Customer Reviews

Simply Love

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Cassandra Zerek is a miner's daughter, but her father, Milo, had done his best to protect her from the seamy side of life often found in the mining towns. As a promise to his dear departed wife, Milo Zerek has seen to it that Cassie was educated only by nuns.

Now, a grown woman, Cassie intends to become a nun herself. She longs to help with the orphans and serve the Lord in any way that she can. Cassie believes that everyone has a good side, and that includes Luke Taggart, the richest man in town. Even though the man owns much of the town, including a few morally questionable establishments, Cassie catches him in an act of charity, and just knows that he has goodness hidden beneath his formidable exterior.

Luke Taggart is jaded, right down to his very core. Raised in poverty by a prostitute, he'd managed to raise himself to the status of the very rich and respected. But, he's bored with all that money can buy, bored with the 'loose women' with whom he usually keeps company, bored with gambling and drinking and carousing. Hell, he's even bored with making money, something that has him a bit worried, because his sole ambition had always been to make money. And then he meets Cassie Zerek, and decides that he has to have her - no matter the cost. Her innocence and pure sweetness captivate him, and he begins to see her as the one thing that may cure his ennui - if only for a couple of months.

After a few subtle rounds of trickery, Luke has Cassie ensconced firmly under his roof. Now, the only trick is to keep her there.

Author Catherine Anderson has crafted an endearing and exceedingly clever romance in SIMPLY LOVE. With characters so real that readers will laugh and cry with them as they journey towards their personal discovery of true love. Ms. Anderson captures the pureness and naiveté of her heroine perfectly. Conversely, Anderson also manages to convey the sheer depravity of the very rich and the seamy side of prostitution. This book is a study in contradictions, blended seamlessly by the author's skill with the written word, at times so sweetly innocent that readers want to weep, then so deeply sensual that they'll be fanning themselves to cool off.

SIMPLY LOVE is one of those rare finds that every reader searches for: a keeper. So engrossing that it'll have you turning pages until the very end, and then sighing for more. Personally, I can't wait to see more from this very talented author!

(...)

I loved this book!! What more can I say? This book made me laugh until tears came to my eyes, this book made me cry and most importantly, this book made me feel incredibly warm and fuzzy and totally sorry that I finished it off so quickly!

Luke and Cassandra are wonderful characters - although to be perfectly honest, Cassandra was a little too naive for my taste - really - could one woman - ignorant to the worldly ways of men or not - be so ignorant to Luke's blatant intentions?

I really liked Luke - sure he was mean and lying and manipulative, but deep down he was wonderful and came to his senses before the love of his life left him.

This book had me sighing and wishing for that soul-rending absolute love that they had for each other.

A real good read... worth every cent!

Luke Taggert is a classic example of what lengths a man will go to for love (in a romance novel, that is!) Yes - he's a distrustful, selfish adult due to a horrendous, abusive childhood but wow! Does he complicate his life and Cassandra's with lies and deceit. He could have made life so simple if he'd just said "I love you Cassie." But then we wouldn't have had this wonderful story, would we? Anyway - I went through a real love/hate relationship with Luke. Cassandra was so easy to like but Luke! I could have belted him a couple of times, he felt so real. Which just goes to prove what a master storyteller Catherine Anderson is. The 400 pages just slipped by - I had a difficult time putting the book down. Bravo! I also loved her book Forever After.

I read the reviews for this book which were on Amazon at the time I purchased it and most seemed to be positive. I had never read any other book by Catherine Anderson so I figured I would give this a try. Somehow it got pushed aside and I lost track of it for over a year. In the meantime I read her short story SHOTGUN BRIDE in the anthology Tall, Dark and Dangerous and absolutely loved it. I went searching among my book stacks for this book. What a huge disappointment.

Luke, our hero, was an awful character. Can I just tell you how awful? He was arrogant, insincere, conceited, devious, callous, mean spirited and a thoroughly rotten fellow. I don't care how awful his childhood was, this author was not able to redeem this man enough for me to even begin to like him. He was willing to do any mean and dirty trick to force a young girl to become his mistress. He had absolutely no regard for what it might do to her spiritually, mentally or physically. What a thoroughly rotten, dirty dog. And it wasn't just part of the way through the book, it was up until the next-to-last page. Even though they got married he didn't admit that he loved her until page 396. Then he tried to use money to keep her with him. Once again, yes he had a traumatic childhood, but he just came across as totally self indulgent and only interested in what he wanted.

This book is seriously over-long. It was just the same song, same words, over and over and over. Boring, unwaveringly boring. The author put in short examples of Luke being kind but they never managed to divert me from his more usual self-centered behavior.

Cassandra was the type of heroine who seemed to float through the world on a cloud of purity which shielded her from all of life's realities. She was 18 (and appeared to have the maturity level of a 13 year old most of the time) and wanted to be a nun. This author never convinced me that she had any personality. Her "goodness" was all that protected her from the big bad man. Now I'm not saying that couldn't be true, but it sure did get boring when it went on for 396 pages.

In case you haven't already guessed, I didn't like this book. These characters were the same throughout the book. No growth, no change, nothing to make me like her or him. Sometimes I get tired of heroines with so much "spunk" they couldn't possibly be real people. In this case Cassie needed that "spunk". And she needed to receive it in an emergency transplant, at that. Luke, well, he would have been a more pleasant character if he had thought more often with his brain instead of relying only on what another part of his anatomy wanted.

i generally like books by catherine anderson, but this book was a definate exception. I don't understand how my rating is so different than everyone elses, maybe we were reading different books. the basic plot line is that the extremely wealthy luke meets cassie and decides he wants her and nothing will get in his way. luke is a decietful selfish man, and cassie is an extremely (as in dangerously, shouldn't be allowed to cross the street on her own) naive innocent.

i found luke's actions through out the book to be too horrible to be redemable. **Spoilers** luke lies to cassie, has her family thrown in jail and tricks her into signing a contract to be his ..mistress... to put it nicer than he generally does. to be quite frank, i find him reprehinsible and selfish. he never stops to think about anyone but himself or the consequences of his actions - his total turn around in the last 20 pages isn't enough to get me to like him.

as for cassie - she wasn't horrible, and she was generally likable, she was just a little to easy to be convinced by one person or another (luke or her father) and she was a little too naive. in addition, all i have to say, is that if a man turned me into his mistress, had my family arrested, and was the reason my father was shot - (now or in that time) my family wouldn't so easily change their minds about him. that her father did is surprising to me at least.

all in all, i would recomend skipping this book - pick up another book, whether it be another by anderson or another author.

This book takes place in Colorado in 1887. Luke Taggart is the richest man in town- and goodlooking to boot, but he has a foul past that is still haunting him. His mother was a poor prostitute that abused him in many ways. He finally strikes it rich and now has the respect of everyone in town. He's A womanizer that despises the word love and will never give his heart to any woman. After becoming bored with all the whores he dallies with, he decides to search for a fresh virginal live in mistress. Cassandra is just the woman he's looking for and he will lie cheat or do anything else to have her in his bed, but Cassandra grew up as innocent as can be - wanting to be A nun, and she doesn't understand the seedy side of life, and when she see's Luke, all she can see is the goodness in him. Will she still see the good in him after she finds out what he does to her and her family?

I was pleasantly surprised by this book. At first I was really wary of Cassandra because it was hard to believe anyone could be that naive, but after A while I got passed her naivety and started to enjoy the book. I think it was because there were so many laugh out loud moments. Her naivety started to become funny instead of stupid and Luke's reaction to it was hilarious! There was one major love scene and it was well described. The secondary characters also brought the book to life. Father Tulley was my favorite. I thought he was a wondreful down to earth priest! After all was said and done though, I thought the book dragged on too long. I started to get A little restless with how long Cassandra took to forgive Luke- but overall the book was enjoyable!

This is one of Anderson's best! I won't write yet another summary but instead point out the books more exceptional qualities. Rather than just telling the reader that the hero is depraved, the author shows just how flawed he is. This only serves to make his redemption more powerful. Luke is one of the more comlpex and interesting heroes I've come across lately. While the herione is exceptionally naive, the author does a good job of explaining why she is this way and why it was necessary for her to be raised as such. The ending was gut wrenching in the best way; it was very powerful. This is a keeper.

When Luke Taggart, the richest man in town, has innocent Cassandra Zerek's father and brother imprisoned on false charges just so he can have her as his intimate companion, I swore I wouldn't like this book. Though not as engaging as Annie's Song and Keegan's Lady, I found myself feeling sorry for Luke (since I have a soft spot for mistreated children) as I read more. He was so used to lying to get what we needed, after a while he lied to get what he wanted. No boundaries had been set. It was worthwhile, though, to see and feel his regret Cassandra finds out what really happened to her father and brother and why. To show his love for her, he literally works his fingers to the bone. Read it and you'll understand.

Cassandra was SO naive and irritatingly innocent I felt quite sorry for the manipulative hero. To prove to us that she wasn't really stupid/dumb the author had her playing chess for the first time and winning but frankly that wasn't enough to convince me. First her father, then the hero, then her father again told her what to think and what was what. She didn't have an ounce of anything of her own in her head. There's no way she could have reached the age of 18 and been helping in an orphanage, living in mining towns blah blah blah without picking up a bit more knowledge of the world around her. When her eyes are finally opened by daddy she turns from naive innocent to cynical disillusioned at the drop of a hat and gives the poor old hero a really tough time. Our Hero we are told is selfish, ruthless, a rake and lots of bad things and yes, he goes about trapping Cassandra in a very underhand way, but since we are shown from the get go that he donates large sums (anonymously) to orphanages and is nothing but sweet, kind and forbearing with our seriously stupid heroine plus very nice to her disgusting dog and little brother, the nasty side of him rather loses its impact. His tortured past was considered to be too dreadful for him to sully her ears with so she never discovers why he has this thing about saying the three little words she so longs to hear. The ending is totally abrupt and unsatisfactory. Frankly a melodramatic, unlikely waste of time - in my opinion.

Luke Taggert is a business man...a business man who's willing to do anything it takes to get what he wants. And right now he wants Cassandra Zerek. She signs a contract, agreeing to his terms, but doesn't understand the ramifications of what she's signing. Due to her misunderstanding the terms of their agreement, Luke doesn't get what he wanted...no, instead he gets much, much more than he bargained for.

Catherine Anderson does a great job redeeming Luke, a hero who was everso unheroic at the beginning of the book, and a man you fell in love with by the end of it. Simply Love was simply a great read!