No Dark Place [Paperback]

Joan Wolf (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Harpercollins (1999)
• ASIN: B000WL71AO
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,741,426 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Joan Wolf is a USA TODAY bestselling American writer, whose acclaimed Regency romances have earned her national recognition as a master of the genre. Her many historical and contemporary romances, some of which have been chosen as Literary Guild selections, have been highly praised by reviewers and authors alike.

Joan was born in 1951 and she grew up in the Bronx, New York. A former English teacher, she obtained a Bachelor's degree in Mercy College and Master in English and Comparative Literature at Hunter College. An avid rider and horse owner, Joan lives in Connecticut with her husband Joe and two grown children, Jay and Pam.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Characters who actually have half a brain, June 19, 2000

By 

Kathbyrd "kathbyrd" (Ohio, USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: No Dark Place (Mass Market Paperback)

Some previous reviews note the lack of steamy sex or passion, and a hero who is a bit too controlled. I personally found this a big plus in the novel. Wolf actually grounds her characters in the mores of the time (with reasonable deference to modern sensibilities, such as making our heroine an herbalist). That means sex had consequences; marriage was a serious business. So I enjoyed this story where the hero and heroine are in love, yet somehow manage to plan rationally about how to be together. I find it jolting to read a historical romance where the virginal heroine engages in steamy sex two minutes after meeting the hero. Hellloo! What alternate reality was that? Wolf's realism is one reason several reviewers commented they wanted to learn more about the era -- she actually tells us something about this period. NET, if you want an intelligent love story, with people you'd actually like to have a conversation with, in a historic period that actually occurred in this reality's timeline, I highly recommend this book. Also: Kinsale's My Lady's Heart. Kinsale takes it one step further to use time-appropriate language in a way that really transports you into the period.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Most excellent, doesn't harp on the romance, October 3, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: No Dark Place (Hardcover)

You really get to know the male protaganist in this story. The romance is sweet, but not over the top/in your face. The real story here is uncovering the past for the male protaganist, and, in doing so, finding out who really murdered his father. Highly recommended. Light weight historical romance. Does make you want to go find out more about the King Stephen / Empress Matilda era of England, and how THAT issue was resolved.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A pleasure to read!, April 11, 2004

By 

Kali "bengaligirl" (United Kingdom) - See all my reviews

This review is from: No Dark Place (Mass Market Paperback)

I'm amazed that more people don't like this book! Only three stars overall, were are the literary appreciators in this world, standing behind the door me thinks!

It was a great read from beginning to end, and it reminds me a lot of the Cadfael series of books in that it is set in the same time period but follows the fortunes of the young Hugh Corbaille (de Leon) and his search for his true identity and the murderer of his true Crusader father Roger de Leon.

We are treated to a mystery within a mystery, first there is the mystery of who Hugh actually is and then there is the mystery of who murdered his real father.

Hugh has been raised the as the adopted son of the Sheriff of Lincoln but his early childhood is shrouded in mystery.

The Sheriff took him in after finding him half dead one winter's night and quickly realised the boy was not a Saxon child as he spoke Norman French and for the next thirteen years Hugh lived a happy half life, unable or unwilling remember his past but with the death of his beloved Foster Father, he finds himself travelling down a path that could either free him from his unspoken nightmares or kill him as it had killed his real father so many years before...

Joan Wolf obviously did a lot of research before writing this book and I found it exciting and interesting, even enjoying the romance between Hugh and the 16 year old daughter of the Knight Nigel Haslin along with a cast of other savoury and unsavoury characters such as Hugh's Uncle, now the Earl of Wilshire, a title that in reality belongs to Hugh as his father' heir, and his troubled birth mother, the beautiful Isabel who has many secrets of her own she'd rather keep to herself.

All in all it was a very good book, enjoyable all the way through and well worth reading if you get the chance.