Customer Reviews

Rules of Engagement (Warner Forever)

5 star:		(30)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I bought this book mostly because of the quantity of good reviews I read here (you'd think I'd have learned by now) and elsewhere. Let's just say I was greatly disappointed.

Eliza Merriweather is a Regency English artist whose only dream is to go to Italy and study with the masters there. Hampered by the fact that she was born into a fairly good family and has two younger sisters along with two matchmaking great-aunts who are her guardians, Eliza is forced to endure one Season before she can run off to follow her dream. Though they know of her plans, her aunts, armed with their father's military strategy guide, are convinced they can find husbands for both Eliza and her debutante sister Grace.

Magnus MacKinnon, the Earl of Somerton, younger son of a dissolute Scottish lord has just inherited the family title after the death of his equally dissolute elder brother. Magnus, having been in the military prior to becoming the earl, is unprepared to deal with the enormous financial burdens he inherited and, having made what looks to be a very poor investment with his remaining funds, is faced with marrying money or losing everything. He meets the decidedly penniless Eliza shortly after she's committed a huge faux pas during her presentation.

This book is yet another unoriginal attempt to cash in on the appeal of humorous Historical Regency romances. From the first few pages with the dotty, matchmaking aunts and the too precocious heroine I could see disaster looming. This could have been a great story, if told the right way. There could have been believable problems with better portrayals of the protagonists. "Rules of Engagement" just doesn't doesn't deliver on its possibilities.

Eliza is an artist. Or so it seems. Sure, she says she's an artist, and we see her painting, but I never really believe it. Judging by her attitude and outlook, painting seems more like a hobby to her. I've known some artists in my time and know that they come in all shapes, sizes, creeds, and personalities, but there's one thing that tends to unify them, no matter their style or medium, and that is that their art is not just a 9 to 5 job, it's who they are and deeply affects nearly every aspect of their lives. I don't see Eliza looking at the world from what are believably an artist's eyes; she seems just like every other ninny of a Regency debutante in the romance world. Her conflict over her wish to study in Italy would have been brilliant if it would have been something I could buy into, but it wasn't. On top of the fact that I'm not sold on her commitment to her art, she's also incredibly selfish. Her sister Grace is made to seem like a self-centered brat toward the end, but I really think that depiction should belong to Eliza. She does some things that truly could compromise both of her sister's future prospects and doesn't even have the intelligence to realize it--and when they're pointed out to her, she's slightly contrite, but then commits the same mistakes again. I found her almost wholly unlikable when she could have been such a wonderful heroine and that's a shame.

Magnus barely exists for me. He's Scottish, but other than his brogue-ridden speech and a couple of statements, I would never guess. Apparently he was in the military too, but other than a few pat references, you would never know it. I feel the same way about Magnus's military career that I do about Eliza's being an artist. Also, Magnus makes some really dumb and selfish decisions. He makes an investment that is, as other characters point out, a horrible decision. He pursues Eliza, knowing he most likely cannot marry her, which seems really inconsiderate to me; at the least some cogency could have been added to a character who is mostly an enigma if he'd had to spend some real time pining after what he couldn't have instead of knowing he couldn't have it and trying to take it anyway. This character just didn't work for me at all.

Filled with matchmaking schemes, "cute" elderly relatives, wallpaper motivations, unpleasant characters and too-trite-to-stomach moments "Rules of Engagement" gets a two star rating from me. Why do I even give it two stars? Well, I will say that there are glimpses of promise in this book that elevate it above a total disaster; I really believe with better execution, it could have been excellent. The prose is very good, and it is at times very readable, it's only when the author tries too hard to be funny or cute that it doesn't work for me. I'd even say that I'd give this author another try if someone I trusted said her next work was worth the bother--I can see that there is some real potential here. All in all, though, I'd not recommend this book to anyone. You've seen it before, and you've seen it done better.

I put this book on my library list because of all the wonderful reviews on amazon. After getting into the book a bit I was shocked at how much I disliked it. I returned to amazon write this review to see that a few people share my opinion - good because I didn't know how I was going to be the lone negative reviewer! At times this book is rediculas. I literally had to force myself to finish it. "How to Marry a Marquis" by Julia Quinn used a similar situation where a woman used a "rule book" to woo a man, but Quinn is such a fantastic author that it worked. Lisa Kleypas writes of lawless Lily and even though you cannot think that it would work in Regency England propriety-wise - the love story is too good to be ruined by such things. Not so much passion here!!

Firstly, this plot has been done just too many times in romance that it is rediculas for a debut author to be using it. Some more experienced authors have pulled it off because they add a lot to the characters or have a real ability to make the reader "feel" the romance-but Caskie cannot pull it off. Maybe with a little more experience she might be great. I have a few friends who think that romance is the same old story over and over again with cookie cutter characters. Unfortunately this book feeds right into that misconception

Secondly, it is very lop sided where propriety is concerned. They talk about inpropriety in certain aspects of things and totally neglect it in more logical areas. The heroine, Eliza, walks around handing our cards to young men that say "thank you for not calling" to keep them away. I didn't get the humor in it at all really. I am not one to judge a book about inpropriety when they do not bring it up so often. Magnus says that Eliza going to Italy to paint will ruin her sister's chances of marriage? Her behavior will ruin their reputation! And it's not funny at all to me. How can her Aunts let Magnus spend the night but not let hervisit him unescorted? And Eliza sneezed on a member of the royal family? I don't think this is funny and it is too rediculas to imagine. It starts rediculas and it doesn't get better!

Thirdly, how many people is Eliza going to let push her around? Her aunts are totally unbelievable (locking the couple in a room together?!?!) and they just meddle in her life the entire book. SUpposedly they "mean well" but locking ELiza in a room with Magnus for the night is not romantic in the slightest. As if her unfortunate, and poorly written, "aunties" weren't enough Eliza's sister, Grace gets involved!

Lastly, unless there is a great GREAT, timeless romance (like, in my opinion, in "Whitney my Love" by McNaught)this back and forth relationship doesn't work! They like each other - but they won't admit it - and there is no passion. 200 pages into the book they are still just arguing along - which makes sense since they are so one dimensional characters - but the book is quite wordy without really saying anything. I didn't feel any relationship budding so if there is no anticipation I don't cannot sit around and read words for tons of pages waiting.

I just want people to know that I have never, ever written a review like this before. You can see my other reviews - in fact I was starting to think that I liked everything I read! :) As for a debut author this book lacks, in my opinion, any real unique qualities. She might be a great author - but this book isn't worth your time. But, just as I believe Julia Quinn's Splendid isn't one of her best works, I would love to see how this author turns out. A little experience goes a long way. If her next book on amazon does well I might be tempted to try again. I wanted to like the book and I am glad others do!

If you like a story that makes you laugh, then this is the book for you. We have 16 women in our book group ranging in ages from 19 to 73 and we all just loved it. We put it on our list for best romance of the year. The bookstore where we meet posts our recommendations each month and other readers use our list when choosing books.

This book is a lot like Julia Quinn's books and just as funny. Sometimes more! The hero is a sexy Scotsman named Magnus, who has a great sense of humor and knows what he wants in a woman. That woman is Eliza. She's a very intelligent and clever artist who has her heart set on going to Italy to train as an apprentice with master artists. Marriage is not in her plans but it is the number one goal of her two old aunts, Viola and Letitia, who decide they need to get serious about marrying Eliza off. They turn to their father's old book Rules of Engagement. But the book isn't about getting engaged to be married like the aunts believe, it's full of military strategies. Eliza soon realizes her aunts mistake, but doesn't want to hurt their feelings since they are so thrilled with their matchmaking plans. So she uses a strategy of her own and asked an earl new to London to pose as her suitor so her aunts will stop using military strategies on her from the war manual. In exchange she will help him find a bride with a large dowry, which he needs to save his home Somerton Hall. I don't want to give it all away, since there are a lot of very funny parts and twists. One part that made a few of us cry too.

We recommend this book to anyone who wants a moving romance plus a lot of laughs. Most of us read the book in two nights and not just because we were meeting on Thursday! Book groups will especially love this story because there are a lot of layers and emotions that are dealt with in the book. Eliza has a deep love for her family and has to choose between what is best for them and what her heart tells her is right. Also between her art and the love of her life. Her sister Grace wants to marry more than anything in the world and Eliza's deal with Magnus might hurt her chances to marry into a good family. The two aunts are my favorites. They are always up to something. The people in the book were so real that I even dreamed about the two aunts and Magnus!

Rules of Engagement is a wonderful romance that all 16 of us recommend to readers and book groups.

Caskie has an engaging, sparkling voice that can keep a reader reading over the most cliched, mundane, flat characters and plot. But that's about it. As other reviewers have stated, this plot is overdone and has been done by much more talented authors. As a debut book, it's simple enough to attract the interest of readers who like this sort of plot, but for a debut author, the amount of patience it took for me to read this book was monstrously disappointing and tedious. I am a bit sorry to say that I am relieved that I didn't pay full price for this book. The premise of two aunt's thrusting their charges out onto the ton with a book they mistake for a rule book on getting engaged was humorous for at least the first two chapters. After that, it began to grow flat. Eliza and Magnus were on the brink of becoming cliched card-board cut-outs; only Eliza's semi-valid reason for not wanting to wed saved them. The sexual tension between the two was cringe inducing and written very heavy handedly for such light-hearted and "asexual" protagonists(The main problem I have with humorous/light historicals: the focus on the humor is so much, the sensualness comes across as odd). After the first few chapters, the "conflict" between Magnus and Eliza began to pall and quickly became irritating considering the fact that the conflict between them wasn't as pressing nor as anxiety inducing as the characters saw it as. Place on top of that, Magnus' irritating brogue--I was under the assumption that educated Scottish noblepeople were normally educated in England, or at least with English tutors/governesses, therefore eliminating their Scottish accents--and the constant intrusion of Eliza's pushy aunts, her sister and the man who couldn't make up his mind(or the author couldn't make up her mind) over whether he wanted Eliza or Grace, and you have the passable, sometimes boring Rules of Engagement. I would try another Caskie because I would like to see her improve with each successive book, but if I had to choose between an author who has yet to prove themself to write wonderful reads and an auto-buy author, I'd choose the proven and tried author.

I bought this book because of the reviews it got, but man. I almost had to break my own arm to finish reading it. See, here's the thing. There are some really good moments with the plot. Some of it was engaging and humerous. Thats it. I did not like the characters, their personalities, what little of their lives you see beyond the story. They were not alive enough. Grace grated a nerve, Magnus or whatever was a jerk half the time and Eliza was a ninny. I finished it so that I could see if it got any better at all, but although it was a very promising story, it flatlined in my book. I would not recommend this book to anyone. If curiosity wins out, got to the library. Dont waste money.

I must be the only person in the world who didn't like this book. I eagerly read new authors, especially those who have won RWA's Golden Heart. I was happy to pick this on off the shelves; I love historicals.

But, sorry, I didn't like it. I don't think I laughed at all. I love Julia Quinn and laugh at her books. But not this one. It didn't speak to me.

The plot of the aunts was different, but the love story was typical. She wanted him, but couldn't marry him. He wanted her but couldn't marry her. blah... There was absolutely no internal reason that Magnus could not marry Eliza. He needed to marry a heiress, but that's an external reason. The last half of the book was Magnus' pursuit of Eliza. It got tedious.

All the reviews for this were so enthusiastic I thought i'd give it a shot. But I just don't get it. I'm confused: Did I actually read the same book that all of the other reviewers read? I just couldn't finish Rules of Engagement. I didn't really care about any of the characters, and the humor seemed very forced. It wasn't true wit, it was more of the "falling-down" variety -- very slapstick. The dialogue was kind of wooden. I've seen comparisons to Julia Quinn, and they don't apply at all. JQ writes characters with heart, and the humor stems from the characters themselves. I did read the excerpt in the back of this book of Caskie's next book, and it looks promising. I feel a little duped by these reviews, but I might check out Caskie's next book. But i'll stand in the store and read quite a few pages before i buy it, that's for sure.

I rarely laugh so much with a romance novel. The book reads like a Summer comedy with an over-the-top cast of characters.

Eliza and Grace's meddling old maid aunts, Letitia and Viola, have poor eyesight, and are therefore convinced that one of their late father's last book purchases, "Rules of Engagement" was meant to help them find husbands. While the single life agreed with them, they're now ready to help their grandnieces find and capture their perfect matches, a difficult task as neither Eliza nor Grace has a dowry. Unable to read the finer print, they easily reinterpret the militaristic intent of each chapter's heading.

Beginning with the first rule, "Those whose ranks are united in purpose will be victorious" they lay out an at times absurd yet cunning trap to wed the reluctant Eliza to the equally reluctant Lord Magnus, a fortune-hunter determined to find a wealthy bride to save his family's legacy.

The romance was drawn out yet believable. The dialog was witty and flowed well with the story, and the scenes the author portrays were so vividly detailed that I still believe they must have truly happened in some alternate universe. Even 8 months after I first read this book, the details remain remarkably fresh in my mind.

Kathryn Caskie's debut novel teaches us that some things are worth fighting for, and reminds us that "all's fair..." Receiving two nods for the 2005 RITA award, and winner of the RWA's prestigious Golden Heart Award in 2002, this book makes an excellent addition to any romance-lover's collection.

I read this book mostly because it got good ratings. What a disappointment! The plot was so silly. The dialogue was poor. I didn't find anything witty about it. I was surprised to find several of my favorite author's names linked to the book. It may have been a debut, but I would have called it a dud and not delightful.

I bought this book on the strength of the positive reviews here, so feel I need to present another view. I had trouble even making myself finish it. The author has potential, but she completely neglected the job of character development. Eliza and Magnus are stock characters, with no attention paid at all to developing them into people we could care about. The plot is hackneyed, but I rarely find that matters to me, as long as the characters are well developed, and they aren't here.

Rather than describe the characters fully and make us understand their backgrounds and motivations, the author quickly sketches them (spunky, feminist heroine and masterful ex-military man) and we are expected to just accept those characterizations. For example, Eliza is presented as an extremely talented artist, but there is no development of this idea, except that Magnus, an ex-soldier with no mentioned art expertise, says she is. Magnus' seduction of Eliza comes across as an entirely selfish act; he wanted her, so he took her, with no apparent thought for the possible consequences to her, as a young virgin in the Regency period. This doesn't fit into his character at all. A more experienced author could have made the reader feel him being carried away and understand better how it could have happened.

I've read books with similar plots (Lisa Kleypas, Eloisa James, Stephanie Laurens, etc) that I thoroughly enjoyed because the characters were so well drawn that I understood why they acted as they did, but here I was all too aware of all the inconsistencies. The secondary characters (sister Grace in particular) were also very crudely drawn.

This is a respectable first effort, though I wish I hadn't spent my $6 on it and I can't recommend it when there are so many better books out there. I think the author would have been better served by a more demanding editor or by starting out writing series romances while working on her craft. I hope to see better from her in the future.