doubt appreciate this story. If however you read romances for just that, romance & warmth & passion, I would suggest one of the other Balogh novels...Truly or Heartless or Longing.

Rating:
Summary: Balogh does it again: this is a wonderful book
Review: This is an extremely heartwrenching novel by Balogh: the way she writes the heroine torn by her feelings for two very different men is just so well done. Balogh shows Rebecca's unwilling attraction to David extremely well. In the beginning she dislikes him (for reasons which seemed to be valid at the time, but all is not what it seems), but her feelings change gradually, in a way she does not even herself notice. Rebecca and David's inability to talk to each other, while it compounds their awkward situation, is very credible in the circumstances.

And, since all Balogh's characters, including minor characters, are always very well drawn, Julian is portrayed extremely sympathetically. Given his 'back-story' it would have been very easy to paint him as the villain, but Balogh avoids that temptation and shows him as the flawed but well-meaning person he seems to be.

I thoroughly recommend this book.

Rating:
Summary: Balogh at her best: an impossible love triangle
Review: This is an incredible book: the first time I read it I couldn'tbear to put it down.

Rebecca had married Julian, David's honorarybrother - they'd grown up together on David's father's estate. ButJulian was killed at war - and there's a dreadful secret there which David dares not reveal...The reader is shown the truth about the characters of the two men, but Rebecca remains ignorant...

Balogh does eventually resolve this seemingly impossible situation, but not before all three main characters arrive at a better understanding of themselves and each other.

As usual, Balogh's characterisations are excellent. One thing I really like about this writer is that she almost never writes a completely irredeemable character; even her villains tend to have some trace of good in them (and indeed, in some of her stories villains of previous books end up as heroes). She also does an excellent job of portraying emotions here, particularly the emotions of two characters who just have no idea how to communicate with each other.

A beautiful and memorable love story.

Rating:
Summary: Book description
Review: To be kind, I will only say this book is tedious. Maybe the problem lies in the fact Mary Balogh's Regency Books are usually 225 pages or close to, while this endeavor stretches to 400 pages. This novel is a test of endurance for a Balogh reader.

David Tavistock grew up protecting his stepbrother, Julian. David loved him, shielded him, and covered for him. David Tavistock grew up loving their mutual childhood friend, Rebecca. Rebecca grew up and married Julian. David and Julian went off to war, only David returned. He returned and married his brother's widow, Rebecca. Their marriage became a marathon of guilt. In "Tangled," Balogh pens a story about two people who do not communicate and her story exposes the consequences.

The book's setting is Victorian England, an era engrossed in straitlaced thinking. Proper young ladies were taught that the marriage bed was a duty not a pleasure, and polite people were groomed to keep their uncomfortable concerns to themselves.

The opening of the novel is in the year of 1854. Balogh furnishes an uncommon Victorian setting, during and after the Crimean War. This is an area in which Mary Balogh shines, she presents history but presents it entertainingly. "Tangled" would have been an excellent novelette, but as a full-length project it is monotonous.

Grace Atkinson, Ontario - Canada.

Rating:
Summary: Just too many words for the storyline.
Review: To be kind, I will only say this book is tedious. Maybe the problem lies in the fact Mary Balogh had been successfully writing a string of Regency Romance Books, which run approximately 225 pages, unfortunately this endeavor is almost 400 pages. Although the story's idea is good, it is the extent the author took, to tell the story, that is the burden. This novel is a test of endurance for Balogh's reader.

David Tavistock grew up protecting his stepbrother, Julian. David loved him, shielded him, and covered for him. David Tavistock grew up loving their mutual childhood friend, Rebecca. Rebecca grew up and married Julian. David and Julian went off to war, only David returned. He returned and married his brother's widow, Rebecca. Their marriage became a marathon of guilt. In "Tangled," Balogh pens a story about two people who do not communicate and her story exposes the consequences.

The book's setting is Victorian England, an era engrossed in straitlaced thinking. Proper young ladies were taught that the marriage bed was a duty not a pleasure, and polite people were groomed to keep their uncomfortable concerns to themselves.

The opening of the novel is in the year of 1854. Balogh furnishes an uncommon Victorian setting, during and after the Crimean War. This is an area in which Mary Balogh shines, she presents history but presents it entertainingly. "Tangled" would have been an excellent novelette, but as a full-length project it is monotonous.

Grace Atkinson, Ontario - Canada.