Customer Reviews

The Game

5 star:		(31)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This book was wonderful. I couldn't put it down. I wanted to soak up every word, and litteraly sat at the edge of my bed at times while reading it. I just loved the part when Liam told Katherine "I am coming back, and when I do, I am coming for you." I nearly fell off the bed. I am pretty picky when it comes to romance novels, don't like sappy predictable fluff. This book is a definate keeper. I've read it over about 3 or 4 times. I have read several others by this author and the only other that can compare to this is Promise of the Rose worth more than 5 stars also.

When Brenda writes well(often) she is one of the best you will ever read. She has the best romantic tension, and follow up (ha ha) you will ever read. This is one of her best, but she has many more, Innocent Fire, Violet Fire, Promise of the Rose, After Innocence. Hot and intelligent reading too, just try the books I've suggested and see what you think. One of the very best authors. But try the books I listed!

I've read several of Brenda Joyce's books and they had all been set in 19th Century America so it was a surprise to pick up "The Game" and discover that it was set in England and Ireland during the time of Elizabeth I, around 1571. It's a complex book in some ways with lots of plotting and machinations by various Irish nobles as well as the Queen and those around her. Most of the characters in this book are actual historical people and that added a great deal of interest to the story.

However I found myself rather ambivalent about the book as I was reading it. It wasn't dull and I was happy to keep reading but I did found myself rather wearied by the heroine, Katherine FitzGerald. She spends the first half of the book fearing for her virtue, protecting it at all costs, and going on and on about being raped by the hero, Liam O'Neill. O'Neill is a pirate and has captured Katherine and wants to make her his mistress; however, Katherine has a dream of family life with a husband and children and so will not submit, especially as her father is a nobleman, albeit stripped of his lands and title, so she feels she deserves more than the pirate son of a murderous rapist.

O'Neill seems very patient, even if he does have a one-track mind. He is also extremely forgiving, putting up with an amazing amount from Katherine and apparently still finding her fascinating. It was never clear, when reading this book, what was so great about Katherine, apart from her beauty. She didn't seem particularly loyal or trustworthy, breaking her word on a couple of occasions during the course of the book. She also seems rather self-centred which seemed odd for someone brought up in a nunnery. She had a certain amount of spirit and fire but most of the time seemed to me like an annoyingly whiny woman and it was hard to understand why virtually every man she met seemed desperate to make her his mistress.

The strength of this book was the historical setting, the machinations of the various Irish Catholic lords who were trying to break away from England, and the doubts and difficulties of Queen Elizabeth as she tries to rule her nation but can't tell who to trust. The weaknesses, for me, were in the central character of Katherine and also, to some extent, of O'Neill who never felt entirely convincing. It was an interesting read but not satisfying enough in some important areas.

Originally published for Curled Up With A Good Book © Helen Hancox 2008

Countless ppl have gone over the plot so I wont go into that...

I ended up reading this book after seeing someone remark on it, comparing it to THE CONQUEST ( one of the BEST romance novel, bar none ), also by this author. It was not so.

Nevertheless, it was a decent book with a great plot. Mystery took equal parts to the romance here, it wasn't all soppy lovy-dovy stuff. Although to be honest, I did have moments where I wished for more from the H/H. In addition, my lukewarm feelings might've been due to all the court stuff which I am not a fan of.

Besides all the court/queen/mystery/war issues that went on here I thought the story flowed smoothly. Only issue I had with this is at times it seemed way too wordy. This is a LONG book... very wordy, vividly detailed, a great hist romance... but very fictional.

I did not understand the great passion btw the H/H truth be told til the very end. Unlike THE CONQUEST, where you FEEL the passion, pain, all the emotions from the H/H... in here you're mostly confused by the events, til you find out what and why all the events took place that lead to the climax.. After spending countless hours ( did I mention its a long book )... you just feel drained.

It is worth the time to read it, it IS one of the better, very wordy hist romance book, but dont expect this book to be like THE CONQUEST, it is not.

I LOVE THIS BOOK. The only thing that bothers me about it is that,I DON'T HAVE A LIAM O'NEIL. I would KILL for a LIAM. Katherine, once a noblewoman, now reduced to either a life as a spinster after her father forgets her in the nunnery she is sent to after he rebels once too many times against Elizabeth Tudor. She is there seen by Liam who is immediately smitten and determined to have Katherine, come what may. Liam, the son of the miserable Shane O'Neill. He is only Shane's son because Shane raped Liam's English Noblewoman mother, Mary Stanley after capturing her at sea. Shane is Irish as is Katherine, but being the sadist he is, he literally tears Liam from his mother's arms at the age of 7 to raise him to be a man like him. Fortunately, Liam is his mother's son. He is compassionate, sensitive, and one of the MOST SEDUCTIVE characters I have ever read. Even the Queen covets him and she is older than his mother. Liam is THE MASTER OF THE SEAS, unmatched by anyone. His physical description takes your breath away. His manner does too. There is one line in the start of the book where he purposesly captures the ship Katherine is intending to return to Ireland on with her young friend. Katherine has no idea why her father has sent her no funds on which to live, or any replies to her pleas to be wed. Her father, the former Earl of Desmond, a powerful Irish Lord, plots against Elizabeth Tudor once too often. Katherine is the image of her mother, Joan. Joan was a beautiful widowed countess 20 years Gerald's (Katherine's father)senior, yet she falls in love with Gerald when he was only 16. Taking up with him, she is torn between her son, the Earl of Ormond, Black Tom Butler and Gerald. The feud between them goes far back before Joan's love for Gerald. Black Tom is Elizabeth's "Black Husband" and favorite. Gerald was stripped of everything he had partly because of the Queen's affection (?love) for him, and partly because he is a fanatic. In exile in England, Katherine only sees him after successfully warding off Liam's serious seductions. I KNOW I could not ever fight that character. Not long at least. Liam takes Katherine to her father, who crushes her hopes of a noble marriage and children by offering her to Liam as his wife. Liam didn't want a wife, he wanted a mistress at first,but then Katherine captivates him with her strength, stubborness, fiery passionate nature and breathtaking beauty. He refuses Gerald's offer, but begins to consider winning Katherine after all by helping restore Gerald to his title and defeating the Queen's worst enemy and Papist fanatic cousin of Gerald's, Fiztmaurice. Thus the game begins. To me, Katherine is cruel & completely insensitive to Liam's painful link to his father. Taunted by the English as a child, then beaten to the point of not caring by his father, he hides his pain behind a mask of arrogance and daring, that Katherine is oblivious to until she finally carries his child and realizes what he had gone thru and what her child would too. But the Queen intercedes using that child to secure Liam's help in taking down Fitzmaurice. Katherine is intelligent, but it takes her a long time to see that Elizabeth hates her for her beauty, youth and ability to drawn men like flies. Like Elizabeth wanted to. Black Tom begins to warm to Katherine, then Dudley, Elizabeth's personal property (to her mind) pursues Kate with determined persistance and of course there is the obvious lust of Liam's to possess Kate. Liam and Kate's desire for each other is unequalled in raw sensuality and the pages nearly burn with their encounters. Liam is hurt once again by Kate, but she does repent and he proves that he is the master of the game as well. Most Definitely a book to buy. Unless you prefer blander fare. BUY THIS BOOK!!!!!!!!!!!!
IT IS WORTH IT, TRUST ME.

I never wanted the book to end. I just absolutely fell in love with Liam O'Neil and I wished that I could have been Katherine. Brenda Joyce does a superior job of weaving together the actual historical events of the time, as well as her fictional characters. Her ability to describe events as they are happening is just unbelievable, and she makes everything seem so real in your mind. If you are a romantic person, even just the slightest bit, you will absolutely love this book.

This one by Brenda Joyce is very well done. It's a sweeping historical saga replete with the characters of the day who influenced Queen Elizabeth who is central figure in the story. It is complex richly woven tapestry of historical forces, brilliant minds and passion between a man and woman that leads to real love though everything conspiring against them.

Set in in 1562 in Queen Elizabeth's reign, it tells the story of Katherine FitzGerald, a beautiful Irish noblewoman who has lived the last 6 years of her life in a Norman convent due to her Irish lord father's reversals. Finally able to persuade the Abbess to let her leave with the friend Juliet who has been called home to Cornwall, the two young women are abducted on the high seas by the notorious golden haired pirate Liam O'Neill, bastard son of a barbaric Irish clan chieftain who raped his mother, an English noblewoman. The first time Liam sees Katherine on the deck of his ship, he knows he has to have her. But Katherine resists his seduction and insists he take her to her father. He agrees and in London she learns her father is impoverished, his titles and lands striped and he is under house arrest, deposed by his cousin FitzMaurice who is a thorn in the side of Queen Elizabeth. With her fortune gone and her dream of a noble marriage and children lost, it seems Katherine will become the pirate's prize. But Liam's plans are interrupted when they are captured and brought before a furious Queen Elizabeth. Katherine throws herself on Elizabeth's mercy and Lord Leicester and William Cecil urge the queen to keep Katherine as a Lady in Waiting which the Queen does, jealous of the pirate's affections for the beauty. As the Queen arranges a marriage for Katherine that will take her away from Liam and the court, Katherine is once again abducted by the pirate who is determined to keep her. Liam also has in mind "the Game" wherein he plays for high stakes that will keep Katherine his and see her father restored to his former title and lands in Ireland.

Katherine is a brave and beautiful woman who does not wait for others to determine her fate but acts even if somewhat impetuously. Liam is a pirate, yes, but he is also a man of noble intentions, great loyalties and capable of a great love. He tries to break the hold of his past and the legacy of his brutal chieftain father who took him from his mother when he was only 7 even as all in Elizabeth's court would remind him of his parentage. Without a country or a home, he becomes the Master of the Seas. This is a page turner and will hold your interest. I highly recommend it.

Somehow I found myself reading historical romances with a little embarrassment. I read one of Brenda Joyce's later books, loved it and went to the beginning of the series. The Game is the third book, and I would recommend starting from the beginning (The Conqueror, Promise of the Rose). All of them good, steamy reads

I have rarely been a fan of Pirate romances but this book was fantastic. The main character Katherine was so innocent and unaware of her own sensuality that I could relate my first experiences to hers, and Liam reminded me so much of my favorite actor Brad Pitt, that I breezed thru this book in joy. I want all of Brenda Joyce's books. where the checkout!!:)

This was a OK book. The first I have read of Brenda Joyce and I plan on reading more because I like her style of writing and there was much sexual tension and good sex scenes. The hero did not rape the heroine, although she was still reluctant when it finally did happen. I was a little annoyed by the heroine, I kept say "would you give in already geeeeezzz". I did not, however, like the fact that when they did finally have sex, the heroine was already married to someone else!!!!!! ugh!!! that and the lengthiness of the book are the only two things I did not like but over all...it was a pretty good read.