Customer Reviews

Her Master and Commander

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I bought this book yesterday, and finished it this morning (I fell asleep around 3AM, still clutching the book).

This has to be one of her best. It had all the best elements: Dying EARL Dad trying to make amends for criminal meglect of his NINE illigetimate children. (NOTE: You're going to write NINE novels on this series? Sheez.) OK, back to my point: All the best elements: Lost children being found, twins cruelly apart and finding each other again, Heroine lost to society through no fault of her own, Hero lost to society due to his father, and impressment.

Hero and heroine find each other on a rocky coastline........thanks to a marauding sheep (ewe, to be exact).

It isn't LOVE at first sight, both dislike each other intensely.
Thanks to the same sheep (ewe).

Along comes Reeves, the butler, employee of the now deceased Earl/Dad. His job is to make a gentleman/Earl of the Hero. Not an easy task, as it turns out.

Highlights of the book: I laughed about the antics of the "crew", especially Stevens. He eventually learns to knock first. The sheep/ewe that broke into the garden. Reeves little book excerpts, particuliarly his cleaning recipe.

All in all, the book was a romp. I loved it.

Thanks, Karen. I was beginning to get somewhat jaded over the current quality of books being published.

Oh, and Karen? I don't "know you" because of your books. I just enjoy them like an sane person would.

PS: Hugo is the BOMB.

I am a fan of Ms. Hawkins previous books, but could not like this one. The premise was good, but the story didn't deliver. I felt that the relationship between the two main characters and the story itself, were rushed, and the characters lacked depth. The cliche's, especially the naval cliche's, were ultimately annoying. The book could have also benefited from better editing, as there were many inconsistencies.

HER MASTER AND COMMANDER is the first fabulous book in a new series by the talented Ms. Hawkins...

Most proper butler, Richard Robert Reeves arrives unexpectedly at Captain Tristan Paul Llevanth's cottage to tell him of the death of his father and to inform him, that surprisingly, Tristan has inherited his father's title and is now the new Earl of Rochester. However, unless he can prove to a demanding board of trustees that he is civilized and a true "Gentleman" worthy of assuming the mantle of the earl, he will only get the title and NOT the 20,000 pounds per year income that goes with it. Tristan for many reasons wants nothing to do with his father's title or money, but when he realizes he could use the money to provide better food, housing and doctor's care for his needy shipmates, he reluctantly agrees to allow Reeves to try to turn him into a proper gentleman. Reeves decides the most suitable person to teach Tristan would be none other than his than his lovely widowed neighbor ~ Prudence Thistlewaite. When Prudence and Tristan get together... the sparks fly and the sexual tension mounts because Tristan clearly has seduction on his mind; he wants to be the one to give his lovely but unyielding teacher lessons ~ in love!

I loved this book. It has everything a great romance novel should ~ a delightfully captivating, heartwarming and humorous love story, with a marvelous pair of leading characters that are interesting, engaging, irresistible and whose chemistry together positively sizzles...

The Hero ~ Tristan Llevanth is blond, tall, handsome, sexy, strong, brave, proud and honorable. Due to a painful injury that forced him to give up command of his ship, he is also at times surly, demanding and brusque; he mimics a caustic and formidable sea captain, but that just hides a heart of gold. Tristan's a bold ex-pirate turned naval hero ~ after having served with Admiral Nelson at the battle of Trafalgar; who exudes sensuality and excitement. He's the perfect fantasy hero!

The heroine ~ Prudence Thistlewaite is pretty, caring, loving, compassionate, and intelligent. She's a feisty widow who is just outspoken and spirited enough to tame a gruff, rude and arrogant pirate. Even one whose intense looks of barely restrained lust and highly potent desire enthrall her against her will; as they suggest nights filled with passion and exquisite pleasure ~ she realizes that she'd never experienced with her first husband.

The large secondary cast of characters is made up assorted family members, employees and a collection of charming rogues that were formerly the captain's crew; all are comical, entertaining and endearing. Then add to that Richard Robert Reeves the "PERFECT" butler. Reeves is someone who manages to anticipate everyone's needs and then seems to effortlessly and efficiently do whatever's necessary to pull everything together ~ and bring peace and harmony to his charge's lives.

Karen Hawkins has written another winner in HER MASTER AND COMMANDER ~ one that's destined for the keeper shelves!!!

Coming next in the series, Christian's story ~ HER OFFICER AND GENTLEMAN.

The Earl of Rochester has set about to find his illegitimate son in order to carry on the vaulted Rochester name. He sends his loyal butler Reeves in search of Tristan Llevanth. Once Reeves finds him he has been charged with turning Tristan a former pirate and sailor into a proper gentleman. Reeve's has his work cut out for him. Tristan is a hard man wounded in both mind and body. When he introduces Prudence Thistlewaite to the mix it's anyone's guess on whether love will find a way here.

Tristan's life has been hard. His mother was imprisoned, his father ignored him and his twin brother Christian, and now the father that couldn't be bothered with him when Tristan needed him the most...now wants the world. That would be easy enough to deal with if he wasn't being bedeviled by Mrs. Prudence Thistlewaite. This lass rubs him wrong. He wants nothing but peace and quiet to heal and that is the last thing he gets with Prudence pestering him about sheep.

Prudence wants nothing to do with the ill-tempered captain turned neighbor. She has her dream and will do what she must to see it through. But, when Reeves makes her an offer she can't resist Prudence has to wonder if perhaps just maybe she could smooth out Tristan's rough edges. After all she's not afraid of a little challenge. Imagine her surprise when things change between her and the sea captain. Has she found a happy ending where she least expected it?

This read had a sweet premise but Reeves was such a strong character that he at times over shadowed Pru and Tristan's romance. Add to that the romance between Tristan and Pru seemed rushed or even forced. They start out disliking each other and then BAM! Tristan can't get enough of Pru. This is what you want in a romance I know...but it would be nice if this switch wasn't so jarring. Ms. Hawkins has began a fine new series with this title and I look forward to reading Christian's story next.

If I've already confused you with the title of my review, then you know how I felt after reading this book...a little amused, yet not sure how or why. Then I remembered, oh, wait, it was all because of a sheep. Actually, I'm still stumped as to why it all hinged on a sheep, why the author chose that particular plot device...if it can really be called that. Who'd have thought an always hungry sheep could be the justification for a couple's first meeting? Will wonders never cease?

The earl of Rochester, on his deathbed, gives to his butler, Reeves, the daunting task of finding his illegitimate son, Tristan, so that he can pass on his title. Never mind the fact that the negligent earl never truly cared for any of his children, was never there for them or could be bothered with his by blows - having one foot in the grave has remarkable powers of the soul-seeking persuasion. Knowing he's wronged his children, he's giving Reeves the task of setting his wrongs to right, and making sure Tristan is up to scratch. Reeves finds Tristan in a coastal community, where the former sea captain helps his fellow sailers by taking them into his home. Nearby is a lovely young widow, Prudence Thistlewaite, who is in fact the bain of his existence...or is she? Infuriating as her ridiculous claims about his sheep being in her garden may be, he realizes there's more to the woman than at first he thought. With an interfering new butler that just won't quit till he's quality "ton", a bevy of sailors all needing his help and an attractive neighbor to teach him all about the rules of polite society, Tristan has got his hands full. Add to that the possibility of finding his long lost brother and it makes for a full ship in this captain's log.

Three stars goes for one of the more lighthearted and fun historical reads I've had in a while (for that I'm grateful). Tristan and Prudence were a delightful couple and I actually liked all the sailor lingo that's characteristic of much of Tristan's and his fellow sailors speech. In fact, the butler in training, Stevens, who is one of Tristan's former sailors, is probably one of the best and funniest characters of the book. I just couldn't give it a full five though for a few reasons (by the way, a three star rating means it's "okay", it's not a bad rating). One: I felt that, given his demanding task, Reeves was often a more prominent character than the main ones. Strong secondary characters are important, but I think his position as butler to the late earl was a little overdone and he somewhat overshadows Tristan and Prudence's relationship. Two: Tristan and Prudence's reason for meeting was weak. This is where it all hinges on a sheep.I just couldn't believe a "mystery" surrounding a sheep was the reason for Tristan and Pru's grand get together. Sure, Tristan needs her help to get his inheritance, but it's really the sheep he has to thank for his meeting Pru. Three: There was a good conflict between the two main characters at first. Towards the end though, Tristan completely does a one-eighty and all of Pru's efforts to help bring him into society seemed wasted. Four: Tristan and Pru's relationship felt almost forced. One minute he can't stand her, the next she's a fiery woman who flames his desires instantly. The intense focus on Reeves's role and his search for Christian was actually more interesting, unfortunately. Despite that it was lighthearted and amusing at times, it ended up seeming like more of a set-up for Christian's story...so here's to hoping his is a good one.

I found this book very disappointing. Unlike Karen Hawkins' other books, I wasn't absorbed by the story and kept putting it down when it couldn't hold my attention. The characters are flat, uninteresting and all too predictable. It feels as if the author was more focused on writing a set-up for a new series than in creating a good story, believable characters or humorous/romantic situations - the hallmarks of her previous series.

Dying without an heir, the very wealthy Earl of Rochester gave his faithful and indispensable butler Reeves his final instructions - find his two missing illegitimate offspring and make them worthy of their noble blood. Monumental tasks to not only locate them after 20 year absences, but to teach them the fine rudiments of gentlemanly behavior. Setting out on his mission, Reeves locates the elder twin sibling aka an ex-pirate, turned privateer, turned war hero at the battle of Trafalger with Admiral Nelson - Captain Tristan Llevanth.

Tristan was found living in a cottage on a cliff overlooking the sea he could no longer captain a ship upon. Before he'd had too much time to slip into a melancholic life, sailors once under his command sought him out, and he was now master and commander of a household of wounded warriors. Life was peaceful until his neighbor, the widow Prudence Thistlewaite, started storming through his doors demanding he keep his sheep out of her garden. Reeves, the consummate butler and purveyor of solutions to all sorts of mundane problems, showed up at about the same time.

After finally convincing Tristan to reconsider accepting his inheritance, Reeves now had the immense task of turning him into a gentleman. Recognizing a windfall of expertise, Reeves enlisted the aid of Prudence Thistlewaite, in dire need of funds to establish a school for girls, to teach Tristan the finer points of behaving in a gentlemanly manner and smoothing out his very rough edges. As these two banes of each others existence came to butt heads, it seemed only natural that the sparks would fly in passion as well as stubbornness.

*** Hawkins writes a fun-filled escapade as Prudence has her work cut out for her in bringing the irascible captain to heel. The secondary character of Reeves, along with members of the captain's land-locked crew and Prudence's mother filled out the cast to make this a merry adventure and an enjoyable fast-paced read. The sensuality is steamy and the carriage ride scene extremely memorable and not to be missed. All in all, I found this to be a very fine beginning to Hawkins newest series.

While I found the cutesy title of the book a bit too saccharine -I decided to give it a try anyway as I've read good reviews for the authors previous books.

This first book in a series started very well with an intriguing back story about twin brothers who were born on the "wrong side of the sheet" to an earl and who find themselves orphaned at 10 when there mother dies in prison-wrongly accused of treason.

Fast forward to chapter 2-20+ years later to the story of Tristian and Penelope. The book left me ambivalent-while there were parts of "clarity" within the book-between the main characters and secondary characters-it was too often seasoned with choppy, far fetched and repetitive writing as to make the book hard to get through.

Overall the book seems hastily put out, and very poorly edited (I found several obvious grammatical errors, misspellings and even one twin being referred to as the other!)

While I loved the fact that the H/H are older, and experienced from other relationships-I didn't like the authors tendency to keep having their inner dialog go over yet again why they could not marry-when the reasoning was not even plausible to begin with.

The ending of the story is 360 degrees from what the characters were trying to accomplish throughout the book and made for an immature, silly end.

I'm trying the other twins story right now and I hope it will be better than this one.For those like me with limited book budgets- I would only recommend this book used or from the library.

3 stars.

This was probably my least favorite of her books I've read, and even so it wasn't all bad. I think it could be in part because I read Her Officer and Gentleman first, and this one takes place before it. But overall the characters just didn't click as well as in the other stories, I didn't feel as drawn into the story, and the plot was less-than-exciting (and yes, that's partly because I had read the second book first). I'd say it's worth it for a lazy Sunday read, but I'd suggest her Talisman Ring series over this one. Those are some truly wonderful romance novels!

Her Master and Commander
by Karen Hawkins

Reviewer: Pamela Ackerson (author of Home of the Braves trilogy)

Delightful and Delicious
The ingredients of a bestseller consists of one author extraordinaire, originality, imagination, wit, humor, romance, unexpected twists, and the power to captivate, mixed in with a few spices and you have a novel written by Karen Hawkins.
The sea is a pirate's mistress and when a pirate/turned war hero is anchored to the land, he does not make a very happy man. Enter Reeves who must now take this uncivilized being and create a new and improved Earl of Rochester. Impossible you say? Not if you have the enchanting Prudence Thistlewaite as your tutor...or can she tame the wild and simply irresistible captain?
Enjoy!