Customer Reviews

The Merry Widow

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

I have long been a fan of Meagan McKinney yet she continues to get better! I love romance but it has been awhile since I have come across a book that grips me from start to finish. For the first time in months I found myself sacrificing all hours to finish The Merry Widow. McKinney manages to create male characters that are dark, passionate and fierce - and yet men you love. Her heroines are gutsy and rich in character. History and locale come to life. If I were to offer any criticism of this wonderful novel, it would be on a passage where the main characters are finally reunited. I was disappointed at the lack of excitement. I had been reading fast and furious to this point and yet was let down with the almost casual description. However, with that singular criticism, this book is the best one I've read ( and I've read several!) in months. Enjoy, Enjoy!

I think some of the reviews below are overly harsh... I would give this book a B- to B grade. It's fun in its way. The settings (Arctic and Gilded Age New York) are interesting, and so are the characters. The premise is unique. There are some cliches (orpahned children and kindly housekeeper) but the story is suspenseful throughout. I did not mind the hero's harshness, given what the heroine had done I thought she was lucky he didn't sic the police on her. I enjoy a dark romance with lots of tension between the hero and heroine and this book had that. I did think that all the stuff with the painting at the end was predictable and silly. But overall I found this book entertaining. Not on the order of Lions & Lace, Fair is the Rose, or A Man to Slay Dragons, but still worth reading for McKinney fans.

When artic explorer Noel Magnus, searching for the missing Franklin expedition, kept putting off marriage to Rachel Howland, the only white woman in the frozen north, she took the cursed black opal he wanted and fled to Noel's home in New York, posing as his widow. Along the way, she acquires two homeless children who are also seen as Noel's children. When Noel arrives in New York, he vows to make Rachel's life hell. In addition, Rachel is being threatened by Noel's sworn enemy and competitor, Edmund Hoar.

A vast improvement over McKinney's last novel, this is a rich tale filled with conflict and tension. THE MERRY WIDOW kept me reading until the last page, long after my bedtime.

It was a cute story with an unusual setting. I am surprised at the negative reviews. It was an emotional turning story, which is a Meagan McKinney trait. I thought the book was endearing, and I was rooting for the heroine to finally get together with the hero and reach that HEA. Noel was one of those tortured heroes with a troubling childhood, but that's what makes the story. So, if dark, angst filled and tortured heroes are your thing, you will love this book.

Great book. I started this book just beore my bedtime and could not put it down, I traded in sleep for finishing this book. I have not read such an interesting book in a while.

I am a big fan of Meagen McKinney's but found this book to be very disappointing. At first, I enoyed the heroine as she stuck with her beliefs and morals. I found the "hero", however to be excessively violent and akin to a spoiled four year old child. His frequent outbursts bored me and I admit that I have yet to find the energy to finish the book.

I have read hundreds and hundreds of historical romances, and I like a strong and sometimes moody hero as well as the next person, but the hero of this book is simply abusive. I'm about 3/4 of the way through the book and I have yet to see any tenderness. He behaves as though he hates her. This is romance? I don't think so.

OK, there was a whaling station on Herschel Island in the 1880's. As the crow flies, it's about 800 miles from where Sir John Franklin perished, but nobody knew that then. So I suppose it's plausible that at the time he could have been thought to have reached Herschel Island.But since he did die on King William Island and we know that now, there is no way he could have wandered 800 miles on foot to deposit an opal. Our hero certainly takes the long way round to get back to New York. York Factory is 1000 miles as the crow flies through the coldest country in the world, and the least populated. The Iditarod in Alaska covers roughly 1200 miles and can be run in as little as 9 days, but that is a marked trail with trailbreakers and the dogs consume 10,000 calories per day each. Setting out in the dead of winter would be suicidal. The worst mistake however, is having our kidnapped heroine and the dastardly Edmund Hoar disembark in Halifax, where they hire dogs, but set out initially with a mule train. Heading north from Halifax one would cross the well populated province and then encounter a rather large stretch of open ocean before bumping into the province of Quebec. Proceeding north, I suppose that they could use a dog team, but would wind up quite far east of Herschel Island, which is on the other side of the country in the Beaufort Sea off the Yukon Territories. This book has a silly plot, a too angelic heroine, a virile idiot cad as a hero, and a one dimensional villainous villain.But the worst of it is the utter and complete lack of research that the author has done. And please, although it is in that foreign country, Canada, Halifax has a benign climate and we have never used dog sledding as a mode of transport, any more than they do in Boston.

I have enjoyed books by Meagan McKinney before...however, I actually put his one down about half-way through. The characters were inconsistent and the lead male was very abusive and irrational. All-in-all, this book was highly lacking.

I loved the setting of this book. To start out in the arctic tundra and then to New York City, this book kept me captivated. I will concede that when Noel came to NYC to find Rachel, he was quite angry and yes, verbally abusive. However the "prank" she pulled was no small deceit. And after what he had gone through to get back to Hershel to finally give her what she so wanted, I could somewhat understand his outrage. I thought this book, like all of McKinney's books was beautifully written and her dialogue is some of my favorite in the romance genre. Two of my favorite quotes:

Noel to Rachel:
"There was never a moment that passed that I did not think of you, or picture you, or want you."

Noel to Rachel:
"You capture me, Rachel, whether you know it or not. I would have walked to the ends of the earth for one of your smiles, and I would have gladly died in an attempt to get there. I would have seen to your protection at the risk of my own. I would have done anything for you..."

So as much as people are disappointed with this hero, I am not. Like many of my favorite heroes he is dark, brooding, damaged in some way. But Noel does love Rachel and it was evident to me from their first scene together in Hershel. Rachel is a strong, loveable heroine and I didn't find her to be a typical, fiesty-ish, cliche of a heroine. She was open, honest, unwavering in her beliefs and the only part of the book I didn't like was her sudden misguided attempt to please Noel with the painting/dress fiasco. I thought this was pretty foolish and unnecessary to the story. Other than that, I loved the book and recommend it to other fans of dark / tortured heroes. Keep in mind, it's not for the faint of heart.