Customer Reviews

Lyon's Gate (Bride Series)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(16)

 

 

Having read the Sherbrooke Twins, I was curious to read "Jason's story". As a few other reviewers have mentioned, the author spends way too much time reminding us how beautiful the men are (okay - we get it). Jason's story is not original. Jason in Lyon's Gate could have been James just as easily (I get that they are twins, but Jason ought to have a few characteristics that make him different from his brother), and the love interest, Hallie is a retarded version of Corrie from The Sherbrooke Twins. Corrie was amusing. Hallie is a half-wit. I understand that the heroines of these books are innocent and all, but there's innocent and then there's just stupid. Corrie was innocent. Hallie is stupid. The way the Hallie character was written, I had difficulty understanding just why the Jason Sherbrooke character would be attracted to her at all.

The situation that throws the two characters together is too contrived. I don't care how prominent the Sherbrooke family is suppposed to be. The idea of an unmarried young woman living with a man who is not her relative in the time period this story takes place in is absurd. The story just keeps falling apart from there on. The scene in this book that sets up the reason why Hallie and Jason "have to get married" is just ridiculous and embarassingly bad.

The Sherbrooke Twins was certainly not great literature, but it was a quick and entertaining read. Lyon's Gate, is just a diluted version of The Sherbrooks Twins, which is too bad. I was hoping for a better story.

After five long years, Jason Sherbrooke is returning to England. Deciding to by a horse farm, Jason comes up against Hallie Carrick who would also wants the farm. Deciding to become parnters. After a while, they learn to love each other.
I wanted to like "Lyon's Gate" by Catherine Coulter but this book was bad. I don't know what's wrong with Ms. Coulter, but the charm is gone. Her earlier books were so much better, but lately it seems that she is writing book for the money and not for the readers. So save your 9.99 or just buy a better book.

Ms. Coulter has had a steller career in the writing industry. This latest and greatest effort though seems more of a "first attempt" than that of a tried and true "New York Times" bestselling author.

The premise of the story...Jason returns to England after his abrupt departure years earlier. He's in the bed of his current lady love and feels the overwhelming need to return home to England. There he decides that he now knows what he wants to do. Run a stud farm but of course this is where the "conflict" comes in. Hallie wants the same property and as these two already have a "past" decide to work together in order to get what they both want. Of course Jason is going to go out of his way to avoid the attraction he has to Hallie, and Hallie is doing her fair share of avoidance until she sees the lovely Jason without a shirt. Well...you get the point of where the story goes from there...

This was a trite offering. Although I've enjoyed the "Sherbrooke" series in the past...this one I could have done without. I wanted to like this story...I really did but I just couldn't get past the "childish" behavior. Although dialogue was good in the beginning...it began to wear thin soon after. Hallie and Jason...what was the attraction aside from his good looking face? I truly got the point that they were all beyond steller in the face department. But, that just seems a bit shallow and truly not a basis for a good romance. Yes, they can be fine of face and form...but this reader wants something more.

The last thing I'll comment on is the return of the entire "clan." Again, I enjoyed re-visiting with the other members of this rather colorful family...they truly began to washout the story between Hallie and Jason. Final thought...borrow from the library or friend. If dead set on purchasing...I'd recommend used. This may be a paperback...but the new format has a new price and one that you may find you don't want to pay.

I was so looking forward to reading this as I did enjoy the others in this series. It seems to me that Ms. Coulter had made a list of ideas and didn't take the time to narrow them down to a plot line. So everything was just a mismatch of scenes and situations connected by inane comments and absurd moments. There was really no reason to like anyone because you never got to know them. The only people you could connect to were those you had previously met in the other books of the series.

I was looking forward to seeing Hallie grown up but she did not grow up to be the intelligent woman she showed as a child. She was more of a know it all, do it all, brat. It was like a fifth grader making fun of the boy she likes in class so that no one knows she likes him, but, of course, everyone does. UGH!

All the comments about how beautiful the twins are, Hallie father is, the children are, got OLD fast.

Also the "convenient" size book just made it easier to justify the fact that it is overpriced.

Don't waste your money. I read the humorous play on words and situations before and it was done much better in the Sherbrooke Bride. My suggestion is read the Sherbrooke Bride for prime Catherine Coulter.

As the others said, this book was BAD. I couldn't finish it. Seriously. I tried and tried, and then ultimately decided that these hours of my life should not be spent trying to force my way through an insipid book. I haven't read much of her work, but after this I'm not sure I will. I can't imagine being her editor, and having to read this book cover to cover. How did the editor not notice the 50,000 uses of the word "beautiful"? (they were a beautiful couple, he had a beautiful face, her father was beautiful (yuck. Don't want to hear how she thinks of her dad as beautiful), she was beautiful and ON and ON and ON). How how how did this get on the best-seller list???!! (ok, I know those lists are based on orders from booksellers, not from actual sales, but this book DOES NOT deserve to be on that list). The language in their conversations was weird (don't know what it was about it, but it made me cringe and want to skip ahead), the way they interracted with each other and the staff was -- I am fairly confident -- in no way historically valid, and the premise is ridiculous (that it was okay that they lived together in the same house because an aunt was there too, but not ok SPOILER ALERT that they kissed (after she "launched herself at him" because he had his shirt off -- he was THAT beautiful!), so they had to get married after kissing. Give me a break!

As the others said, please don't waste your time or money, and don't encourage her to write such drivel by purchasing this book. If you really want to read it, check the garage sales. It'll be in the "free with purchase" pile!

I usually cannot put romance novels down and i blow through them in a few hours. This one i had to force myself to finish. It was just purely bad. The plot (if you can call it that) is barely even glossed over and it's not even interesting. If you combined all the bits that were remotely "plot" oriented, you may come up with 10 or so pages. The remainder of the book (all 424 pages) is uninspired dialogue. No, uninspired is too good a description... The dialogue that is supposed to pass for clever and biting wit is corney and repeated ad nauseam. The beauty of the Sherbrookes with everyone swooning over them is the main topic of conversation the entire book. Coulter needs to stop beating a dead horse. Speaking of dead... the characters are dead in the water. Actually, there seems to be only one character in this book... and that character is cardboard and is called by different names.
When she was "writing" this book, Coulter either had someone take a dictation while she was getting her nails done or had some 12 year old intern write it for her. It would have been better and possibly more interesting if she wrote it while she was on the toilet and then flushed the pages down the U bend. I'm thoroughly irritated that I wasted 10 bucks on this %$#*!

This was one of the worst books I ever attempted to read... I say attempted because I could not finish it. This book was simply not worth my time. Hallie was immature, self-centered, shrewish and selfish and we are supposed to believe that Jason found this attractive? I cannot believe Catherine Coulter wrote this trype. The situation of the two of them living in the same house during this time period was ridiculous. And this book was an RT award nominee !! What were those people thinking !

I generally do most of my reading when I travel. This took me several trips (and months) to complete. I have read some that just start slow but I didn't like Hallie from the first moment and was sorry that she would be the love interest. She was a total shrew and I don't understand how he was even physically attracted to her. She hated him then threw herself at him at the sight of bare chest?!
I wish I had read these reviews before putting myself through this pain!!!

Oh, where?! Oh, Where has my favorite author gone?! Oh, where can she be? This book was terrible!!!! With a capital T!!I should have read the on-line reviews before I purchased the book. There was absolutely no plot, suspense, romance, or even an attraction between the main characters in this book. If you are looking for a Sherbooke classic you will be sorely disappointed. Catherine has done a great injustice to the Sherbooke twins as both of the books sucked a$$!. Is it writers block? I don't know but lately most, if not all her recent novels have fallen short. There is no suspense,no plot, no character driven story lines. I was really disappointed to see that once again the legacy of the Sherbookes has been driven to ashes.
I believe that a major part of her lack of story line with the characters is that she inputs too much unnecessary humor. I felt I was reading an annoying comedy rather than a romance novel. What she needs to do is work on her love scenes, argument/passionate scenes.The author needs to inject more romance, suspense, and strength in both her heroines and hereos. She should review her previous work like Devil's Bride, Beyond Eden and look at where she is going wrong.
In conclusion this is the last time I will buy her book, unless she writes something that can make me believe that these characters are in love.

Being an avid Coulter reader, especially of the bride series, I couldn't wait to get my hands on this book. I was disapointed to find that this book was not as good as the rest of the series. Coulter's usual edge of your seat plot lines are non existant and I found myself skipping through some parts just to find the real story. I love that she has created a historical soap opera with all her characters but in this case it cluttered the story. Lyon's Gate is a tale worth reading maybe buying if you collect the series but I won't be rereading this book anytime soon.