Customer Reviews

The Promise in a Kiss: A Cynster Christmas Novel

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(17)
2 star:		(12)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

It would be interesting to know how readers who aren't familiar with the Bar Cynster series feel about this prequel. Standing on its own, I'd imagine that it would be considered a top-notch regency romance. As in all of Laurens' books, the hero, Sebastian, is devastatingly handsome, madly in love with the heroine and woes her with single-minded determination. The plot is entertaining, and the love scenes are intense. My problem with the book? It was difficult to accept the heroine, Helena, who appears in the Bar Cynster series as a family matriarch, as a somewhat flighty young girl. Furthermore, the whole love story was tainted for me because of some facts that Bar Cynster fans already know about the conception of Sebastian and Helena's son Scandal. These aren't characters who cried out for their story to be told; in fact, I would have liked this story much better if it had been totally divorced from the Cynsters.

Stephanie Laurens has based her Bar Cynster novels on the premise that even a man who doesn't particularly want to get married will be happily resigned to his fate once he meets his soul mate (even if she isn't resigned at all!).

That premise has served her better in some of the Cynster series than others. It's a comforting premise, that we all have a soul mate out there, but adhering to that plot occasionally causes Laurens to churn out somewhat identical stories. The best of the Cynster series retain enough of this "soul mate" premise to be comforting, but also manage to be original and fresh.

Thankfully, "The Promise in a Kiss" now joins "A Secret Love" and "Devil's Bride" on my list of "Best of Cynster."

Sebastian is pure Cynster, and as Cynster fans all know, even the most boring of Cynster men are pretty ideal. Helena is a wonderful match for him, strong-willed and feisty. In addition, we are given good justification, both for Helena's strong-willed nature and for her resistance to Sebastian's protectiveness. The misunderstandings between them have good basis, and the resolution of those misunderstandings is reasonable and understandable.

My only (small) quibble is that, because the "villain" is off-screen (so to say) most of the book, his villainous nature doesn't exactly loom over the book.

This is a welcome addition to the Cynster series -- Laurens at her best. Enjoy!

This book was well worth the wait! The first page grabs hold of you and the book doesn't let go until the last!
Although a prequel to the Bar Cynster series, this book stands beautifully alone. The two main characters, Helena and Sabastien, are fleshed out very well from hints and descriptions in previous Cynster books, yet it also hold many surprises.
Helena meets her future husband on the Convent grounds, in her night wear, while returning from nursing her ill sister. Sabastien literally falls at her feet. As a reward for misleading his pursurers, he kisses her, inadvertantly leaving them both with a promise for the future. Years later they meet again. The rest as they say...is fate.
Especially satisfying here was that the hero doesn't try to escape his fate. He accepts it gracefully. In keeping with his character grace and charm. The herione on the other hand...is sweetly naive, and hilariously direct. The byplay between the two is wonderful!
After a twisted, unusual courtship they travel to outwit a common enemy, have an unwelcome duel, and end with the delivery of an heirlom and a letter.
One of the things that Ms. Laurens does best is to tie up all the loose ends. This story is no different. The epilougue here bridges the gap between the years to the next installment of the family and will leave you with a satisfied smile.
I throughly enjoyed this story, and will look eagerly forward to the next in the series. Thank you, Ms. Laurens, for a great read! Please send the next one soon!!

This book would have been romantic and spellbinding IF Ms. Laurens had not written Sebastian as an adulterer after marrying his beloved Helena in her later books. I just couldn't get pass this and it made this read all the more disappointing. There is absolutely NO WAY the Sebastian portrayed in this book would ever cheat on the love of his life. As the other reviewers stated, nothing was ever plausibly written as to why he did this and because of it, fathered a son by another woman. The Promise in a Kiss has alot going for it if you can get pass this flaw.

Confession: I have never read any of Stephanie Laurens' Bar Cynster series. I liked a couple of her other regency romances and decided to give this series a try. The Promise in a Kiss was written last, but is a prequel to all the other books, so it seemed to make sense to read it first. And that would have been okay, except that Laurens has a family tree right at the very start of the book. From that I learned two things which made this a doomed romance from the start.

One, Sebastian, the Duke of St Ives, has an affair resulting in an illegitimate child while he's married to Helena. So how can I believe in Helena and Sebastian's love affair after discovering that? I can see why people who have read the entire series also have a problem taking this book seriously.

Second, the family tree shows Sebastian as dead. Now this, I expect, applies to the later books in the Cynster series - but still, even before I've *read* his story, I know that Sebastian dies within about 30 years of the end of his book, leaving his Helena a widow.

It's difficult to get facts like these out of your mind when reading a romance novel, let me tell you!

Anyway, the book itself. Laurens is no Balogh or Beverley, my favourites of this genre, and she does tend to go overboard on the intimacy/sensuality in a manner which simply isn't right for the period, but it's done tastefully. Sebastian and Helena met for the first time when she was seventeen and he stole a kiss. They meet again six years later and know each other instantly. Helena thinks that Sebastian is a confirmed bachelor and enlists his help in finding a suitable husband; he knows that she's going to be his wife and he uses every trick he knows to persuade her.

There is more to the story: a conniving guardian, threats, blackmail, a daring rescue and other such dramatic elements. But the focus is squarely on Helena and Sebastian's relationship all the time. Sebastian, a man who thought he would never love, puts Helena's needs ahead of his own and falls in love. Helena learns to trust a powerful man and to give him her love.

So how can this man, who appears to love Helena more than his own life, betray her by having a child with someone else???

Having read all of Laurens' admittedly ridiculous, yet addictive books, I was really eager to find out Helena and Sebastian's story. However, like many readers I found the knowledge of Sebastian's future infidelity not only out of character but also contradictory to what (i thought) Laurens was trying to get at: the characters' eternal love. Personally, I thought Laurens would have used the prequel to explain (ADEQUATELY) Sebastian's infidelity. I think it would have been more in character if his little affair with Scandal's mother had occurred before he'd met Helena.
Anyhow, as for the book itself. I found it boring and lacklustre. Instead of completing the Cynster circle, it only contradicted the 'fairy-tale' endings of the other books.

Like so many other reviewers, I had trouble getting past Sebastian's future infidelity revealed in the Bar Cynster series. At first, it didn't really play a big part in how I viewed the story. The beginning is captivating and holds a great deal of promise for the rest of the book. But towards the end, when the honesty and unfailing devotion come into play, it gets a little hard to swallow. I think Helena and Sebastian would have been better served to be written with less emphasis put on the "powerful" nature of their characters. The reader expects their love to be just as powerful as they are themselves, and that characteristic is in direct opposition with a future already revealed.

I am a fan of Laurens, and have read the entire Cynster series. Aside from the inconsistencies between this and the later novels, this is not one of the better books she has written. I found myself easily putting it down at the slightest distraction, skipping paragraphs and wondering how far ahead I could go without losing the train of the story.

I think Laurens' fans will be disappointed. Those readers who haven't yet read her other books will probably view the novel in a more favorable light.

I feel like I've been violated. Ms. Lauren's has ignored a very basic tenet of romance writing. Readers are supposed to believe at the end of the romance that "love has conquered all" and that these two people have found a "once in a lifetime love." Isn't that why we buy a romance? But we know from Ms. Lauren's future books that the Duke cheats on Helena. First of all, given what we know of Helena's character, do we really think she would stand for this? Secondly, why did I just spend three hours reading a book about two people overcoming their conflict to live happily every after when Ms. Laurens has already told us that they don't. She tries to explain away the Duke's philandering by making us feel sorry for Scandal's mother. I don't buy it--would you from your husband? I don't object to the premise that there can't be love after cheating, but I do object to these two people overcoming such a tremendous violation of their love. The characterizations of the Duke and Helena in this prequel do not fit their future actions in the series.

As a stand alone, without the name Cynster attached, this book would have been fine. I loved the rest of the series (except for Scandal's Bride). I gave this book 2 stars only because of Ms. Lauren's obvious talent.

In 1776 Paris, Helena de Stansion plans to flee to England to avoid an arranged marriage by her guardian, Comte Fabian de Vichisse. However, duty calls and she tends to her ailing sister. In the garden, she spots an intruder, who unbeknownst to her steals a dagger from her guardian. Surprisingly she helps him escape, but not before he kisses her.

Fabian uses Helena as a pawn to gain his desires. He agrees to allow her to go to England to marry a duke as long as the noble is wealthier than she is, which limits the field to almost no one. At a London soiree, Helena recognizes Sebastian Cynster whose kiss from that day in the garden still excites her. Sebastian also knows that Helena is the woman he never forgot. Helena tells Sebastian that she seeks a husband and asks him to help her find a spouse. Sebastian knows he loves Helena, but he is not sure how to propose to his beloved. Then there is her guardian holding her sister hostage to insure Helena remains pliable.

Stephanie Laurens has written six Cynster tales including a NY Times bestseller. Her latest tale, THE PROMISE IN A KISS, is a prequel to the other novels and may be the best of the lot. Besides containing an exciting story line that shows the "roots" of the Cynster dynasty, the plot has a delightful hero and an intrepid heroine who make this into a fabulous late eighteenth century romance.

Harriet Klausner

I have loved all of the Cynster novels but I just couldn't get into this one. Knowing that Sebastian is going to be unfaithful to Helena in the future made me unable to get into the book. I mean how can you credit happily ever after when the hero has a child with someone else? That ruined the book for me. I'm with one of the other reveiwers who said that Stephanie Laurens should have had Richard's mother drug Sebastian as Catroina did Richard. That would at least had made the cheating understandable AND made this book something worth reading! All those who love the Cynster novels would do well to give this one a miss.