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The Elusive Flame [Mass Market Paperback]

Kathleen E. Woodiwiss (Author)
3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (111 customer reviews)


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Book Description

October 1998
Cerynise Kendall has been left destitute and in dire need following the death of her doting patron and protectress. A brilliant young artist tossed from her home with only the clothes on her back, Cerynise must now turn to a childhood companion for assistance--the dashing sea captain Beauregard Birmingham--and beg him to provide her with passage to the Carolinas. She seeks a new home and a new life across the waters, but all depends upon the kindness of a charming adventurer who was once the object of her youthful infatuation. Beneath Birmingham's rugged exterior beats a heart as large and wild as the Atlantic, and Beau readily agrees to aid Cerynise--even offering her his name in marriage, albeit temporarily, to protect his longtime friend from scandal. But perilous secrets, determined enemies and tempests of the sea and soul threaten their future and safe passage--even as bonds of camaraderie are miraculously reforged as bonds of desire...and affection becomes passion and love.

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Cerynise Kendall's beloved elderly sponsor dies unexpectedly, leaving Cerynise to deal with the woman's heir, Alistair Winthrop. As much as she dislikes Alistair--a difficult man to say the least--even Cerynise hadn't expected him to evict her from her home, which he does without a second thought. Cerynise makes her way to the London docks and finds that fortune has smiled upon her, for a ship captained by a childhood friend, Beau Birmingham, is in port. Beau remembers Cerynise very well and is determined to return her to her uncle's home in the Carolinas. But when Alistair appears and demands that Cerynise be turned over to him as his ward, Beau swiftly arranges a wedding and the two enter into an agreed marriage of convenience. Beau is well aware that he's committed himself to several months of torture, for he wants the lovely Cerynise with a driving passion that threatens to consume him. For Cerynise, the pretend marriage is both heaven and hell. Though she desperately loves Beau, she's sure that his love of the sea leaves no room for a real marriage. Upon reaching Charleston, both Beau and Cerynise believe that they've left trouble far behind, but Alistair is not yet finished with this unsuspecting young woman who stands between him and a fortune. Simmering with passion, The Elusive Flame is classic Woodiwiss. --Lois Faye Dyer

From Publishers Weekly

Romance novelist Woodiwiss's sequel to her perennial bestseller The Flame and the Flower (1972) continues the story of Heather and Brandon Birmingham's son, Beauregard. Set in 1825 England and the Carolinas, it's a bit more politically correct than the earlier book. Notorious for beginning her stories with the rape of the heroine by the hero, Woodiwiss nods to current sensibilities by having the heroine almost raped by the hero, but here Beau is excused because he's feverish and delirious, and also because plucky Cerynise Edlyn Kendall doesn't seem to mind the experience. Beau's a dashing sea captain (as was his sire, Brandon), and Cerynise is an orphan thrown out on the mean London streets by the villain who usurped her guardian's wealth. (Readers will remember that Beau's mother, Heather, was also an orphan thrown out on the London streets.) In standard Woodiwiss form, the hero and heroine, though burning with lust for each other, are separated by willfulness and misunderstanding. Cerynise's pregnancy brings hot hunk Beau to heel, and they wed?an almost mirror image of Brandon and Heather's relationship. A vicious pair of London villains and an equally vicious trio of villains in Charleston add a new twist to the story and allow Woodiwiss to invent a melodramatic climax in a storm-buffeted house. The prose is stilted, the plot hackneyed and both dialogue and settings pay little attention to historical accuracy.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

  • Mass Market Paperback: 428 pages
  • Publisher: Avon Books (P); First Edition edition (October 1998)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0380766558
  • ISBN-13: 978-0380766550
  • Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.3 x 1.3 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
  • Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (111 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,900,047 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

With more than thirty-six million copies of her bestselling novels already in print, Kathleen E. Woodiwiess remains one of America's most successful and beloved storytellers. She is the author of twelve enormously successful masterworks of romantic fiction, including The Flame and the Flower, Shanna, Ashes in the Wind, Petals on the River, and The Elusive Flame.

 

Customer Reviews

111 Reviews
5 star:
 (42)
4 star:
 (22)
3 star:
 (16)
2 star:
 (16)
1 star:
 (15)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
3.5 out of 5 stars (111 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars My favorite author!, December 9, 2001
I really love Kathleen's books. I first read "The Flame and the Flower" twenty years ago and I have reread it so many times that I've had to buy four books! I've read all of her books and loved everyone of them. This book was great. I was so happy to find out what had happened to Brandon and Heather. The only thing I didn't like was that this book came out before "A Season Beyond a Kiss" which is Jeff's(Brandon's brother) story. The love scenes in this book are as hot and sensual as all of her other books. Beau is a wonderful hero just like his father. And Cerynise is just strong enough to handle him yet appear shy and fragile at the same time. Buy this book and reread it again and again.
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15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars Wished story-line was different, July 9, 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: The Elusive Flame (Hardcover)
The Flame & the Flower is my favorite romance novel of all time, having read it at least 15 times, and I always hoped the author would write a sequel about this fascinating family. Twenty-five years later I got my wish with The Elusive Flame. I didn't care that it focused on Beau as an adult. I knew that Woodiwiss, with her great writing style, would do something with this character and create a great storyline. But, disappointingly, something fell short. After reading it through, all I could think of was that I wished she had done things differently. The beginning of the book starts out good, with the usual evil relative leaving Cerynise destitute. You have to feel sympathy for the heroine, and you do with her, but I just couldn't believe that she always loved Beau, and I couldn't believe that Beau would be so quick to marry her just to help her in a bind and then fall just as quickly in love with her. Perhaps if the author had written a prologue of when Cerynise and Beau were younger, writing in more detail about the times when she teased him in class, when he rescued her from bullies and others that picked on her, and the moments when she would ride with him on his horse, then we could believe that these two people were meant for each other. Once they admit their true feelings to each other, the story goes flat. How many times can you read about their tremendous devotion and their acts of lovemaking that reach incredible heights without getting bored? The best thing about a romance novel is the tension, the separation and the range of feelings leading up to the realization of love, and Woodiwiss gets them together too fast, leaving the reader nowhere to go. I wish that Beau had another woman in his life. If he's so kind and charming as the writer says, surely there must have been a woman with whom he was intimate other than harlots. Why is it that these good-looking men are only intimate with harlots? If there was another woman waiting for him in Charleston, it would've created that tension and confusion for Beau and Cerynise and the other woman. I have to admit that when I finished it, I read it again, only because I enjoyed reading about Heather and Brandon, and somehow I kept hoping that I would read things differently the second time around. Woodiwiss missed the mark on this one, but I still love her work.... And I look forward to the next Birmingham book called "A Season Beyond A Kiss." Does anyone have any info on what this book's about? P.S. I'm glad to see that others were just as confused as me about his EYE color, because she mentions in the book that his eyes are emerald in one sentence and sapphire in another. And we all know that Beau had Brandon's eyes!
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars Kathleen has lost what lured me to historical romances..., February 14, 1999
This review is from: The Elusive Flame (Mass Market Paperback)
Kathleen Woodiwiss wrote the first historical romance I ever read. I read "Shanna" when I was 15, and it was the standard by which I judged further novels I read. 18 years later I can still remember the names of all of the 'bit players' in that book, because Ms. Woodiwiss used to spend time developing her minor characters. I have found her work since "Come Love A Stranger" to be shallow and unworthy of the steep price commanded by a new Woodiwiss novel.

I have heard that six or eight years ago Ms. Woodiwiss became a born-again Christian and turned away from sensuality in her novels. All deference to her religious conviction aside, it seems that she has also turned from character development, ingenuity, and plausibility.

I still have my dog-eared copies of "The Flame and the Flower", "The Wolf and the Dove", "Shanna", "A Rose in Winter", and "Ashes in the Wind", but I'll not be reading any more new Woodiwiss novels.

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Inside This Book (learn more)
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First Sentence:
CERYNISE EDLYN KENDALL stood at the lofty windows of the front parlor and, through a wealth of tears, gloomily observed the people scurrying along the lane traversing Berkeley Square. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Beau Birmingham, Miss Kendall, Stephen Oaks, Howard Rudd, Alistair Winthrop, Captain Sullivan, Billy Todd, Captain Birmingham, Madame Feroux, Germaine Hollingsworth, Sterling Kendall, Cerynise Kendall, Monsieur Philippe, Uncle Jeff, Beauregard Birmingham, Miss Cerynise, Aunt Lydia, Frank Lester, Professor Kendall, Mama Heather, Mistah Beau, Brandon Birmingham, Lydia Winthrop, Michael York, Miz Cerynise
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