Customer Reviews

Enchanted

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Synopsis: "In Kissed by Magic, we have Donovan Knight, personal assistant extraordinaire, who seems to know hiw boss, Hotelier Rebel Sinclair, so well he just might be reading her mind.

"In Belonging to Taylor, we have a down-to-earth lawyer named Trevor King, who almost literally stumbles across Taylor Shannon, a very unusual lady with an even more unusual family.

"And even though Eye of the Beholder doesn't boast a psychic character, it has its own brand of magic in artist Tory Michaels and archaeologist Devon York."

"Enchanted" contains a reprint of three early works by Kay Hooper. Although these stories were written in the mid-80's, they surprisingly don't seem dated at all in the way that so many 80's romance novels feel now (with the slight exception of the "setup" in "Kissed").

All three stories are incredibly charming and witty, with fully realized characters, sweet romances, and enough "magic" to separate them from the crowded romance market. I also didn't notice awkward prose or a lack of fully-realized style that you would expect with earlier works. These are fine stories that stand well on their own, not just publishers rushing to take advantage of Hooper's popularity. In fact, if the publishers hadn't been extremely open about this volume containing reprints, I don't think I would have guessed.

Not only that, but all three stories are strong. When I get an anthology like this one, I always expect to like one better than the others, but in this case, the quality was maintained throughout the volume. My only disappointment was reading in another review that Hooper never wrote any books about the Knights or Lennoxes from "Kissed," or the incredibly charming Shannon family in "Belonging."

This volume is going on my keeper shelf -- the humor and charm of these stories make it one that will be easy to read over and over again!

I just wanted to make sure that all my fellow Kay Hooper fans know that this is a 3-in-1 omnibus re-issuing several stories originally written for the long-defunct "Second Chance at Love" series: "Kissed by Magic", SCAL #155, 11/1983; "Belonging to Taylor", SCAL #322, ?/1986 (N.B. These first two were already re-issued in 1992 as a *2*-in-1, because of their similarity of tone, and their touch of fantasy/paranormal, especially in "Belonging to Taylor"); and "Eye of the Beholder", SCAL #262, 5/1985.
I love almost everything Kay Hooper (a.k.a. Kay Robbins) has written, from quick and hilarious to thick and suspenseful, because her characters are always likable and sympathetic - 'though often Larger Than Life <wink>. I'd give this a 4.5 if I could, just reserving the 5 for when she has more pages to create truly fleshed-out stories.
Plus, this edition IS honest enough to make it clear right on the cover that this is NOT new stories; "See larger photo" shows it clearly. (If the publisher had hidden that fact, I'd've had to mark it down a couple points - Don't you just hate it when re-issuers try to trick us?!)
Anyway, SCALs are generally pretty HTF nowadays, so go ahead and get this attractive and handy volume. Enjoy!

This is a reissue of her earlier works, but these stories showcase her sense of humor. I have been reading her books for years and one of the best things about her writing has always been her sense of humor. Belonging to Taylor is one of my favorite stories althought the other two are also good. Belonging to Taylor, is the story of a man who meets a woman, crying on a park bench and then her family. He finds out very quickly that he belongs to taylor weither or not he's aware of it. The reader gets pulled into this crazy,zany world, but also finds themselves rooting for taylor to win the heart of her man. The only sad thing, is that as far as I know, no sequels were every written about this family, which was a shame in my opinion. If you haven't read these stories, and are a fan, by all means buy this book. Enjoy!

I received the book in a timely manner and in good condition. thank you.

These are 3 stories in one book and they are delightful....I especially liked the story about the psychic family and the man belonging to Taylor. Very easy reading - very descriptive - you can well imagine all the characters. Enjoy!

I gave this book a 3 because well there was only one story I enjoyed.Kissed by magic is the first story & the best story in my opinion. The others were just not that good to me. In belonging to Taylor it was just too unbelievable. A man sees a woman crying on a bench. They touch and she tells him I am the one you are going to marry. I just don't see it. In Eye of the beholder which I only read a few pages of because well the character Tory was just plain stupid. A man comes to her house and she lets him in. A complete stranger I don't think so. I'm glad I didn't actually buy this book because I would have been very disappointed. I do read romance books every now and then and I have read many better than this one.Nora Roberts, Maggie Shayne, Cassie Edwards to name a few.

I enjoyed reading this anthology very much. The characters were likeable and charming, and, no matter how unlikely the situations were, they were all fun stories. They only nitpick I had was the consistent overuse of several words throughout the book - words such as "grave" and "solemnly," and a couple of others were used way too often, in a few instances as many as five times in a single page, which I, particularly as a published writer, found a bit frustrating. Overall, though, all three stories were wonderful and I felt that the characters were well-developed and were people I would actually like if I met them on the street. The romantic moments were very well developed - it takes quite a bit of talent to develop not only your characters but also the characters' relationships with each other in a shorter space. It can be even more difficult to portray those situations smoothly, with one scene moving fluidly from one to the other, something that Ms. Hooper achieved in all of the stories contained in the anthology. She also did extremely well in building tension between the two characters, especially in the first and last stories.

This is a book of Kay Hoopers earlier work. It consits of 3 short romantic stories. Each is wonderful.

The First: Kissed by magic
How would you like a man to fall in love with you. By sight only. Give up a year of his life to work for you. With you really never seeing him. Then one day you see him in a different light. Thats what happened to between Rebel Sinclair and Donovan Knight.

The Second:Belonging to Taylor
Imagine walking through a park. Seeing a beautiful women crying. Walk up to her, to only have her touch your hand. And for her to say "I've been waiting for you my life." And that you will be married. You take her home, her entire family tells you belong to Taylor. The whole family is "psychic". It don't take long for you to fall in love. Then to top it all off she helps you find your brother, who is in the mountains, before a big snowstorm.

The Third:Eye of the beholder
Tory Michaels has just baught a house. She has just arrived the night before to find that the movers had not put her bed together. She can't find a thing. She's slept on the floor. She's not dressed from her shower, and she can't find her coffee. On top of that some strange man is at her front door asking her to marry him. She doesn't know who he is. And he just keeps jabbering away. She finally gets it out of him that his bothers girlfriend, now wife, use to live there. He makes himself useful. He helps her unpack, gets her a kitten. And keeps asking her to marry him. Check it out and see if she says yes or send him away.

I am a huge fan of this writer and I just loved this book. I thought it was fun and enchanting. Now, I ready for another book by Kay Hooper!