Customer Reviews

All I Ever Needed (Zebra Historical Romance)

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

 

 

After reading North and South's story, I was looking forward to East and Sophie's story because it had been hinted at in both of North and South's books. I have enjoyed all of Ms Goodman's earlier series, Dennehy Sisters, Thorne Brothers, but this one took me a long time to get interested in it. I thought the first 150 pages was too boring. The story picks up when North goes to visit Sophie at Tremont Hall. From there, the action and the romance takes off. I will definetly buy West's story when it comes out. I can't wait to read what woman catches his eye. The earlier books both had strong female characters, which I enjoy. All of Jo's books have good, strong, female heroines.

I agreed with the other reviewer that the first part of this book really dragged. If I had not felt so invested in the Compass Club reading both North and South's stories I may have been tempted to set it aside. But I LOVED the first two books and really liked East and wanted to read about his love. I am not sure why the first part dragged - I think the main reason is that Sophie held so much back - if I had really sensed early on that she was totally infatuaed with East from a previous meeting and she feared for his life if they got involved maybe I would have felt more ingaged in their story from the beginning. However the story only got better and finally at Tremont Hall it really begins to catch your heart and the last half of the book might even deserve 5 stars. It is odd in the end you get an even better feeling of contentment from East and Sophie than North and South and their loves. I am looking forward to West's story and I agree that a reunion book about the group would be the best way to engage them all in each others lives since all their tales are written simultaneously. Again it does help to read North first followed by South, East and lastly West!

I will give this book a three and a half stars. The first half of the book was pretty boring. From what I had read of the cover, I thought it would be exciting right from the first, but not so. It takes quite a while for the story to warm up, but once it does, its good going. I liked East's character, and Sophia's too once I found the reasons for her behavior. But I wished Jo Goodman had cut down on some of the prose in the beginning, it was very tedious and hard to read. I skipped a lot of the descriptions and concentrated mainly on the dialogue. That was the only way I good get to the latter part of the book, otherwise it would have been a snooze-fest. This is my first of the compass club series, so I can't compare it to the first two. However, it gives enough hint about the other two stories, so I am not of a mind to read them. But I believe I will read West's story though.