Story: 4 stars
Romance: 3.5 stars
Okay, I admit that I am a bit leery of reading debut novels. I mean, really, there are SO MANY great historical romance writers currently enjoying enormous success! It can be a real waste of time (not to mention WL space!) to venture into an "unknown." If I hadn't won this book in a contest from another author, I doubt I would have ever read it.
All too often, the debut writer seems to have been planning her first novel for years--so that first book often includes every cliche ever devised. Or, the other debut mistake I've noted is that they lack a certain polish or sophistication in their style. The dialogue in those cases seems so clumsy.
With all that negativity in mind, I was surprised how much I enjoyed this debut novel. Yes, it's true. Although there were some tedious moments, they were far outnumbered by the time spent in character development of the three main players: H/h and his daughter. Throughout the story, Ms. Madison provided the thoughts of all three so we knew what their motivations were without clunky dialogue or lengthy explanations.
Don't get me wrong; this book still had some predictable plot lines such as the "big misunderstanding" as well as a villain working to separate the lovers. But, they weren't so drawn out as to ruin what was a very acceptable first effort.
Overall, I feel this was a very good start of a promising career for Ms. Madison. I will be watching for her next book.
Romance: 3.5 stars
Okay, I admit that I am a bit leery of reading debut novels. I mean, really, there are SO MANY great historical romance writers currently enjoying enormous success! It can be a real waste of time (not to mention WL space!) to venture into an "unknown." If I hadn't won this book in a contest from another author, I doubt I would have ever read it.
All too often, the debut writer seems to have been planning her first novel for years--so that first book often includes every cliche ever devised. Or, the other debut mistake I've noted is that they lack a certain polish or sophistication in their style. The dialogue in those cases seems so clumsy.
With all that negativity in mind, I was surprised how much I enjoyed this debut novel. Yes, it's true. Although there were some tedious moments, they were far outnumbered by the time spent in character development of the three main players: H/h and his daughter. Throughout the story, Ms. Madison provided the thoughts of all three so we knew what their motivations were without clunky dialogue or lengthy explanations.
Don't get me wrong; this book still had some predictable plot lines such as the "big misunderstanding" as well as a villain working to separate the lovers. But, they weren't so drawn out as to ruin what was a very acceptable first effort.
Overall, I feel this was a very good start of a promising career for Ms. Madison. I will be watching for her next book.
If you enjoyed reading Jane Eyre then you will probably like this book as well. I saw MANY similarities and even a few references within the book. Over all I really enjoyed Tainted by Temptation and will probably read it again some time.
enjoyable read.
