Customer Reviews

Tangled

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

 

 

This is an incredible book: the first time I read it I couldn'tbear to put it down.

Rebecca had married Julian, David's honorarybrother - they'd grown up together on David's father's estate. ButJulian was killed at war - and there's a dreadful secret there which David dares not reveal...The reader is shown the truth about the characters of the two men, but Rebecca remains ignorant...

Balogh does eventually resolve this seemingly impossible situation, but not before all three main characters arrive at a better understanding of themselves and each other.

As usual, Balogh's characterisations are excellent. One thing I really like about this writer is that she almost never writes a completely irredeemable character; even her villains tend to have some trace of good in them (and indeed, in some of her stories villains of previous books end up as heroes). She also does an excellent job of portraying emotions here, particularly the emotions of two characters who just have no idea how to communicate with each other.

A beautiful and memorable love story.

This book may well have been the most accurate portrayal (to my limited knowledge) of the Victorian era I have ever read.
Unfortunately that means I was grinding my teeth through the entire book.

Had it been any other author I probably would have tossed it by pg 100. But I know how well MB can put a story together, how touchingly real, and so I kept going. And truth be told it was an excellent story, I suppose. But I read a love story for warmth and passion. The overwhelming stiffness here, the self-denial, the inability for the heroine to acknowledge truth vs duty EVEN to HERSELF just left me empty. And OH LORD the sex scenes just made me cringe.

Again, it is NOT the author's skill but my personal taste. If anything she did TOO well here. If one can appreciate that utter Stepford-ness and moral imprisonment of the Victorian era you will no doubt appreciate this story. If however you read romances for just that, romance & warmth & passion, I would suggest one of the other Balogh novels...Truly or Heartless or Longing.

It reminds me in some ways of the Robert Frost poems the one about the two roads, except in Rebecca's case she was given a chance to taste what her life could have been like if she married David instead of Julian. When Julian came back it seemed to be the end of the type of life she had always craved for.

The story is heart breaking in some part, as Rebecca and David were placed in a situation which they could not escape from because they were not ruthless enough to place their own happiness infront of others. The use of circumstances was wonderful and Balogh was incredibly consistent throughout the whole story.

Tangled is a beautiful and complex love story that resonates with honesty and poignancy. I never felt I was reading about Rebecca, David and Julian; I felt as if I knew them. Balogh gives a better feeling for the Victorian period than any other writer of the genre. Rebecca leaves you feeling such sadness for what it must have been like for women in that era and David is truly the most magnificent antidote to Victorian repression. We should all have a David in our lives! Balogh does not create black and white characters. The heroine, Rebecca, is flawed and the villain, Julian, does have a heart and a good soul in the end. Truly a tangled, but satisfying love story.

This is the worst historical romance I have ever read. The hero David is a pushover always taking the blame for his foster brother, and never standing up for himself. The heroin Rebecca is cold and heartless. And the ending is sad.

I thought this book was really excellent because, unlike most romance novels, you actually had a real feel for what is was like to be married in that day and age. Between Rebecca's first marriage and her pre-conceived notions of what it was supposed to be like, it felt like a truly accurate portrayal of a couple, particularly one thrown together in marriage, way back when. The only real problem I had with the book was everyone's overwhelming love of Julian, who I thought was a real jerk and had little to no redeeming qualities. The end was a little too pat, as well, but overall I really enjoyed this book.

Her beautiful eyes flashing with hate, Rebecca faced Lord David Tavistock. He had come back, wounded but still vibrantly, sensually alive, from the Crimean War. Julian Cardwell, her sweet, gentle bridegroom-and David's foster brother-had not. She blamed wild, reckless David for Julian's decision to enter the Queen's Guards, and for the devastating loss of her perfect young husband, whose memory even now broke her heart and filled her dreams.

His blue eyes shadowed by dark secrets, David had come to claim the woman he had always loved. All his life he had protected the charming Julian, hiding the truth from Rebecca about the women Julian dallied with, the child he had fathered, the scandalous way he died. Now David offered Rebecca a life of privilege and wealth-as his wife. She wanted a marriage of convenience, but he intended to awake her deepest passions, to make her forget Julian Cardwell...and to find in his bed all the ecstasy of a man's true love.

This book made my heart ache for all the characters. This book did an excellent job of making you feel the despair in the situation. I disagree with the reviews that thought this book was too long - if anything, I thought that there could have been a little more character transition for Julian. But I loved it! Now I just have to try and find a copy to buy.

I was able to find this as a used book, and was so thrilled with it.
Tangled is an excellent title, because the story is so convoluted and thought provoking.
It has a lot of agony, but I like heart-wrenching situations like these.
It is not set in the Regency period, which was somewhat refreshing to me.
Tangled is now my favorite of Balogh's novels and I was up late into the night to finish it, being riveted by what would happen next.
I would urge anyone to get this book and give it a try.

This is an extremely heartwrenching novel by Balogh: the way she writes the heroine torn by her feelings for two very different men is just so well done. Balogh shows Rebecca's unwilling attraction to David extremely well. In the beginning she dislikes him (for reasons which seemed to be valid at the time, but all is not what it seems), but her feelings change gradually, in a way she does not even herself notice. Rebecca and David's inability to talk to each other, while it compounds their awkward situation, is very credible in the circumstances.

And, since all Balogh's characters, including minor characters, are always very well drawn, Julian is portrayed extremely sympathetically. Given his 'back-story' it would have been very easy to paint him as the villain, but Balogh avoids that temptation and shows him as the flawed but well-meaning person he seems to be.

I thoroughly recommend this book.