Customer Reviews

Notorious

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

In 1857, during the time of India's first uprising against the British government, Destiny Fontaine, a recent young widow whose loveless first marriage had never been consummated, meets Jason Batson in a secluded glade near her home in England. Unaware that Jason is a mercenary, hired by the British government to determine whether her father, along with Nana Sahib, is heading up India's rebellion, Destiny falls in love with him. This brief affair results in her pregnancy, which is not discovered until after Jason has spirited her aboard his ship, staffed with cutthroats and hired assassins and headed, in a deadly race against time, for India. Jason and the British government hope she will lead him to her father. Notorious is a stunning and accurate re-creation of a dark time in history, brilliantly interwoven with a passionate and dangerous love affair between two headstrong people who come from two different worlds. Ms Sutcliffe has blended the tapestry of these two worlds so well that you can taste the pungent spices in the marketplace, and your nose burns from the odor of smoke and the bloody carnage of war. You'll find yourself breathless over Destiny and Jason's turbulent love affair, and rapidly turning pages to see whether these two people and their unborn child can survive the danger constantly surrounding and bombarding them. This is by far the best historical romance I've ever read. Ms Sutcliffe has really outdone herself with this masterpiece novel; I can't recommend it highly enough. If I had to use a scale of one to ten, Notorious would have to be at least a twenty. No, make that a fifty.

Setting: England - 1857 - the High Seas and India

Lord Jason Baston is really a mercenary for the Queen of England's Special Forces called Cobra. They are the ones who go in undercover and do the most dangerous jobs of killing and rescue to protect the Crown, and as the leader, Jason is the best there is. However, he has just spent a year in confinement and is only released because he agrees to take an assignment to assassinate Lord Fontaine, an Englishman, living in India, who is believed turned traitor. Jason locates Destiny Fontaine Chesterfield, his daughter, now a widow in England to find out what she knows about her father. Jason is very strong hero, he knows what to do in tight situations, and this is his dark side, but he has a caring heart as he has a special place for women and children, he's handsome as sin and has women melting at his feet. What will he do if he has to decide between the Crown and Destiny if her father, who is also a personal friend, is guilty of treason?

When Jason and Destiny meet you can just about hear the lightening bolts hit the ground. Ms. Sutcliffe is a master at creating electrifying characters and this reader was spellbound by all that went on between the two. Believe me it is very explosive and sometimes rough and raw as the dickens. Destiny is an innocent in many ways, but a strong willed woman that is beautiful and stubborn, a courage to match Jason's, and more importantly, she's about to rock Jason's world with passion. His rules are about to go to hell in a hand basket.

When Destiny finds out her father is in trouble she is determined to get to him even if it means she has to travel on a ship loaded with unsavory cutthroats, and an ugly captain who somehow reminds her of Jason. I loved the crew of mercenaries as their personalities are revealed through the book. To make matters worse, her aunt, Diana aka Cassandra, to my way of thinking, opens Pandora's Box and makes things chaotic for everyone as she stows away on the ship. She can make you so darn mad you are ready to throw her overboard. You never know what is going to happen next in this rousing adventure that is piled high with interesting characters and secrets, life at sea, and some hot sexy love scenes to blow you out of the water at the same time. And we're not even to India yet! <Grin> We still have the bloody Sepoy rebellion to go through in Cawnpore, British East India. I was on the edge of my seat for this one. I'm glad to see some authors are taking us to exotic places. I'm ready to travel and I think a lot of other readers are too! Brava Ms. Sutcliffe.

I've just finished reading Ms. Sutcliffe's Notorious. It's been a long time since I was so completely entranced by a story. Jason and Destiny's love is a tangible thing, I found myself laughing, crying, gasping at the surprising plot twists. The incredibly descriptive scenery is the perfect background for the extraordinary love and passion these two share. England, South Africa, India. Ms. Sutcliffe's incredible talent transports you to these places in spell binding detail. Her use of secondary characters enlivens the story. I loved being on an emotional rollercoaster with Destiny and Jason. My husband is even reading the book, and enjoying it immensely. Congratulations, Katherine!

If you have a romantic streak and long for a grippingly good love story, if you're drawn to alpha males who can take on any opponent with one hand (but for one infuriatingly irresistible woman!), if you like to root for a strong-willed and worthy heroine who's more than met her match in love, then you are going to LOVE Notorious! I sure did. Populated with memorable characters battling it out in a different and dangerous setting, and seething with conflicted passion between a truly lovable hero and heroine, this new offering from Katherine Sutcliffe took me up on the first page and swept me happily away into a masterfully woven tale full of twists and turns that had me laughing, sighing, and worrying aloud. This was a delightful read! I highly recommend it.

I certainly agree with all of the glowing reviews about this book and especially lord jason and lady destiny. Incredibly drawn complex characters that you love to love. The exception is that the colorful part of the book dealing with the revolution in India is very graphic and thus disturbing. It is essential to the plot but perhaps could have been less grissly. I "skimmed" because the rest of the story was so good. And I do hope there is a sequel with brother trevor.

This was my first book by Katherine Sutcliffe and it certainly won't be the last. Notorious is an enjoyable read with some interesting twists and a trip to a different locale--colonial India.

So often in books set in the 1800's India is discussed, but rarely are we shown even a glimpse of Britain's occupation of this distant land. Sutcliffe shows us in great detail the perils of British Colonization.

The hero , Lord Justin Batson, is a wonderful troubled alpha male, in the best sense of the term. He is a leader, trusted by his men and extremely good at his job as Cobra agent--until love comes into his life. Destiny is a strong woman, who is more then a match for Justin. I saw this as a Beauty and the Beast story and that particular scenario is a favorite of mine.

This was a fun, fast read and I am hoping that Sutcliffe will give us Justin's brother Trevor's story in the future.

Who or what is Cobra? Cobra is a small, secret force of mercenary soldiers loyal to the queen.Cobra is Lord Jason Batson, their leader. They are ordered to East India to assassinate Lord Fontaine, an English diplomat who seems to be siding with the natives in a rebellion. Though brought up by his father to continue the family 'trade', the earl's harsh conditioning was not as effective with Jason as it was with his brother Trevor. Some faint spark of humanity remains in Jason. Why else would he be concerned over his friend's guilt or innocence? Why else would he let the man's daughter distract him from his duty and tempt his men to mutiny?

A widow after a miserable three months of marriage, Lady Destiny Fontaine Chesterfield is ripe for love. She believes she finds it in a handsome, sensitive man until she learns he is her father's friend working against him. Offered an opportunity to go to her father, Destiny makes her way to the Portsmouth docks where she is kidnapped and taken aboard a ship. Jason's disguise is so effective, she doesn't recognize him in the ugly, scarred captain of the Pretender.

NOTORIOUS takes its readers on a sweeping adventure from London's elite neighborhoods to bloody rebellion in India by way of a hazardous voyage at sea. In Jason, we have a dark hero indeed--a killer by profession, a man who dares not let fatherhood or a woman blunt his deadly edge. Destiny, on the other hand, is a vulnerable heroine, but one with passion. Don't look for a nice, sweet romance; these two make a fiery pair struggling against brutal circumstances. Neither makes all wise choices, nor is always admirable, but neither will leave any reader indifferent. The first and second tier characters in NOTORIOUS are completely drawn as unique individuals, though brother Trevor's story cries out to be told. All play their parts to make the story flow both logically and true to life. I liked Jason's first mate, but couldn't like Destiny's Aunt Diana. I'm not familiar enough with Ms. Sutcliffe's writing to know if I was supposed to or not, but I soon decided it's not necessary to like a character to believe in her.

NOTORIOUS is wild and raw and exciting, its hero and heroine captivating, and it's a must read for fans of historical romance in the grand tradition.

I love Katherine Sutcliffe, but this book was so horrible that I could not even finish it. I skipped and skimmed until the end. It's going straight to the trash can.

The heroine Destiny was an evil person! She actually thought she may have killed the hero and did not even go back to check on him. She had no remorse and did not feel very guilty about it. Then when she and her annoying aunt go aboard the hero's ship, and discover that the hero is the captain-the aunt shoots him! Destiny doesn't even show that she cares that the stupid aunt shot him, while he is trying to save her father and everything. I HATED Destiny and her aunt's characters. This book was just terrible.

I love this story. The evolution of Jason to a caring loving and compassionate man and of Destiny to trust and security in her love for Jason is outstanding. Of course buried beneath the soldier Jason has always been compassionate it takes a lengthy prison stay to bring it out. Destiny has married to someone who didn't like women and she being innocent thinks it is her fault that her husband killed himself. These two tortured souls definitely belong together. My only complaint was the ending. Even the epilogue was not a satisfying as it could have been, especially after the power of the rest of the story.

This book was absolutely beautiful. It was a wonderful effort by the author who showed all the best of humanity in "Jason Batson". The characters came alive in such a way that you forgot that you were reading and actually felt that you were there fighting along side them. Although "Dreamfever" is still my favorite Katerine Sutcliffe book, "Notorious" is a close second. I think I speak for all her fans when I say we want a book about Trevor!