Passion's Treasure

Rating:
Summary: A 5 * read for lovers of romance with humor
Review: Betina Krahn has done it again. Here is a story of love, passion and just the right amount of tension brought together with a good dose of humor. If you are not a Krahn fan, you have a treat in store. If you already know what a good read Krahn offers, this book will not disappoint you. Curl up in front of the fire and enjoy a night of "Passion's Treasure"

Rating:
Summary: Fun story!
Review: From back of book:
EVERYONE IN THE VILLAGE OF CULPEPPER KNEW THE BEST WAY TO SOLVE A PROBLEM WAS TO ASK TREASURE BARRETT. SO WHEN THE LATE SQUIRE'S SON DEMANDED THAT THE IMOVERISHED VILLAGERS PAY BACK THEIR OUTSTANDING LOANS, IT FELL TO TREASURE TO DEAL WITH HIM. But the arrogant, handsome Sterling Renville was not a man to be reasoned with...or ignored. And while Sterling infuriated Treasure like no man ever had, he also ignited a deep yearning within her. It was long before Treasure surrendered to a rapturous ecstasy that would make her his forever

Rating:
Summary: Story about a sex-crazed teenager-where's the romance?
Review: I bought Betina Krahn's "Passion's treasure" because I had read "The last bachelor", "The mermaid" and "Sweet talking man" and expected the same mixture of humour, sensuality and romanticism, two sympathetic and credible heroes and of course, a gripping love story. I was totally disappointed . The story is about a simple and poor American country girl in the 1750's who is seen as a sort of genius in the small village Culpepper where she was born. She is highly educated due to a local priest and a squire. Since the first encounter with Sterling, an arrogant and selfish macho-macho English nobleman (one of the most unsympathetic and loathsome characters ever to roam around in a romance novel)she feels erotically attracted to him, although he only chases her for lust and revenge. The only humour I could find was the running gag that the girl named Treasure, who is supposed to be a "thinker" acts like a half-witted, sex-crazed teenager in the first half of the novel (I haven't read the second part). Not only is she not able to identify the late squire's son Sterling despite of his striking resemblance with his father, she is not even able to ask the simple question: "Who are you?" when they first meet. Instead of this she thinks she has apparitions because of moon-madness for she meets him in the middle of the night in his father's house. Her stupidity culminates in the scene where she throws herself at Sterling, begging him to teach her the art of love. Apart from her bad taste and low self-esteem for the English "nobleman" is the only one in her entire life who treats her condescendingly and without respect (which obviously makes him sexually attractive to her), this act she so much desires degrades her to the sort of woman she so much despises, one of those "mindless" tavern girls (=prostitutes)in the eyes of society. Yet she is not able to draw this rather simple conclusion. But perhaps all Betina Krahn wants to show us is that IQ's are highly overrated. For this alone I give two stars.

Rating:
Summary: A different sort of Romance
Review: I loved this book. It had a different story than most romance novels, which made it refreshing. I have seen a review reffering to this book's heroin as being a 'sex crazed teenager'...I totally disagree. It's about a woman child coming of age...more advanced than her village people, but still innocent. This book is funny and sweet and one of my favorite historical romance novels!

Rating:
Summary: A different sort of Romance
Review: I truly was surprised when I read this book--it seemed so unique compared to a lot of other romance novels. Treasure's intelligence as a main focus in the book made her stand out and shine, and I applaud Betina Krahn for this. I loved Sterling as well, although his haughtiness and arrogance irritated me. The book was well-crafted overall, and I really appreciated the great depth Ms. Krahn took in her descriptive details of everything. I have always preferred long, wordy passages to short and concise ones, because you can get a better personal feel for it. Passion's Treasure was remarkably unique, and I hope to read another novel that is equally stimulating someday.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent in so many ways but one . . .
Review: The plot is excellent, the characters well drawn and consistent, and identification with them facilitated by great detail and description. The heroine has fire and intelligence -- essential attributes in a heroine for today's readers. However, as I've noted in some of Ms. Krahn's other novels, she likes to describe her heroine's "romantic" physical behavior with the word "wriggle". This is not the kind of word that one can use often like one can with a word like "movement". It's too much a word that calls attention to itself and tends to trivialize the heroine and her behavior. So, when I began to read Passion's Treasure I said to myself, I hope she doesn't use that word again to describe sexual "invitation". Well, I counted 32 times (!!!!) that Ms. Krahn made her heroine wriggle. I found it distracting and unnecessarily cutsy (although others may not find it so), and wonder where her editor was. But don't let that stop you from reading this great romance novel. I recommend it.