Customer Reviews

Taken By Storm

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

 

 

I really wanted to enjoy this book and had been looking forward to reading it. Unfortunately, I did not enjoy this book, and it was really a chore to finish it. These are the some of the main reasons for my dissatisfaction:

1. Neither the heroine nor the hero are likable characters. Syleena, the heroine, was weak, timid as a mouse at times and quite immature for her age (26 or 27). There was no natural progression of personality growth from the time she was an 18 year old until the time the story took place, some 8 years later. At times Syleena did exhibit some backbone, but it wasn't a lasting attribute. I always had the urge to slap her silly--not good!

2. Storm Hyde is the hero. First off, I thought the name was stupid. I know it was supposed to be clever, but it failed IMHO. Storm is an Alpha male to the extreme--the kind I hate. Storm manhandled Syleena relentlessly throughout the book, and she did nothing to stop it the majority of the time. Storm was mean, cruel, vindictive and at times malicious. Storm had issues stemming from his childhood that he should have been intelligent enough to have worked out at this stage of his life. Storm was constantly yelling or shouting and rarely had anything civil to say. As a rich bank executive, one would think that Mr. Storm Hyde would know how to think carefully before speaking, and that he would not blurt out things that he would later regret; however, our Mr. Hyde is an exception. Also, Storm developed a habit of calling Syleena "my little vixen." Who says that in today's world? It isn't sexy, it's just intensely annoying!!!

3. Syleena's BIG SECRET---this was such a convoluted mess and not worth all the fuss. First, in contemporary society, I just can't imagine that this would be an issue. Vivian was blackmailing Syleena, and Syleena had been paying Vivian monthly for 8 years in order to keep her silence. But there is a fatal flaw in this--Vivian supposedly didn't know where Syleena was living--couldn't find her. Syleena mailed her hush money to Vivian at the post offices in the areas where she was residing. Even a poorly skilled PI wouldn't have had much trouble locating her, after all he wasn't in hiding.

4. Near the end of the story, Storm exposes Syleena's secret in a very public way and said things to her that should never, ever have been said to the woman whom he claimed to love--the woman to whom he was engaged to be married. Syleena's humiliation and complete devastation was palpable, and I felt her pain. Storm's actions and his words were not only unforgivable, but they were unconscionable. No matter what his issues were, I cannot think of any conceivable reason why he would have done this to Syleena, and in such a public way. I would never have rekindled any sort of relationship with Storm--EVER. The events that occurred after this public humiliation were just too bizarre and totally unbelievable. But there was that HEA ending we all crave, even if I did hate Storm's guts. I was secretly hoping that Syleena would heal from her hurt, forget about Storm and actually find a great man to fall in love with.

5. Last, but not least of all were all those #@!&%$@!! errors--- grammatical errors, wrong words, wrong tense, missing words, incorrect homophone (e.g., pair instead of pare) run-on sentences, etc. I just picked a couple of pages at random, scanned the pages and here goes:

a. ". . . Syleena was stunned by all the toys that covered the wall." [Shouldn't that be the FLOOR???].

b. [A child speaking to Syleena]-- "I like the color of you [sic] skin ...It's [sic] same color as the dinner table."

A few errors, even like these are understandable and can often be overlooked. What I cannot abide is when the errors are so numerous, they just overrun the story. I can't enjoy a book like that. I know that poor editing and proofing is often not the fault of the author, but ultimately, the work is judged in its entirety. Since this was a huge problem, coupled with the problems I saw with the story, I cannot, in good conscience, give this book a rave review.

While some of my comments might to some come under the heading of "pet peeves," I don't think they are misplaced here. All in all, I think Ms. Rochelle could have done much better than this--in fact, I know she could have because I've read other books she's authored. I will continue to buy Ms. Rochelle's books because I still think she is a talented author. Regrettably, I will have to give this book a C-, which I feel is very generous indeed.

Storm is a man who doesn't believe in love...not in any way, shape or form. He only believes a woman has one purpose and after that is over he wants her gone from his life. He never thought he would want a forever after with a woman until....Syleena Webster comes into his life and then he pushes her away instead of telling his sister gorgeous roommate that he's attracted to her.

Syleena Webster is one of the best heroines that I have read about in a long time. She's trusting, loving and understanding. Despite that fact that Storm is practically mean to her everyttime she crosses his path after five years, she still tries to see the good in him. She slowly starts to fall in love with the moody rancher/banker.

After a lot of ups and downs in their relationship Storm finally gives into his feelings and does what his heart wants him to do. However, he ends up messing everything up with Syleena by insulting her in the most heartbreaking way. She leaves his life and he moves heaven and earth to get her back in his arms and his ring back on her finger.

Marie Rochelle has written a lot of books, but in my opinion this is the best. She had me drawn into from the first moment I got introduced to him. This story will have you turning the pages so fast because you can't wait to read what is going to happen next. I love these characters and I plan to read this book again and again.

I can not begin to explain how much I LOVED this book. Passion? Yes. Sex? Yes. Danger? Yes. Wonderful love story...heck I'll probably read it again(even with the typos).

This is a good book. The story is about characters with issues concerning trust and self-esteem. Both lead characters have difficult childhoods and secrets that lead to their behvaior in adulthood.

Overall the story was very good, but with all of the errors it was hard to just enjoy it for what it was, that is the reason i gave it a 3 star rating. I thought that Storm was the perfect alpha male and Syleena was perfect for him. She didn't take any of his crap and she gave as good as she got. I liked that Syleena had a strong friendship with Storm's sister from their college days, but I hate that she allowed Storm's insecurity to come between them, if only he had been honest with himself some of the angst would have been taken care of. As for Syleena's crazy madam mother, I think there was no reason for her to be blackmailed by her or anyone else, Syleena was not the whore, therefore she had nothing to be ashamed of, her mother made those decisions and she did the right thing by walking away when she was able to, by going to an out of state college. I ordered other Marie Rochelle books I sincerely hope that the editor is doing his/her job on the rest of her work.

I loved this book. I read this book in one day because I could not put it down. The chemistry between Syleena and Storm burns out the pages. I love how hard headed they both are and equally matched. This book took me through a number of emotions. I felt drained yet happy after the last page; it was a sheer roller coaster ride. The love scenes will have you hanging on to your seat.

I love the fact that you are so lost in the charcters and the story I forgot by the end of the book I was reading an interracial love story. You have to but this book you will not regret it.

I'm an avid reader of multicultural romances and have been doing so for years and this is my first review. I tried to like this book and only finished it to see what was Ryan's story and even that ending was vague. This book failed on so many levels starting with the two main characters. Storm was, at best, a rich bully. Sylenna, who was described a spunky seemed more like a weak confused child. Yes, they had a hot physical attraction from their very first meeting, but the meat of their relationship was sorely missing. All of his "grabbing her and swinging her around to face him" and all her "melting at his smoldering look or touch" got old after the first twenty times I'd read it. Sylenna's mother was a [.....] turned madam and to get away from that life she went to college out of state. So at one of the many truly difficult stages in their "relationship", she becomes a stripper. I don't think so. Since Ms. Rochelle has several books available and I love this genre, I'll give her another shot. I truly hope Taken by Storm is NOT the standard of her efforts.

I absolutely LOVED, LOVED, LOVED, this book. This was the first of Marie Rochelle's books that I read and she automatically became one of my favorite authors.

The character of Storm Hyde was one that I wanted to dislike because of his treatment of Syleena, but I couldn't seem to dislike him for too long. One minute he is pushing her away with some of the mean and nasty things he says to her and the next minute he is trying to be nice and express some kind of feelings towards her. All this because of his father drilling in his head as a young man that woman weren't to be trusted and that they were all unfaithful (a much stronger word was used, but I won't go there). Now I know that if any man treated me like this in real life, then I probably would have kicked his but all the way back to his momma's house or been in jail for murder!LOL But, with Storm it seemed to draw me more towards him. Don't think that this means that I was accepting of his behavior.

Now, to some it may seem that Syleena was a weak female, but in actuality she was not. She was a woman who had a tortured past, and was trying to separate herself from it. And because her past involved her mother, it stands to reason that it had affected her self esteem as a woman. But, for all that she had endured when she was young, she came out pretty together when it came to her professional life, and was in my opinion pretty strong in her personal life, except when it came to Storm.

The way Marie Rochelle handled the storyline of these two characters and weaved in the secondary characters was great. I couldn't put the book down. I read the book from cover to cover, well into the wee hours of the morning. As a matter of fact, I re-read the book a week later, because I loved it so much.

I read this book a while back and it's one of my favorites. I believe that this is the first book I ever read by Marie Rochelle and I have been hooked ever since. I think she does an amazing job of creating characters who are consistent and believable.

I read so many excellent reviews about this book and how it had earned several awards. I was so excited when it was re-published. What a disappointment. I purchased it three months ago and have only managed to get to page 57. The dialogue is stiff, unimaginative and repetitious. The characters are dull and uninspiring. I didn't care about any of them. They were such extremes and not particularly relatable. At one point the heroine was described as such an ageless beauty (mind you she's only 26!) - that a wrinkle or grey hair would never dare touch her. The author needs to put more time into her stories, quality is much more important than quantity. As with most of her stories poor grammar and typos abounded. I could have easily given this book a 1, but was tempered by my enjoyment of some of her better books (i.e. My Deepest Love Zack)