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Rating: 
Summary: Well done.
Review: Great cast of characters and entertaining story. "Double Deception" is also a very good read. I'll be on the lookout for the rest of her books.
Rating:
Summary: Well done.
Review: Great cast of characters and entertaining story. "Double Deception" is also a very good read. I'll be on the lookout for the rest of her books.
Rating:
Summary: Still my very favourite Oliver
Review: I always love books with recurring characters, and this series of linked books from Patricia Oliver is one of my favourite of the type. Here, she's surpassed herself with a wonderful, funny and out of the ordinary heroine, and a hero I fell in love with on the first page I encountered him.Serena is no blushing debutante, and never wanted to go to London and join in the Marriage Mart in the first place. And when she meets Guy Hawkhurst, the Duke of Wolverton, all her prejudices about drunken, idle wastrels are confirmed. And she certainly leaves an impression on him when she gives him a bloody nose! And yet, from this inauspicious start they become friends. At first their relationship is based on challenges, neither one wanting to back down; Hawk, egged on by his even more cynical friend Monroyal, can't resist baiting Serena. But then Serena's life falls apart around her, and he finds he can't leave her to cope alone.... From there on, the book becomes less of an amusing romp and very much a heartwrenching love story. There are some unforgettable scenes in this book, which I won't spoil for anyone who hasn't read it - buy it and wallow in them yourself! Patricia Oliver is a master at writing books about men with 'pasts' - they usually have some sort of bad experience in their childhood, or have suffered trauma, and that influences their outlook on life in general, on women and on marriage. This is the case for most of the heroes of her novels, and is certainly true in respect of Hawk. But she is also brilliant at giving her heroes a heroine who can help them to heal and teach them how to love. I read this book three times within a fortnight of buying it, and still re-read it regularly. It's a classic!
Rating: 
Summary: Not a likeable or believable "reforming the rake" story
Review: I have read some good books where a former "rake" is reformed to become a likeable, lovable hero. This isn't one of them. The hero is a drunken wastrel who is tortured by memories of his wartime past. But, he isn't a worthy hero who was honorable,did his wartime duties, and then had difficulty dealing with his memories. He was a womanizing soldier who was derelict to duty. He doesn't truly reform in his attitudes--he just becomes "respectable" due to his love for the heroine, which isn't very credible. When the heroine first met him, he was drunk and throwing up all over the place. Not very romantic, to me anyway. Unfortunately, I didn't like him any better by the end of the book. I didn't think he had any redeeming qualities, and I thought the heroine was a weak-willed miss who was attracted by lust, but not by love. I really did want to like this book, but I just couldn't like the characters or believe the supposed changes in them. I won't be trying any more by this author.
Rating:
Summary: Not a likeable or believable "reforming the rake" story
Review: I have read some good books where a former "rake" is reformed to become a likeable, lovable hero. This isn't one of them. The hero is a drunken wastrel who is tortured by memories of his wartime past. But, he isn't a worthy hero who was honorable,did his wartime duties, and then had difficulty dealing with his memories. He was a womanizing soldier who was derelict to duty. He doesn't truly reform in his attitudes--he just becomes "respectable" due to his love for the heroine, which isn't very credible. When the heroine first met him, he was drunk and throwing up all over the place. Not very romantic, to me anyway. Unfortunately, I didn't like him any better by the end of the book. I didn't think he had any redeeming qualities, and I thought the heroine was a weak-willed miss who was attracted by lust, but not by love. I really did want to like this book, but I just couldn't like the characters or believe the supposed changes in them. I won't be trying any more by this author.
Rating:
Summary: Not a likeable or believable "reforming the rake" story
Review: I have read some good books where a former "rake" is reformed to become a likeable, lovable hero. This isn't one of them. The hero is a drunken wastrel who is tortured by memories of his wartime past. But, he isn't a worthy hero who was honorable,did his wartime duties, and then had difficulty dealing with his memories. He was a womanizing soldier who was derelict to duty. He doesn't truly reform in his attitudes--he just becomes "respectable" due to his love for the heroine, which isn't very credible. When the heroine first met him, he was drunk and throwing up all over the place. Not very romantic, to me anyway. Unfortunately, I didn't like him any better by the end of the book. I didn't think he had any redeeming qualities, and I thought the heroine was a weak-willed miss who was attracted by lust, but not by love. I really did want to like this book, but I just couldn't like the characters or believe the supposed changes in them. I won't be trying any more by this author.
Rating:
Summary: Another winner from Patricia Oliver
Review: I've really enjoyed Patricia Oliver's series of linked books, each dealing with one member of a group of rakehells and how they succumb, not altogether willingly, to the joys of romance and marriage. This one is one of the best. Serena is a perfect heroine: no simpering miss, but a strong-willed woman who is not on the catch for a husband. Nor is she particularly beautiful, and as her father is deeply in debt she's destined to be an ape-leader. Guy Hawkhurst, the Duke of Wolverton, is a drunken, dissolute aristocrat; the first time he meets Serena she punches his nose! But they become friends of a kind; then a tragic twist in the story brings them closer together. A must-read for Oliver fans. Only one question - why has she not revisited this group of friends since she wrote Monroyal's story? There is certainly scope!
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