Customer Reviews

Sapphire

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

 

 

Sapphire Fabergine is a privileged young lady, raised by her loving parents Armand and Sophie on Martinique. About a year after her mother's death, Sapphire's godmother Lucia and her father tell her that her mother had a secret. Armand was not her father; instead, her mother had secretly married an English lord, the Earl of Wessex, but had been kidnapped by his wealthy family and put on a ship for America. Forced into prostitution in New Orleans, she met Lucia, and the two were subsequently saved by Armand when he married Sophie and raised Sapphire as his own. It was Sophie's dying wish that Sapphire travel to London to claim her birthright as the Earl of Wessex's daughter, so the dying Armand packs her off on a ship with her stepsister Angelique, who was an orphan when Sapphire's parents found her, with Lucia as their guardian.

It doesn't take Sapphire long to learn her father is dead, and in his stead as Lord Wessex is a handsome American, Blake Thixton, who won't listen to her pleas, believing she's a fortune hunter. Lucia concocts a ridiculous plan to embarrass Wexton into acknowledging Sapphire by making her and Angelique scandalous. After Sapphire is seen kissing Blake at a party and they are tossed from their hosts' home, Lucia sets them up to appear to be looking for protectors rather than husbands. Sapphire is tiring of the social whirl when Blake, also bored with London's charms, packs her unwillingly onto a boat bound for Boston, where he plans to make her his mistress.

This is where the story lost me. From this point forward, Blake behaves like an overbearing jerk with nothing but looks and money to recommend him. Sapphire is a doormat. He locks her up in a ship's cabin and gives her nothing to wear but boy's clothes so she can't be seen in public; when they arrive in Boston, because she won't do as he says, he provides her with worn maid's clothes and forces her to work as a servant in his house. Instead of leaving immediately, she sticks around for the abuse and sleeps with Blake whenever he wants her, not finally waking up and leaving until he blatantly sleeps with another woman, practically right in front of her.

She finally embarks on an adventure then, and builds a new life for herself. The moment Blake finds her, he demands to have his way again and threatens to ruin her life if she doesn't do what he says. Naturally, she goes along with him, sleeps with him, and then makes a quickly aborted attempt to leave. Not once does Blake ever treat her with an ounce of decency or respect, and she's so happy to be his sex object, she blows off the dying Armand, the man who lovingly raised her and gave her everything. Apparently, when she found out her real father was more important, a Caribbean planter ceased to matter. Meanwhile, her morally bankrupt stepsister and godmother Lucia, candidate for worst chaperone ever, are having their own little romances in London.

This was a good story ruined by a completely unlikeable hero and a sweet but spineless heroine who often seemed fickle. Had Sapphire left Blake immediately upon her arrival in Boston and embarked on the same adventure with more time spent on that than letting Blake use her, and if he had ever been made to suffer and work to get her back, this could have been a wonderful story. As it was, I was left with a bad taste in my mouth and an intense desire to pound the crap out of both the hero and heroine. Rosemary Rogers isn't writing like she used to, but her books are mostly engaging and readable. Not this one. Rogers has written a lot of books, not all of them good, and this one unfortunately goes near the bottom of the pile. Avoid it.

So here we have Sapphire. She is our beautiful, loving, sentimental, friendly, awesome - yet feisty and determined! - heroine plopped into the middle of the Victorian era, thrown from the luxury of Martinique into the glorious sophistication of London, then into the hard-knock atmosphere of New York City. She is brilliant, witty, curious, spiteful, and out to reclaim her honor! - or something! - and along the way she meets a side dish of our raven-haired beefcake Blake Thixton. She must be great. The book is named after her.

The plot of this book is one that has only been exploited in every historical romance novel ever written. Name your character after a gem, and no matter how much time you spend perfecting her personality, she will not be taken seriously.

"Sapphire" has a horribly contemporary feel. I say "horribly" because when a novel is set in the 19th century, a certain expectation is felt for the author to uphold at least a slice of the elegance of that period (or maybe the use of a few metaphors and similes? Somewhere? Anywhere?). Instead we are granted transition words, and heaps of them. "However," "Meanwhile," "By the time..." "Fortunately," "Sapphire this, Sapphire that." With its minimal sensory detail, monotonous sentence length, and the spasmodically placed sex scenes, this story reads like a shopping list for your local XXX store.

And Blake! Our darling Blake! Let us not forget about this hunk of man meat. This dark, mysterious stranger emerges from the business world of London, pockets bulging with cash - or maybe he is just happy to see her - as he constantly deals with the pesky romantic heroine addiction. This here lad is a twenty-something year old on the fast track to success until Sapphire coasts into his life and demands that he recognizes her for who she is - the daughter of her father, some big, powerful rich Lord who has now kicked the bucket - and nearly derails Blake Thixton's gravy train with those multicolored eyes of hers. One green, one blue. A lonely brown would be so prosaic.

But his hardness extends passed his business life and into his cavalier social nature. For such a cold man, our executive has quite a few "steamy" sexual episodes with trollops, ladies of station, red-headed twins, and all of high society, each an emotionless tryst that buries him deeper into the self-denying loneliness he's up to his gyrating hips in. Sapphire is different. Sapphire is that little splinter he can not quite pick from his foot. Sapphire is the nagging little pest that he keeps coming back to - and in - for a reprieve from the aching aloneness that he refuses to acknowledge in any way other than sex. God forbid our intelligent, cunning hero introspects before he impregnates the entire female populace, further distributing himself across the globe. Or maybe that is why we like him.

The fun does not stop with these two. The supporting characters are like the overly glamorized table lamps in a department store window. Not only are they underdeveloped and whiney, but they are terribly inconsistent in their mannerisms and what the author tells us to believe about them. We are supposed to believe that Angelique, Sapphire's best friend, is an honest girl that never tells a lie. Interesting. Didn't we just catch her sleeping with her best friend's fiancé in the very beginning of the book? That's one way to trounce any future of a truthful reputation. Even more amusing is how Sapphire is so quick to brush this offense off, especially while she is sailing across the seas to pursue a father that she has never even met for a title she never even knew about before that day. Whoa girl, slow down. Take care of the things at home first; you have a best friend who needs a swift dose of murder.

Perhaps Sapphire's father was actually Dr. Doolittle and her mother Snow White. That would explain why she keeps gathering animal compatriots faster than the grill of a Ford Pickup. From the little homeless dog named "Stow" (because every homeless girl finds a dog. It happened in "Annie," and "The Gentleman Outlaw And Me, Eli, " so it can happen here) to the untamable black stallion that breaks the limbs of its riders, Sapphire Blue can turn any truculent beast into an angora bunny. Too bad she chopped off her locks and disguised herself as a boy, because that has never been done in a story before ("The Gentleman Outlaw and Me, Eli" again, "Brave Enemies", and I am sure you can think of more).

"The Queen of historical romance" not only strikes below her title, but further strengthens my resolve that most of mass-produced romance novels are wretched sprawls of syntax. If I see another book by Rosemary Rogers, I may pick it up, I believe in second chances. I do not feel that one train wreck of a composition completely destroys any possibility of the author writing well. But the instant I see a sentence beginning with "Suddenly," or "Luckily," with a character named after a noun, I'm out of there.

I've read all of Rosemary Rogers' books and love the majority of them, this one seemed to be written by a different writer! Formula was there but no real plot or passion or personality for the characters. Lynn H.

Rosemary's books always tear at my heart a little bit - mostly because the heroes while dynamic, gorgeous and worldly always seem to treat their females rather harshly. For some reason with Rogers that always has an appeal and it does with Sapphire, my ownly problem is that this is mainly written from her point of view and I do not feel I truly got to know the rogue Blake quite as well as I would have liked. He seemed like a rather complex man, with ownly hints at how he was raised with beatings from his father, I guess i would have liked to know him a little better. You do get a great sense as to Sapphire and for one so young she really is amazing to handle learning she needs to take off from Martinique to London to claim her birthright from her real father's family. Of course this is how she meets the arrogant new Earl of Wessex, Blake and the battle lines are drawn because he does not believe any of her claims. As he eventually kidnaps her and takes her to America their passion unfolds and you appreciate how they certainly at least have a physical connection. I suppose some are repelled by his treatment of her when they arrive, how he makes her one of his maids but then this is his lovelss background coming to play and it was certainly not the worst way some Rogers male characters have treated their females - actually the difficulties that Sapphire faced were pretty mild compared to other books. Sapphire managed to win the man and keep her dignity and truly that was quite amazing. The secondary love stories were engaging in addition to Blake and Sapphire - All in all this was a good book. No, it certainly was not a Steve and Ginny intense hot stormy read but there are very few books written by anyone that are that compelling. And a part of me too wonders if this is truly Rogers own work. However I think if you only read the negative reviews here and do not give this book a chance you will be short changing yourself because this book is far better than the 1 and 2 stars some have given!!

Did anyone get why she had to go around like a little whore and entice all of the male population? I didn't quite get the purpose behind that.

I have to say, I love her books... I was very eager to read another, and I was vastly disappointed. It was predictable, some of it was even hard to believe (like getting away with being a boy? what?), and it was like the heroine was perfect at everything she did! I found myself from page to page, shaking my head and hating the girl more and more. And the man she loves? If someone had done all the things he did to her to me? He would have to suffer BIG time. He was let off way to easy.

Disappointing....

I am a huge fan of Rosemary Rogers, at least of her earlier books. Ms. Rogers is capable of much, much better than this latest offering. Sapphire is not only disappointing, it is predictible and boring. There's just no substance to it. Books like The Wildest Heart are impossible to put down, and I usually read them in two days. It took me two weeks to read Sapphire, and that was forced.

I don't even know where to begin...I guess I can start with the fact that the author tried. I can see where she wanted to go and what she wanted to say, unfortunately, she failed. The writing is just flat, the pace of the story is rushed and the dialogue between the characters boring. After 39 pages I just couldn't get myself to read any further. I used to force myself to finish any book I started thinking that there is always a chance it might improve...now I know that life is just too short for bad writing.

Do yourself a favor, pick something else. Some suggestions are books by Stephanie Laurens, Kat Martin, Diana Gabaldon, JD Robb, Lisa Kleypas...there are plenty of great writers out there. Don't waste your time with this one.

Well I think why I am rating this higher than other reviewers is I wasn't expecting more than entertaining read. In fact, I hadn't liked too many of the author's books before so I wasn't sure I would even be entertained! There were a couple moments when I wanted to throw the book across the room for historical inaccuracy, but ultimately that balanced out for me by being unpredictable. The charecters seem fleshed out, maybe better than most romance novels, but not 5 star quality. I was impressed by not being able to say what would happen half way through or even 3/4 of the way through. The heroine surprised me and I was pleasantly surprised by her. Overall, it was better than about %85 of romance novels I have ever read... and maybe the best Rosemary Rogers ever. In fact, I am now buying newer Rosemary Rogers books because I was so impressed!

In 1831 Martinique, Sapphire Fabergive at a party hosted by her father, overhears the guests claim her deceased mother was a whore. Later Armand tells her the truth that she is not his offspring. He met and fell in love with her mother in a New Orleans bordello though she was obviously pregnant. Apparently she had married an earl, but the lad's father Lord Wessex objected to the marriage and had her abducted and dumped on the streets of New Orleans. Armand sends his beloved daughter to England to meet her matriarchal side.

In London brusque American shipping mogul Blake Thixton has inherited Wessex, which he thinks stinks as all he has is two properties, debts, and hysterical females. However, he has plans to use his title to further his company's customer base in England. That is until Sapphire arrives with her claims. Knowing she might hurt his cause, he kidnaps her, taking her back to America where he demands she become his mistress, but soon finds himself captivated and in love with his prisoner. She feels the same way, but does not trust her "jailer" nor does she want to end up in a brothel like being in love did to her mom.

SAPPHIRE is an absorbing historical romance starring a spoiled coming of age young woman whose recovery from the shock of learning about her family tree seems quick, but reasonable. Blake is the more interesting character as he is the early nineteenth century "Ugly American" not interested in anything except the bottom line of his shipping business until Sapphire. Though the key secondary players like her "Aunt" and "sister" abruptly appear on and off the stage, fans will appreciate Rosemary Rogers' fine look at international relationships.

Harriet Klausner