Customer Reviews

Chelynne

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

 

 

This was a wonderful book !!! Highly Recommended- 5+ ***** One of my all time favorites !!!! I loved Chelynne and Chad. They were great characters !! Great storyline, writing and character development. A Brief Synopsis: Chad's father, Earl of Bryant is old and in failing health. He wants to secure the future earldom and inadvertently 'forces' Chad to marry Cheylnne, who's consenting family consists of a loving Uncle, an Overbearing Aunt and Devious cousin. There are circumstances, misunderstandings, past hurts and fears which causes Chad to feel pressured and resentful of his marriage so he does all he can to prevent himself from happiness, love and getting close to Chelynne, including avoiding 'consumation' of the marriage... which frustrates her to no end !!! You laugh, you cry... It has everything you want in a romance novel........ There are misunderstandings and bittersweet moments, alot of interesting characters and plot twists.... There is even Another Woman who still pursues Chad even tho he is wed ! .... She is his former mistress whom Chelynne suspects still is his lover.... I couldn't put it down the first time I read it and I have read this book many times over. It's definitely worth reading again and again!

If you rate this book by how many words you get to read for the $1.99 paid out, this is a tremendous bargain. But if you factor in the time you spent reading that you'll never get back again, well, you have to ask "Is this book worth it?" I'd say 'no'.

Much before Robyn Carr was writing her very popular contemporary romance series such as Virgin River and Shelter Mountain, she was fascinated by the Restoration period in England and decided to write her first book with that setting. I definitely can admire that very young Robyn Carr (26 at the time), with two babies (1 and 3 years of age), who wrote this book at the table and had to clear off her typewriter at dinner time so her young family could eat together, but, honestly, sometimes an author's very early work should not be resurrected on Kindle. Sometimes these books are no longer in publication for a reason.

At that time Carr was inspired by Kathleen Winsor's FOREVER AMBER and Anya Seton's body of work. Unfortunately, she seems to have been inspired to compete in novel length, in addition to time frame, and this novel is much too long and wordy. To be fair, I have to say that the book has some good moments. If I hadn't already read so many historicals about the Restoration, I'd have found some bits of interest here. And she made her Charles II dissolute (as he was) but also very charismatic (which he also was).

Sadly, Charles II was my favorite character in the book, followed by hero Chadwick's friend John and by heroine Chelynne's uncle and these were all secondaries. The hero and heroine were not to my liking. Well, I'll cut some slack for the 16-year-old heroine. She's maybe too young to expect wise and mature actions from her. The hero, however, is 33. He gets no passes from me. There are no excuses for his actions.

OK, let's ignore the "ick" factor of a 33-year-old man marrying a 16-year-old girl. This was the 1600s and it happened frequently enough. We have to put aside our 21st-century sensibilities in that regard. But what I can't ignore is the hero's behaviour towards the heroine. Yes, this was a marriage of convenience he agreed to because of some actions on his father's part, but that does not justify his coldness, uncaring indifference, and even emotionally cruel treatment of Chelynne. He even refuses to consummate the marriage, leaving her feeling completely rejected.

Hero Chadwick's rationale for this is that he's not really over the loss of his first wife, with whom he had a son who is now 7 years old (or thereabouts). Now, this first marriage plays a big part in this story, because written registry of it is seemingly missing and his son's legitimacy is in question. BTW, I forgot to mention that poor little Chelynne has no idea of any of this (first marriage and son) because Chad leaves her in the dark about everything.

Enter villainess other woman (Chad's former lover) to fill in the voids in information left by Chad with lots of misinformation and to make Chelynne's life even more miserable. Evil Other Woman also connives with Chelynne's Evil Cousin to cause other problems, one among them being the puzzle of Chelynne's true parentage. This whole book is one big Lack of Communication, Big Misunderstandings and TSTL behaviour. That's probably par for the course in a 1977 HR but I didn't need to read it in 2011.

If you want some good Restoration England historicals to read, try Karleen Koen's Dark Angels: A Novel, Judith James' Libertine's Kiss (Hqn) and The King's Courtesan (Hqn), or Jude Morgan's The King's Touch.

I've read a handful of Robyn Carr's books and every time, I fall in love with her characters. CHELYNNE is no exception. The setting, plot, characters, and writing style keep me reading until the last page. I only wish there was more.

I could not put Chelynne down! Chelynne is a strong-willed woman determined to win Chad's heart, despite his vow to never love again. I truly enjoyed seeing the two of them together--they're definitely one of my favorite couples! Chelynne is such a sweetheart and Chad is an absolutely steamy, dashing leading man. This book has everything you could want! Can't wait for Robyn Carr's next historical romance.

This is Robyn Carr's first historical fiction and it's absolutely riveting. I stayed up late reading about Chelynne and Chadwick and I just couldn't get enough. The setting of the court of Charles II also came to life, for all you history buffs out there. There's gossip, betrayal, looming war, scandals, affairs, everything you could want and more.

I was extremely disappointed in this book and could hardly believe it was written by the same author as the Virgin River Series. It's a good thing I read that series first because if I had read Chelynne first, I would never have bought the Virgin River Series thinking they would have been as bad. I read for enjoyment and this is not a book that leaves the reader with a good feeling. I would certainly not classify this as a romance. There was nothing romantic about how the two main characters interacted.

This story left me totally depressed. It is not even worth $1.99. Chelynne is married off at the age of 16 to the son of an Earl, Chad is 17 years older than Chelynne and he is mean and cruel to this beautiful kind and gentle soul. Chad was forced to marry her by his father and poor Chelynne marries him because her beloved uncle has asked her to. She is obedient, because she want to honor her uncles wishes. Chad married the maid (wash women) years before and his father did not honor or acknowledge the marriage, his wife Anne died after giving birth to his son. They were very poor because Chad father disinherited him. So he seeks his revenge daily on poor unsuspecting Chelynne. She has no idea why Chad hates her rejects her and refuses to consummate their marriage. This is a long miserable story. Chad realizes about 20 pages before the end of the book that Chelynne would be a good choice as mother to raise his son Kevin and now heir, to the earldom. Even in the end of the story he only wants to use this kind and gentle soul and she was physically beautiful too. Chad never loved her and Chelynne's HEA is to only be the mother of Chad's beloved dead wife Ann's son. If that is all I could get in the way of happiness I wouldn't want it. I just wanted Chelynne to leave this B Don't waist your $1.99 or time on this book.

Carr knows how to spin a story. This thing had me arrested from page one. I'd say I couldn't put it down, but that doesn't quite play since it's an eBook. But the intriguing characters and crisp prose (some truly great images in there) made it easy to devour in almost one sitting.