Tabitha F. (cattitude) reviewed Luke's Runaway Bride (Harlequin Historical, No 626) on + 3 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
I felt that there were so many things wrong with this book, I'm not certain where to begin. But I'll try.
Perhaps most annoying is the constant reminder of Luke's "massive" body and Jenny's "lush" curves. I like to know how the people look, and I have nothing against the characters being attractive, but if the author is going to shove her attempts at sexiness down my throat, couldn't she at least have invested in a thesaurus?
The language is pretty hokey. Not being a student of colloquial expressions of the old west, I can't say that people didn't walk around saying "blazes" and "hellfire." However, when I read "Luke's massive shoulders blocked out the sun" (a picture of Atlas popped into my head) I lost any respect I MIGHT have had for the book.
The characters are definitely stock characters cut out from cardboard. Daniel is the standard rich, evil, man who has everyone but the hero fooled; Luke is the soft-hearted rogue; and of course the child is mentioned so little, he might as well not have existed. The few times he is ever present, he hardly speaks and serves merely as a catalyst for a redundant soul search on the part of the H/H. Victorian sensibilities would be pleased, but I'm not. I did enjoy Jenny. She was a strong, intelligent individual who knew what she wanted and went as far as she could, for the time. She wasn't wishy-washy, she didn't rant at the hero because she was trying to fight her attraction, nor was she stubborn for stubbornness' sake. If even the rest of the characters had been crafted as well as Jenny, I might have enjoyed this book at least a little.
Perhaps most annoying is the constant reminder of Luke's "massive" body and Jenny's "lush" curves. I like to know how the people look, and I have nothing against the characters being attractive, but if the author is going to shove her attempts at sexiness down my throat, couldn't she at least have invested in a thesaurus?
The language is pretty hokey. Not being a student of colloquial expressions of the old west, I can't say that people didn't walk around saying "blazes" and "hellfire." However, when I read "Luke's massive shoulders blocked out the sun" (a picture of Atlas popped into my head) I lost any respect I MIGHT have had for the book.
The characters are definitely stock characters cut out from cardboard. Daniel is the standard rich, evil, man who has everyone but the hero fooled; Luke is the soft-hearted rogue; and of course the child is mentioned so little, he might as well not have existed. The few times he is ever present, he hardly speaks and serves merely as a catalyst for a redundant soul search on the part of the H/H. Victorian sensibilities would be pleased, but I'm not. I did enjoy Jenny. She was a strong, intelligent individual who knew what she wanted and went as far as she could, for the time. She wasn't wishy-washy, she didn't rant at the hero because she was trying to fight her attraction, nor was she stubborn for stubbornness' sake. If even the rest of the characters had been crafted as well as Jenny, I might have enjoyed this book at least a little.
