The Romantic

Rating:
Summary: My second Hunter novel...
Review: After reading The Seducer, I decided to appease my curiosity about Julian and pick up The Romantic. I found him to be the most compelling character in The Seducer, despite saying very little.

In The Romantic, Julian lives up to that title. After years struggling with an unrequieted love for Penelope (our heroine) he must once again act as her guardian and protector.

Pen's in a horrible marriage and turns to Julian (once again) to help her escape her husband.

Like other reviewers, I thought Pen was a character that sort of grated on the nerves like a paper cut. She wasn't absolutely horrible, but she was awfully annoying. The number of times she makes bad decisions, relates Julian to a piece of furniture and plays the helpless victim are innumerable. One does begin to wonder what he sees in her.

The other problem I had with this book was similar to the problem I had with The Seducer and involves the "mystery" aspect of the story. The fact that Pen's husband is a sadist isn't really a secret, but the way Hunter resolves the problem of Pen's marriage to him (and the mystery that surrounds the resolution) is very reminiscent of "watch me pull a rabbit out of my hat!"

I suppose it would have proven too problematic to resolve it any other way, and it did conveniently excuse the adulterous nature of Pen and Julian's relationship. I really had no problem with the adultery in this book, since Pen had been seperated from her husband for so long and no love was lost between them. I'm not sure why some readers would feel like they are mocking the sanctity of marriage (rather than Pen's husband, who abused her) but if you're sensitive to that sort of thing it's worth noting.

The writing held the same predictable yet still good character as in the other novel. The story held my attention and though Pen's character was not that well drawn, Julian's certainly was. He was compelling throughout the novel and I loved the convention of using his "letters" to various people. Actually, I wish more of these humorous asides had been included.

In summary, it's not really a stand-out novel, but if your favorite authors aren't supplying you with reading material fast enough, it's a good enough afternoon's diversion.

Rating:
Summary: The Countess of Unfortunate Decisions
Review: Although I didn't hate this book I personally didn't enjoy it as much as some of the other reviewers here did. Why? Frankly, I found the heroine, Penelope Glasbury, irritating (think nails scratching a chalk board, irritating).

Now don't get me wrong, Penelope's flaws did lend credibility to her story's character. After all the woman is a countess in Victorian England; considering the time period, the fact that she turned out spoiled, selfish, and a bit of a snob is no big surprise. It's... just... not very romantic.

I'll explain.

Never in my life have I heard anyone declare so passionately "I now know what I should do" and be so horribly wrong so often. Between running away from her problems, playing the perpetual victim, and taking Julian's love for granted (I think she compared the man to a 'vase' because he's always around yet hardly ever noticed) she's not a very likable lead character.

In contrast the hero of the story (Julian Hampton) is so close to perfection you wonder what the man sees in such a silly woman. Strong, silent, competent, handsome--Julian is why this story gets three stars and not two. Nevertheless, he can't carry the book by himself, and nothing can suspend reality long enough to forget what a snot the heroine is (although he does make the fact that I shelled out $6.50 for this book less painful).

Enjoy

Rating:
Summary: I have to say that Madeline Hunter's latest The Romantic
Review: Certainly lives up to its title. It's a beautifully written story about the unrequited love and frustrated passions of Julian Hampton, solicitor to the powerful and very wealthy. While Julian is outwardly calm, cool and collected inwardly he's a man tormented by a powerful love for a woman who is not only a member of the aristocracy but married as well although unhappily so. Over the years he has become very adept at hiding his true feelings from the object of his devotion and the outside world. He vents out this inner turmoil by writing passionate sometimes angry love letters and poems to his oblivious love until one day she shows up on his doorstep pleading for his help and protection.

Julian Hampton has always been Penelope's, the Countess of Glasbury, knight in shining armor. So, when her estranged husband decides to end their mutually agreed upon separation, she turns to her life long friend and defender for help once again. Only this time something has changed and she begins to develop a dangerous attraction to him. Dangerous not only because she's a married woman but also because her husband is a ruthless monster of a man who will stop at nothing to get what he wants and after a decade long separation he decides he wants his wife back.

Ms. Hunter has written a beautiful love story and a keeper in every sense of the word. Of course what makes this book so unforgettable is the hero. Julian is my idea of the perfect romantic hero. He is wonderfully tortured but not by the usual my momma/ex-wife/lover done me wrong but by his life long love for a seemingly unattainable woman. Not only that but he's also willing to sacrifice anything and everything for his woman. What could be more romantic than that? I know that my fellow romance readers will agree with me when I say that sometimes I can enjoy a book but not truly believe in the happily ever after. Or not truly believe that the characters love for each other is more than just good sex. Well, this book isn't one of those. By the time you turn the last page you will believe that Julian and Penelope will be together forever and not just because the author decided it should be so but because their love transcends the pages it's printed on.

As wonderful as this book is I feel I have to issue a little warning for those of us who consider adultery a hot button issue. Adultery is a major hot button issue for me. However, I was able to accept it in this book because of the nature of Penelope's marriage and the fact that her husband was an animal, pure and simple. I also thought the author did a wonderful job of describing the way women in that time were virtually enslaved to their husbands regardless of how cruel or abusive said husband was. So, I would entreat those who would normally not read this type of story line to give this book a try. The Romantic is romance at its finest and I highly recommend it.




Rating:
Summary: Great Love
Review: I believe the point of this book is the great love Julian had for Penelope. Without understanding that, you can't understand the book. This is the kind of romance that touches your soul and is the type of story woman want. I think it was much better than the Seducer and is her best book yet.

Rating:
Summary: What happened?
Review: I don't get it? Julian should have been the perfect hero -full of agnst and in love yet strong willed. Instead he makes several stupid decisions (I'd fire him if he was my lawyer). Penelope makes even more stupid mistakes. This series is awful. The first two books were wonderful and she should have stopped. Penelope annoys me because she had several opportunties to solve her husband problem, instead she tries running away and being the passive victim hoping somone (usually Julian will save her). What could he possibly see in this inane twit!

Rating:
Summary: Every women wants a Julian of her own
Review: I love this book! I am fan of the whole series and was excited that Julian and Pen were finally getting a story of their own. Ms. Hunter, did something that is rarely done with books, a 5th book in a series that is just has good as the first book, if not better. If you have followed the series you will remember Pen, the countess of Glasbury, and the problems she had with her husband the Earl of Glasbury. Several years ago Pen, left England for Naples to escape the her mentally twisted husband. When Glasbury decides that he wants Pen back she comes back to England seeking the help of her life long protector and family solicitor, Julian Hampton. For Julian having Pen back is like a dream come true because he has secretly loved her for years. Realizing what kind of danger she is in from her husband, Julian vows to protector her at any cost.

I liked the strength that Pen seem to have. Since the story takes place in historical England, Pen as a woman had no rights; she was her husband's property. Yet, she found the strength to leave an Earl and face the rejection society gave such women. Of course she was scared of Glasbury, he could do what ever he wanted to her and the law was on his side.

Julian is a true romantic. What women does not want a man that will go the ends of the earth for her? As Julian puts his life on the line to save his true love, I found myself cheering for Julian. Rarely does a hero have that dashing, knight in shining armor quality that Julian has.

Through out the story Julian and Pen are put in many dangerous situations, as Glasbury hunts down "what is his". The story takes readers all over England and in to an underground world of women, who for various reasons left their husbands. This book is full of adventure and passionate romance a must read for anyone who loves a good historical romance.

Rating:
Summary: This book just pulled at your heart in so many ways!!
Review: I would never have thought that Julian Hampton could have been such a dynamic character. As the book begins with him writing his letter that he will never send to his one true love Penelope you just have no idea the depths of this man's love and all that he has done for her, and how very long he has truly loved her. Are there really men like this - I rather doubt it. But it is surely wonderful to read about them. This is such a beautiful love story. There is something about Madeline Hunter's characters that make them more real than others. This group of men from the Dueling Society are a little more on the edge than those of the aristochratic ton one reads in other books. An aura of mystery and danger seems to follow their lives that keeps one wondering about them and their lady loves. The story of Julian & Pen is one of the best. When those letters he wrote finally come out in the end for the world to hear I just cried. It was so romantic - ah yes that was the name of the book. A total keeper - read this series - and like someone else said read in order - you won't be disappointed!!

Rating:
Summary: An Atrocious and BAD example of a Romance
Review: If I sound prude then forgive me but there's a solid ground for it. First, I have no affinity to borderline porn books. This had very hot sexual scenes and I'm not a fan of them. I don't mind getting the occasional overview of a love scene but I think these were just too much and really were about two very horny people.
Second, this book had two main characters who willingly commited an affair basically from the beginning and that goes against my morals and no matter HOW much you love someone your love ought to be strong enough not to break holy bounds of marriage the way they were in this book no matter how bad marriage life is for the other.
Third, the storyline was weak and felt like a sub-plot for the sex to be in it. I didn't even finish the book because I felt disgraced having trying to read about two people corrupting something (marriage) so sacred. I hate books with unfaithful people and this really grated on me. The antagonist was the most horrid and evil man I attempted to read about and he quite frankly disturbed me with the way he treated a prostitute in the beginning of the book.
If there was the option to give this book ZERO STARS I would have.
Badly done, Madeline Hunter!!!

Rating:
Summary: I was disappointed
Review: This book sounded so wonderful--and indeed, Julian is wonderful. I love his quiet, enigmatic, never-ruffled demeanor hides such depth. Sigh. That he loved Pen so devotedly for so long... But I was never quite sure why he never declared himself before she married. Maybe I just don't remember.

Pen on the other hand... I just was never crazy about her. I thought she took Julian for granted and was very blind regarding his feelings for her (yes, he did a great job of hiding them, but I thought she should have sensed something, especially after they'd been intimate).

The story is often very dark--not something I expected. But I loved Julian's mental letters to people. Overall though, I expected more.

Rating:
Summary: True to its title....Romantic
Review: This is truly a wonderfully written, stimulating, mature romantic story. The various scenarios and subplots are also true to the pre-Victorian era it's written in respect to several social issues it touches upon.

Julian Hampton, `The Romantic', is a well respected and trusted solicitor for the Laclere family. Throughout his adolescence and adulthood, Julian Hampton clandestinely desired the affections of Penelope (Pen), the Countess of Glasbury. His safest discourses of expressing his pent-up desires are passionate love letters and poems addressed to her, but never dispatched. He carefully wrote and hid them away for over ten years - since he was 16 yrs old.

Pen's mother, in an attempt to save her family from financial ruin, as well as fulfill her young daughter's excitement and fantasy of having a husband, coyly encourages Pen to marry a presumably respectable Earl, Count Glasbury - who agrees to give her family a significant endowment to wed her. After a year of marriage, Count Glasbury introduces his naive wife to the darker side of his sexual passions and lusts. Needless to say, due to her lack of experience and isolation from people outside of Glasbury, Pen believes these new versions of bed play are `natural' - although they were emotionally upsetting and physically painful for her (i.e. whips and chains, bondage, crawling, etc.)

Pen eventually confides in "Mr. Hampton" (Julian), and discloses the embarrassingly sordid secrets of why she wants a legal separation from her husband. Discreetly, Julian secures her a separation from Count Glasbury with alimony - by threatening to publicly expose his sexual appetites to the ton. Ten years later, upon finding out that his heir (last remaining male in his family line), nephew, cannot have any children, the Count wants to nullify the separation and re-enforce his marital rights as her husband. He is determined that no one will stop him from getting his wife back and will use any means necessary, legal or otherwise, to have her back under his roof.

Here is where Julian, beyond a doubt, is a knight in shining armor. His unconditional, surrendering love for her is unveiled. Julian offers himself (from her list of possible lovers) to demonstrate to her what it's really like to make love with someone who truly loves you. As a result their very public act of adultery - Pen's efforts to high handedly force Count Glasbury into divorcing her vs submit to his `unnatural' sexual desires, Julian's poems and letters are literally and agonizingly laid bare for all of society to `judge' him to the point of possibly convicting him to hang for murder to save Penelope.

Don't let the word "adultery" wrestle you away from reading this as a romance story. There is so much more to it that it will stimulate your mind and kindle your heart which can not be expressed in any brief review.