19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
if your idea of romance is constant fighting......, June 7, 2000
then this is the book for you. I usually love Ms. Quinn's books. This one was well written and witty. The only problem is that through the many incredibly stupid "mishaps" that move the plot along, all the two main characters do is argue, bicker, argue and fight. I read to escape this sort of childish bickering. Also, these characters behaved completely wrong for the genre.
The book had some very bright moments, but overall, it gave me a sunburn.
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30 of 36 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Fun Dialogue But Annoying Heroine, August 24, 2003
Victoria Lyndon, our heroine from Everything and the Moon, has a younger sister Eleanor, who is equally independent and feisty. Ellie is walking in the countryside near her home one day when a very handsome and very drunk man literally falls into her lap from a tree.
Charles Wycombe, the rakish Earl of Billington, must marry before his upcoming thirtieth birthday or lose his inheritance. When he meets the vivacious and outspoken Ellie, he realizes that this very attractive miss is the answer to his prayers. No, he has no intention to actually love her nor any other woman. But she would make a suitable enough bride and mother to the heir he must produce while he goes on living his dissolute life just as before.
Ellie is very attracted to the Earl but would never agree to such an outrageous and hasty proposal except that her soon to be stepmother promises to make her life a misery. Also, by marrying she will gain access to the 300 pounds she's made through prudent investments in her father's name, and Ellie is a wonderful businesswoman.
So Charles and Ellie marry-and the fun continues as, amidst a host of mysterious accidents, they come to care for each other. Secondary characters are pretty good, except the impertinent and demanding little Judith, who fails to come off with the charm she's clearly supposed to have.
There are a lot of problems with Brighter Than the Sun. For the first two hundred plus pages, Ellie is nearly always angry. This gets very tiring and seems childish, making her somewhat unlikable. In addition, Charles and Ellie constantly getting injured or sick really starts to wear on the reader. Some plot variation is desperately needed, especially some real action to balance all the domesticity. The identity and motives of the two antagonists is apparent from the very beginning, so their revelation doesn't provide any excitement or much needed plot twists.
Everything is so predictable, and the sameness between the protagonists here and those in Quinn's earlier books starts to wear. While her main characters look physically different and have just a few key personality differences, they are all at the core the same. It is hard to believe that every principal character would be witty in the same way. Not every protagonist, for example, should speak in understatement. Quinn's characters need to be more distinctively drawn.
Still, the last hundred and fifty pages of dialogue between Charles and Ellie is mostly fun, and their penchant to produce lists in also fun. If only their cute repartee were a little different from the cute repartee in her other novels-i.e., revealing of a distinct character. In addition, the tone here is so light that their emotions are not explored to a satisfying depth. Quinn has a lot of talent, and I hope she can find a way to broaden more in subsequent novels.
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18 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A charming book..., June 5, 2000
By A Customer
This humerous and light-hearted novel was the third book I've read by Ms. Quinn, and it doesn't dissapoint me one bit. Keeping with her knack for witty dialogue and compellingly fun characters, she has created a wonderful book. I think the conversations between the hero and the heroine were the parts I liked the best. The heroine is refreshing, as she isn't annoying and can be actually quite funny at times. The hero is "a compulsive list-maker," and some of the lists that he writes are hillarious. There wasn't a single part of the book where I found I disliked him, because he really does come across as a laid-back and wickedly charming guy (If only men were really like that...). In all, this book is one that I could recommend and be fairly sure you'll like it.
Be sure to read all of Julia Quinn's books, they're all very entertaining.
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