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53 of 56 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Prince from Hell....................spoiler alert!!!!!!, August 5, 2007
Kleypas is one of my all time favorite romance writers. The hero's in 'Then Came You' and 'Devil in Winter' are in my top five. It pains me to do this, but Prince Nikolas from 'Prince of Dreams' is simply a horrible hero. No redeeming qualities what so ever.
No summary here, but simply why I hate him. He doesn't care about ANYBODY but himself. Here come the SPOILERS so be warned: Nikolas wants Emma, so what does he do? Court her? No. He sneaks around and gets rid of any potential suitors. What happens when she claims to be in love with one of them? He threatens the man secretly and forces him to flee to the continent. She's heartbroken and believes that no one will love her. On top of that she blames her father due to his former objections. Aha! But who is waiting in the wings to pick up the pieces? Yes you guessed it! Neanderthal Nikolas.
Emma's father hates Nikolas. The prince uses that knowledge to lead her into a seduction knowing that defying her father would give her great satisfaction. So they marry. He promises her that he will do everything in his power to make her happy. Does he? In a word -NO.
He distances himself physically and mentally from her. He tends to business all day and she to her animals. At night they make 'love' -if you could call it that, but he never lingers afterward and never EVER does he want her to touch him in any affectionate way at ANY time. Yes I know he's been tortured and had a horribly abusive childhood -yada yada. You'd think that maybe he would crave love? No. So instead of wallowing in his wife's affections, what does he do? He goes to a brothel!!! And he doesn't see anything wrong with it!
Then his ba*ta*d son shows up at his front door. Nikolas is simply mean to him and doesn't spare even a moment of thought about him. He's determined to get rid of him until Emma, outraged, swoops down and takes the boy under her wing.
So after being such a jerk how does Nikolas turn into a loving hero? Now that's the kicker! He's -get this- warps back into the past. Into his previous life. I kid you not. To the outside world he has simply fainted after seeing a painting of one of his ancestors, but in his head he 'dreams' that he is back 150 years with the love of his life -Emelia. So when he comes 'out' and back to the 'real' world he's a changed man.
So now (seemingly with the snap of the fingers) he's in love with Emma or is it really Emelia? And this is my biggest problem with the whole book. The reader never gets any indication that its really Emma that Nikolas loves and not Emelia from the 'past/dream'. This disturbs me.
So maybe the book isn't 'horrible' compared to other historical romances but it stinks compared to other Kleypas works. I HIGHLY recommend 'Dreaming of You', 'Then Came You', 'Lady Sophia's Lover' and 'Devil in Winter'.
Avoid this book. Hate me. I don't care. This one is just a bad egg amongst Kleypas's shining jewels.
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23 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Wonderful Characters - too bad story fizzled, April 10, 2006
As I finished Midnight Angel, I knew that I would be reading Prince of Dreams immediately. How I yearned to see what kind of story Kleypas would weave for a compassionate, yet untamed woman (Emma) and a tortured, soulless Russian prince (Nikolas). The story began with great promise, yet somewhere a wrong turn was made. The visions that Nikolas had were my first tip-off to the bizarre "pre-life" that would predominate the second half of this novel.
I was really impressed with what Nikolas went through to claim Emma. He manipulated her and those around her unceasingly as was his nature. I truly felt her despair when he turned away any affection that Emma tried to give him. How could she draw him into a loving relationship? You feel her anger when he becomes unfaithful in his attempts to push her and his feelings away because you just know that he can never outrun her love and compassion ... but another betrayal makes it evident that there is a long way to go. I really was wondering how this would all work out. Then comes the "pre-life" experience and Nikolas comes back from this time of unconsciousness and is so different and wants to start all over with Emma and his son (by an affair). It was so trite. I liked the old Nikki better! I felt sad because Emma was not loved for her unique self - only because she reminded him of the earlier Emilia. Silly ending to what could have been a wonderful story.
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22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Inexplicably, Average (Spoilers), December 5, 2005
The story of the union between the cynical Nikolas Angelovsky and with heastrong Emma Stokehurst -foreshadowed so intriguingly in Kleypas' earlier novel, Midnight Angel- ought to merit more than three stars on the strength of its main characters alone.
Angelovsky -like some of Kleypas' recent heroes, including Sebastian, Lord St. Vincent- played the villain very effectively in Midnight Angel. With another author his misdeeds might render him irreemable, but Kleypas is talented enough to find, not a redemptive light, but a core of humanity, even in villains whose actions would normally put them beyond the pale of the reader's acceptance. Emma is an engaging and suitable answer to the problem of Prince Nikolai: vivid, compassionate, and imperially willful. Their story might have been -should have been- as powerful as its titan principles.
As you might guess from the rating, it wasn't.
Kleypas' failure in Prince of Dreams is, simply, a failure of plot. Where she might have written an honest and moving novel that relied on dialogue, discovery, and a slow give-and-take of trust to bring the lovers to terms, she has instead taken a short-cut. Halfway through the book, just as the couple's detente starts to stagnate, Angelovsky collapses. This collapse pitches him back in time, to live "freed" from his traumatic past. This liberation is itself dubious, since Angelovsky still remembers the events that scarred him. Nonetheless, while mired in the past, he meets and marries a woman who bears a startling similarity to Emma. Through the experience of loving her he somehow finds the courage to return to the modern Emma, a new man, and capable of love.
Kleypas may have been looking for trandescence or profundity with her flashback, but the result feels dishonest. Rather than forcing the characters to work through their problems face to face, Kleypas sends Angelovsky back in time to somehow expunge his guilt and memories -and with them, the internal conflict that made him a worthwhile character. The man who returns doesn't seem much like the Angelovsky that left. And the suggestion that Angelovsky somehow learns to appreciate his wife by loving another woman -even one who seems to be Emma in an earlier incarnation-- cheats Emma of the opportunity to make a meaningful difference in his life and their relationship. The reader is left dissatisfied, unconvinced by the Prince's change of heart or the couple's eventual reconciliation.
IN BRIEF:
Recommended only for Kleypas fans, or readers able to take pleasure in the earlier characterizations without letting the later implausibility ruin their experience.
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