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Title: Four in Hand by Stephanie Laurens ISBN: 0-373-83539-6 Publisher: Harlequin Pub. Date: July, 2002 Format: Mass Market Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.26 (27 reviews)
Rating: 2
Summary: Yawn!
Comment: Stephanie Laurens writes Regency historicals filled with sizzling sexy heroes out to pursue the heroine from the outset. Not my cup of tea, but at least I know the storyline. Recently I tried some of her older traditional Regencies which have been republished by Harlequin. If you are a Laurens completist (as in wanting her entire backlist) this is a good way to get them - although the style is very different.
I cannot say that I enjoyed this book. I was reading a number of books with multiple romances lately, and this is by far the worst. Not only did the idea of four beautiful (ravishingly beautiful) young sisters, of whom three are eighteen, nineteen and twenty (poor mother!) rather pall, but so did the idea of four rakes chasing these young women. And the thought of a guardian and the guardian's brother and friends out to seduce (i.e. ruin) four young women of good family under the protection - legal and social - of one of them made me feel nauseous. Caroline, the eldest sister, was too good to be true, and far too innocent. If I want to read a guardian-ward traditional regency romance where I don't like the hero too much, I vastly prefer Heyer's Regency Buck. At least, the heroine there was not perfect!
Unless you adore anything by Stephanie Laurens or you are really fond of books with several impossibly beautiful sisters in it, you might want to read another book by her (or any other author). Try her first Cynster book - Devil's Bride. A much better read.
Rating: 3
Summary: Pre-Cynster Laurens: much better writing, but flawed
Comment: Stephanie Laurens is a talented writer and also reasonably knowledgeable about her period, but in recent years she's been wasting that talent writing 'historical romances' which are little more than Black Lace books in disguise. This book, however, is one of her earlier romances, written at a time when she was still trying to stay true to the Regency period.
This is somewhat reminiscent of Georgette Heyer's Regency Buck, in that we have an arrogant, rakish lord who discovers that, along with the title he has recently inherited (in this case, Duke of Twyford), he has also inherited some wards. Here, his wards are four beautiful sisters, all unmarried, all wealthy and all, he knows, who will be the targets of every rake in town. He himself is hugely attracted to the eldest Miss Twinning, Caroline, and finds himself plotting to make her his mistress. Were she really his ward, it would be contrary to any sense of honour - even his honour - to seduce her, but under the terms of her parents' will, she is of age and so not his ward. Yet he pretends to her that she is, so that he'll be free to be with her without any suspicion.
There are four romances in this book but, as some other reviewers have noted, none of them is really satisfying. In an attempt to fit them all in, Laurens rushes through crucial developments - such as her heroes actually realising that they are in love with the women they're pursuing. Even Max - Twyford - whose story is the main one appears to fall in love without the readers ever realising how this momentous event happens. One minute he is pursuing Caroline in order to make her his mistress; the next (and this is quite early in the book) we see him musing that seducing her is no longer his primary aim. Why not? What made him fall in love? We don't know, because Laurens doesn't show us. Similarly with Lord Darcy, the suitor of Sarah Twinning: Sarah rejects his attempts at seduction, and he gives up, retiring to his Irish estate in order to show her that he's lost interest. And yet he comes back and pursues her again. Why? With what object?
This book does show signs of the pattern Laurens fell into with her Cynster books: her heroes all seem to fall in love too quickly, without any showing on Laurens' part of why and how this happens. Given the rushed nature of the individual love stories, which does leave readers unsatisfied, she would have been better advised to have made it a four-book series, culminating in Max and Caroline's story. Nevertheless, it's an entertaining read, and definitely far, far better than the majority of her later work.
wmr-uk
Rating: 2
Summary: What happened to the middle?
Comment: As do a lot of other people, I brought this book because of Stephanie Laurens name on the cover. I also thought 'great, 4 stories in one, I won't be bored!' The problem was Laurens tried to fit too much into to small a space. Even though Max and Caro were supposed to be the main characters, I found that they never really developed chemistry, and I really didn't care about them as I have her other characters in past books. Sarah and Darcy's story was the most touching, as we knew they were drawen together from the first, and could imagine what we weren't told. How Arabella and Hugo ever fell in love is beyond me, I must have missed the page where it happened. They barely talked, and we were expected to accept they had fallen in love because it was what was supposed to happen. Very disappointing! Then there is Lizzie, her sisters are knowledgeable, yet she is so innocent that it is frustrating. How Martin could view her as anything but his brothers ward never came to light. All I can see is that everyone in this book fell in love with the sight of their partner and that in the end their personalities didn't really matter.
Laurens spend more time on the plotting of the three younger sisters to save Amanda from Ralph and get him together with Harriet that that was probably the only part that was essentially clear.
Quite confusing and missing as I say the middle of all the sisters stories. Not Laurens best effort but not bad if you want a book to read Sunday afternoon.
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Title: The Perfect Lover by Stephanie Laurens ISBN: 0060505710 Publisher: William Morrow Pub. Date: 04 February, 2003 List Price(USD): $22.95 |
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Title: All About Passion by Stephanie Laurens ISBN: 0380812029 Publisher: Avon Pub. Date: 04 September, 2001 List Price(USD): $7.50 |
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Title: Scandal's Bride by Stephanie Laurens ISBN: 0380805685 Publisher: Avon Pub. Date: 01 March, 1999 List Price(USD): $7.50 |
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Title: Captain Jack's Woman by Stephanie Laurens ISBN: 0380794551 Publisher: Avon Pub. Date: 01 October, 1997 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: On a Wicked Dawn by Stephanie Laurens ISBN: 0060002050 Publisher: Avon Pub. Date: 30 April, 2002 List Price(USD): $7.50 |
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