Customer Reviews

Mad Jack (Bride Series)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(14)
1 star:		(22)

 

 

Mad Jack by Catherine Coulter got placed back on my bookshelf with her other works!. This was a fun read because it was so different than anything else I had read by Coulter. It's set in 1811 London and Mad Jack turns out to be a young woman who has run away from her stepfather who plans to have her marry a sinister old man. She is aided by becoming the "male" valet to two lovely aunts of, of course, an attractive single Lord of the manor. Now, you may think, oh,this is just another love story...Not true! For instance, Lord Durban meets Mad Jack after "he" has stolen Durban's horse and when he catches "him," he attacks "him" as the horse thief Mad Jack is...well, you get the picture...soon he finds out that he has been beating up on a young lady--quite a pretty young lady indeed. Only to have her kidnapped... Ah, quite a romp around merry ole England...what?

I paid the outlandish price for this book, assuming that Coulter would be up to her usual high standards. Such was not the case. The dialogue was almost bizarrely stilted ("I'm a man. I'm handsome and charming..... You will admire me. You will be pleased that I'm your husband. You will obey me, but I will never trust you".) Does/did anybody ever talk that way? Coulter also brought in characters from previous books, such as Sinjun and Colin, Ryder, and Douglas, which, I admit, influenced my decision to buy the book. Like the dialogue, though, their presence seems awkward and contrived, leading me to suspect they were reintroduced to lend some credibility to a vague plot (the heroine, Mad Jack, is trying to avoid being married off by her wick stepfather, hence the quickly failed masquerade as a male). Do yourself a favor and wait until your local library has this book. It's not worth buying...........

After having revised all of her early regencies and revisited them on the world, Catherine Coulter has now resorted to recycling her efforts. This is a badly disguised reprise of her Phillip Mericault book with plot twists that are more like limp threads that go nowhere and leave one dangling. For example, "Jack" is a female named Winifrede (why not call her Fred? At least one could keep the names straight) who takes refuge--no reason given--at the hero's great aunts' home. The three promptly move to hero's home--no reason given. Almost immediately heroine runs away and is caught in rainstorm and develops runaway fever which can only be reduced by sponging her breasts, etc. Naturally hero has to marry her (sound familiar)? Throw in a missing magic lamp (which nobody searches for)... Sherbrooke couples who serve no purpose other than to stage all their sexual arguments in the hero's home...a potential racing cat who may or maynot be pregnant...and what do you have? A mish-mosh enlived by typical Coulter blither (that's blather delivered in a falsetto). Only redeeming feature: the two great aunts.

I'm not really a Catherine Coulter Fan but I like all her Sherbrooks audio books read by Anne Fosnik. I like her twist and turn of the story, her sense of humor, wits and dialogues. I also like her strong and intelligent heroines, who, regardless may be irritating from time to time, are nonetheless never helpless females.
Yes I agree her books sometimes can be too much redundancy which bores me. But I understand she had to do it to fill enough pages..... Still Mad Jack is enjoyable. To be fair I think Mad Jack deserves at least 3 stars or a bit more.

I don't know why others complained about Mad Jack. I finished it and found that it was a good read. Especially if you have already been a big fan of Catherine Coulter, don't seriously take into account many negative feedbacks this title receives. Just read it and you also will not understand why others complained about it. Ms Coulter is always Ms Coulter. She never loses quality in writing romantic seences and adding sense of humor into her books.

I have ready many of Ms. Coulter novels and this was, by far, the worst. The sentences were short, stilted, and repetitive. Where was the plot, the story line? This book seemed like it was written with no effort or thought. She kept repeating the same thing to take up space. This one is going in the recycle bin! I know she can write better than this.

I am an avid reader of romance and LOVE Catherine Coulter and Johanna Lindsey. This book, Mad Jack, was not one of her best. The story line falls flat and there didn't seem to be much passion between Jack and Grey.

In the beginning, he nurses her back to health and she is naked infront of him for four days and he feels very little attraction to her. I also found confusing the many scenes with a lot of the characters from her other "Bride" books. The sex, however, is as steamy as always. She gets an A+ for that! The mystery that is mentioned lasts about two chapters and then is resolved so that didn't add too much to the book but who reads romance for the mystery?

All in all, not a bad effort and it's a quick read.

Catherine Coulter is usually an amazing writer. But I think she rushed this one, not the plot line itself but I'm sure she was working under a deadline and it just wasn't working. She needs to slow down and stop trying to put out so many books.

i can understand the way some people feel about this book. it's the kind of book either you love to death or it's the kind of book you wish you never read. i for one, loved this book. granted it wasn't the best story line, but there were some funny scenes that i couldn't help laughing aloud at. Jack is a very starightforward type of person, and i wish i could get to know her better. Gray is the kind of man i'd like to meet [not marry mind you]. it was funny to me. i hope you read it. but if you don't like it, don't swear off her other books. some of them are the best i've ever read. she will always be the best romance writer in my mind[but that doesn't mean she's perfect, everyone makes mistakes sometimes]. enjoy!

I'm a big fan of Coulter, but this book was a huge disappointment. The plot was bad and so was the writing. I'm glad she wanted to bring back characters from the Bride series, but what was the purpose of them in the novel? My advice would be to wait until the library offers it. Not worth paying that much for a book you will never finish.