Contrariamente a quanto mi aspettavo questo romanzo si è dimostrato decisamente piacevole! Lo stile della Woodiwiss è tornato ad essere nuovamente brioso e intrigante ed i personaggi principali sono ancora una volta "sullo stesso livello", senza tracce di maschilismo nell'aria.Maxim è un personaggio così virile, onorevole, raffinato e forse un po' accecato dal suo desiderio di vendetta che, dall'alto dei suoi 30 anni, fa sorridere vederlo messo alle strette, quasi ingabbiato, da una ragazzina tutta pepe e dalla lingua tagliente qual'è Elise!Ed Elise, con la sua dolcezza ben nascosta dietro ad una facciata frizzante, sfrontata e sbarazzina, si capisce subito che è perfettamente in grado di badare a se stessa e, anche lei come Maxim, non nasconde intenti a dir poco vendicativi verso l'uomo che l'ha fatta rapire e portare via dalla casa di suo zio. La stessa ragazza che finisce per sentirsi piccata dal continuo confronto con la cugina Arabella (vero obiettivo del rapimento) e sfodera tutte le sue armi per sconvolgere Maxim... Finisce irrimediabilmente vittima del suo stesso piano.Benché, ovviamente, l'autrice riconosca a Maxim un ruolo predominante vista l'età e le esperienze di vita trascorse, Elisa ha , nonostante tutto, una serie di armi prettamente femminili da non sottovalutare che rendono lo scontro fra i due piacevole e sempre ricco di piccoli colpi di scena.Il romanzo ha un piacevole background molto ricco che si snoda lungo diversi scenari che permettono alla trama di non risultare mai noiosa o ripetitiva grazie alla descrizione minuziosa e chiara che crea, nella mente del lettore, idee precise e vivide delle varie ambientazioni.I personaggi secondari sono tutti molto ben curati e caratterizzati al punto che anche la presenza, fra Elise e Maxim, del "terzo incomodo" non è frustrante o predominante, ha quel tanto di spazio che basta per stuzzicare l'attenzione del lettore e la gelosia di Maxim senza creare le solite scene tragiche-comiche dei due contendenti che si "sbranano" per la mano della fanciulla che, quasi sempre, ha le idee assolutamente chiare su "Chi" indirizzare le sue attenzione.In definitiva uno dei migliori libri di questa autrice che non deluderà assolutamente una lettrice stanca dei soliti personaggi stereotipati e trame scontate all'insegna della mielosità più assoluta.
Can 100 pages of great reading halfway into the book make it "so worthy"? Well, yes! just skim through the rest;)It begins with a brief glimpse of the hero in disguise and a mistaken abduction of the heroine instead of the hero's gorgeously, boring ex-fiancee..The first few chapters focuses on the heroine and this other dude who himself agrees that he is not hero material..so why, pray tell are we forced to read about his intense feelings and her lukewarm response??? Fiiiinally, the hero makes a much delayed appearance and the sparks between the H & h almost sets the book on fire! Then the kick-butting (literally!) heroine calls for a sudden cease fire to all the passionate fighting, and the hero follows through by charming the chemise off her with his sweet ways and loving looks. (major mush alert! my genl. preference is cute fighting leading to bodice ripping.. sigh! this was ok, i suppose..kinda) Then its all one extended happily-ever-after ending over the next 150 pages..
Do You like book So Worthy My Love (1999)?
I really enjoyed this book! Finally a romance novel that had a little different story to it and the love baby wasn't even born during the book :) Ok so once again another romance novel. It was a fun book to read! I really enjoyed the bantering between the hero and the heroine some of it made me laugh right out loud. It was very romantic. It was definitely full of love you could feel how much these 2 characters loved each other and you never doubted it. He was of course the perfect man and you cannot help but fall in love with him. She was fiery and tender and easy to relate to. I put this one up there with Shanna except for some reason this one didn't flow as well. It was choppy with back stories. Still It was a fun read! But aren't they all? :)
—Jenni
I've read quite a lot by Woodiwiss. She's a classic romance author, and even though her heydays had already passed by the time I discovered her, I still devoured them all. What else is a girl to do when she has a friend who owns every single book by her, and gives you something else to read in the romance front besides category romance. (In that time, Belgium basically had only category romance to offer to a teenage girl without a romance loving mother).So yeah, I devoured them all, and this is the only one of two that I actually own. (Got it as a gift). It has a lot of the classic over the top Woodiwiss tropes. Fiery heroine, mistaken identity, fights between the hero and heroine a-plenty, evil family, stupid side-kicks and lots of punishing kisses. It's as over the top as the cover implies.(This cover is the reason why I added the Dutch edition, where normally I just add the closest English edition for the few books I read in Dutch. But I couldn't pass this one up. The entire books plays in the heart of winter, most of it in Germany, deep in the snow, and yet we get this bare-chested awesomeness on the cover. Ahhh trashy romance covers, I do have a soft spot for them).Cheesy it may be, if there's one thing that can be said about Woodiwiss it's that her books always have a lot of story. Her books are never ever boring, and while they tend to be typical 80s Old-Skool, when I'm in the right frame of mind I can totally enjoy them. And this is one of my favorite Woodiwiss'. It's low on the forced-seduction thing, the heroine doesn't stay endlessly fiesty and it has the very interesting setting of the Hanse (Hanseatic League), which is an unusual setting for a romance novel.So street-credibility be damned, I like this book :)
—Jan
I know this one is generally well liked and KEW fans will likely send their lynch-mob after me, but I just couldn't get into this one. I've enjoyed other novels of her work, though.This book annoyed me. You have an embittered heroine whose sass dominants everything/everyone, and a hero who is not a genuine hero by any means, nor is he a rakehell to its fullest. I felt he was cowed and broken down by the heroine, and honestly- he didn't care who she was, he jus' knew he couldn't defy her by tellin' her to hit the damn road. lol The Secondary Hero was far more intriguing, to me.
—JadedlilFecker
