45 of 51 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Same story, different names..., February 13, 2003
As a fan of Stephanie Laurens and the Cynster family, I was happily anticipating this book. What a dissapointment! Simon and Portia's romance is, essentially, the same story that Laurens told in her last Cynster novel, ON A WICKED DAWN, except in a different setting, with a different cast of characters. I'm not sure why this last Cynster novel was published by William Morrow instead of Avon as the others were, but the switch in publishers didn't help. The editing of this hardback novel is terrible -- there are typos throughout and no one seems to have alerted the author to the fact that she repeats the same verbs over and over again to the point that they were distracting to me. I finally started to count how many times someone "hauled in a breath" or how many times Simon "prowled" behind Portia, but finally couldn't stand it any more. I can live with mediocre editing (maybe) if I pay a paperback price, but I expect more when I'm shelling out the money for a hardcover.
Stephanie Laurens is a very talented author and all I can think is that she must have either rushed the writing of this novel or just run out of steam with this last Cynster male. It's too bad really, since she had the opportunity to write a new kind of Cynster in Simon, a man who came of age during the end of the Regency period, and on the eve of the Victorian period.
I will read her new (coming in 2003) Bastion Club novel in hopes that, by leaving the Cynsters behind, she recaptures her old spark.
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21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
I'm so glad this is the last Cynster book!, February 10, 2003
By A Customer
Plot description on this book's Amazon.com page. This is better than ON A WILD NIGHT & ON A WICKED DAWN. I really disliked those two books. DEVIL'S BRIDE was the best in this series. About this book: it was OK till about a third of the way through; then it seemed to lose its direction. There are just so many pages of sex that can take the place of character and plot development. All the two main characters did was talk about their control issues. They are not willing to risk their heart/soul to another--and the secondary characters were cardboard figures, this book could have been so much more. Simon is part of a group of males who mate for love, and are happy. Yet he seems not to want to risk anything to attain this. It's as if he is afraid of being happy and fulfilled. To be honest, I've never understood the theme that runs through these books about these strong, true men being afraid to love and equating that with the loss of control. Ms. Laurens has beat this idea to death for this series, and it's boring. Simon and Portia have pages of discussion with themselves about what they are feeling and should they/will they connect with each other and if they do can they keep something of themselves back--who cares! You can see the minor mystery coming from a mile away, and the villain is easy to spot. The promise is there but the book is disappointing. Read WORTH ANY PRICE by Lisa Kleypas instead or re-read DEVIL'S BRIDE. At the end of this book is an intro for a new series Ms. Laurens is doing that takes place in the year following Waterloo (1815) with what looks to be 7 men. Let's hope it will be different and more plot driven. Ms. Laurens--sex in romance books is always great, but it should go hand in hand with a good plot, not instead of it.
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26 of 31 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
lots of sexual scenes + murder in the library..., February 15, 2003
"The Perfect Lover" turned out to be a rather interesting read -- once I had skimmed through all those pages that dealt with the ... antics of Simon and Portia, that is. Nothing against [explicit] scenes, but there is a limit to how many such scenes I want to plod through, and when these scenes didn't really advance the plot in any way (in my opinion) and actually begin to detract from my reading pleasure -- well then what's the point of having them? And a further word of warning: if you're a mystery buff, don't expect too much from the mystery subplot. While the murder of the flighty, malicious and naive young Kitty Glossup takes place in the middle of the book, discovering who the murderer is, esp since the murderer seems to have set his/her sights on Portia, still takes back-seat to the sexual situations between Portia and Simon.
On the whole, there weren't too many things that niggled about this novel. But one thing that really puzzled was how Simon and Portia were able to disappear for hours on end and no one remark on it. (And how it is that no one notices their crumpled clothing or mussed hair also beggared belief. Ms Laurens doesn't really go into this either. Perhaps that why Simon is the 'perfect lover' in that he's able to do all those things to Portia and for her to still remain in relatively neat and pristine condition?). Portia is even able to spend several nights in Simon's bed without any servant remarking on this, and any gossip making the rounds. If anyone's looking for the perfect country house to have a tryst, Glossup Hall is definitely the place to consider! (And am I the only one to think that Portia's and Simon's sneaking around to [make love] while a murderer is stalking her odd?
The other thing that niggled was Portia's incredibly modern attitude about having an illegitimate child. About halfway through the book, while she's pondering whether or not to surrender her virginity to Simon, she suddenly decides that the whole concept about an unmarried woman being a virgin was an outdated thing and that having a child out of wedlock would not be a problem because she came from a loving and supportive family that would not turn their backs on her. And anyway who cares what Society thinks? Not she! The fact that the unfortunate child would face taunts and some ostracism at school and later on in life never even crosses the silly twit's mind. To clarify: there's nothing wrong about Portia's attitude if this were a modern day romance novel, but in 1830? No matter how forward thinking, no sensitive woman would have wanted to burden any child with the stigma of illegitimacy.
On the whole, though, except for these two issues, I rather enjoyed "The Perfect Lover." Stephanie Laurens did a rather good job of melding together the murder at a country house subplot with that of a sensual ... romp. I also liked the little character sketches she provided in the first chapter of all the guests at the house party, as well as how she managed to imbue the novel with an atmosphere of impending doom and disaster. Also nicely done was how Ms Laurens explored the whole issue of marriage, what it entails and means, by juxtaposing the unhappily married Kitty Glossup's antics with Portia's serious ruminations. I even enjoyed the pairing of Simon and Portia and rather wished that Ms Laurens had spent more time exploring their friendship and blossoming love instead of concentrating on bedroom gymnastics. I also rather wished that she had spent a little more time dwelling on how and why Kitty had ended the way she had, and in fleshing out a couple more characters, like Winifred Archer (Kitty's elder sister), (more esp) Drusilla Calvin, a mousy and frumpy spinster who seems to have little or no interest in any of the eligible men at the house party, and the Bow Street investigator, Stokes.
Given that I don't generally expect much from a Cynster novel, "The Perfect Lover" was a pleasant surprise. However, I do think that this is a novel that fans of the Cynsters will enjoy more fully, as I was definitely left with the feeling that while this was a pleasant enough read, the novel could have been so much more if certain aspects, characters and the murder subplot had been more developed.
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