Customer Reviews

Indiscreet (Gemstar)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Michaels made all French people seem like harlots, and most English people as vague martinets. The sexual tension between the hero and heroine was more like a master going after a mistress (which it sort of was). The heroine was somewhat disappointing, with practically no depth or sharpness- only giggly happiness. heaven save me from silly heroines. The story laid out the characters well, but i really didn't like the characters.

It has a great prologue and the plot-line shows great promise and I expected great pleasure from reading it. Alas! it was not to be. The characters are not well-developed. I don't see the roles of the monkey and parrot in enhancing either the story or the atmosphere, they are superfluous. The story is not well-knitted and too slow-moving to be interesting.There should be witty sparring and sexual tension to create stronger chemistry between the hero and heroine to make it funny. A pity the writer failed to deliver the romance and humour in a truly good storyline.

Oh My God! Indiscreet was Incredible! I agree with others who said the book was a hilarious romp through Regency England. There were times when I couldn't stop laughing, the little secret in the prologue being only the first one. The bombshell secret revealed later, though, was even better. I grew to see Sophie Winstead and Bram Seaton as friends, and truly enjoyed laughing, crying and going along for the ride with them on the road to true love and soulmate-hood. How anyone could rate this less than 5 stars is beyond me, because it was a truly wonderful book. In a career of writing wonderful books, this is definitely one of Kasey Michaels's best.

"Indiscreet" is definately a remake of Georgette Heyer's "The Grand Sophy" - the monkey and parrot, the heroine's name, the hero's repression, Sophie's "fixing" people's lives for their own good, the fiancee. Of course there are differences, but if you read both novels, you will definately see the resemblance. Regardless, "Indescreet" is very entertaining, a definate light and funny read. The scandal is the funniest indescretion I've come across ever.

Ms Michaels does it again. She should provide kleenex with her books, I laugh so hard I cry. "INDISCREET".... Nora Roberts said it very well on the cover "Using Wit & Romance with a MASTERS Skill."

Sophie Winstead, the daughter of a ...shall we say rather indiscreet (pun intended)widow is making her come out. The rather staid Duke of Selbourne has been selected as her sponsor, The Duke, (Bramwell) just happens to be the son of Sophie's mothers last lover prior to their "Unfortunate accident". Sophie's upbringing has given her an unusual outlook on life. She knows where she is going and soon after arriving at Bramwells townhouse knows who she wants and what she wants. She immediately decides that The Duke is far too straightlaced and staid. Sophie has a wonderful time teaching him how to loosen up and laugh. Bramwell of course fights her as hard as he can, even after he realizes he is head over heels in love with Sophie. But love shall win in the end.

All of the characters in Ms Michaels "Indiscreet" play a vital part in the story, but be sure and watch for Desiree, Sophies maid, Ignatius, her parrot, Bramwells light fingered aunt Lady Gwendolyn Seaton and all the rest. Ms Michaels has written this novel in an unusual and refreshing tone of the Regency era. The very forthright manner that Sophie and Bramwell converse is beleivable, bright and witty. "Indiscreet" had me grinning on grinning on the first page of the Prologue laughing out loud by page 9. Well Done Ms Michaels!!!, definitely a keeper

INDISCREET is set in Regency England--a time period Ms. Michaels is famous for since she does it so well.

The prologue had me laughing so hard I couldn't see for the tears streaming down my face. I won't give it away, but Ms. Michaels' set it up superbly. I find myself thinking of it sometimes during the day and laughing out loud again. Only now I have people looking at me strangely and I can't begin to tell them what really happened.

Sophie Winstead arrives in London to have her promised Season. She is staying with her staid guardian Bramwell Seaton. The beautiful Sophie sets London on its ear as well as Bram. For a man who tries to keep himself in control around Sophie he finds she frustrates him, exasperates him and finally dazzles him so that he is in danger of losing his heart.

What keeps this rolling is there are secrets Sophie does and doesn't know, but we know, and so do others in the story, resulting in some hilarous as well as touching scenes. Besides Sophie's talking parrot, and a monkey who swings from the chandeliers, there are rafts of secondary characters that are unforgettable. And the best part is how Sophie helps to solve problems--absolutely priceless!

If you want to laugh and have a wonderful read, then don't miss INDISCREET. Ms. Michaels is in a class by herself.

Suzanne Coleburn

I read the large print hardcover edition of the book, which has a fairly major misprint on the dust jacket. It claimed the heroine as the hero's deceased father's illegitimate daughter, which NO. This is not an incestuous romance. She's the hero's deceased father's deceased mistress's perfectly legitimate daughter from her prior marriage. (The father and the mistress died together in the opening of the book in the most ridiculous manner. I mean, seriously?! That's the absurd love story the author should have written! Middle-aged people in love for the first time frolicking nakedly on balconies? I'd read it to bits if it didn't end tragically.)

The main pair of this book were mentioned in Someone to Love, with the heroine's pet monkey and parrot having caught my interest in that book. Unfortunately, she and her own book didn't live up to my imaginings. The heroine's too perfect. When the text keeps outright repeating that she's perfect, perfect, perfect, without irony, I get kind of annoyed with it.

The age differential and the power dynamic just didn't work for me this time either, even though I've had no problem accepting guardians and wards becoming lovers. The leads lacked depth and I never bought into the buildup of their relationship.

ISBN 0446605824 - I rarely expect much from a romance novel. I expected less than that from this one, which began with this nearly nonsensical sentence: "If there existed anything more stultifyingly dull than one of Lady Buxley's house parties, that gloomy event had not yet been invented." I literally had to stop and re-read it over and over to be sure that it was what it was. "If there existed anything... [it] had not yet been invented"? Then how can it exist? When the first sentence is such a grand example of butchery of the English language, there's little hope. Michaels, however, recovered nicely and surprised me more than I actually care to admit.

Sophie's mother and Bramwell's father brought some real life to Lady Buxley's boring house party with their spectacular, much gossiped about, deaths. Years later, the event has changed two lives and been the cause of many a tongue-in-cheek joke. Bram is determined to live his life with something of a broomstick up his... back, in order to live down the terrible shame of his father's life - and death. This becomes difficult when Sophie, daughter of his father's mistress, shows up with a letter from Bram's father, stating his intent to fund her Season. Bram is honor-bound to see it through.

Sophie, on the other hand, doesn't seem to see, or feel, the shame. Determined to live without the heartbreak of love, she sets out for her Season, ready to dazzle. Her "maid", Desiree, has taught her well - men are not to be trusted, or loved, only to be used. When the ton begins to make jokes, even in her presence, it becomes clear that she doesn't know the whole story of her mother's death. Bram is left to explain, forcing him to tarnish her memories of the mother who died when Sophie was very young.

The schemes do become convoluted - Sophie, portrayed for several chapters as a golddigger who is aware that the letter from Bram's father is a forgery, soon turns out to be innocent of most everything else. Who is ultimately behind the arrival of Sophie and Desiree in Bram's life comes completely out of the blue. Desiree, for the entire book, is portrayed as a bitter, man-hating, vindictive witch of a woman - and then, suddenly, it turns out that she's part of the big plot to shake Bram out of the staid life he's living before it's too late. All of this seems an obvious attempt on the author's part to keep the reader on their toes - and it fails miserably, because each twist to the story contradicts something earlier in the book. Michaels ought to stay away from intrigue which, at least in this case, she doesn't do very well, and stick to light-hearted romance. The romance, and that storyline, were amusing and entertaining. Wouldn't read it again, but I'd most definitely pick up another title by Michaels.

- AnnaLovesBooks

Review Length: About 400 words.

EVERYBODY'S GOT SOMETHING TO HIDE 'CEPT FOR ME AND MY MONKEY....AND PARROT!

This is no ignorant drollery, no foolish frolic. This is a very funny tale of two confused people mangled by their giddy, selfish parents. One tries to live down his father's past. The other dares her mother's past to live HER down. It should have been titled the Taming of the Shrewd, as an object lesson to intractable people armored far less by their intellect than they smugly believe. ONE CAVEAT: If you confuse gravitas with depth, or mistake pomposity for intelligence, I warn you now. The era is Regency. The romp is ribald. If you can't stand the mirth, go read The Devil's Bargain; but if you like your regencies wry and rollicky, here is where you'll find that style, voice, humour and mischief. Okay?

It starts with a fatal accident----actually, a mutual gaffe de passionelle so hilarious and undeniably public that the lothario's son does his admirable best to convince the Haute Monde his inheritance stopped short of such legendary joie de vivre. After years of strenuous effort, this boring pillar of the ton proves himself such a refined, sober, upstanding gentleman that the gossips relent, finally allowing Bramwell Seaton, Ninth Duke of Selbourne, to bestow his rehabilitated family name on his appropriately staid and abstemious fiancee.

When better to discover his father's instructions to sponsor the deadly doxy's daughter, a debut certain to refresh dreaded memories of the Widow Winstead and the scandalous swath she drilled through Society with his father (and quite a few other gentlemen of rank and fortune)? Bram can NOT refuse this posthumous request from the absent father whose love he never knew; so he receives into his townhouse the bombshell Sophie Winstead with her uncanny genius for righting the pitiful lives of everyone in his sphere (think Pollyanna), and inciting in Bram the horror that he IS his father's son after all. It is a joy to watch him unravel (think Cary Grant in Bringing Up Baby). To make matters worse, Miss Winstead (not to mention her tattletale menagerie) rattles so many skeletons in Mayfair closets that her mother's "old friends" smell blackmail and take steps to protect their reputations and their secrets.

All this author's magic is here: the historic detail, the sparkling dialogue, the brief yet vibrant descriptions which land you right there in Regency London with characters you hope for, root for, fear for----when you're not sliding off your chair with laughter. My Lord Guardian was NEVER like this! END