Rating: 
Summary: Huge Disappointment
Review: Besides the fact that the first page is only a couple sentences long, yet contains dozens and dozens and dozens of adjectives(need I say more), giving me the impression that the author was trying to meet a word count minimum. The slow moving romance has us believe the weak heroine falls in love with her employer, whom she never really knows. Their interaction is so minimal leaving the rest of the pages to be filled with scenery descriptions. Could have been a much better book with the same story line more developed.
Rating:
Summary: what was this
Review: Dear author:
How can you not even introduce the two characters until page 133. You have made descriptions of everything in you book except the important things. You just skip important detail. It was as if you are trying too hard to match number of words in your book and you kept repeading yourself. Finally, how can two characters just fall in love the way you have described it in the book. Are you for real. They just walked outside and said I love you. Please next time read your book before publish it.
Rating: 
Summary: Gothic Revisited
Review: Fans of gothic romantic literature will immediately recognize the Love Knot's premise; a sheltered but practical young governess travels to the desolate moors of Cornwall to teach the dark, brooding lord's grieving children. Lord Aubyn's wife's death is shrouded in mystery, and the book is chock-full of hints of spectre-like visions and mysterious, hair-raising whispers in the dark. Reference is made in "The Love Knot" to Anne Radcliffe's classic "Mysteries of Udolpho," which seems to have inspired Ms. Brandewyne (Radcliffe predates the marvelous Charlotte Bronte, and reference is made to "Mysteries" in Jane Austen's "Northanger Abbey.") Many of the elements of "The Love Knot" were also remniscent of Victoria Holt's early novels.The book had all the right gothic elements, (including the omission of descriptive sexual situations), but the author becomes almost entirely too carried away with her descriptives. There is also a bit of annoying redundancy (I lost count of all the "serpentine" roadways and the misty "mizzle"). Some situations seemed too contrived and poorly worded, and many paragraphs were comprised of strings of overflowing, superfluous, (often bordering on ridiculous) descriptions. Having proffered this criticism, however, I do recall that Radcliffe's "Mysteries of Udolpho" was quite wordy as well; she could rhapsodize on the form and feature of, say, a mossy rock for several paragraphs. Bearing in mind that Radcliffe was the source of some inspiration, perhaps, for Ms. Brandewyne, I was able to overlook the extensive purple prose to a degree. In sum, though it doesn't hold a candle to Holt or Bronte, it still might be worth a read for those who, like myself, love and miss the old gothics, as you will recognize many gothic elements.
Rating:
Summary: a wonderful romance novel-except it lacks romance
Review: I bought this book in the romance section and there is no romance in it. The characters are written in such a stern fashion it is hard to relate to them. You don't understand how they fell in love nor do you care.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Gothic Romance
Review: I've never before been moved to write an online review, but after drudging through the muck of this book, I had to act.
The plot was lifted, practically wholecloth, from Bronte's Jane Eyre.
The only parts that didn't jibe with Jane Eyre were the parts lifted from du Maurier's Rebecca.
As for the bit about the hero working as a bandit for the Home Office, perhaps that was just a bit of Pimpernel worked in for effect.
Awful.
Rating:
Summary: Horrible
Review: I've never before been moved to write an online review, but after drudging through the muck of this book, I had to act.
The plot was lifted, practically wholecloth, from Bronte's Jane Eyre.
The only parts that didn't jibe with Jane Eyre were the parts lifted from du Maurier's Rebecca.
As for the bit about the hero working as a bandit for the Home Office, perhaps that was just a bit of Pimpernel worked in for effect.
Awful.
Rating: 
Summary: strong historical intrigue
Review: In 1802 Verity Collier accepts a position as governess to seven-year-old twins Meliora and Bastian though she has no previous experience with this work. Because the position is in remote Cornwall, the father Lord Jago Ransleigh, has no other takers. For Verity, the position enables her to escape working at a suffocating school. On the trek to St. Aubyn, highwayman Black Jack Raven holds up the carriage containing Verity. She courageously persuades him not to take a family locket from her, but he imitates Sheridan by stealing a locket of her hair. At the manor, Verity finds she likes the reticent children still struggling with the death of their mother in an accident two years ago. When she meets the Earl, who is always away from the estate on War Office business, she thinks he is also Black Jack. Trying to learn the truth places her in danger of the body and the heart as she quickly falls in love with her employer. This delightful Regency romantic suspense borrows heavily from the gothic crowd. Verity lives up to her name, but is also brave (no Rape of the Lock will stop her) and serves as the right role model for two lost little children. Readers will feel for the twins, but especially Bastian (try getting more than a nod out of him). Jago is the classic gothic hero who cannot believe the woman he is falling in love with would foolishly waltz into danger. Rebecca Brandewyne shows why she is so highly regarded with this strong historical intrigue. Harriet Klausner
Rating:
Summary: Great Gothic Romance
Review: The Love Knot is a wonderful old-fashioned romance! Brandewyne has taken the typical Gothic plot made popular by the Brontes, du Maurier, Holt, Stewart, Whitney, and others (young woman goes to isolated house and falls in love with her dark, brooding employer, who may or may not be a bad guy), and added several different twists. All the Gothic elements so essential to the genre are in place here, and the action is nonstop. It kept me riveted right to the end of the book! The Love Knot is written in the classic mode, so some readers may find the going hard. But it suited the time period and style of the book, so I really enjoyed it. It set the Gothic mood perfectly, with such vivid descriptions that I could really see Cornwall, Bodmin Moor, Jamaica Inn, St. Aubyn Manor, and all the rest. The characters were delightful and true to the times and customs of the day. If you're after male prostitutes and graphic sex (someone else mentioned Robin Schone), The Love Knot isn't that. It's true to the classic Gothic mode. Maybe today's readers just aren't all that familiar with that style anymore. But I am, and to me, The Love Knot was refreshing, harkening back to books I read and adored in days gone by. For those of us who grew up with these types of books and really miss them, The Love Knot is a great read. I highly recommend it!
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful Classic Gothic!!
Review: The Love Knot is a wonderful, suspenseful book, written in the style of classic Gothics of the nineteenth century. From the moment Verity Collier arrives at the Earl of St. Aubyn's manor house in Cornwall, strange and often frightening events begin to unfold, placing her in fear for her life. Her dark, brooding, enigmatic employer tries to explain away many of these things, but Verity is unconvinced, since she has begun to suspect he is leading a double life as a roguish highwayman. But despite everything, the two fall in love as they try to untangle a web of deceit that threatens them and the Earl's twin children. This story has everything that makes Gothics great-from the haunted, isolated house to ghosts and spies. I highly recommend it!
Rating:
Summary: Great Romantic Suspense!
Review: The Love Knot is very entertaining. I could not put it down! Ms. Brandewyne has written a romance that moves swiftly and keeps you glued to the pages till the end. I thoroughly enjoyed it!
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