Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Really 4 1/2 stars -- Entertaining Match-up Between a Charming Rake and a Starchy Spinster, February 12, 2006
In "The Devil's Waltz", Anne Stuart travels some familiar ground in the historical romance arena with the taming of a charming rakish hero by a virginal spinster heroine, but the story is so well-told and the characters so well-drawn that the end result does not feel like a romance cliche.
Anne Stuart specializes in darker, morally ambiguous heroes, and when she writes a story featuring a "rake" hero, then he is sure to be the real thing. Christian Montcalm is a charming, lethally handsome aristocrat of loose morals and little fortune who has decided that he must marry an heiress to improve his finances. The heiress that he has picked is the lovely, very young Miss Hetty Chipple, the only daughter of a very wealthy shipping magnate. He meets an obstacle to his plans in the form of her unpaid companion/chaperon, the Honorable Miss Annelise Kempton. Annelise is plain, bespectacled, too tall and nearing her 30th birthday, but her acerbic wit and no-nonsense demeanor pique Christian's interest and he finds himself fantasizing about Anneline while courting the her pretty, frivolous charge. Annelise is aware of Christian's scandalous reputation and determined to prevent his marriage to the impressionable Hetty. When she engages Hetty's heavy-handed father's aid in discouraging Christian's interest, the situation takes a violent turn.
Christian is an engaging hero, by turns brutally honest about his mercenary interest in Hetty and a bald-face liar when he pledges to not touch Annelise when she is left alone with him (through his own machinations.) He is given the requisite background of a tragic past including a brutal upbringing, but this is not over-used to excuse his wickedness and selfish behavior. He is a truly charming man who simultaneously can send precisely the right type of flowers to the ingenue that he is courting and her spinster companion and effortlessly please them both. Although Christian cold-heartedly plots to marry Hetty for her money and seduce her companion, he is not as mean-spirited as some of Anne Stuart's past heroes and the book is rather lighter in tone.
Annelise is a starchy spinster heroine who really has some starch in her character. Left destitute by her reckless gambler of a father and too high-born to accept money for her services, she lives with others nominally as a "guest" but actually as an unpaid companion. Her role with Hetty is to act as a chaperon and advisor on matters of taste and manners (a challenging task.) She has trained herself to be calm and unflappable, but in truth her inner snob rebels against the atrocious taste of her nouveau riche "hosts" and she is a secret romantic. When the gorgeous Christian begins his flirtations with her, she is irresistibly attracted to him despite herself and the battle between her romantic inclinations and her own good sense begins.
The plot moves along well and the dialogue is sharp and well-written. The villain is far too over-the-top villainous (something that seems to be a common problem with recent historical romances) and his motivation is at times unfathomable.
In summary, "The Devil's Waltz" is an entertaining, well-written historical romance with a gorgeous, charming ne'er-do-well hero and a sensible, ugly duckling heroine (who refreshingly never transforms into a swan for anyone except the hero.)
Highly recommended for lovers of historical romance--particularly for Anne Stuart fans.
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15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Resident Genius of Bad Boys dazzles yet again, June 3, 2006
Stuart gives you a double-dose of true historical romance. She takes the old formula of the beautiful, arrogant rake who falls for the dowdy spinster heroine. With typical Stuart Magic that has kept me spellbound since my first Stuart book, To Love a Dark Lord, she takes the old and makes it new, yet once more.
I love Stuart. She is the Resident Genius of Bad Boys. She makes no apologies for their dark, dangerous and often deadly nature. She knows men too well to try to do that. Her males are selfish, callused and often makes you wonder why anyone would put up with, much less fall for him. Something lasses raised on the kinder-gentler Historicals of today fail to understand - sexual attraction is the forbidden, the male that mama warns you against.
Another of Stuart's sexy studs, Christian Montcalm is lethally sensual rake of the ton. He embraces his lack of morals, courts them, only he faces ruin unless he marries a rich heiress. Enters the perfect target, Miss Hetty Chipple. She is the lovely daughter of a got-rocks shipping magnate. Everything seems perfect to him. He is gorgeous and dear Hetty wants the prettiest pony daddy's money can buy. Should be a match made in ton heaven...right? Well, we all know there's going to be problems. This time it's Miss Annelise Kempton. She is the less-than-perfect spinster hired to chaperon Hetty and she feels a fortune-hunting pretty boy isn't what Hetty needs.
Firmly on the shelf, Annelise is not pretty, too tall and had no money. Even so, our sexy lad still cannot help but be drawn by her intelligence, even though he wants to strangle her for interfering with his plans.
I adore men, love their true nature, and Stuart always taps into that. Christian is another of her gamma rogue males you want to slap, then kiss. Naturally, Stuart paints with dark strokes his inner nature, though maybe with a slight more mellowness as some of her other dark and daring dudes.
Stuart reminds us of the roots of historical romance, and shows she can still turn the deft party trick, and do it again in style.
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14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Best Waltz, May 17, 2006
I have to say this is one of the best romance historicals I have ever read. It reminds me of another Stuart book "To Love A Dark Lord" I love bad boys and only Stuart knows how to write about them and redeem them. I loved the way the hero called the heroine "dragon". Anne Stuart sucked me in from the very beginning and I couldn't stop reading until 3 A.M. Her characterization of the main characters is so real, I felt I knew them personally and I could see them in my mind's eye. This book is definitely going on my keeper shelf because I plan to read it again and again. I can only hope I don't have to wait a long time to read another historical by her.
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