For Love Alone

The hero, Ives wants revenge, then he forgets about revenge and decides he wants Sophy, then he wants revenge again, then he wants the spy..?? It seems that the author never really managed to get it all together. There are a lot of loose ends throughout the book and too many questions left unanswered..

Overall, I found the plot too thin and too unbelievable. The bit about the spy was obviously forced to add an 'interesting dimension' and had the writer managed to tie all the pieces together, the story would have been excellent..

I did manage to finish the book since it did have its moments and it does get better towards the end, so it's not a total write-off.

I always hate to put down a book before I've given it a chance, but I gave this one several and finally decided to let it go. For one thing, after reading such wits as Julie Garwood and Jo Beverley, I found that the dialogue here was not up to par. Too contrived. Too, shall we say, purple prosey. I tired of the arching brows and saucy comebacks. It seems like the author just added the sparring because it seems expected in a romance. It just didn't ring true.

More importantly, I disliked the characters. The hero in particular; his unimaginative name--Harrington--it sounds like a fifties style coat or a couch you'd want to get rid of, and in fact, he was about as much fun as a moldy couch. Yes, I want a beautiful hero, with angst, and arrogance, but Ives Harrington was a cookie-cutter hero with all the right stuff and nothing out of the ordinary--interesting, that is. Same with the heroine. It seems like the author wanted her to be everything: innocent but worldly, saucy but shy, irritated with Harrington for practically stalking her (I sure was) but all giggley and blushing because he was handsome and interested. Can you say gag me! If you like unimaginative plots and devastatingly beautiful characters that follow your basic romance recipe in an un-interesting sort of boring way, this is the novel for you.

The only reason why I gave it 3 stars was because my attention was unwittingly snagged by the suspense. I yawned through the hero's blustering and the heroine's lovesick sighs and blushing, but was actually quite curious to find out the identity of The Fox, and was making guesses all through the book. Also, it was unimaginative, but well written.

In keeping with my not good, but not too bad theme, I give it three stars. I certainly do not recommend it, but if it were the last book on the planet, I would still read it.

Sophy and Ives are good, solid characters, and I enjoyed reading about them (they had some depth to them, not just shallow literary stereotypes). It is their story that is shallow and flat. I actually applaud the fact that although Ives is sworn to secrecy about his being a spy, (and doesn't break that oath, even at the peril of his new marriage) Sophy is intelligent enough to figure out what is going on. She is not content to sit in the background and watch everything pass by. I appreciated that nothing is taken for granted in trying to track down the spy, there are false trails and various plots fail (as they would in real life) which is what kept the book interesting to read. The story just dragged a bit and the secondary characters, though plentiful and interesting, did not really add much to the plot. I would have liked to see more of Anne, Penelope and Marcus. They were on the periphery, and added some great quips, but they really served no purpose in the overall scheme.

As you can tell, I liked the characters and thought the book well written (enough in my mind to buy/read the story), I was just disappointed in the plot and its classification as a historical. If it was labeled just as a romance it would not have disappointed me as much.