36 of 36 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Dark Contemporary with Darker Hero, May 18, 2003
This review is from: Ritual Sins (Paperback)
This was my first Anne Stuart book. I was riveted as I read the darkest romance novel I have EVER read. It was fantastic reading! Stuart is such a unusual romance writer. She invents a hero like I have never read - not even close to the other heroes I have read in romance novels.
Ritual Sins' hero, Luke, is a real bad boy. He is a con artist - truly! You don't know how bad Luke is for the majority of the book. He is an extremely dominant and alpha male. Luke is the leader of a cult. Visions of Jim Jones swirl in your head. He is so charismatic that you don't know if you will be able to trust him - if ever. He has easily taken in his followers and all of them love him dearly.
Rachael is a heroine who is hard to like. Her character could have been a little kinder for my tastes. But - if a real, live woman was in Rachael's shoes - I don't think she would have been kind or tolerant of Luke either. Her estranged mother has just died and left over twelve million dollars, Rachael's inheritance, to Luke's organization (cult), The Foundation of Being. Rachael is enraged and suspects foul play. Her mother has never been kind to her or given her love. Much of the plot revolves around Rachael's empty life, her cold treatment of the world, and the results of having a mother that really cared little for you. Rachael doesn't like to be touched, hates men, and is frigid. There are reasons in her background for her inhibitions. Without giving the plot away, I can safely say, she is a wreck of a person.
Luke, on the other hand, truly seems to know a lot about living a quality life. He can see most of Rachael's weaknesses within minutes of meeting her. He has her pegged right and it scares her badly. Rachael considers Luke to be a master manipulator - which he really is. It is such a dire threat for him to so easily determine her most secret hurts, defensive mechanisms, and huge vulnerability.
Rachael and Luke first encounter each other when Rachael arrives at The Foundation of Being to investigate her mother's death. She has told the group that she may be interested in joining them. But many of them, especially Luke, know her real reason for her visit. He realizes that she wants to expose him and would love to see him dead. We all wonder who Luke really is. Once again, it would give too much away if I enlarged on this mysterious trail we, as readers, follow searching for the truth versus the scam. However, I can safely say that it is a deep and fascinating search.
Since this is a romance novel, it is also safe to say that Luke and Rachael develop a relationship against all odds. Luke makes Rachael aware from the very beginning that he wants her sexually. His speech, when with Rachael, is crude much of the time. The sensual scenes don't occur until the middle of the book but they are definitely spicy. They rate a solid 4.0 out of 5.0 (see More About Me for my rating guidelines). Stuart writes a very sexy hero who throws out sexual innuendoes right and left at Rachael.
For the first half of this book, I was very cautious, and wondered if I would truly enjoy the book. It is just SO different. When I read a new author, the first book is such a test. I can be almost tense wondering if they are going to disappoint me. This author clearly passed the new author test with flying colors. Even with the dark nature of the book, I will keep it to read again.
This is an excellent book. Stuart is masterful with such a forbidden subject. Since reading Ritual Sins, I have read five other Stuart books. Some have been good - some have been fair - but this one remains my favorite Stuart book to date. I highly recommend it.
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15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Why Isn't This Still In Print???, September 4, 2002
This review is from: Ritual Sins (Paperback)
I bought this book used as a result of a Listmania recommendation, and boy, am I glad that I did! This is a great romantic suspense story, with a strikingly original, morally ambiguous male lead character. It really pushes the envelope on what type of behavior in a hero is acceptable, and succeeds in making the reader accept it all.
Rachel Connery is a woman consumed by pain, hatred and fear - a product of her mother's constant neglect and her stepfather's abuse. Her mother recently died, but before she did she liquidated all of her assets, drained Rachel's trust fund, sold off some of Rachel's possessions, and willed everything to the Foundation of Being, a New-Age type of spiritual retreat headed up by Luke Bardell. Luke, who as a child found his mother after she committed suicide, who survived the beatings of his stepfather, who was convicted of manslaughter and served time in prison, and who has been a con man most of his life, is now running the best con of his life - a Foundation where he is viewed as virtually a messiah. Rachel suspects that the Foundation is all a sham, that the cancer deaths that have been occurring in the hospice there have had more to do with the patient's bank balance than actual illness, and has vowed to expose Luke in order to recover her lost inheritance.
The story reveals the souls of these two emotionally scarred people as they play a cat-and-mouse game with both the truth and their mutual attraction. Luke is the ultimate bad-boy hero, and Ms. Stuart has managed to make him as attractive as sin. The reader keeps waiting for him to behave in some standard heroic fashion, yet he continues to follow his own path to achieve his goals. Rachel is gradually transformed from an embittered person who just exists, to a person who actually lives.
If you can find a copy of this book, get it. It's definitely worth your time.
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12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
one of anne stuarts best books-------, June 29, 2003
This review is from: Ritual Sins (Paperback)
this is one of my favorite books by anne stuart.i really like how the characters in her books are not so black and white.nobody is perfect and we are shaped by our life experiances good and bad.
the main male character,luke bardell, has had a pretty rotten life.he is bad in a sense that he feels no guilt about manipulating people into giving him their money.he has killed to survive,but he takes no pleasure in it.rachel connery has had money but not much else.she is very bitter and out to get what she feels she deserves.they are two "broken" people who get whats coming to them in the end.its a great story with a happy ending----something we dont always get in real life.
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