Customer Reviews

Leonie

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

 

 

Peach is the sequel (the titled heroine being Leonie's granddaughter) but the extra something that gave Leonie its spark is missing. But I'm not reviewing Peach...

Reminiscent of the romances of the 80s with a touch of Steele and Susann, Leonie is nonetheless an enjoyable read. Messed up, somewhat lurid, it begins the story of Leonie, a provincal, beautiful French girl who leaves her hometown for Paris and eventually hooks up with Monsieur, a shadowy, powerful married man who becomes enthralled with her. It tells, in turn, of Leonie's interlude with Monsieur, Leonie's freindships, and how eventually Leonie breaks free of her obsessive and mentally abusive relationship. There are a few loose ends: Leonie's attraction to her Egyptian figurines, her parentage, and the climatic but ambiguous ending, but overall Leonie is a reasonably satisfying read.

Fans of Elizabeth Adler will find this book as great as her others. Readers who have read "The Rich Shall Inherit" should also read this book. Set in the late 1800's to the early 1900's, it follows the story of Leonie, a poor young girl in France, and the obsession of one man she calls Monsieur. Living in the shadow of fear from Monsieur, Leonie becomes a famous singer and eventually finds true love.

The story comes together in a final conflict that frees Leonie from her Monsieur forever.

I found this book difficult to put down, and I'm sure you will too.

This is definitely one of my favorite books. Yeah, it has that trashy romance thing going on, but it is definitely a lot more than that. Also, the main charcater has tons of spunk, and is really rather liberated.

The only Adler book I can give five stars to is "The Rich Shall Inherit," because I adored Poppy, the main character, and the story-line was riveting.

But "Leonie" is a hollow, unsatisfying character, and her main purpose in life seems to be jumping from man to man and moving the (somewhat stilted) plot along. Her love/hate relationship with Monsieur is at first entertaining, but his life-long obsession with her seems overplayed, and we never get a real idea of what makes him tick. And people always seem to die at such convenient points in this book; it began to get annoying. I hate to bring up real life in a book about pure fantasy--which is what all Adler's books are about--but there isn't enough reality in this book to give the fantasy something to stand on.

Bottom line: in a book wherein everything you want to happen is inevitably going to, the journey there should be entertaining enough to make it work anyway. And in "Leonie," it isn't.

Again, Elizabeth Adler is one of my very favorite authors. I have never been disappointed in any of her works. This was a wonderful book which held my interest. Great story lines, great characters, and great writing!

Let me start by saying that I am not a fan of romance novels. That's why I was very surprised to really like this book. Set in 1890s, Leonie is a young french girl who comes to Paris at 16, trying to make something of her life. She doesn't have many skills but her catlike beauty makes up for it. This is a story about many men who loved Leoni and how each one affected her life. I think E. Adler is quite the storyteller because each detail is vivid and so wondefully described, I was wishing i was there with Leonie to experience it all for myself. I loved Leonie as a character and I loved just as much her beloved companion cat, Bebe. Perhaps its because I am a cat lover but scene describing Bebe's passing away brought tears to my eyes.
Now that I read this story, I definately want to try her other books-I totally loved Adler's style of writing and her mastery of describing details.

Ms. Adler completely held me captive, just as men did Leonie in this fascinating story! Thank you for good fictional writing!

"Leonie" was Elizabeth Adler's first novel, and she does weave together a good story. Unfortunately, it feels contrived, and that's why I could only give it 3 stars. Leonie is very young when she goes to Paris to find a living. She comes across many men, eventually befriending those who would play a paly in her destiny. Her first friend, Maroc. Her best friend and protector, Caro Montalva. Her first love, Rupert, who abandons her to marry into money. Her obcessed lover, Monsieur le Duc, Gilles de Cormont, who is quite controlling and throughly ruthless. Leonie then has a contrived encounter with a French count, and she becomes pregnant. What Gilles does in reaction to this isn't surprising, and thus, Leonie has to give away her child, so she could be free of the evil Duke's machinations. There are a lot of coindences in this novel, many near-meetings, and by the 400th page, all of this feels very contrived, and you think nobody can have that kind of luck. I did enjoy how Adler ended it. It was fitting, to say the least

To me it seemed that Léonie didn't have many facets to her personality other than that of a good, sweet person, far sweeter than she should have been given her circumstances. Her daughter was pretty much the same. Oh, Léonie was lucky of course - inexplicably so and mostly because of her astounding beauty. It really was quite annoying how every man she ever came across seemed to fall in love with her in less than a day. I mean, how beautiful can she be? She had far too many lovers, most of them rather unnecessary. So much of the story could have been removed without harming the plot at all. Most of it was written just to make the book longer, it seemed. After a couple hundred pages it just gets boring and repetitive.