Customer Reviews

Awaken, My Love

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(12)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I am thrilled to have finally found an erotic romance that isn't raunchy and crude. I am 30 years old and I have been reading romance books for about 14 years. Everytime I have attempted to experiment with a more adult read, I was turned off by the crudity and lack of substance in the characters. In my opinion author's like "SUSAN JOHNSON, THEA DIVINE, BEATRICE SMALL & VIRGINIA HENLEY" have not been able to grasp the concept of what erotic romance is. They tend to just write about alot of crude sex scenes with faithless people that are in lust with each other and nothing more. I don't like to be told that characters are falling in love, I want to be able to see it happening. I don't enjoy reading a so called romance novel in which the two main characters have no respect for one another, or where one of the character's is humiliating and degrading the other. What I really liked about Ms. Schone was that she took the time to develop her characters and their relationship with one another on all levels. I agree with the reviewer that said this is not for the faint hearted romance reader. If you are looking for a really good sensual adult book that is tastefully done, this is it. Way to go Ms. schone, keep up the good work!

P.S. If you were wondering why I didn't give this a 5 Star rating? It was because I had a little trouble with the mystery in this story, but I still strongly recommend this book!

I don't usually read Robin Schone books. Well, actually, I have read all of her books, but have decided they are too dark and explicit for my tastes. But after getting rid of Gabriel's Woman and The Lover (yes - I had to keep The Lady's Tutor), I had let Awaken My Love, Schone's first novel, sit unread for well over a year. Now, after reading it, I think this is the best of Schone's books. As are all of her books, it is far from the norm as far as romance writing goes. It is very entertaining reading although it has a most unusual time travel twist. I usually don't care much for time travel stories but this is a definite exception.

Charles Mortimer, Lord Arlcotte, is the extremely appealing hero. He has a very strong personality, alpha extreme, but is just so downright cool that you want to melt as you read about him. He has a great problem on his hands. His young bride has never let him even touch her since their marriage a year ago. No matter - he is determined to have a heir. He decides she will come to his bed and learn to like his touch. He WILL warm his cold frigid wife. After their joining however, he is quite discouraged. She apparently despises him. Imagine his surprise when he finds his wife emerging from her bath. Charles knows something is awry - Morrigan has not taken a full bath since their marriage. She is different somehow and although he is still angry over her distaste of him, he cannot seem to resist tormenting and teasing her. He is continually drawn to this oddly different Morrigan and is encouraged to proceed with her education despite her protestations. He can see the difference in her eyes - he senses she will now accept his advances.

Elaine Metcliffe is a twentieth century gal, thirty-nine years of age, who is a computer analyst married to a really boring guy. They have been married for years and he has never been too interested in their love life and has no desire for children. One morning she awakens to find herself in another time and another body. Her body is no longer the slightly chubby body close to forty - it is a very young and slender body of a woman named Morrigan. An old hateful nag is apparently her maid - one who acts like a mad, religious zealot, constantly shouting about Morrigan's sins and her need for cleansing and forgiveness. Attempting to adjust to this highly distressing change of events, Elaine (Morrigan) asks to take a bath and all hell breaks loose. Insisting on a bath and then dressing in one of Morrigan's many beautiful gowns, gains the attention of everyone in the household. Morrigan has only worn one ill-fitting gray dress for the past year. She has never desired to wear any of the beautiful clothes her husband gifted her with as her trousseau upon their marriage. And certainly she has never taken a bath! Elaine is startled when she sees an extremely handsome and obviously very virile man standing in her room as she is finishing with her bath. Soon she discovers this is now her husband and he is very angry with her for some reason.

So begins the sensual education of Morrigan (and actually Elaine as well since she is a sexually repressed twentieth century woman). Highly intrigued by her husband's lessons, she also feels unfaithful to her twentieth century husband. Charles, on the other hand, is alternately thrilled at his wife's apparent sexual awakening and angered by her denial of it. But he has become very determined in his quest and will brook no argument. This portion of the book, which is the majority of it, is overlaid with tenderness as Charles comes to appreciate and cherish his strange wife. This is what sets Awaken My Love apart. Although nothing is spoken of love early on, the leads' relationship develops slowly into one of trust and respect. It is that which drives the overall tone of the book. Yes, true to Robin Schone, the sensual scenes are just that - very sensual and numerous. They rate a 5.0 out of 5.0 (see More About Me for sensual rating guidelines). I can think of only one other book I have rated 5.0 in this matter. I had read in the reviews of Awaken My Love that it was not as sensual as Schone's other novels. Well, yes - it may not be as explicit as her other novels, but it is still highly sensual - make no mistake. It still rates far above the average romance novel in this aspect.

Elaine is somewhat too meek in her role as Morrigan. Sometimes, I wanted to shout "Speak up Elaine!". Her inability or lack of willingness to stand up for herself was the only irritating thing about the story. Occasionally she would demand attention or her way but far too seldom. But this was not a story full of disagreements or misunderstandings. It is the story of a relationship, written in a definite spicy manner, but a precious one all the same. I am sure there is some hidden psychological yearning behind the heroine's age and it feeds well into a fantasy of once again living in a body eighteen years younger yet with the wisdom of a thirty-nine year old woman. It only adds to the overall charm of the book. I have read that this is an expensive book once you find it. It is well worth the effort to find it and only a few dollars more than you expect to pay for a used paperback. It is a definite keeper.

Robin Schone writes the best erotic love scenes I've ever read in any romance book (or fem porn, for that matter)! I couldn't believe the opening to this book (I'll just say that according to surveys most people do it but few people admit it)! What a way to time-travel!

Ms. Schone sure captured my fantasy! Elaine wakes up in another century, in another woman's body, in another man's bed (wasn't there a song like that?). I sure wouldn't mind waking up seventeen years younger in a body that doesn't have to fight celulite. Especially if I woke up to a man who is skilled in Tantric love making, like Charles is. The PILLOW BOOK scene is awesome!

The action just keeps getting hotter and hotter and tenser and tenser. What happened to Elaine's real body? Where is the woman who rightfully belongs to the one Elaine was transmigrated into? Was the young woman really insane--like her crazy relatives claim--or is she as much a victim as Elaine?

The only thing more surprising than the opening to AWAKEN, MY LOVE is the ending.

I agree with the woman in South Africa, this book is a refreshing change from traditional historical romances. It is not a book for the faint of heart! I'm just sad that Ms. Schone doesn't have any other books out. I heard on a list that she has one coming out soon, though. If it's just half as original and erotic as AWAKEN, MY LOVE, I will be in readers' heaven!

This was the second book by Robin Schone I have read. The first one was My Lady's Tutor. I thought it was rather stulifying with an over the top villain. I had heard that this book, Schone's first, was liked by people who found her others tiresome.

Overall it was stulifying with an over the top villain.

Things I liked about the book:

1. The heroine in the beginning. Middle-aged, dumpy Elaine in a dull marriage gets a second chance in the body of Morrigan, a thin twenty-one year old upper class lady. Yay, good for Elaine.

2. The initial confusion that Elaine had after she was propelled into the past and a less than happy situation. Elaine's attempt to edge into the role of Morrigan. I can even accept Hattie the Harridan, which at first was a rather fun twist on the motherly old family retainer who protects the heroine. Hattie is a beldame with a taste for the more punitive aspects of the Christian religion and clearly has dominated Morrigan.

Things I didn't like:

1. Whether you are right or left handed has everything to do with the body and has nothing to do with who is living in your head. This could have been an interesting situation, but instead it is just an annoying distraction.

2. I do not believe that a 39 year old modern woman who has been married for 17 years has NEVER been french kissed. I just do not believe it.

3. Why does the hero put up with his wife's obnoxious relatives who clearly she does not even like?

4. Oh, no, another over the top villain. This one is really over the top. Sorry, I don't buy the villain at all. Schone's villians strongly suggest that she has some gender issues.

Why are all of the females in this book (aside from the heroine and her maid) two dimensional monsters? Why does the author equate being overweight with either being sexually unfulfilled and/or ill mannered and evil? Did it ever occur to Elaine while she was staring at her hairy legs that attacking those hairs with a straight razor might make everyone think she was, well, unhinged?

By the time it got to the climax, I just didn't care. The author had made too many blunders, the plot was weak and the only character who appeared to be more than two dimensional was Elaine.

This is labelled as the author's version of her first novel ever. Like all first novels, it really should have been relegated to the bottom drawer, kept as an embarrassing example of how not to write, in this case, how not to write a 'romance.'

The book starts out with a masturbating heroine in the 20th century and a husband practically raping his wife in the 19th to get his conjugal rites at last. The sexually frustrated wife Elaine somehow swaps bodies with the frigid wife Morrigan-I read the whole book and never grasped how this happened.

But willing to suspend my disbelief and revulsion I read on. An on and on. And the book only got worse, if possible. Every single 'romantic scene' was the husband trying to exercise his conjugal rights, though it took him ages and lots of very repetitive groping to do so. His idea of foreplay is to grab her nipples or see how many fingers he can fit.

Even worse was the incest, near-beastiality with a bull, and every single bodily function known to human kind being performed in front of Elaine/Morrigan to show her who is boss by either her loopy relatives or her husband. Since she is so fearful of giving the game away that she is from the 20th century she hardly ever speaks throughout the entire novel except to say, "No, don't," as the supposed hero forces himself on her once more.

Her objections to the hero are very real, for apart from being so revolting, she is in essence committing adultery against her husband in her own time

If I didn't know better I would have said this was a parody of a romance novel, but the writer's alternating of gothic horror with slapstick shows she really has no idea how to stick to one thing and do it well.

Even more ludicrous is that the Neanderthal hero Charles is supposed to be an expert on Tantric love practices designed for maximum gratification. But apart from showing her some mildly spicy pictures in the kama sutra he is plain vanilla missionary position all the way, and every single experience she has with him is painful on the physical level and degrading on the mental one. Even a 20th century guy would get two black eyes for the revolting things he does and the way he treats her, let alone someone in 1883. Then we are supposed to believe they have fallen in love and he is glad that she has come from another century and can't go back to her own time? They never even have a conversation. Even after she is nearly raped and killed he ignores her for three days while he tries to decide whether or not to lock her in a loony bin!

Finally, the villain of the piece, a creature who can supposedly go into any body at all, and used to be Morrigan, murders various people and becomes the randy Pillsbury doughboy-the author's words, not mine. And decides that it wants to know what it is like to have sex with itself with Elaine in its former body. I mean, really!

This book is easily the worst example I have ever read of an author doing anything to shock the readers even at the expense of basic common sense and taste. ... Not erotica, and certainly not romance, I would give this negative stars if I could. It was laughably bad when it wasn't totally disgusting. And I am no prude!

A romance is two people falling in love and becoming committed to each other, respecting each other so the sex is meaningful, not the sex becomes meaningful because they decide they are stuck with each other and they are better than nothing.

As regular readers of my reviews can tell, I rate my books somewhat differently than others. Not all my five-star books are keepers, and in fact, I am rather fond of some books that received only three stars. I rate books by how well they fit into the genre, and what the author does with the same old story - how to breathe life into the hero and heroine, and their love story.

I haven't been thinking about this book as much as I have about GABRIEL'S WOMAN (a difficult but fascinating and very dark read). Yet, this book has its own charm. The first two chapters are famous (or infamous) and very controversial. Schone broke the boundaries of the regency genre by portraying an opening scene where the heroine was masturbating. She follows this up with the equally short and striking second chapter in which the hero is not masturbating, but he must find his own pleasure where his wife will not.

This is a story based on the somewhat unlikely premise that a person can travel through time via an orgasm. Leaving that aside, Schone brings out the realities of a 20th century woman finding herself in late Victorian England very well.

Elaine takes far too long to assert herself against a witchy maid/companion. She is grappling with several mysteries - firstly, how she has come back in time; secondly, where is the woman whose body she has now come into; thirdly, what is the relationship between this woman and her husband; and lastly, why is Morrigan (the name of this woman) so peculiar? She investigates these mysteries with some indifference and considerable sloth, because she is far more concerned with protecting the revelation of her real identity (and fears of being thought insane) than in finding out the truth. Her passivity will cost her precious time, and very nearly, her life. For most of the book, she does not speak and when she does, her accent appears to have miraculously disappeared or at least not be noticeable to Charles, Morrigan's husband.

But in the process, Elaine (in Morrigan's) body will learn much about her body's capacity for pleasure, her stultifying marriage back in the 20th century, and a number of dark family secrets held by Morrigan. Elaine will also have to question the issues of fidelity. Is it adultery to have sex with the husband of the woman whose body she possesses inadvertently? Is it sinful to enjoy those moments?

I would have given this book a higher grade except for the following things - firstly, the reappearance of the villain was too overblown, too much over-the-top, and with no explanations as to how the time-travel had been accomplished twice. Secondly, from the outset, I did not much care for Charles - a man who married blindly without looking carefully, and a man who failed to notice and suspect changes in his wife. His sex life seemed to be all that mattered, and there was not very much love in his relations with Elaine/Morrigan. I was also annoyed by Elaine's passivity vis-a-vis Morrigan's original maid and later in other crucial developments.

The book contains Schone's trademark sensuality with a *very hot* pillow book scene, where words accomplish almost as much as caresses. But I still consider Gabriel's Woman to be the better book of the two Schone books I have read so far, and the short story "A Lady's Pleasure" to be her masterpiece.

Rating: 3.3
Recommended: to lovers of erotic romance; with reservations to all others.

This book has everything you could want under one cover. It has love, romance, adventure, time travel, paranormal and eroticism in a historical setting! Elaine is wonderful, Charles is fantastic and Morrigan is a hoot! Is it sensual? You bet! Does it push the envelope? Absolutely! If you want to read sweet romances DO NOT read this book but if you would like to experience a love story that will make you laugh, cry and involve you in the story find and buy this book... its worth it!

In AWAKEN, MY LOVE, Robin Schone mixes fantasy and reality to create that erotic perfection of which most people only dream.

Elaine Metcliff, a sexually unfulfilled modern-day woman, wakes up one morning in the 19th century and in the home and body of the very frigid Morrigan, Lady Arlcotte. To say that Elaine wakes up in a situation akin to a nightmare would be the ultimate understatement. Aunt Hattie, her main caretaker, is obnoxious in more ways than one. Her new "husband," Charles, appears to be displeased, though fascinated, with her. And her body now has a small deformity which is causing mobility problems.

Meanwhile, Charles has been very dissatisfied with Morrigan's lack of sexual appetite. When he sees Elaine, she's in Morrigan's body, so he has no way of knowing she's a different person. Yet he detects something has changed and he begins an earnest pursuit.

As Elaine keeps up the pretense because no one will believe the truth, she tries desparately to return to her "time." Then as the undeniable romantic persuasions of Charles continue, she feels to submit to him would be adulterous to both her real husband and to Charles' missing wife. Finally, as she accepts her situation and experiences Charles' expert lovemaking, she finds total fulfillment.

In addition to the fantasy of "body swapping," AWAKEN, MY LOVE is made more complicated and interesting with issues of child abuse, demonic possession, insanity and overly zealous relatives. The conclusion alone is worth the 5-star rating.

Ms. Schone mixes real romance with beautifully written eroticism. The book is well worth reading.

I only wish I had the talent to have written this absorbing story. The author did indeed leave a number of questions hanging in the air, so to speak--including how the transmigration of souls happened, what happened ultimately to Morrigan, Charles' lack of interest in exploring how Elaine came to be his wife or why he tolerated the Boleighs and the disgusting Hattie in his house--but these details aside, Robin Schone spins a narrative that is gripping with mystery, fantasy, romance, and more explicit sex than seems to be the norm among this genre of writers. It is by no means pornographic but is not designed for those who don't want to peep behind the bedroom door. Don't blast Ms. Schone for those who do enjoy details, just don't read her books!

This is an unforgettable book by a highly creative writer.

I am a big Robin Schone fan. I have thoroughly enjoyed every book of hers that I have read - and this in no exception. I was drawn in from the first unconventional page of this book. I really found myself drawn in by the parallel experiences of the main characters. The loneliness and desperation that they are both experiencing in different times. From the very first page you really want these two to find their way to each other and find real happiness. Once Elaine (heroine) wakes up in the late 1800s, I found myself even more entertained. Mrs. Schone does not sugar-coat the time. She confronts head on the reality of living in the 1800s (from using a chamberpot, to what do women do when they have their periods, to how do those corsets and clothes really feel?) And I immediately really liked Elaine. She experiences all of these 1800-era things with humor and in a way you can almost imagine yourself doing.

Once the story really picked up speed, both in the interaction of the hero (Charles) and heroine, as well as a mystery of time travel, I turned the pages quickly, eager to see what happened next.

By the time I had gotten to the end, I found I had enjoyed the book, but with only one complaint. Because I had been so drawn to both main characters from the beginning, I was hoping for more of an emotional payoff in the end than was provided. I wanted to cry with them when they finally found what they had both been waiting so long for. And instead I was left with what I experienced as a lukewarm emotional ending.

Overall, this was an enjoyable read, though. Robin Schone continues to provide stories that have unique characters, sizzling passion, and a love story to boot.