Customer Reviews

Revenge Wears Rubies (Jaded Gentleman)

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

 

 

Admittedly the whole premise of the book, revenge for not properly mourning, is silly. But,that is off-set by the really, REALLY, steamy and plentiful love scenes in this book. Also, it was to forgive the silly plot, b/c obviously the hero was using the idea of getting revenge to deal with his post-traumatic stress. The plot is passable, but the love scenes are GREAT!

I am a big fan of Renee Bernard and thought this was a good start to her new series. I felt this had all the spark of her first novel, which I absolutely adored. I found the storyline interesting once I truly understood Galen's motivations which Ms. Bernard explained rather well. And if you are like me and love hot love scenes, this book will not let you down. ( Although sometimes they seemed to truly takeover). But, all in all, I really loved the book and can't wait to read the next in the series and learn more about the sexy yet tortured "Jaded".

This was very entertaining from beginning to end. Galen is a spirit wounded hero that comes to life after meeting Haley (heroine). His intent is revenge, but that dissipates as soon as he gets with Haley. The story is full of hot, hot love scenes. The plot is pretty good. I look forward to reading all of the Jaded series.

Heroine is engaged to plain-looking but wealthy industrialist whom she doesn't love. She's marrying him for money due to her alcoholic father's huge bebts & their dire financial straits in exchange for his gaining a title & loftier social position through her. Hero is bent on seducing heroine from her clueless fiance in order to publicly humiliate her to avenge her 1st fiance. Hero believes that she callously pushed aside her 1st fiance, who was one his of co-prisoner in India & who professed undying love for her until his last breath, to marry her current one for money. But the more Hero gets to know heroine, the more attracted he is with her & the more evidence accrued that she is not what he originally thought she was. However, he doesn't confess his ruse until it's too late.

What I find interesting about this Bernard book is that it appears like its a good one but only delivers a mediocre attempt at one. The writing, for example, is descriptive but it lacks enough substance to pull me in the story. The writing is also inconsistent. It switches from 1800 language to a contemporary one. And, although I've seen this done quite a bit by other authors, this one distracted me enough from my reading flow to notice it. Another odd thing about this book are the sex scenes. They were graphically described (WARNING: back-door action included) & filled quite a few pages but they were strangely not sexy enough to involve my full attention. There was something about the writing that was distancing.

Story-wise, I liked the heroine's character, with her creative survival skills, fortitude, & honesty. I didn't like that she cheated on her fiance, even though it was a marriage of convenience. She should've broken off their engagement after she shared some kisses with Hero & before she slept with him. The Hero in this book was charming & had a conscience but he was a bit off. He was obsessed (with revenge), deceitful, & manipulative but did it with a seductive flair. His determination to avenge his deceased friend by seducing & humiliating his friend's love didn't make sense & made Hero seem very immature & nutty.

Cautiously recommended.

Galen was your typical scared hero, harboring his personal horrors from imprisonment and then unjust loyalty to a deceased comrad regarding a very lovely miss. It's too bad he didn't do his research before he drew the cartoon or prepared his revenge plan of action. It was a good book. I liked her first book and I really liked this book as well but differently. The "Jaded" went thru a terrible experience as prisoners. I look forward to each of their stories!

Although this book demonstates promise in the beginning, the plot quickly dissolves into a mind numbing series of sexual encounters. Some of these encounters are difficult to deem plausible given the time period within which the story is set. If you are looking for an erotic read this is the book for you but if you are looking for a romance with a stong plot and characters to care about, pass on this one. Despite the book's flaws it's apparent that Ms. Bernard knows how to write and I hope she will create a more romantic story in the next book of this series.

Renee Bernard's Revenge Wears Rubies has the blurb- "This luscious tale will enthrall you" from author Sabrina Jeffries. This tale of revenge didn't enthrall me in any form, even though it did have great promise.

Galen Hawke wants revenge against a woman who was so cruel and cold, who dared to become engaged to another man so quickly after the death of her beloved killed in Bengal, India. Galen and eight other English gentlemen from all walks of life, known as The Jaded, suffered horribly at the hands of a raja. But only seven came back alive. The man who died went on and on about the lovely Miss Haley Moreland before his death. Galen will make this witch pay for not spending enough time in mourning. He'll seduce her, thus leaving her ruined. And then his revenge will be complete!

But Galen doesn't know the real story about Haley and why she's engaged to a bore of a man who will give her stability, but not the passion and love she longs for. That's where Galen comes in. Even though Galen rubs Haley the wrong way, she finds herself attracted to him and throws all caution to the wind. This caution, that is bound to get her in trouble, is having Galen sticking his hand up under her ball gown. Because Haley feels an inferno of "white-hot coil inside her that unravels in an ecstatic explosion", she ends up sneaking out late one night and goes to Galen's house unaccompanied and asks him to finish what he started when he tickled her under her petticoat. Not only does Haley not really like Galen, but as a proper virginal miss, engaged to be married, has no problem losing her innocence to Galen because he is so skilled at love making. This reason makes perfect sense for Haley since she has to deal with her drunk of a father and is so fed up where she finally wants to "be ruled by passion and risk ruin."

Haley's actions didn't ring true to me at all and Galen is this poor, woes is me hero who really has no pleasing personality or any thing else to recommend. He sneaks around from scene to scene, lurking in the shadows, trying to catch Haley so he can have his wicked way with her and destroy her just because she dared not mourn the allotted year for a man who loved her, but who she may have had no clue about. Revenge is not worn well in this lacking historical romance from Renee Bernard.

Katiebabs

All I can say is that Renee Benard has done it again. Galens chemistry with Haley is smoking hot. I could not put it down.

In 1857 he survived imprisonment in Bengal, India. Now two tears later, Galen Hawke is in England still suffering nightmares only to find the fiancée of the late John, one of the other seven English prisoners, enjoying her first season rather than grieving his death. He vows to teach Miss Haley Moreland, engaged to Herbert Trumble, a lesson she will never forget.

Haley is ignorant that her childhood friend John felt they were engaged; as he never asked and she never had to respond. Her biggest issue is to keep her family from poverty, which means marrying wealth. However, upon meeting Galen, she is attracted to him while he wants to seduce and ergo destroy her. As he begins to reassess what he thought he knew about Haley, she ponders whether to marry for love or money that is if Galen even considers marrying her.

This terrific Victorian romance grips the audience with the opening nightmare as an enthralled audience watches how the vendetta of a Jaded Gentleman plays out. Fast-paced throughout as her sly father observes, fans will appreciate Galen's thirst for vengeance turn to admiration and love, but might prove too late. With "Sapphires" to follow, sub-genre readers will enjoy the first of the Jaded Gentleman tales.

Harriet Klausner

This is not one of Renee Bernard's best books and I think the reason for this is that she has focused too much on the sex scenes and forgotten that she needs a good story. The book is verging on erotic fiction and some readers may be offended by one or two scenes that push the boundaries in this genre. There is certainly one scene that I have not come across before in all my reading of similar books. I agree with other reviewers when they say that little of the plot makes sense. I didn't connect with Galen because I couldn't understand what he was getting his knickers in a twist about. I also thought the story line was dull - there wasn't enough twists and turns to really test the love of the main characters. Having said all that, if Bernard can pull off a better story I'll continue to follow the 'Jaded' men.