Customer Reviews

The Silken Web

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

While this is an earlier work from Brown, her potential as a prominent romance writer was evident. I won't summarize the storyline as that has been done repeatedly on previous reviews. I'd like to talk about the one flaw that bothered me in this book and that was adultery--adultery against a very likeable character. I would have altered the storyline just a little and not have them betray Seth, whom they both liked. The ending was nicely done but bittersweet due to the necessary death of Seth. I gave this book 5 stars because it was written well and I found it difficult to put down and pretty much read it in one sitting.

Virginal camp counselor Kathleen has a torrid affair with Erik, a videographer (two days after meeting him, she has sex with the virtual stranger in the forest). After an life-threatening accident, she mistakenly thinks that he is married and rather than confront him about the woman visiting his hospital room (his sister), she slinks away and has their love child.

Fast forward several years, where she has moved on with her life, and as she is about to marry Seth her boss who is disabled and has taken care of her and her son all these years (though he is unable to perform in the bedroom). Suddenly Erik has returned to the fold and she learns the truth about his so-called "wife." She now finds herself in a bind - should she marry the man who loves her more than life itself, and has dedicated himself to her and her child, or should she choose the passion that she experienced with her one and only lover?

Unfortunately, author Brown has taken the cowardly way out by enabling the wimpy heroine to not to make that all important decision after all. It defininitely shows its age, but it will tug at your heartstrings nonetheless.

The Silken Web is one of my favorites by Sandra Brown and I own almost every book she's ever written. Brown's work combines just the right amounts of decency and steam to form an overall piece that's not trashy, but that is ensured to make your temperature rise. Like to read on your lunchbreak? Rest assured, the covers of Brown's books do not consist of two lovers tearing each others clothes off! This book is about a love so spellbinding, your heart breaks a little along with those of the protagonists, and soars like a bird when love gets back on course. If you want a read to revive your faith in romance, this is your book. Enjoy!

SILKEN WEB has to be one of the most romantic, sexually graphic and tantalizing books that I've read by Sandra Brown. This is the story of Kathleen who marries Seth, a rich man who can give her everything, except what she needs in bed (figures, huh?). Then Erik comes into the picture - Erik, who has women tumbling in and out of his bed, but would never think about marriage. SILKEN WEB is based on the decision Kathleen has to make - which man will she ultimately chose?

I'm surprised that SILKEN WEB doesn't combust into flames on the shelf! This is definitely not for a pre-teen to read. SILKEN WEB could induce the reader to take several cold showers and be considered a heavy breather while reading! Sexually graphic scenes are meant to arouse the reader, and Sandra Brown shows the world that her books can be hot!

This is an oldy and thought it would be a goody considering Brown's work thus far, but I do have to remember, this was written in 1981 and seems to show the signs of it also.
A very blah tale of a woman who is caught in a love triangle and in love with two men. The problem here IMO is the too quick romance between the woman and the first man and then how she cuts it off unexpectantly, then the reason for it doesn't wash with me. It left me quirking my brow in wonder that any average reader would be satisfied with that excuse.
In all, the romance and love between the woman and the men are quick and flat and I felt there was no real love between any any of them. No depth and the first male character was sort of unlikeable to me.

Shaken but not defeated, Kathleen hides her pain behind her work and resolves to get on with her life despite the heartbreak she suffered when her first and only love betrayed her.
About to remarry now awhile later to a very sweet man who really loves her and heir to a fortune, Kathleen is shocked when her former love walks back into her neatly controlled life ready to play his game again.

All are soon caught up in a web of lies and deceit that will tear them apart. Kathleen must make a choice between happiness and stability or one more try with the very man who nearly destroyed her.

Tracy Talley~@

the silken web by sandra brown
a woman, who had been orphaned now works at a camp where
other orphans go to during the summer. she resigned her fashion job
when a married man wouldn't leave her alone.

She is in the same situation when a photographer comes to the camp,
a disaster happens and he's in the hospital and she can't get in to
see him, his wife shows up so she leaves the camp and nobody can find her.
she gets a new fashion job and a new apartment in a brand new city across
the US.

abortion, birth, new job, new location, death, someone out to destroy her by
signing her name to papers. confrontations, exotic places for photo shoots
find them together again.

through tribulations one is shown how strong they have grown to
overcome and triumph.

i rate this book a 5, strong characters and details and scenes this book
brought me to new places and new things occurred.

I usually try to stay away from romances written in the 70s and 80s. However, the first Sandra Brown book that I read was in the 80s and I enjoyed it. With this one I had to stop reading it after the male lead turns ugly and insulting when the heroine turns him down after only knowing him for 2 days. If I had liked him before that I would not have then thought I was in love with him after that. The female lead felt too embarrassed to tell him that she was a virgin. Who cares what her reason was! Even in the 80s a women could say NO!!

I like a lead that I think I could fall in love with but who would fall for a bore like that. Even the first time he kissed seemed like he was forcing himself on her. Are his blond good looks supposed to compensate for his overbearing personality? Then her motherly friend tells her that he is being such a jerk because he cares for her. Is he entitled to sex for some reason?
Maybe the rest of the book can make me care if she is with him or not. I don't see how. Even if he finds out that she is a virgin and is sorry for his horrible behavior, it will not make me see him in a favorable light. Even if she was a street walker she has the right to tell him to keep it in his pants.

Sorry Sandra for my rant. You have a lot of books that I like. This just is not one of them.

ISBN 0446364797 - This has got to be one of the hardest books for me to review yet. That's not because it's so good that I'm shocked speechless; it's not because it's so BAD that I'm at a loss for words - it's really that it's a combination. This is a really good, touching story... and some of the worst writing I've come across in a long time.

Kathleen was an orphan who found people she loved in B.J. and Edna, the people who ran the Mountain View Encampment, which was open to orphans like herself. As an adult, she returned to Mountain View as a counselor and B.J. and Edna were thrilled to have her. What they didn't know was that she'd quit her job, running away from a male co-worker who'd been coming on too strong.

Erik Gudjonsen was a videographer who came to Mountain View to do a piece about the place. He and Kathleen follow the path of all romance novel couples. They meet and clash, end up spending time together and fall in love, have sex and then tragedy strikes. Erik is badly injured in an accident and taken to a hospital where Kathleen sits, waiting for information when Mrs. Gudjonsen is shown directly into Erik's room. Unaware that this is his sister-in-law, and not bothering to ask, Kathleen flees without a word to anyone.

She finds work far away, working for Seth Kirchoff of Kirchoff's Department Stores - a paraplegic with a sense of humor and a heart of gold. When she wants to quit her new job because she's found out she's pregnant, he asks her to marry him. They wed and Erik's son is raised as Seth's own, sharing with his "parents" a wonderful, happy life until one day, in a strange twist of fate, Seth hires a man to make commercials for the stores - and that man is Erik.

Despite the ridiculousness of it, it's common in romance novels for people to meet and fall in love in under 48 hours, and certainly to wind up having sex. Especially when one of those people is a 25 year old virgin. If you've held onto your virginity that long, of course you're going to lose it to the first man to take you skinny dipping while you're supposed to be responsible for the well-being of a group of children. That's really not the worst of the book. The worst is that lines such as "The other young man had stood up in hopes of making a show of self-defense, but his belly was plowed into with an iron fist, and then, as he leaned over in agony, he, too, knew the rocketing pain of Erik's punch to his jaw." crop up, highlighting Brown's poor skills.

The sex scenes are even more badly done than that, with some of the most incredibly stupid things coming out of the mouths of Brown's characters. "Oh, Erik, I can't believe that you're touching me this way." "Believe it." and "Sweet...!" he grated. "You've always been ready for me, Kathleen. Oh, God, I thought my memory had embellished how good it was with us, but it hadn't. If anything, my love, the memory was diluted." made me laugh out loud - and not in a good way. On page 88, Kathleen refers to Erik as "vital to her life" - after knowing him for THREE DAYS!

Sadly, the story really IS good. Seth's unselfish handling of every aspect of his life, from his disability to raising Kathleen's son as his own, makes his final, most selfless act that much more touching. That Kathleen has a history of running away from problems makes Seth's suggestion of marriage more palatable - otherwise, it's impossible to believe that any two people would marry, love each other, and live sexlessly on separate floors of the same house. If Brown had just left out the really bad sex scenes and developed certain plot points better, I'd be happy to five star this. As it is, two's all I can do.

- AnnaLovesBooks

This one was one of her shorter, sweeter, yet predictable books where the two protagonists meet at a summer camp, fall in love and live happily ever after. Although it was predictable, you cannot resist the tension between the two, as well as the realist dialogue and setting. This book is highly recommended. In fact, I read it twice!

Full of body tingling action. Enough body works to keep you interested, as if the problems of revenge aren't enough to keep to enchanted with this book.