Customer Reviews

A Fine Passion (Bastion Club)

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Notice I said Liking it, not Loving it, hence the four stars instead of five. But don't let that deter you. It was still a good book. I really did start out almost detesting this book. I almost threw it down in disgust during the first several chapters, but ordered myself to persevere. I was very glad I did. About half-way through the book, I realized that somewhere along the way, unbeknownst to myself, I had started to like it. I laughed then, too, thinking that the author was pretty sneaky. Laurens made me almost hate both the hero and heroine at first, she being too much the uppity ice queen for my tastes, and he being seemingly much too interested in just sex. Then, somewhere along the way, they changed for the better.

By she and he I mean the heroine and hero. Clarice Altwood comes fom a very powerful family of the Ton. Despite this influence, she is disgraced by a past misdemeanor in which she refuses the marriage request of a certain unscrupulous man. Cast out , she believes, by her whole family, she retires from tonnish life to the country to live with her older cousin, James, who happens to be the only other black sheep in the family. She meets the hero, Jack , Baron Warnefleet, through distressing circumstances when he helps her rescue a familiar man from a phaeton accident on the side of the road. Though she treats Jack with icy disdain, he is instantly intrigued by her calm composure and confidence (her obvious charms don't hurt her here either) and is determined to find out more about her, and yes, to have her. It just so happens that he knows her cousin James very well, which is fortunate when James comes under suspicions of treason by a fellow collegue in the Bishop's palace. Together, Clarice and Jack set out to prove James's innocence, and in the process, discover enough about one another to build a relationship upon. It's a relationship that builds nicely, if somewhat frustratingly at times, throughout the book.

At first, I believed Clarice and Jack both to be too underdeveloped, too pigheaded and selfish most of the time to be likeable. As the story goes on though, you begin to see good reasoning behind Clarice's behavior. She has an unhappy experience with another man and is rightfully cautious of any in his social class, like Jack. Too, I felt Jack just wanted the typical one thing that a lot of romance heros only seem to want. You know what I mean. But then, at that half-way point I mentioned, I had to hand it to Stephanie Laurens; she had hooked me. I found myself "looking" back and forth at Clarice and Jack, seeing who would throw the next good verbal punch. These two went at eachother like they couldn't stand eachother at first, but eventually developed into a pair that had genuine feelings for eachother.

My two real and only gripes are about the actual scenes where you have Clarice thinking about Jack or vice versa or scenes where they are interacting, just the two of them. I hate to say that most of these scenes were terribly overwritten. There were just too many descriptive words used to describe what was only one real emotion in many cases. Where one to two good sentences would have sufficed, Laurens used whole paragrpahs sometimes. I felt like I'd never get to a point in the book where I wasn't constantly frustrated with Clarice and Jack. Thankfully though, once the secondary characters figure more into the story, it began to pick up nicely. The only other thing I didn't like was the nickname that Jack had for Clarice. Yes, I know, it's pretty picky, but I just couldn't help it. Nine times out of ten, instead of referring to her in his thoughts as Clarice, he calls her by this ridiculous nickname. It may seem unreasonable to some because he did have a reason for it, but I couldn't stand it whenever I came across it.

All in all, a pretty satisfying read in Laurens's latest series, the Bastion Club. If you haven't read the others in the series, I highly recommend you give them a try. While they didn't satisy all my wants for a great book, they were still good reads and worth the time.

At first I did not think the men of the Bastion Club would equal the Cynsters with passion and depth - but Jack certainly did. What a strong, powerful man he appeared to be. And certainly no ton debutant would ever corner him into marriage. I loved the tale of how he avoided the mother and daughter early on and escaped to his country estate. So he comes head on into facing off with a powerful woman Clarice - equal to himself. One might think this was too much for most men to handle. However, it takes a special kind of man to recognize strength in a woman as a good and positive thing and Jack is just that kind of man. At first she think he is one of the arrogant worthless men of the aristocracy that she wanted to escape from - boy is she wrong. Jack has been working for his country for 13 years in a highly worthy capacity and has estates all over. He not only is a worthy advisary he is the only man she finds herself remotely attracted to in years. This is a very intriguing tale - it reminds me of a long chess match with moves and counter moves taken by Jack and Clarice. Needless to say, their passion for one another jumps right off the page - you will need to sit in a cool room just to read their endless bedroom scenes. Another thing I liked about this couple is they did not pretend to play the courting game. When in London they bolding broke from tradition and Clarice stays at a hotel where discretion is key and Jack is able to slip in and out to keep their passion alive. In fact when the ton would expect a marriage proposal to come after they are seen in a passionate kiss at a ballroom garden - they both discuss it and decline to marry for the ton. Even though a few days later they are again discussing marriage because of their love for one another. Of course there is the usual intrigue of finding a traitor that comes with the Bastion Club books. It is a good solid backdrop for the love story. By fighting to clear Clarice's uncle together and for fighting to help Clarice's brothers with their lady loves - Jack and Clarice are truly a matched pair in all endevors. This is a complete book - with a great story - and most of all the passion that one comes to expect and love in a Laurens book!

The book has some light, heartwarming moments, 10+ page bedroom scenes, adventure, suspence, and plenty of romance. For those who follow "Bastion Club" characters, there is a brief appearance of few of them in the book, or at least a mention of them.

The book gets a slow start when Ms. Laurens gets into too much details of how the main characters feel. At times, it was like watching people in slow motion, because every move, every line of dialog was followed by three-four statements to describe the emotion behind it. Either I got used to it, or the "sidesteps" got shorter after a while, but the book got all much better after initial 100 pages. I am already looking forward to the next "Bastion Club".

I've had mixed luck with Stephanie Laurens: the first book I read of hers I disliked but then someone lent me _The Lady Chosen_, which I enjoyed. This book, _A Fine Passion_, seemed to be ok for a while but then went drastically downhill. Unlike some other reviewers, I actually like strong female characters but like some other reviewers, I could have lived with about half the number of sex scenes in this book, title or no. and the explanation that the heroine had read racy books and wanted to try out what she'd read was so out of period as to be laughable.

However, what really annoyed me about this book were gaping plot holes (WARNING: Spoilers):

* The heroine's stepmother is established as a harpy who could be an obstacle to the heroine's returning to the ton after a long-ago scandal and to the heroine's brothers finding wives because the stepmother has some blackmail over them. They find sneaky ways around her maneuvering, and then near the end of the book, you find out that the heroine knew something really scandalous about the stepmother that she could have used as leverage right away but was holding in reserve in case her stepmother didn't relent after all. This explanation made no sense at all: if you're dealing with a blackmailing bitch and you have blackmail in return, why wouldn't you use it right away?

* The heroine is carried away by scroungy men (possibly hired by her stepmother) at a masked ball and the hero rescues her but the abductors get away. While he's comforting her, other attendees at the ball arrive to see them in a passionate embrace. Later, there's a long scene where the hero tells her that despite assurances by the matrons at the ball that they can nip any scandal in the bud, there will still be scandal and she has to marry him. She refuses and the next night they attend a ball where she's accepted by everyone and no one even mentions the occurrence.

Sloppiness like this really breaks the unwritten contract between authors and their readers. If you set up a nasty character whom other characters have to outwit, pulling an ace out of your sleeve at the end is unfair. Similarly, setting up a situation that supposedly can only have one outcome and then ignoring it when the plot doesn't need it any more yanks the reader right out of believing your situations. I finished this book in a very annoyed frame of mind.

I enjoyed the main characters, Jack and Clarice, of this story. She is a woman raised to be a prominent member of society, and has inherited the forceful personality of her father. That personality is at odds with the society of which she is part, and results in her banishment. She is a woman who holds no regrets, is decisive, and a natural leader during a time period that is not favorable to women, their education, and especially their outspokeness.
Jack is a man who has spent years spying, trying to blend in, trained to "read" people, and look for their hidden motives. He enters society and finds that being back home does not mean these people are better than those he was spying on. His attraction for Clarice is a first physical, but develops because he sees in her honesty (to the point of bluntness), integrity, and intelligence. And he appreciates those qualities in her. Does she have a forceful personality? Yes, but he is not threatened by it, and ultimately comes to deal wtih it, value it, and all without changing her.
I truly enjoyed reading about Jack and Clarice learning to get to know one another, meshing their personalities in compromise, and come to realize their feelings for one another.
The author focused most of the book developing the main characters, rather than the minor plots that initially brought the two characters together. She was at times too wordy, and she has a habit of writing two to three word sentences in a string in an effort to add emphasis to her point..instead this becomes annoying and distracting, and loses its use as a literary device. But, I liked this book much better than the previous Bastion Club book, A Lady of His Own.

Oh this book was wonderful! My favorite so far. I particularly liked the hero - a gentleman of tremendous wisdom and integrity who has given up finding a suitable bride and gladly retires to his beloved home in the country. There he encounters a "warrior-queen" who ends up being the perfect match for him. He decides to win her by treating her as an equal and lending her unfailing support, even though that means curbing his natural dominance. What unfolds is a wonderful love story between two independent and mature people - two people who refuse to be manipulated by society's rules.

It was so good I read it twice.

The last few Cynster books have failed to grab me, so I was a bit wary, but I'm so glad I bought this book. I couldn't put it down (read the whole thing in a single afternoon!). Amazing chemistry between the hero and heroine, and I just adored the heroine. She was strong and real without being shrill or TSTL (as so many of them are). Loved her. Loved her. Loved her. If more romances were as good as this one, I'd get to post a lot more reviews.

I really enjoy the story lines of Lauren's books. However, the only drawback for me is the pages after pages of descriptive sexual episodes. Don't mind the terminology, just the length of it. I believe that the usual sexual trist uses up 8 to 10 pages. Boring.

I am having a very hard time finishing this book, I find the book to wordy
most of Stephanie's Books are tooooo long, and wordy, maybe a little less
details, discribing the emotions and thoughts would make a better read

This novel is a part of Stephanie Laurens' Bastion Club series. I have not been able to read the other titles, but this one is a stellar read - well worth the time, effort, and expense.

Jack Warnefleet - Baron Warnefleet - is a semi-retired military spy. He is returning home to Avening Manor after an extended absence of seven years - thirteen total. He had decided to be married, and was seeking a wife in Town. He was hunted by the matrons and their daughters until he decided to never marry and exercise succession upon a distant relative.

Clarice Altwood - Lady Clarice - is twenty-nine years old, and lives with her cousin, Sir James Altwood, in Avening proper. She was sent there after being banished by her father for refusing to marry a bad man just under seven years from the start of the story.

This is an incredible story of love and passion. Clarice is a strong, intelligent woman. Jack is such a strong and intelligent man that he glories in her strengths (after being a bit miffed at the same), and allows her to be who she is.

As originally noted, this book is well worth your time, effort, and money to read. It is on my to-be-kept list, and ever will be. I never tire of re-reading this story, and hope you enjoy it as much as I.