Customer Reviews

Her Officer and Gentleman

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

 

 

Title says it all, I was pleasantly surprised. I read Her Master and Commander, didn't like it, and was going to pass this book by. But, I felt I needed to give this author another chance since I liked her previous books before HMAC, so picked it up. I read it in one sitting, and for a book to hold my attention, it's bodes well.

Quick synopsis, the book's hero, Christian, has an agenda - REVENGE. First, he must find the person responsible for his mother's incarceration for alleged traitorous activities, and subsequent death. At the young age of 10, he was separated from his twin brother, and forced to live off his wits. He began with stealing, which evolved into becoming a highway man, dubbed "Gentleman James/Jack". As an adult, he finds himself with a title, a big fortune, and an inherited butler, who's role is to teach Christian how to become an aristocrat. Christian has evidence the Duke of Massingale, (whose name "Massingale" sounds somewhat like that brand name woman's feminine product hawked on tv), was involved, if not responsible, for his mother's imprisonment. To get to the duke, Christian attempts to seduce and win over the Duke's beloved grand daughter, Lady Elizabeth "Beth".

I liked both characters. Christian was bent on revenge, and in the end, comes to the realization that revenge isn't worth true love. As Beth and Christian's relationship evolves, the reader can see the change in Christian's attitude, his regrets of using Beth, and his appreciation for Beth's persona. I quite liked Beth, she was spunky, witty, and good hearted. Hawkins did not overdo Beth, she created her without making her seem to good to be true. The scenes flowed, and the dialogue was smooth. I have a pet peeve of authors who mix present day slang in with historical dialogue, and Hawkins did a great job of keeping that to a minimum. She also didn't overdo the angst between the main characters....I really detest authors who drag the fighting out between the hero and heroine throughout the entire book until the last chapter.

Many other reviewers who did not like the book wanted more "hot" scenes, but I say that sometimes it detracts from the storyline, and in this case, it would have. Of course, the reader could see right away who the guilty person was in the first few chapters, but it didn't kill the whole story.

I cannot believe I bought this book. This was so boring and worst of all the dialogue was cliche and predictable. I am only writing this review because I saw how high this book was rated and I needed to inform readers out there that this book is not what it cracked up to be although the synopsis sounded interesting. Don't buy it unless you have insomnia and need to fall asleep quickly. 1 diminsional characters and lack of humour and wit plague this book. If you want a book with facinating characters and unpredictable humor - a breath of fresh air - get Terea Medeiros "After Midnight". And also, another turn off is that this book, unsurprisingly, is insipid, dull, and lacks any sensuality. What this book needs is a generous dosage of viagra and intelligent humor. To the trash can its fate lies with all the rest of its ill-written lack lustre cohorts.

After having read and enjoyed; HER MASTER AND COMMANDER, the first book in Karen Hawkins's two book mini-series, I was eagerly awaiting the release of HER OFFICER AND GENTLEMAN ~ And I must say, the superbly talented Ms. Hawkins's delivered a charming, engaging and highly entertaining romantic tale; that met and exceeded my expectations. I thoroughly enjoyed this heartwarming story!

All alone from the age of tender 10 - tormented by the death of his mother, loss of his twin brother to a ship's press gang and total abandonment by an uncaring father -- Christian Llevanth grew up on the streets of London, forced to depend on fighting, cunning and his wits to survive. As an adult he became a daring and mysterious highwayman; known to the Ton as Gentleman James for his suave manner with the ladies. Now, due to an unexpected inheritance, the handsome, charming, wealthy and newly titled: Christian James Llevanth, Viscount Westerville ~ regardless of his mysterious background, is welcomed everywhere by the cream of London society.

However, Christian is on a quest and has vengeance on his mind. He's waited more than 20 years to solve the mystery of who betrayed his mother and caused her to be falsely accused of treason; then left to die alone in prison. He won't rest until the guilty person is apprehended ~ and held accountable. From evidence he's gathered, Christian's thinks the elderly and reclusive duke of Massingale is the villain responsible; and he's determined to gain entry to his home to prove it. Even if that means he must charm, sweet-talk and if necessary ~ seduce the duke's only granddaughter to do it.

Lady Elizabeth Westover or Beth to her family and friends is lovely, kind, caring, thoughtful, and loving. She's also quite intelligent and can be a little bit stubborn at times. Beth has lived all her life at Massingale House with her irascible grandfather and she's devoted to him. When her now ailing grandfather decides he wants her to go to London to experience a "season" and possibly find a husband, Beth, even though she feels she's too old at 25, agrees to go for one season to please the Duke. However, she has no intention of marrying and to deter any man from courting her ~ she'll make herself as unappealing as possible.

Well, Christian and Beth are clearly two people with opposing agendas, yet from the very first time they meet something special sparks between them. Christian feels an instant rapport with Beth that he'd never felt with another woman before. He's drawn to her but it makes him feel confused and conflicted because the driving force in his life has always been finding his mother's betrayer and now when he's so close to succeeding, he must struggle with these new, raw feelings of desire and longing for Beth.

Beth's confusion is just as great, Christian's mere presence affects her peace of mind. She can't have a proper conversation with him ~ everything he says to her is filled with sexual innuendo; she resists, but his wicked words arouse her in ways she'd never imagined. When Christian turns her bones to jelly with just one well placed kiss ~ she's lost!"

Author, Karen Hawkins gives us two lead characters that are intriguing, believable and very likeable and the dialogue between them is sharp, witty and provocative. Through her skillful writing and careful plotting, readers are able to see how the mutual attraction Christian and Beth feel for each other develops page by page; becoming more and more intense until finally ~ it culminates in a lusty and passionate love scene between them. (pg. 303-310)

I thought the author did a remarkable job fleshing out her all of her primary and secondary characters and bringing them to life for the enjoyment of the reader. The butler, Reeve's sardonic humor was stimulating and fun; and I hope we'll see him again someday. I also liked the light mystery and suspense theme that was cleverly interwoven into the story-line; it kept me interested and continually questioning the villain's identity.

HER OFFICER AND GENTLEMAN is a completely delightful love story; it captivated me from beginning ... to end. I highly recommend it!

The best book by her so far, I believe, as it added a touch of mystery and a little bit of 'whodunit?' to the typical romance plot. Though you aren't given sufficient information to solve the case yourself (a la Agatha Christie), it's still fun to keep guessing - though somewhat easy to figure out. There are still enough little bits, small insights into the characters, to keep the mystery interesting long after you've figured out who the real culprit is. Plus, there's the romance, which is fun and well-written. And, of course, topped with a great butler, how can you pass up this romance novel?

(note: I read this one before I read the first book in the mini-series)

Her Officer and Gentleman is the sequel to Her Master and Commander. I found this one to be much more engaging and interesting than the first one. I didn't love it, but it was an easier read than HMaC and had more meat to the story.

Even though I didn't think HMaC was all that wonderful of a book, I was looking forward to Christian's story. His introduction in HMaC left me wanting to know more about him, and also wanting to know the resolution of what had happened to him and his brother Tristan's mother. Christian is a great character...so dark and brooding.

Story-line wise, I liked how everything worked out. The plot was so much more interesting than HMaC, which seemed to have no direction and point and bored me at times. I wasn't really bored with HOaG. Hawkins creates a nice, plausible plot that reads well. It's not full of twists and suspense, but it fits the story fairly well.

Romance wise...well, for a historical, I thought it was lacking a bit in the sex-scenes area. Which is tacky to say, probably. But usually in historicals you get more than a little of the good stuff (*G*). In this book, though, you get only one full sex scene. And I will say that I thought it was unnecessary for Hawkins to put off the intimacy for so long in the book. Strictly on a romance sense, I enjoyed Christian and Elizabeth. They were nice counterparts.

Overall, I liked HOaG much more than HMaC. It was just a much more well-rounded story with more purpose and meat. I didn't love the book, but I didn't mind reading it and mostly enjoyed it.

Interesting sidenote - from the other reviews of HOaG I read, it seems as though those who liked HMaC hated HOaG, and those who liked HOaG hated HMaC. Just an interesting contrast.

I thought the story was good, not great...I liked the two main characters, and enjoyed the story line. However it is not one that I "couldn't put down" I agree with one reviewer, there was not much "romance" more of a mystery and mild sexual scenes. I think the book had great potential from the start, and became weak at the end.

Why does she name the books what she does? Many of her titles don't have anything to do with her stories? Maybe she picks the title first and then just give it to a book...I dunno.

Though this book wasn't exactly boring, it did little to grab my attention and keep me reading. It took me several days to finish it and by the time I had, I was ready for it to be over. The characters were developed well enough but I wasn't quite sure what the point was in making him a 'highwayman' in the beginning or why the title included 'officer' when he wasn't one, unless I mistakenly missed a section. It's not that I disliked the book. It just wasn't very captivating.

This book was just OK. There wasn't anything that stood out about either the characters or the storyline. The writing itself was good. Reeves the butler was very funny. I didn't feel a lot of chemistry between Beth and Christian. You knew they had feelings for each other but there wasn't much of a spark. It seems like they needed more experiences together before they could feel the depth of feelings they expressed. This isn't a bad book-just nothing too exciting.

Actually this book doesn't merit a review, but there are so many wonderful books out there, I feel that people deserve to know where to spend their money and where not to.

The plot was slow and silly. The hero uninspiring. The heroine was okay. The long and poorly phrazed sentences would make my English teacher groan with pain. The sex comes at the last pages and belongs in a circus (the whole time I was worried the heroes would fall and break their necks.)

My advice: Abstain!

While the first book in this 2 part series was only fair-I had already purchased this book and was determined to give it a chance. Wrong!

The author took what seemed to be a "bad guy on the verge of redemption" in book one, and drops him right back to bad as book two starts.

This author shows no continuity with her characters. The H/H both start the book as seemingly OK characters, but quickly turn vengeful and mean spirited.

I quit the book in disgust 100 pages in when the hero refers publicly to the other gentlemen interested in the heroine as "fleas" and the heroine thinks it's funny:(-all the while his horse is trying to bite the other mens horses, yet he tells THEM to control their horses? This would have been unacceptable in Regency England and the hero would have been the one to control his horse or leave.

The author seems to be going for "rakish" with the hero, but it just comes off as a bully and a boar. The "revenge" storyline is always a difficult one to execute and if tried the hero had better have more going for him than Christian. Another irritating point was the rehashing every other page at how really, really good looking the Hero and Heroine are. It seemed they were all style and no substance.

This author has both characters behaving completely inappropriately for the time period. While I can overlook historical inaccuracy to a point-when it's nearly every page then it's just poorly written and researched.

The storyline is just too trite and immature. Like the previous book it just seems as if the author/publisher rushed to get this book out based of the author's past popularity. Which is the quickest way to lose faithful readers who do not like to be sold such a poor bill of goods.

Even the title "Her Officer and Gentlemen" has nothing to do with the book as the hero was never in the military in the first place!

I wholeheartedly do NOT recommend this book.

0 stars.