Customer Reviews

Lovers and Liars

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LOVERS AND LIARS by Josephine Cox
December 17, 2004

This was my first book by Josephine Cox and I'm definitely going to be reading more by her. LOVERS AND LIARS was a historical romance with a pair of star-crossed lovers. Cox does a wonderful job with this story, creating a cast of characters that help move the story line, with the central story of John and Emily pulling the reader in for a page turning book.

The story takes place in early 1900's England, and Emily and John are in love. As it is customary for this era, John must ask permission to court Emily. She's sixteen and he is twenty. Unfortunately, the man of the "house", Uncle Clem, is a mean and terrible man, and does not want Emily to be seeing John. He beats up John to the point of nearly killing him. John decides that it is not the right time for Emily and John to be together, so he leaves town, but promises Emily he will return a richer man and will take her away from her uncle, who is abusive and mentally cruel.

Through a series of misunderstandings and lies and an event that changes Emily forever, the two are kept apart. But as the years progress, Emily and John never forget each other, and hope that someday they will be reunited.

This book is definitely for those who enjoy an old-fashioned style of story. Fans of contemporary romances may not buy into some of the characters that populate the book, and the plot may be a bit over the top for others, but I really enjoyed this book and I plan on reading more by Josephine Cox.

If you don't mind reading a book where you can predict the plot from start to finish, then Lovers and Liars is for you. Don't get me wrong, the writing is good but its far from innovative and a little too sickly sweet for my tastes.

Here's the plot: Emily loves John a handsome farmboy, but her evil uncle Clem hates John and does everything he can to keep him apart. John's well-intentioned Aunt does the same to a lesser degree. But through it all, and despite some amazing prospects Emily LOOOOVESSS John and refused to move on. Likewise John LOOVESSSS Emily and never forgets her. (Yawn).

Frankly I grew bored with this story. Instead of it being sweet and romantic that Emily loves John and vice versa I kept thinking to myself MOVE ON. You people are way too obsessed. Also the author makes liberal use of the 'big misunderstanding' plot. This plot device rears its ugly head at least twice and it was very annoying.

About the time Emily's dad hooks up with John, I began to find my eyeballs rolling in pain at the series of too-good-to-be-true-coincidneces which plague this book.

Three stars. It wasn't bad. But It was far from innovative.