Customer Reviews

Breathless

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Since the back cover description is already given on this page, I'll skip straight to my review:

After reading Laura Lee Guhrke's awesome book, Prelude to Heaven (Harper Monogram), I went to a used-book store and bought everything of hers that I could get my hands on. I found SHE'S NO PRINCESS just average, but figured that every author writes a not-so-good book once in a while. So I was still more than eager to read BREATHLESS, but was left feeling a little disappointed.

My biggest complaint with this book was that I felt the romance took a backseat to the rest of the plot. While the other storyline of Lily trying to close down the town's famous cathouse and Daniel fighting to keep it open (because he'd been hired to) was interesting, I felt that the development of their relationship was pushed aside in favor of this plot. And once murder came into play, I felt like the romance was almost nonexistent. It seemed that the author would work on the mystery, then remember that this was supposed to be romance, throw in a kiss, then get back to the mystery. I want romance in my romance novel. Is that too much to ask?

I didn't like that Daniel never really truly apologized to Lily for how he'd helped to totally ruin her reputation, especially when she'd been completely innocent. Yes, he did admit that he was wrong, but I felt that he could have grovelled a bit more.

I also felt that the relationship between Lily and Daniel was more about sex than love. Not that this was a lust-soaked book (it wasn't), but there didn't seem to be much else, especially since I didn't find him a very likeable hero. Him fighting to keep a cathouse open just rubbed me the wrong way, no matter how justified that author tried to make his reasons seem. Prostitution is evil, no matter how you look at it, so I found it hard to really cheer for the hero.

I can read a book a day, but this one took me over a week to finish. That ought to tell you something. I didn't have to force myself through it, but it certainly wasn't hard to put down. And once put down, there was no huge, burning desire to pick it up again. Maybe I expected too much of this book, since the first book I read by this author was just so awesome. I don't know. All I can say is that if I'd read BREATHLESS first, I probably wouldn't have bothered seeking out other novels by this author. Try PRELUDE TO HEAVEN to see what this author is really capable of. I don't think that BREATHLESS represents the best of her true abilities.

I typically shy away from historicals set in someone's romanticized idea of the South. There are too many clumsy attempts to write Southern dialect, and too many Scarlett O'Hara caricaitures whose shrewishness is labeled as "fiery temperament." But I'm glad I trusted this author enough to read her take on Southern-style romance.

Guhrke's sweet-tart tale takes place in Shivaree, Georgia at the beginning of the 20th century, when a lady might overcome the social stigma of having a job, but not the disgrace of being divorced by her husband. Shivaree's church-going folk and Ladies Temperance Society live uncomfortably with the fact that the town owes its healthy economy to a den of sin called the Shivaree Social Club. Well-to-do men from Atlanta pay an entire dollar for an hour in the company of loose women. They also drink and gamble, which is fortunate for ladies who want to gossip about the club; in 1905, no proper woman discusses sex, much less sex-for-money.

The thoroughly delightful heroine of Breathless is a one-time debutante, shunned by her family and society since her husband divorced her. Lily rebels against the town's hypocrisy by playing scandalous modern piano music with the windows open, and displaying a copy of Michelangelo's David - buck naked! - in her front parlor.

Once a year, on the anniversary of her humiliating divorce hearing, she files a legal complaint against the Shivaree Social Club. Her former husband spent many nights of their marriage cavorting with the club's "painted ladies," and closing the club is the only revenge left to Lily.

For five years, her efforts have been in vain. But when the town judge acquires a young bride and curtails his own use of the club, he shocks everyone by agreeing to close it down. More surprised than anyone is the club's owner, a U.S. senator. The lawyer he sends to Shivaree to fight the injunction is the senator's political protegee, a luscious hunk named Daniel Morgan.

Daniel has a friendly relationship with the judge and doesn't expect to spend more than a day on the Shivaree Social Club case. But he doesn't expect the tenacity of his opponent: Lily Morgan, whose reputation he destroyed when he represented her husband in the divorce. Lily no sooner hears that her husband's ruthless lawyer is in town than she marches into the local diner, slaps his face, and leaves without a word - treating Daniel to a view of her shapely hips in one of the new, tight, modern dresses.

War is declared between the two, and both sides have too much at stake to show any mercy. Daniel needs to get the club reopened or risk losing his client's political backing when he runs for the Senate. Lily hopes that by closing the club, she can lose her image as an immoral hussy. When the town's leading ladies not only refuse to join Lily's cause, but deliver a cruel public humiliation, Daniel is forced to witness the ugly consequences to Lily of the trial that made her an outcast. He begins to question his assumptions about her character, and to experience some doubts about the cost to himself of his own ambition.

Of course, the infamous divorcee and her hated nemisis discover an unexpected sexual attraction as fierce as Lily's battle to close the club. Their verbal skirmishes are rich with a range of emotions, but never sink to the level of screaming matches. The two share a sense of humor and a grudging respect for each other that makes a friendship between them seem as natural and inevitable as an affair. The result is a love story of surprising tenderness.

"Breathless" is peopled with a whole community of entertaining characters: snooty church ladies, semi-likeable dishonest judges, a barbershop full of irate husbands, and the first generation of modern women - not yet dreaming of having the right to vote, but beginning to feel the first, faint pangs of hunger to have a say in the direction of their lives.

Breathless instantly caught my attention with its unusual premise and setting. The characters were strongly drawn and, because of their initial antagonism, had great chemistry. The scene in which the heroine first sets eyes on the hero and, marching right up to him without saying a word, slaps him in front of the whole town, is great. It draws a daring line in the sand, and I gleefully anticipate a battle of the sexes to end all battles.

Daniel Walker is a lawyer on a mission. He's been sent back to his small hometown Shivaree by the big wigs in Atlanta to take care of some business for them. A gentleman's club owned by one of Daniel's backers (Daniel has a lot of ambition and hopes to be a senator) has been closed down thanks to the petitioning of one Lily Morgan. Daniel is to overturn the judge's ruling and get the club back up and running. If this weren't enough to place him in direct opposition to Lily, the two also share unpleasant history. Daniel was the lawyer who sued her on behalf of her ex husband for divorce. Thanks to this divorce Lily is the scarlet woman of her small town. She is shunned and scorned, and her own family won't talk to her. And she blames Daniel for much of her woe. Daniel, for his part, doesn't feel any remorse for how he treated her during the divorce trial, and no sense of responsibility for her present plight. His refrain is that he's just doing his job.

I read Breathless always waiting for the other shoe to drop - I felt like this situation was a recipe for disaster, one in which the heroine would get terribly hurt, the hero would walk all over her, and I had a lot of sympathy for Lily. She's treated terribly by her neighbors, who wrongly malign her as an adulteress and outrageously blame her for her husband's infidelity. But she never gives up or lets others get her down. When it comes to the club, she vows to fight Daniel all the way in his efforts to reopen it. She has personal reasons, besides the usual moral ones, for wanting it closed - it's the house of sin her husbanded frequented during their loveless, miserable marriage. But besides Daniel's threats to Lily that he won't fight her fairly on this, that he has the killer instinct and the skills of manipulation she lacks, he actually doesn't treat her too badly (besides not believing she's not an adulteress and believing all the terrible things her ex husband said about her - which, you know, doesn't win him any points.) Lily manages to rally the women, after valiantly overcoming initial difficulties because of her bad reputation, while Daniel rallies the men. Soon quiet Shivaree is thrown into turmoil and divided by discord, with the women marching, protesting, and harassing their unhappy men to vote to keep the club closed. This part of the book was enjoyable enough - the tension and fighting between Daniel and Lily is fun and sexy. It helps that they live right next door to each other while Daniel's staying in Shivaree.

But then the gender war over the club is curtailed by a murder at the club of one of its prostitutes. Amos, a young friend of Lily's is accused and arrested. The lines of alliance are immediately redrawn, and the former issues raised by the Shivaree gender war are summarily abandoned in favor of bringing Lily and Daniel together. He agrees to defend Amos, and she gets to be his sidekick. You would think that this would provide ample opportunity for them to get closer, for amping up the chemistry, and make things interesting. To my dismay, things got boring, and I found myself slogging through a court drama that is laboriously, ponderously executed. The romance became an afterthought while the hero and heroine work towards winning this case.

When the murder trial business is finally dispensed with, we've got little more than 50 pages left in which to resolve, or actually develop a romance between Daniel and Lily and address their problems - like his assumption that she's adulterous, his siding with her evil, lying ex husband, his legal sophistries to justify his actions, and the fact that HE RUINED HER LIFE. The last is completely swept under the rug. They fall quickly in love, and Daniel begins to think, gee, maybe she's not a cold, lying, cheating harlot (the worst part is he has this epiphany when she responds to his kisses so "innocently." Aaargh! Nothing annoys me more than that medieval witch dunking test of virginity.) Then we get to the question: will Daniel sacrifice his political aspirations for the woman he loves? Because a future senator can't possibly marry a divorcée. Everyone gets a chance to be noble martyrs, and a happily ever after is swiftly wrapped up. I was pretty disappointed in Breathless, considering its potential.

I really enjoy this author. My first book I read of hers was "And Then He Kissed Her" which I loved and proceeded to go on a mission to find her entire back list. This was a good book. I do wish it would've had a stronger element of romance and less of a mystery.

I must say that lawyers are not my first choice when thinking of a hero for a romance novel. Daniel Walker is the exception to that rule. He is brilliant, successful, gorgeous, and wounded from his childhood. What else is there to say? Lily is his best friend's ex-wife who he "destroyed" by his cross examination in her divorce trial. Interesting premise.

I enjoyed this town. The stereotypical townspeople, the scandals, the relationships, all were developed beautifully. My one critique is this. A murder is committed and this becomes the focus if this book. I like romance books to "feature" the couple and focus on them. This couple don't really become "that" until the last part of the book. I really thought this was a good book...if Lily and Daniel would've been front and center, it would've been....great!

In 1905 Shivaree, Georgia, Lily Morgan is the town's most talked about woman. Everybody in town talks about her bitter divorce five years earlier and the fact that she had an affair. When Daniel Walker, her ex-husband's lawyer comes back to town tounges start wagging again.

Daniel truly believed that he did the right thing by scandalizing Lily's name during her divorce from his best friend. He truly thought she had an affair. Now back in Shivaree he's having second thoughts.

Lily and Daniel clash like lightening, but that doesn't stop the feelings they find they have for eachother. When a local prostitute is murdered, Lily and Daniel work together to clear the suspect's name. In the meantime, Daniel finds that he was wrong about Lily and they also find love. The only problem is Daniel is planning on a career as a politician and that does not include a divorcee' as a wife.

This was my first book by Laura Lee Guhrke and I truly enjoyed it. I hope to read more from her in the future.

Defense attorney Daniel Walker wins an acquittal for his client by tricking the real culprit into confessing. After the case, power broker Calvin Stoddard vows to support Daniel's run for a seat on the state senate if the lawyer handles a legal matter for him. Daniel, realizing that Calvin's support almost insures his election, agrees. Daniel's opponent is the local librarian Lily Morgan. Five years ago Daniel painted Lily as an adulterer as he obtained a divorce for her ex-spouse. A murder occurs, and the sheriff arrests Lily's friend. Daniel decides to defend the accused. Since his own clerk is unavailable, Daniel enlists Lily as his legal clerk. As they work together to prove his client did not do the crime, they fall in love. Breathless will thrill fans of historical mysteries, and romance readers will cherish the love story between the lead protagonists.

...

Daniel infuriates me with his arrogance and his high-handedness. He wrongs Lily terribly, and when he comes back to town, he feels only a twinge of pity that all the people in town ostracize her because of HIS brilliant lawyer work. Then he proceeds to boss her around mercilessly, and at one point, he handcuffs her to a post because she stages a protest. What a man! Where's the line for more romance heroes like him? Sign me up for one!!! (sarcasm intended here).

Then, in the end, (what a wonderful man!) he gives up a promising political future for her. Gee. If he had walked into the library and I was Lily, I would've told him where he could shove his new library card.

The plotline of women withholding their favors as leverage goes back to ancient Greece (at least). It gets a humorous and warm treatment in "Breathless" where the women of a small Georgia town go on strike to shut down the town's main tourist attraction - a whorehouse. The book focuses on the romance between Lily, leader of the women, and Daniel, lawyer for the owners of the brothel. Their history is bad but when murder occurs they find themselves on the same side.

While there is a healthy dose of "Americana" in this book, I enjoyed the political edge - suffrage and women's rights. Still, the best part of the book are the strong characterizations including several strong secondary characters. The plotting is probably the weak point as the book lacked a strong page turning quality. Still, a fun relaxing read even if it probably isn't a keeper.

I enjoyed this book and will look for more Ms Guhrke's books. The characters were good the story interesting. The dialogue was often funny. I just wish that the final conflict were not wrapped up quite so quickly.

Interesting characters. Love Daniel - the lawyer, with his southern charm and quick mind. Good build up with their past history/encounter. The chemistry just sizzles. Can't wait to read more of her books. More romance please!