Customer Reviews

Moonlit

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Mrs. Nolan (Nell) is not quite the courtesan she pretends to be. Trevor St. Wulfstan is not quite the wicked viscount he claims to be either. The two of them are incomprehensibly drawn together and bound in a marriage that might not be quite what either really wants, but seems preferable to a life apart.

Having been an Emma Jensen fan for some time--I have been enjoying some of her earlier Regency novels lately--I waited to begin this book until I knew I had time to read it straight through, because her books always keep me turning the pages in eager anticipation of the satisfyingly happy ending. And this book did not disappoint.

The only *tiny* criticism I would dare to make would be the weakness of Nell's plot for revenge--I was never completely clear on why this was so important to her in view of subsequent events--and also the assassination plot, that had nothing to do with Trevor's secret activities during the war. I'm not sure that it added anything to the story, since Nell didn't even know about it until it was over.

But this book will definitely keep me hungry for others by this author. Keep up the good work!

Viscount Trevor Robard, grew up abused by a nasty father who not only left the man with physical and mental scars, he wasted the family estate so that the St. Wulfson heritage is one of decay and depradation. Trevor relishes his seedy reputation among the Ton as "Sin" though he also performs the dirty deeds for his country including assassination.

The Widow Nell Nolan, former mistress to the late Lord Clonegal, is on a quest of her own. She wants to confront Lord Routland over the money her deceased spouse left in his care for her when he died at the battlefield. Her only avenue to his estate is acting like a whore so that one of the rakes escorts her. Trevor agrees to take her to see Routland in exchange for an evening of sex. He succeeds, she confronts, but she also flees before their evening together. Nell fears Trevor because she knows he is the one from the broken mirror a long time ago in Ireland. Trevor plans to collect, but love is a powerful stimulant.

Award winning Emma Jensen has written a stalwart Regency romance that will thrill fans due to the lonely lead couple. The story line engages the audience from start to finish while showcasing the author's ability to refresh sub-genre elements. The keys remain Trevor and Nell who defy polite society that would prefer to flush them away. Ms. Jensen has another humdinger of a novel that will brighten the day of her innumerable fans.

Harriet Klausner

When Nell Nolan's companion and protector dies, she visits her friend, renowned courtesan Anastasia Balashova, ostensibly to find a new protector. Nell is a young Irish widow who has come to London to settle an old score. No one appeals to her until she meets scarred Trevor Robard, Viscount St. Wulfstan. Wulf agrees to escort Nell to the Golden Ball in exchange for a night with her. Unbeknownst to Trevor, Nell doesn't intend to fulfill her end of their bargain. She is not quite the courtesan she pretends to be.
Battling the ghosts of his past, Trevor is not quite the wicked Viscount he claims to be. Trevor's persistence and kindness slowly wear down Nell's defenses, and a complex and compelling relationship evolves between the pair as they return to Trevor's impoverished ancestral home, Connemara. The two of them are incomprehensibly drawn to each other and end up bound in a marriage that might not be quite what either really wants, but is much preferable to a life apart.
This is a story about a relationship between two people who each have dark secrets. Both have experienced intense unhappiness in their lives, and carry with them the scars to prove it - his visible, her's are beneath the surface, but no less painful. Trevor leapt off the page for me. He is the consummate hero- the height of his arrogance, he's dangerous, wild, darkly charming, extremely intelligent, brave and sexy as can be. Counter that with the cool, restrained passion of Nell - restrained until she met Trevor. She made him feel so loved and so worthy, as he did with her! These two were perfect for each other. Although not a hot and steamy romance, I still found it to be well worth my time. I found the romance and relationship believable, emotional and I genuinely cared what happened to them.
Emma Jensen has created a cast of characters with surprising depth and personality. Her knowledge of Ireland's traditions and language is a bonus. She is a very gifted storyteller. A+

Actually 4 1/2 stars but I'm rounding up based on Trevor alone! I adored him - the height of arrogance, he's also dangerous, wild, darkly charming, extremely intelligent, brave and oozing sex appeal and passion. He fairly leapt off the page for me.

Counter that with the cool, restrained passion of Nell - restrained until she meets Trevor, that is. These two are perfect for each other. Both have experienced deep unhappiness in their lives, and carry with them the scars to prove it - his visible, her's under the surface, but no less painful. He tries to ignore and suppress his painful past, she is more likely to confront it. Which makes for some difficulties in the relationship until they learn to truly trust one another.

I loved Trevor's character from his introduction in the wonderful Entwined and his outrageous flirting with Isobel. He's one of those guys that you wish you could dislike, but you just can't help but fall for. And so does Nell. I found their romance and relationship believable, poignant and I cared what happened to them.

A nice end to an uneven trilogy. Enwtined was wonderful - the best in the series and one of the best stories I've ever read! Fallen was a dissappointment. I wanted to adore Gabriel and Maggie, but they didn't particularly move me at all. But with Moonlit, the author has bounced back. Though not to the standard of Enwtined, it still was an entertaining, passionate and poignant read. I look forward to Ms. Jensen's next effort. She could continue with some of the secondary characters from these books for future stories. How about Nathan's brother William or Maggie and Isobel's incorrigible sister Tessa?

Somestimes trilogies fall flat after the first or second book. For instance, Nicole Jordan started out strong with the wonderful SEDUCTION, slid downhill slightly with PASSION and, in my opinion, fell flat with DESIRE. However, Ms. Jensen delivers in all three of her "men of the secret service" books. If you haven't read the first two books in this set, start with ENTWINED, then FALLEN and finally MOONLIT. Great reading. You will come to care for each and every character in her stories. The plots are tight, the heroines are intelligent, and the love scenes more than statisfying. Try Gaelen Foley's LORD OF FIRE while you're ordering. My first book by her and what a pleasant surprise. Love those stories heavy on seduction!

This was a beautiful love story (and contrary to the last review, the protagonists weren't at all plain). Nell and Trevor were flawed but fascinating. Unlike too many romances where two too-different characters are manipulated into a pair, these two really belong together. I cried more than once and had a hard time putting the book down.

This is a keeper.

Trevor, Viscount Wulfstan, is another survivor of the Ten, the elite espionage corps who worked on the continent in the fight against Napoleon - we met Nathan in Entwined and Gabriel in Fallen. Wulf is the member who Nathan believed had turned traitor, only to discover near the end of Entwined that he was still loyal. Physically scarred since his teenage years, Wulf also carries mental scars.

At a soiree hosted by a famous courtesan, Wulf sees Nell Nolan, who is rumoured to have been the late Duke of Clonegal's mistress (and no, Harriet Klausner, she was never actually his mistress). Nell wants a favour: she wants one of her aristocratic flirts to take her to the Golden Ball. Wulf offers on condition that she spend the night with him; she accepts, but has no intention of fulfilling her side of the bargain.

When he discovers that she intends to welsh on the deal, Wulf is angry, but he decides that he will win her for himself. He does... but in the end surprises both himself and her by asking her to marry him. However, he believes himself incapable of love, and while Nell loves him, she believes that he can never love her back because he believes that she was a courtesan. Once they return to Ireland, though, things change...

Again, I was disappointed with this book. I loved Entwined, didn't care for Fallen, and now with Moonlit have just about decided not to read any more by Jensen. Her earlier work, in particular His Grace Endures and The Irish Rogue, ranks very high among my favourites, but this trilogy has been for the most part a disappointment. Halfway through the book, I still didn't really care about the two lead characters, which is a disaster in terms of reader commitment to the book. When I read a Balogh, a Putney or a Beverley, by two chapters in I'm hooked and desperately keen to find out what happens to the lead characters.

There were too many plot threads: I agree with the reviewers who said that. It's as if Jensen doesn't believe that a longer book can be carried on the basis of a romance/relationship plot alone, and so she feels compelled to add an action/dramatic plot. It was superfluous, and in the end felt forced.

And I was very disappointed to see that Jensen is getting sloppy in her writing. She's very good at Scottish and Irish history, language and idioms, and in previous books her characters have also managed to speak upper-class nineteenth-century English very well. In this book, though, she used too many Americanisms - and contemporary Americanisms at that. They jolted me right out of the story.

Wishing Jensen could return to the talent she showed in The Irish Rogue...

I remember a couple of years ago, some woman wrote a 'self help' book which said that if you truly wanted to keep a man, then you should submit to his every whim, obey his every command and always tell him he's right, even when he's incredibly wrong. Sane women everywhere condemned that book, and with good reason. But this book, Moonlit, seems to be perpetuating that rationale. The heroine, Nell, is an utter doormat, and unfortunately she lets the hero, Trevor St Wulfstan, wipe his feet on her as often as he likes--no matter what, he never wears out his welcome on her doorstep.

This book is so badly written that if I used it as toilet paper, my bottom would be offended! As a writer, I was heartbroken to see the art of writing brought so low. And even though I'm not Irish, I was aghast at seeing Ireland being stereotyped as badly as it was here--I swear, if I'd had to read one more of these stereotypes, I was going to do something ungodly with a shamrock and a leprechaun that would have involved some discomfort to the leprechaun, and left him looking like a celtic knot. (I mean no offence to leprechauns, I was just that mad!)

This book was peppered with constant contradictions. For instance, at one stage it is alleged that the hero does not usually show his emotions--and yet, up until that point, all he has done is be blatantly angry, jealous, resentful and impatient. Hello, those are EMOTIONS! Actually, the hero spends the whole book being arrogant and ill-tempered, enough to make him exceptionally unattractive. He never asks, he only orders, and never in a nice way. And that doesn't change--he doesn't evolve, but stays that way till the end. He manhandles Nell with alarming frequency, often grabbing her and pushing her around. At no point did I like him. He behaved like a bratty four year old. Indeed, at one point he says, "Don't make me chase after you again, Nell. It will only make me cranky. I will find you, be sure of that, and you don't want me cranky when I do." Not only does he sound like a crazed stalker, but what grown man refers to himself as being 'cranky'? Cranky is a word you use to describe a small child who's missed his nap, not an adult male in a romance novel! Worst of all though, this guy did NOT know the meaning of foreplay. The sex scenes were godawful and dull, with not a hint of realism. Only once during the whole book did Trevor actually do something just for Nell in the bedroom, and it took him weeks to get around to that one VERY brief act. Trevor was selfish and uncaring, and negligent of Nell's needs. And yet, somehow, she loved him, and never really argued with him or resented him. I ended up with no respect for either character.

Sadly, the author's choice of wording in this book really annoyed me. For instance, the characters never just turned around, they always 'spun on their heel'. And they did that VERY often. The whole lot of them must have been extremely dizzy by the end of the book, what with all that spinning. Their heels must have been worn down, too. And the hero could never just open a door, he always had to kick it open. No wonder he was short of money--the cost of replacing all the doors he'd kicked the crap out of must have sent him broke. Someone really should have taken him aside and said, "Trevor, this is called a doorknob--here's how you use it."

The only really nice thing in this book was the occasional use of Gaelic language--the writer probably spent a few hours researching that. But that alone wasn't enough to redeem this book in my eyes. By the end of it, I was just praying for it to end quickly. But even the end of the book was poorly written, illogical, and very predictable--except for the bit in the graveyard. I won't spoil it for you if you actually want to read it for yourself, but what Trevor leaves on a particular grave was not what I expected, and actually made me feel a bit uncomfortable. That act marked Trevor as an eternal boor who respected nobody, not even the departed. It was supposed to be a happy ending, where the heroine finally gets something that she has always wanted from Trevor, but I hated it.

I had such high hopes for this book. The plot sounded good. I liked the idea of a scarred, vulnerable hero. I thought this would be a bit of a 'Beauty and the Beast' tale. But no, my hopes were tragically dashed. In places, this was a little like a pale imitation of Laura Kinsale's book 'Flowers from the Storm'. However, that is the best I can say about it.

Emma Jensen, I WON'T be reading any more of your books, not even if they're giving them away for free! I have better, more pleasant things to do with my time, like cleaning the toilet and putting out the trash.

Emma Jensen's first book in her regency-era trilogy (Entwined) was wonderful and I didn't think that another could top it. The second one, Fallen, was a disappointment -- too convoluted and lacking the magic of Entwined. So it was with some hesitation that I started Moonlit. Happily, with Moonlit, Ms. Jensen is back on target. What I like about this book (and Entwined) is that the protagonists are well developed and a bit flawed. The heroes may be handsome and brave, but the are somewhat damaged (in both cases physically and mentally). The heroines are strong and attractive, but not necessarily beautiful. In Moonlit, the romance between Trevor, Viscount St. Wulfstan and Nell Nolan somehow seems real and poignent -- no small achievement in a cliche ridden genre. I've given this book 4 stars -- it would have been 5 stars but for the somewhat plodding assasination subplot -- that just seemed a bit contrived. For those who did like Entwined, the Marquess of Oriel and his bride make a brief but useful appearance. Ms. Jensen also carries on with the issues surrounding the returned Peninsular War veterens and their difficulties adjusting to "normal" life after their years as Wellington's spies. All around, a really good book!

I enjoyed both Entwined and Fallen, Jensen's two previous books about the infamous "Ten" spying group, but, for my money, Moonlit is the best of the bunch.

The heroine and hero are both memorable, the plot is more complex and believeable than most Regency's, and the sex is hotter--and a bit more daring--than in the previous two. Kudos to Ms. Jensen for three solids reads!