Customer Reviews

Counterfeit Lady

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(12)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

_Counterfeit Lady_, the first of the James River Trilogy of books is an engaging story, one that will keep you preoccupied until you reach the end. Searching to reclaim the happiness he's lost, Clay Armstrong plots to have the woman he loves, Bianca, kidnapped and brought to him in America. Plans go awry and he's met by Nicole Courtalain. A turbulent romance begins between the two, with Clay fighting his supposed love for Bianca and Nicole fighting to show Clay that she's the one for him. You'll find yourself almost screaming at Clay's absurd stupidity and hoping that Nicole will punch Bianca. You'll feel the desperation, the love, and every other emotion in this book as if you're living them yourself. The book and characters are so well written, you'll even find yourself feeling sorry for Bianca. Ms. Deveraux really outdid herself with this book and the others that follow in the series. The perfect book for those wanting to experience the magic that is Jude Deveraux's writing.

I have mixed feelings about Counterfeit Lady -- the first installment in the James River trilogy. On one hand, this novel is very emotionally moving with lots of twists and turns coupled with beautiful descriptions of late eighteenth century Virginia. On the other hand, the hero got on my nerves and Jude Deveraux throws political correctness out the window big time here. But more on that later. The year is 1794. Plantation owner Clayton Armstrong is madly in love with an English young woman called Bianca Maleson. Tired of her excuses for not marrying him, he hires men to kidnap her and arranges a marriage by proxy during the long voyage to America. Imagine his surprise when instead of getting plump, blue-eyed blond Bianca he gets a petite, beautiful and exotic Frenchwoman named Nicole Courtalain. Clayton is outraged when he learns that she was forced to marry him during the voyage and he agrees with Nicole to have the marriage annulled as soon as possible. It appears that his men kidnapped the wrong woman. A refugee from her homeland during the French Revolution and daughter of aristocrats, Nicole was Bianca's personal maid before she was kidnapped and brought to America. Her attraction and feelings for Clayton grow deep in a matter of days and she hopes that he will soon see her as more than just a second choice. But Clayton's feelings for Bianca run deep, for she reminds him of an old unrequited love. However, he may be in for a very rude awakening. There are many twists throughout the novel.

As said earlier, I have mixed feelings about this first installment of the series. The story is riveting and moved me to the core. I felt Nicole's sorrow of having endured the pain of losing her family during the Revolution and then trying to pick up the pieces in England. I also felt her pain when her love for Clayton wasn't reciprocated. Clayton irritated me big time. As other reviewers had stated, he was too stupid to live at times. How could he "love" a spiteful, hateful creature like Bianca? He makes Nicole miserable whenever she witnesses his blind, undying devotion to Bianca. I wanted to strangle him at times. He reminded me of Gavin Montgomery from The Velvet Promise, for he also fancied himself in love with another woman. I know that is the whole point of the novel and that this is the central plot and intrigue, but I must say that it is my least favorite. Anyway, one thing I loved about this novel was the backdrop of late eighteenth century south. I pictured the beautiful plantations, the clean air, the high-waist dresses and parasols, and all of the other wonderful descriptions Deveraux provided for us. This is a beautiful time period and I look forward to reading more novels set during this period. One thing I found unnecessary and no doubt offensive to many readers was the emphasis on Bianca's weight. For a while I thought, "Okay, she's fat, I get it. Now let's move on." I thought Bianca was a horrible, spoiled, self-centered, unredeemable villainess and I hated her. Her hefty figure was the least of my problems with her. I appreciate any author's attempt at realism (because making fun of a fat person, regardless of his or her personality, is an unfortunate common thing), and Deveraux does have a wonderful sense of humor, but not when it's gratuitous, and I thought it was definitely gratuitous here, not to mention excessive. And so, I give Counterfeit Lady three stars. I both loved and hated this novel as I read it. Novels that move me while reading it is definitely a good thing, but I nevertheless cannot overlook the faults in this effort enough to give it a higher star rating.

I thought this book was a DISSAPOINTMENT.
NEVERMIND the predictable and at times boring plot, Ms. Deveraux doesn't seem to know any other way to describe Bianca other than "fat", "plump", "swollen", "so fat when she sits, she can't get up", "her eyes were lost in her fat swollen face"...etc. I don't know how many different ways Jude Deveraux feels the need to describe Bianca as overweight or how many different characters needed to tell her so. Wherever the name Bianca was, there was an insult to her weight and she eventually took on name "The Fat Woman". It was unneccessary and took over the whole story. Instead of spending so much time on describing how repulsive Bianca was because of her weight, Ms. Deveraux should have been developing a stronger, more meaningful plot with likable characters.

The story starts out well with Nicole, a French refugee and aristocrat, being kidnapped in a case of mistaken identity instead of her English employer, Bianca. Nicole is shipped to the colonies to marry an affluent plantation owner. Clay has gone through a lot of trouble to get Bianca, the object of his odd fixation and worship, to America and is furious when he discovers that the wrong woman has been brought over. For a while it looks like it may work out for them as they begin to understand and respect one another. Bianca soon shows up to completely douse the rest of the story with misery. Clay cannot decide who he wants Nicole: who loves him or Bianca: who reminds him of a past love. The rest of the book is simply one after another of the most unfortunate and frustrating series of circumstances that any author anywhere could ever hope to imagine. There are ruined parties, more kidnappings, attempted rape, adultery, dead characters coming back to life, annulments, and the list could go on and on.
The story line is not very good and I could've perhaps over looked it, though all the sub-plots and annoying secondary characters could have been thrown out with no complaint from me, but what truly ruined the book were the characters actions or lack thereof. Nicole and Clay demean there beautiful relationship by cavorting in caves and across the countryside as if they are ashamed by their love - they are MARRIED for goodness sake! It is unfortunate that they could not have claimed all the rights that this entailed them instead of sneaking around. Because of their separation they would just fall all over each other and two paragraph later it would be over and it might be months before the saw each other again even though they were husband and wife.
Nicole refuses to trust him, not that I blame her he had done little to stand up for her or protect her from Bianca, however this time she should have urged him to fight for them instead of kicking him when he was down. By lying about her true feelings she only prolongs both their agony and ours another 100 pages.
Clay becomes a flaming drunk who lets his beloved plantation fall to ruin when he thinks he's lost Nicole. Emotion is fine and being devastated over a break-up is understandable but the author lets him wallow this way for over a year and during this time he never does one thing to try and change the circumstances. To me this depicts a strong character as a weak and manipulated drunk who will not fight for what he loves.
Finally the author fails in her depictions of Bianca as an evil woman. She is selfish, self-centered, and unwise but not really evil. It is more like she is a spoiled child that has never been told no and lacks any form of self-control. Clay in return for her ruining his life treats her terribly calling her awful and degrading names and even turns a little violent with her on occasion. I understand that she had put herself into this situation but there is never an excuse for someone stronger to abuse someone weaker no matter how nasty they are. Again it made me lose respect for the main character and when the convoluted plot was winding down to the predictable happily-ever-after I was more excited that the book was over then I was that these two miserable lovers were finally going to be together again.
Have liked this author is previous reads but would not recommend this particular book to anyone not even her fans.

I found myself speed reading most of the time. It started off quite well and I thought that I would enjoy it. But there was no sparkle between the 2 main characters. There is no depth to the characters. There isn't the essence of either humour or a heart wrenching love story. I found it annoying that so much emphasis was put on Bianca's weight, as though it made her a more evil character.

Waste of paper and ink. I ended up using it to line my bird cage and feed a cozy fire in my fireplace.
I felt the characters had no depth and the writing had no richness at all to it. It read like "Jane ran to catch the ball. Run Jane Run!" Also there were long episodes filled with nothing of any importance. The love scenes were entirely uninspired.
I was also insulted by her portrayal of Bianca, the constant references to her weight as if it was of any pertinence to how evil and childish the character is. Very stereotypical: Bianca is fat, lazy and bad, Nicole is thin, hard working and good. Jude also seemed to waste what little sense of humor she has on describing how fat Bianca is and begins to sound like a kindergartener teasing a classmate. That alone would make me hate the book, but there's also the [disappointing] writing and meandering, predictable, boring plotline.
I'd only use this book to prop up a broken table leg.

Many other readers have written reviews so this will be short. I found Clayton to be just plain stupid, weak, and an all around jerk. Although I know this is just a story it's totally unbelieveable. I just could not believe that a rich supposedly smart man could fall to Bianca's blackmail, especially at this particular time period. Bianca is hateful and mean. Nicole is too good to be true. I love Jude Devereaux's books, but I hated this one.

I read this book years ago. It had a great plot but it got a bit silly in parts. Read it if you don't have anything better on hand. It was okay.

I read this book more than a decade ago, and most of the plot has faded from my memory. The only plot detail I really recall is that the last third of the book isn't as well done as the first two thirds of the book.

What I found unique and precious in "Counterfeit Lady" is that the main couple are happy together. For the middle third to half of the book, the couple are happily married and enjoy each other's company -- no arguments, no strife, no misunderstandings or secrets, no one out to kill them, just happy. After all of those other Romance novels filled with misunderstandings & strife, this pleasant atmosphere is refreshing and quite enjoyable. "Counterfeit Lady" conveys that joyful feeling of being in love.

With that said, the objections raised by other reviewers are valid. I simply liked it anyway.

Maybe it's just me but doesn't the main character lack any heroic qualities whatsoever. I never fell for this guy. He was weak and kinda sick in the head. This weird fixation (Bianca) on the image of his past weird fixation (brother's wife) really seemed on the verge of insanity. The only one who I was endeared to was Nicole. She stayed strong and in most cases wore the pants in this book.

I truly felt sorry for the spoiled, Bianca. Nobody deserves to be treated so nasty but most especially it should not be made out to be a good thing to call people some pretty aweful names. In the beginning of the book she was just a spoiled, pampered brat but after being ridiculed and verbally abused. Even the children were allowed to treat her badly.

I just didn't care much for this book. I can honestly say it was not a bad read but I felt I was disagreeing with the author the entire time.