Marna [Mass Market Paperback]

Norah Hess (Author)

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Love Spell (February 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 050552550X
• ISBN-13: 978-0505525505
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 1.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,008,901 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Trite and trashy, it puts the "rape" into bodice-ripper, August 29, 2007

By 

Aislinn Jones (Atlanta, GA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Marna (Mass Market Paperback)

I am so glad I didn't pay money for this book.

I picked this up at my local library. It was a new book and I vaguely recognized the author's name so decided to give it a try. Little did I know it is a reprint of a 1980 romance novel. Romance novels have come a loooooong way since 1980 and this book is an excellent (negative) example of what the genre has evolved from.

Synopsis: Marna is a fifteen year old (yes, fifteen) living on the Kentucky frontier with her grandmother and abusive grandfather. Marna's grandmother lets her run wild and encourages poor hygiene in order to hide Marna's beauty from the neanderthal men around them. Enter Matt, a fur trapper raised by his grandfather to view women as expendable. Marna and Matt enter a marriage of convenience in order to save Marna from her reprehensible grandfather. Marna and Matt then struggle with their feelings for one another against a background of the American Revolution and early frontier life.

By page 50, I realized that every woman who had been introduced had been raped or horribly abused in some fashion. It did not get better from there. Matt turns a blind eye to the repeated abuse of a woman in his trapping party. Matt also has no problem with expending some of his "male energies" on the madam of the brothel, repeatedly and with no regret. Marna figures out what Matt does with his time and accepts it without demur. Matt also basically rapes Marna later in the book; Marna, of course, has no issue with his bad behavior but thinks it is proof of his feelings for her.

I have no idea why or how these two characters fell in love with one another. One page they are spitting at one another and on the next they are harboring secret feelings for each other. This book is poorly written with little access to the inside of the characters' heads. Of course, considering the actions they make, perhaps I don't want to know what is in their heads.

Stay far, far away from this book.

9 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Save your money and time!!!, January 13, 2005

By 

Crushes "Romance booklover" (San Jose, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Marna (Mass Market Paperback)

Please, if you value your time and have an appreciation for a good story, do not read this trash. I know this sounds harsh, but it's the honest truth. The two protagonists are named Marna and Matt. The characters are not well developed, their love for each other comes out of nowhere, and the more you read, the more angry you get at the stupid characters. He trades sex with a [...] to get Marna a bed, and she sleeps with some other guy that she's been attracted to when she thought Matt was dead. I have read this author before, and those books were okay. However, after this one, never again. I'm going to stick with the better authors like Julie Garwood and Linda Howard who are sure to never disappoint. I would be so embarrassed had I written this stuff for public consumption. If I could have given this a negative star, I would have.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars The Worst!, December 18, 2009

By 

Poohlicous "book maven" (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Marna (Mass Market Paperback)

This is quite possibly the worst book that I've ever read. The "Hero" Matt rapes the "heroine" Marna. Matt has sex with a prostitute in exchange for the prostitute's bed, and then brings the bed home to his sick wife Marna and has sex with Marna on that same bed. Then Marna's father marries that same prostitute so now Marna's father and husband have had sex with her new mommy.

Don't buy this book!!