Customer Reviews

Dark Embrace (Masters of Time, Book 3)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Maybe there's something wrong with me, but lately it seems like my favorite romance authors are getting a little bit lazy and have stopped writing books that make me yearn for more, this book is no exception.
Joyce revisits her Masters of Time Series with Aiden, the Wolf of Awe and, and with the murder of his son by his father Moray we find him a bitter man filled with rage and the desire to die. Brie Rose is an empath who feels the pain from Aiden across centuries (he is a highland warrior, she a modern day New Yorker). Based on a prior meeting she thinks she is in love with him but believes herself to be too plain and boring to receive love in return.
Blah, blah, blah he finds her, she tries to heal his pain etc. Am I the only one that thinks this plot has been done before? My biggest problem with this book is that I really liked the Aiden of prior books and would have liked to see more of him, but the plot of this novel only showed us the wimpy man that was so hurt all he cared for was death and destruction. Brie's love was so blind and I'm not sure what it was really based on, it just came out of no where and seemed a little undeveloped to me. I just couldn't get into it that well. The ending has some redeeming qualities, but overall I would just wait until you can check it out at the library. I really like a lot of her prior books, but this one fell short for me.

It seems like the entire romance industry is obsessed with demonic series romance. So Brenda Joyce hopped on the trend last year with the Masters of Time Series.

If you read the first two entries, you are either going to love or hate this book. There is very little in between.

This book is huge departure for the Masters of Time series. The is the story of Brie Rose and Aidan, Wolf of Awe, the happy-go-lucky-designer-loving-playboy who readers met in the first two books.

After the build up of Aidan's funny, sexy character in the first two books, this story is a huge disappointment. Aidan is no longer carefree, hardened from the "death" of his son by the hands of his deamonic father Moray. Yet for a man harded by pain, death and war, Aidan is a wishy washy vestige of manhood (especially when compared to the other Masters). He frequently blushes like a teenager. His redemption also proceeds at warp speed.

My other large complaint is that TWO WHOLE LOVE SCENES are thin (like 1-2 pages) and are more like an afterthought she popped in the book at the last minute.

Brenda did a passable job, at best. Save your money, go buy Gena Showalter's new series, published this srping. At least she did not get lazy on book 3. Or you can buy Karen Marie Moning who delights readers for 7 books.

"Dark Embrace" is the third book in Joyce's Masters of Time series. I own every book Brenda Joyce has published, and I am a huge fan. But not all her books are home runs. When she has a winner, it is among the best of the best, but this book is not one of them. Why?

The writing is repetitive. Whenever Joyce gets stuck in a plotline she resorts to the characters haranguing themselves with past follies, or reasons they cannot "love" or be with someone. When she falls into that pit, her books become torturous and boring to read. One loses interest in the characters as a result. A good editor would have underscored this for Ms. Joyce and eliminated almost half the book. What law is there that says each book has to be almost 400 pages?

The character of the "hero", Aidan, is completely different from the character introduced in the other books. Readers fell in love with the other character, not this twisted, morbid compilation.

The plot itself is formulaic. In fact, all the series follows the same plot formula. That may be interesting in one book, but by the third one, it too is just tiresome and predictable. As one reviewer describes it, Ms. Joyce got lazy.

Unfortunately, Ms. Joyce is starting to remind me of Johanna Lindsay, one of the great romantic writers. But something happened to Ms. Lindsay, and her more recent books have fallen way short of her early works. Her fans are deeply upset about these changes. I do hope this is not Ms. Joyce's fate. She needs a better editor that cares about what she is writing, not just the publisher's financial bottom line.

I read so many books I sometimes forget what I read and if I like it. I depend on Amazon to keep track for me and recommend books based on that. So when they recommended this one I assumed it was from an author I enjoyed reading before. I remember now how much I disliked the previous two books. The whole "pleasure crime" drives me nuts! Luckily, this book rarely addresses the issue. I probably could have enjoyed this book more if not for my other problems. The hero (Aidan) and heroine (Brie) cried constantly, I mean, constantly throughout the entire story. I don't mind a few tears and crying, but, come on. Someone should have followed them around with a sponge and bucket under their chin.

Aiden could have been a likable, strong character. I do remember him from the previous two and I remember him as being rasically, endearing, and sexy. He wasn't any of these characteristics in this book. I know he was going through his son's death, but I think after 66 years he should have had more control. I know people who have lost children and know it is something that they will never get over, but they don't murder for years because of it.

The heroine annoyed me because she "loved" Aiden after seeing (not talking) to him ONE time. She then proceeds to adore, love, and comfort him inspite of him being cruel and hateful to her. What a loser.

i didn't care for this book at all!!!!!!!! Aidan was such a hateful s.o.b. to the heroine but she just kept crying about how she loved him. I kept reading more because i was hoping at least her love scences would be hot like her other books but they fell short!!!! Maybe i'm not even qualified to write a review for this book because i couldn't even bring myself to finish it.

This was one of the best books i have ever read. They should make this into a movie that would be amazing :D

I can't wait to read the next one

I see that everyone here agrees with how I felt after I read this book. The relationship seemed to come from nowhere. Apparently Brie knew Aiden for a year. But we don't get any information on what transpired during that year, so we don't really know the state of their relationship.

Now besides that, I'm getting a little sick of Brenda's idea of a hero. Why would somebody fall in love with guys this cruel? I don't understand what goes through her mind when she's creating these men. The things they say are just mean. I can overlook some of it sometimes because of their past and yada yada yada, but seriously. No one with a painful past acts as brutal as these guys do.

This book could be a thriller... but it repeat itself once and again.

The love story could be great... but is really a love story in the plot?

The travel from one time to another could be more interesting... but
everybody knew beforehand how was the future or the past.

IF YOU REALLY WANT TO READ AN EXCELLENT TIME TRAVELER'S LOVE STORY READ "UNTIL FOREVER" by Johanna Lindsey AND WE GLADLY CAN COMPARE BOTH BOOKS.

wasn't in this book. Although, it would have been pretty funny and made me bump the grade of this book up to a "B". This book is better than most books I've read lately. I'm a sucker for the Highlander who time travels crap. This is a verra gud buhk, but naht ah grrrreaht one. The first time they think about doing the nasty is in a dream sequence. The skin-on-skin action doesn't happen until page 257. By the way, the book ends on page 370.

This book is a little disappointing, but it wasn't the worst one I've read.

Stick with Karen Marie Moning for excellent Highlander time travel books.

I enjoyed this book ..... but ..... i did struggle a little with the flow of the story and it may have been because i had to continually put it down so i suggest yes do read this book but try to read it without too many breaks. there was a lot going on without really getting there with me i felt a bit disconnected .... but still worth 4 stars