Most Helpful Customer Reviews
11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
not trying to be mean, just honest...., February 26, 2009
This review is from: The Fiorenza Forced Marriage (Harlequin Presents) (Mass Market Paperback)
I don't even know where to begin...I wonder if there is a specific recipe for these Harlequin Presents stories. Man and Woman are thrown together by cruel and unfortunate circumstances, man verbally abuses woman on a daily basis, woman STILL falls in love with him, woman can't for the life of her say NO to his advances, woman constantly cries and begs for his love....then FINALLY in the last few pages he realizes what a bastard he is and confesses his love and she immediately forgives and there are no repercussions or scars whatsoever. I would NEVER be able to walk away from an experience like that (love or not) without serious insecurities and trust issues with my spouse...It would take a long time for us to recover from the after effects of all the hurts.
No disrespect intended to this author. But OUCH!!! This was agonizing to read. The female in this story was spineless and pathetic. The male was such a jerk and barely realized his true feelings at the very end of the book. He sounded hot and sexy and someone any one of us red-blooded women would LOVE to get with. But a jerk nonetheless. She humiliated herself on a daily basis with her puppy dog looks at him and his constant belittling of her. She all but BEGGED him to love her. She couldn't even properly threaten to leave him and scare him a little. She gave in at every turn, she did ALL the apologizing and was ever-so-grateful when he finally blurted out his love for her (very insincerely and unfeelingly, I might add).
We all go somewhere inside ourselves when we create fantasies and stories and share them. I can't imagine what happened or where this type of story would have been created from. It was humiliating and painful for me to read about a woman so unable to stand up for herself and so easily pushed around. I'm ALL for a strong protective alpha male and even a little submission when necessary. I can even accept when these storylines inevitably have two people being "forced" or "blackmailed" into a marriage then to realize their true compatibility. But these two characters were not equals in any sense of the word. It was personally very difficult to finish.
We love to read all these love stories but please give us some characters on a little more equal footing. The woman should be able to give the man a run for his money. He should be able to humble himself completely and admit his mistakes and make up for them, especially early enough in the story that we can enjoy some of their "normal" and "enjoyable" parts of their relationship. It's hard to walk away from a story that was so gut-wrenching with only a couple of short pages of resolution, you know?
I will continue to read your stories because I've enjoyed them in the past and hope for some stronger characters in the future.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not that bad, April 5, 2009
This review is from: The Fiorenza Forced Marriage (Harlequin Presents) (Mass Market Paperback)
The story is not as bad as the previous review. Definitely worth more than 1 star. The author could expand more of the caring and feelig of the hero toward the heroine and the baby. I guess due to the limit of page there is so much the author could talk about. Definitely you will fine a sense of care and passion between the hero and heroine.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
3.0 out of 5 stars
A very good writer, October 31, 2010
I've been reading Harlequin romances since my early teens. Back then, I had a five shelf collection in my bed room... easily a hundred or so books and I've read nearly all of them. I was inspired to become a romance novelist myself and eventually published as an adult. I enjoy reading Harlequins but grew bored with them during the 1990s when they were updated to feel more "politically correct". What makes Harlequin Romances so fun to read, are the appalling storylines, arrogant men, and "weak" easy-to-fall in love heroines. I've never commented on any of the Harlequins I've read before, but Melanie Melburne's book takes the cake!
In The Fiorenza Forced Marriage, Melanie Melburne's heroine begins as a very strong willed young woman who goes tit for tat with an arrogant brute who believes she "bedded" his ailing father to steal away some of his inheritance. Emma is immediately attracted to Raefele because he's oh-so-damned hot. But he's a heartless, sexist, woman hating jerk and reading this, I could find no redeeming qualities in him. He was so full of hate. Even when he and Emma begin to fall for each other, the transition wasn't believable. Emma turned into a quivering doormat, literally, BEGGING to be loved. Raefale didn't change a wink, even with only ten pages left to read, he refused to love her at all. I was like, what kind of Harlequin is this? This man is TOO hard. Unforgiveably hard.
I will say this for Melanie Melburne, she is a fantastic writer. Her descriptions are very well put together, very clear, and allows me the space to visualize every scene, the intimate parts are very detailed. I'm not complaining about the book. These appalling men are why I read these stories. I find it far more interesting than anything else. For her writing style, I gave it a three.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
|
