Customer Reviews

November of the Heart

5 star:		(35)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

well ok -not speechless- but certainly pleasantly dreamy. What a story!!!! I am IN LOVE with Jens Harkin!! Where does Lavyrle Spencer come up with these men???!!! Lorna was wonderful as well. I have never found an author that writes better heroines than LS. Both Jens and Lorna were so well developed...believable in that I didnt always agree with their actions, but fell in love with both of them regardless. This book was just riveting. I loved the conflict of their classes and all of the obstacles just had me feeling insanely impatient, but wow! What an ending. PLEASE...go buy this book and read it. You wont regret it. This is a genuine keeper that I look forward to rereading again and again.

I love this book! It's strength is not the plot, because it is kind of typical: two young people fall in love despite of their vast difference in social status, then family and social pressure force them apart, finally love conquers all. The strength of this book is the characters and the development of their relationship. It's almost refreshing to see their love blossoming from mutual attraction to friendship then grand passion over the summer, instead of the hero takes one look at the heroin and decides to possess her body and soul. The characters are believable and well suited for the period, the turn of the century. There are no bad guys in this book, the parents forced the lovers apart because they loved their daughter and believed it was for the best. So they may reconcile with their daughter, son-in-law and adorable grandson at the end. The love scenes are sweet and hot! There are a lot of details about sailing and boat-building, I wish I knew more about them, however, even if you don't know anything about them and skip those parts, you will still love the story, and love Jens and Lorna.

I loved this book! I would recommend it to anyone who wants to spend an afternoon curled up in a comfortable chair with a good book. The sailing scenes are exciting, and the story of Jens and Lorna's love and separation touching. I loved the character of Jens for his values of honesty and hard work. Ms. Spencer does a wonderful job of describing what the rich ate, wore and the activities they enjoyed, and contrasts those to the far more simple pleasures of boatracing and boatbuilding loved by Jens. I also enjoyed her descriptions of the typical behavior of the aunts and other members of Lorna's family. Aunt Agnes always fondly remembers her Captain Dearsley but Aunt Henrietta, who is so sour on men, merely warns Lorna to wear a sharp hatpin when she is alone with Taylor. Little does anyone know, Taylor is not the man Lorna is spending time with. The story of Jens and Lorna's relationship, from the first meeting in the kitchen of the Rose Point cottage to her disgrace and banishment when her parents learn she is pregnant, is funny, touching and sad by turns. The scenes I enjoyed most were near the end. I was touched when Lorna sees her son for the first time since he is born, and felt great admiration for Lorna when she risked the censure of her rich social circle by bringing her son to the regatta. LaVyrle combines plot, description and character development to make a great story. --Wynne Lewis

The setting of November of the Heart is Minnesota, 1895. Lorna Barnett, the central figure, is the beautiful eighteen-year-old daughter of Commodore Gideon Barnett, a proud man who's a member of the White Bear Yacht Club. The Barnetts are high on the social ladder, and the Barnetts expect Lorna to marry the handsome, well-off Taylor DuVal. However, one summer at their lake house, Lorna unexpectedly falls in love with the kitchenhand, twenty-five-year-old Jens Harkens, the Norweigan, and they begin a passionate, risky relationship. They both know that if they are discovered, Jens will be banished from the lakehouse. Gideon Barnett is passionate about racing boats, and after bitterly losing a race, Jens suggests that he knows how to build a better boat (after all, he is a Norweigan), so he is commissioned to build a boat for the next race. However, his tenure is cut short as his and Lorna's relationship is exposed, and Lorna's life is almost ruined with scandal.

A poignant, passionate read that deals with love at its cruelest and at its heartwarming best, but a lot of times, I felt like the plot was too stagnant and uninteresting. There are not a lot of driving moments/action that make the plot move forward, and the ending is resolved a little too neatly. However, if one does not mind the verbiage and the intense sexual scenes (if one is not comfortable with these kinds of things), then one can enjoy this cute "coming of age" novel for Lorna Barnett and her undying love for her Norweigan.

I like this book so much that I have read it more than once. Lorna is a rich girl who falls in love with Jens, the kitchen handyman. When Jens is commissioned to build a boat for Lorna's father, her love of boating has her spending a lot of time with Jens. Before long, they fall in love. But all is not smooth for these lovers as her parents forbid her to see him again.
I really liked these characters. Although Lorna was rich, she was not spoiled, and I thought she had some very real qualities. I loved Jens. He was masculine and tender and intelligent and simple. Another winner from Lavyrle Spencer.

I LOVE THIS BOOK! That really seems to be all there is to say ... it's simply fabulous. Lorna and Jens are a wonderful couple and their innocence and naivete are refreshing in lieu of other jaded romance pairings. The love is honest, the romance is true, and I always end this book on a sigh; it's that good! This novel is a must for anyone who loves romance, particularly of the sweet and endearing type!

I love this author. This is by far her best work. I get emotional sometimes when reading books, but NEVER do I cry outright. But I did while reading this book, and it wasn't pleasant. I felt so bad for Jens and Lorna during their rough times. But I also rejoiced over their happiness. Lorna was lovely and sweet (from the heart), and Jens was an honorable, handsome man worthy of a happy life. This book was so good, I still can't believe how it affected me. L.S. has the ability to put into words very strong feelings like no other author.

I'm really surprised this book's reviews are this great. It was okay if you like your hero to be the modern day equivalent of the foreign dishwasher in the back of applebees. Don't get me wrong it wasn't a bad book and I enjoyed it, and at times it brought tears to my eyes, but nevertheless it took me at least the first 100 pages to get into. That and all the nautical talk can bore the pants off of anyone.

I LOVED this book!!! It is the love story of Lorna, a rich girl (though not spoiled at all), living in the high society of Minnesota in the late 1800s, and Jens, the kitchen handyman, hired by her father to build him the fastest boat possible. The characters come to life in this book - LaVyrle Spencer at her best, so very well written that you can feel their pain, etc. Heartwrenching and very romantic. Reminds me of "Titanic" with the whole upper class/lower class theme. I can't say enough about this book. I just couldn't put it down, it is really that good!!! It is definitely one of my favorites and I recommend it to everyone!!!

Levyrle Spencer can just make you feel what her characters are feeling so effortlessly that you laugh and cry with them and almost forget that they are not real.

Lorna and Jens are one of her most real characters and their situation is also so real. The way they are helpless against their attraction to each other even after knowing it would be disastrous was so beautifully written that you could feel the sexual tension yourself whenever they were together.

Lorna was a rich girl but not spoilt at all. And Jens was poor but too ambitious and proud to become one of the servents in house for Lorna. Their attraction, like it always happens in Levyrle Spencer's romances, grew with each of their meetings to an extent that it was almost unbearable for me(and i suppose all the readers). It became something too strong and inevitable to ignore anymore. I especially liked the scene when Lorna asked Jens if he was ever going to kiss her, "I have considered ordering you to, but it didn't work before." How sweet!

People like Lorna's parents could make something so beautiful and rare into something cheap and dirty. Her mother was so convincing that she made Lorna question her own feelings. Her mother used her shame and guilt as a weapon against her love for Jens and made her give up hope. Jens was angry with her for giving up and i don't blame him.

The ending was Great! It warmed my heart to see Lorna stand up for her love and her child without any shame or guilt.

This is one of those books that you have got to read again and i definately will.