Customer Reviews

Glorious Angel

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

When I started reading historical romances, Johanna Lindsay was one of the first authors that I read. Some of her books on my keepers list are A Gentle Feuding, Fire of Winter, Hearts Aflame. But Glorious Angel is one of her worst books. What do I remember most about this book? The hero. Not because he is so gorgeous and sexy. Just the opposite. He came across as a wimp, no sex appeal at all. And no chemistry and passion between the hero and heroine. An unappealing hero will spoil a book for me.

I have read many of Johanna Lindey's books, and I particularly like the Malory series. But I found Glorious Angel to be a bit overdone. The heroine has five, yes five, men going crazy for her at the same time. And I use crazy in the literal term. The hero's jealousy is absolutely insane, and makes him come off as very shallow. And no woman in her right mind would put up with him! I end up feeling more sorry for Angela at the end, other than overjoyed. Honestly, I wish that she ended up with one of her other suiters!
Glorious Angel is readable, but I suggest that you pick up one of Ms. Lindsey's other books. Try Love Me Forever, that one is GREAT!

Angela Sherrington is the daughter of a poor farmer in Alabama who has had a crush on Bradford Maitland since she was eleven, when he rode past her on his black stallion and splashed her with mud. He tossed her a coin, for the ruined dress and she keeps this coin hung around her neck as a reminder. Some 9 or 10 years later she spots Bradford about to walk into a building in Masachusettes and follows him, not knowing that she has just walked into a bordelo.

I really liked the first half of the book but knew I would be disappointed with the second half after Angela runs away. She's just too much of a flirt for my liking. Kissing strangers left right and centre. Not one of JLs best books. Try the Western series, much better!

This is not the worst JL I have ever read but it is definitely not the best either. While I wasn't tempted to throw it away like I was with "A Pirate's Love", it didn't catch me either. Usually I read her books in two or maximum three days - depending on the w/end. This one I finished in more than a week.

The characters are very simplistic and flat: she is the beautiful poor girl which has struggled with difficulties in childhood and now suddenly finds herself wealthy; he is the good-looking young man with no other care in the world either than the jealousy he feels because of her. What you see in them at first glance is all there is to them. There is no character development and also there are no reasons they fall in love with each other except that she had a childhood crash on him and he finds her very beautiful.

The conflict is very twisted and confusing, with illogical ups and downs. There are also a lot of side characters which crowd the picture. One I found especially annoying was Billy Anderson, a young man who is obsessed with the heroine and wants to have her at any means, and so follows her around more or less for ten or more years. This I found very unbelievable and quite stupid.

Also, the love scenes are cold; Ms. Lindsey can write love scenes which make you shiver and tingle, but none of those are in this book.

So, nothing remarkable or special about this book. Just plain.

I've been rereading all the JLs (so far, I've finished 18 in a month), and "Glorious Angel" is just as I remembered it 10 years ago: unappealing, passionless, and actually quite tedious. It is one of JL's first books, and it is obviously a pedestrian effort. The "love" dialogue is beyond cheesy and the love scenes are tepid. Worse, it has a meandering plot that starts with Angela's crush on Bradford as a child (why she likes him, I'll never know), then moves on to a rags-to-riches story with Angela losing all of her Southern white trash talk (which was actually quite charming), to a forced separation based on a rumor of incest that really never seemed to upset Angela other than to make her run away from Bradford. The best part about this book is that it sets up Hank Chavez's story in "Heart of Thunder," which is a million times better. In fact, only a single year separates the publication of "Glorious Angel" and "Heart of Thunder," but somehow JL's writing style, sense of character, and dialogue improve tremendously during that short time period. Which makes me suspect that "Glorious Angel" was written long, long before its publication date and published without the benefit of editing, rewriting, etc. That's too bad. "Glorious Angel" could have been much better had JL spent some more time playing up the passion and personalities between Angela and Bradford and less time on fluff like matchmaking in Texas and the pointless assassination attempts on Bradford's life (as an example of how silly this book is, Bradford is tied to a chair in a burning house and his fear of death gives him He-Man strength to break through the ropes, no knife or anything, to escape. Wow!). If you are interested in Wild West romances written by JL, I highly recommend "Heart of Thunder," "A Heart So Wild," "Once A Princess," or "Savage Thunder." I do not recommend "Glorious Angel" unless you want to read it as a prequel to "Heart of Thunder."

Expected a lot more after the gowing review. Very poorly written or editted compared to her other novels. Lots of character development for lesser characters but none of the main characters. There's less than 1 page about the week the hero and heroine spend together but 7 on the attempted rape by a secondary character. Weird. Never really understood why there so fascinated with each other. A very shallow romance.

I really love Johanna Lindsey's books but this one just didn't do it for me. The character were good and had great potential but the storyline just seemed rushed at the end. It's not a horrible book but definetly not one of her best.

This isn't one of her best, but it was still good. Bradford was kind of a wimp and too irritating to me. I liked Angela though, and thought she could've done better, lol. The plot was good, but seemed to never get involved fully. It was missing something. She falls in love with Bradford at a very young age and doesn't think she has a chance with the rich gentleman, she is just a poor farmer's daughter. But they do fall for each other, but misunderstandings soon rip them apart and threaten their love. I am glad that the character of Hank Chavez has his own story in 'Heart of Thunder', he was so sexy and funny in this one as a secondary character. This is an early Lindsey, and her later works are much better.

Though Angela was annoying, I loved Bradford. Rags to riches stories do it for me every time!

This book is not one of Lindsey's best. I own all the Lindsey books and this is in the least favorite pile with Captive Bride, a Pirate's Love, and Tender is the Storm.

The sequel to this book with Hank and Samantha is great-go ahead and buy that instead. Hank seems like a different character in that book though.

What I can't understand about this book is how Brad didn't know who Angela was? I mean, if you see someone near where you live all the time, even if they have grown up a little bit, wouldn't you know who they are? I am perplexed by this book. It just wasn't good. There isn't much else to say about it.

Do yourself a favor and buy some other JL book. Save your money.