Customer Reviews

Ravished

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

This is a nice little love story, but if you are expecting the same type of hot love scenes that can be found in "The Dragon and the Jewel" or any of Henley's older works, this is not the book for you. Most of the time the two main characters are apart and when they finally do "get together" the scene is somewhat hot, but more romantic than anything. If you are looking for a nice (if a bit goofy) love story, this is the book for you. Otherwise, try out her older stuff.

Courtesy of A Romance Review

Ravished proves to be an entertaining and enjoyable read with this particular heroine, Alex Sheffield. She is a spirited beauty and breaks every rule that the society forbids at that time. Her desperation in writing and reforming the society makes her so attractive and draws the readers' attention. Readers will love the last part of the story when Alex finds herself not an heiress and goes ahead to work in a brothel as a stripper in order to take care of her family. An usual woman who is admirable or like Nick said - a hellion.

Ms. Henley always offers her readers strong almost willful heroines, and strong male leads that manage to support rather than stifle their spirit. This story is no different. What is different is the fact that hero and heroine spend a good deal of the story apart from each other. As a result this is not the normal type of read that we normally get from Ms. Henley.

Christopher (Kit) and Nicholas are twins that are as close as they can be. They often switch places and Kit being the favored older son is willful and weak. Nicholas on the other had is despised by his father and when he is accidentally killed in a hunting accident by Kit, Nicholas steps in and takes the blame. It only gets worse though. The one thing that Nicholas was counting on is the family horse farm. When the will is read, he finds out that he has been cut out totally. Nicholas has pride and will not sit back and let society mock him. He joins the army and heads to the Peninsula in order to fight Napoleon. He leaves behind the one thing that he wishes was his. Alexandra Sheffield. She is met for his brother and he wishes that she were his. But, fate has seen the end to that dream.

Alexandra has always loved Nicholas. She grew up with Kit and Nicholas and although her grandmother wants her to marry well, she wants the younger son. Problem with that...is Nicholas has honor and he won't dishonor Alexandera. She also wants to be a writer but that dream is also going to be hard to achieve in a world that is dominated by men. She is deeply hurt when Nicholas leaves without saying goodbye in order to fight a war. While he is away she leads a very dangerous, and unorthodox life. One that opens up doors to Alexandra she never knew existed. What will happen when her hero returns from the war? Will she finally find love with her Nicholas, or will she be forced to marry the other twin?

Alexandra was a very unusual heroine. Her ideas and actions are not what you normally find within the pages of Regency romances. At times her actions were a bit overbearing. Kit and Nicholas are dynamic characters but they didn't really seem to develop as Ms. Henley's other hero's. I would have liked to see Alexandra and Nicholas' relationship more fleshed out and I would have like to have seen them together more. Especially without the misconception regarding which twin was which. Call me romantic but I would think that Alexandra should have been able to the difference between the twin she loved and the twin that was a friend. Especially after having grown up with them. Still this was an entertaining read although not one of my favorites by this talented author.

Official Reviewer for Romance Designs

The base romance in this novel was terrific. Unfortunately it was cut- in by a lot of side topics that had nothing to do with the main couple. I'd say they could have cut out about 1/2 of the pages and it would have been a perfect story.

Alex, the heroine, spends a lot of time dressed as a man in an effort to learn about the seedy side of London. These pages were pretty boring. I skimmed through them a lot.

Nick, the hero, joins the army about 1/3 of the way though the book. Part of this topic was intense and endearing, such as a point where he is trying to swim upstream in a raging river and he uses his memories of Alex as his means of strength to make it across. Other parts were boring facts about the war that had no significance for the main characters.

The love between the main couple is beautiful, but unfortunately we don't get to enjoy it much. There are only a few pages out of the whole book where the two of them are happily together. Still, their devotion keeps you going.

The Basic Story:

Alexandra and her brother Rupert grew up as best friends with the kids in the plantation next to their own. Those kids were twin brothers, Christopher and Nicholas. Growing up with three boys made Alex a tomboy. She wanted to do everything the boys could do. Now as a 17 year old, she wants all of the same privileges the men have. Most of all, she wants to be a writer. Because women are not respected in the literary field, Alex starts dressing as a man. She uses her disguises to gain access to the many "gentleman's clubs" in London. These clubs will provide her with information for her newspaper articles.

Alex and Rupert were raised by their grandmother. The twins, by their dad. Alex's grandma and the twins dad have arranged a marriage between Alex and the older twin, Christopher. However Alex is deeply in love with Nicholas, the younger twin. Nick loves her back, but wants her to have the family title and lands that will be inherited by his brother. Nick feels he will be robbing her of those things if he marries her himself. In an effort to put distance between them, Nick joins the army.

Over the next year, Nick fights for his country while Alex works to prevent her grandma from losing her home. Nick and Alex dream of each other every night. Nick uses his love for her to survive the harsh realities of war. Alex has no choice but to take two secret jobs. She is a reporter and a stripper. In society, she is a lady. When she is not working, she is being courted by societies most sought after bachelors. Still, she can never completely get over Nick.

When Nick returns from the war, he finds that his older brother has squandered away the family fortune. He is even about to lose the family estate. Nick takes every risk necessary to fix his brother's mistakes. He even pretends to be Christopher in order to seduce Alex into agreeing to marry his older twin. Yet when Nick discovers how deeply Christopher's dishonorable schemes go, he gives up on trying to hide his own feelings for Alex. He claims her for himself. He also can't let his brother lose any more of the family's property. He will do some scheming of his own to take control of the money, the title, and the estate.


Basically, add a lot of padding to this story and you have the complete book. Some parts were very romantic, others were frustrating. (Such as watching Nick poor his heart out to Alex, while pretending to be his brother, to help seal an engagement between them. Ugh! We want to see him fight for her, not give her away to his worthless brother!)
The characters were interesting and the core story good. Those things kept me reading to the end of the book.

This was a very good read. It did not seem like your typical romance book. It took the characters until the end of the book before they finaly came together. I would reccommend this book to anyone who is looking for something other than your typical romance book.

I wanted so much to like this book, and, on the surface, there's much to like. Alex is a spirited, unconventional heroine. Nick is a noble, conscientious hero. Side characters are given fleshed-out plots of their own.

Ultimately, however, the plot and characters degenerate into implausibility, and we are asked to suspend all credulity. We are expected to believe that Nick and his twin can pass for each other at will, in front of family and friends, without making any attempt to mimic each other's personality or traits. We are expected to believe that Alex, a gently bred 17 year old, wanders the seamiest streets of London dressed as a man, becomes a stripper in a brothel, and marries the twin she loves, but thinks she has married the brother. There is also a coincidence involving Alex's maid that goes beyond silly.

There is a decided lack of passion in this book, with almost no romantic tension - something that Henley has achieved before. The sex scenes, while steamy, feel perfunctory and emotionless.

This is a Regency in name only - the characters never behave in a manner keeping with the time. In spite of all this, I plowed through (well, skimmed mostly) the whole thing, interested only in how Henley resolves the conflict between the brothers. I should have saved myself the time, however, since the ending only made me dislike the characters, and the book, even more.

I have been a fan of Ms Henley for the longest time and was very dissapointed with this book. I wanted to put it down as soon as I started reading it and I hope we are not put throught this pain again.

This book was boring for me. I couldn't get into the story or the characters. I returned the book. I coudln't read it.

I can honestly say that this is one of the worst regency novel I have read. I read the back and thought 'wow, this looks like a great read' but I can't stand to read it, I have to keep putting it down and then hoping when I pick it up again it will have gotten better.I agree with other reviewers that I think that the plot was not plausible for this time period,and the continual mistaken identity by everyone even the heroine is just annoying. I did enjoy the beginning of the book and there are some endearing moments between the brothers (before Kit becomes evil) and also the slash backs of when they were children. The Grandmother is very eccentric and its hilarious! There are some historical facts about the time period such as those relating to the lower classes such as chimney sweeps and prostitution and the lack of food which are true but the facts relating to the siege of Pamplona are not, the battle finished in July, it was not because of gun powder barrels and the 'enemy' was not stationed in a strong hold.
I have also read in the reviews that this book for some is not up to par but the author has other books that are good...I hope that that is true, although I don't think that I am up to the task of finding out just yet.

As someone else so aptly put it, this is a Regency romance in name only. The heroine behaves unbelievably, even for a much later period in history!

She dresses as a man and wanders seedy parts of town in the company of her maid, she takes a job in a brothel to pay her bills (not as a prostitute, of course), she wears a costume to a masquerade that seems to be totally out of keeping with the clothing of the time period - particularly for a well-born unmarried young lady ... it was completely unbelievable and boring the way the author tried so hard to make the heroine's odd and daring behavior titilating.

The situation with the twin brothers was stereotypical in the extreme (in the scene which is supposed to set up their characters, one is good, the other is considered "evil" by their father) and I was surprised at how many times the heroine was completely fooled by whichever twin she was with into thinking she was with the other brother. It's normal for someone to be confused at first, since the twins are identical, of course, but she was supposedly madly in love with one of them. You would think that, if nothing else, instinct would guide her to deduce what was going on.

Perhaps that is oversimplifying the matter, but I was bored by the constant role-playing by all the characters.

There was very little romantic tension to be found in this book, and the romantic scenes seemed tacked on as they came so late in the story. And the resolution to the issue of the twins seemed contrived to me.

I was not satisfied by this book at all. I will probably not be reading another of her books. It just left such a bad taste in my mouth, as in why did I bother to finish this?

To give you a better perspective on my opinion, I enjoy early Amanda Quick and early Brenda Joyce. (I think they've both gotten off track recently). In my opinion, they write very entertaining, sexy, historically grounded (though not perfect) romances.