Customer Reviews

The Gift

5 star:		(76)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

I think that some of the people who wrote reviews are whining. Not the heroine of Julie Garwood's book. You have to take into consideration that Sara, the heroine, was probably a good representation of some women at that time. And a large facet of her charm and appeal is the way she grows from timid, and self conscious to mature and self-assured. In this book, the characters have been married since they were 4 and 14. They are from rival families and were ordered to marry to settle a dispute. 14 years later, Nathan comes to get Sara and start their married life. The story that follows amusingly, and touchingly, chronicles Nathan and Sara falling in love on the high seas, and fighting to keep that love on land. I thought The Gift was a great book, certainly one of the best in the series. (Speaking of the series, there are four books, not three. The Lion's Lady is the first. Then Guardian Angel, The Gift, and Castles.) The two main characters are loveable, and have good chemistry, not mention some GREAT and really witty conversations. And of course, the hot love scenes

Julie Garwood has created a thoroughly interesting plot and setting, a great cast of minor characters, and a great book! I reccomend it highly, but I also reccomend you read the books in order.

I usually don't require that laughter be a part of any romance novel I read...but I was almost embarrassed by the perpetual smile I had on my face while reading this book. It has to be one of the best books I have ever read. Sara, the bumbling, innocent heroine I didn't get at first, but after I realized that her demeanor was all a coping mechanism that she developed while dealing with her horrid family. Well I couldn't help but love her cluelessness. Nathan was a marvelous hero...sigh. You know when an author gets a hero right...there is no explaination needed. I loved this book.

I love Julie Garwood, and this is one of my favorites. Lady Sara Winchester is a different kind of heroine - ditzy, naive and thoroughly optomistic. She was forced to marry Nathan St. James by royal decree when she was a very young child, and has fantasized about him as her prince charming ever since. When Nathan claims his bride years later, she is in for a surprise - he is surly and mistrustful, not to mention a semi-reformed pirate and general social outcast. The story of how these two come together and learn to live with one another is hilarious. And plenty sexy! As usual, Garwood delivers!

In 1802, two families who have been long enemies will gather together by edict of King George. Hoping to stop their continuous warring, the king arranges a marriage between the Marquess of St James and the Earl of Winchester's daughter. But there is to be no wedding night for Nathan is only fourteen while his new bride is still a horse-blanket sniffing four-year-old.

Then many years later, Nathan is now the notorious pirate Pagan trying to claim his bride and the wealth that comes with her. But when her family refused, he had no choice but to kidnap his own bride aboard his ship The Emerald.

And so the adventure begins...

Eager to be a good wife to her husband, whom she has fantasized about since she was a child, Sara does her best to please Nathan and win over his crew. She tries her hand in cooking, which sent them hanging over the railing due to food poisoning, and then she nearly destroys her husband's ship by causing a fire. But for all her naïveté, I couldn't help but like Sara. She is just the woman to break Nathan's defences down. Having suffered, and in fact carrying the physical scars caused by the betrayal of a woman, Nathan has built a wall around his heart, which Sara slowly breaks down.

THE GIFT is the third instalment in the Lyon series. Although this provided some laughs, I wasn't as enthralled with the whole story as I was with other Garwood books. I do appreciate a good laugh, but I felt that the romance wasn't well-developed and the whole story a little too similar to the second book GUARDIAN ANGEL. There were also some inconsistencies that bothered me while I was reading it such as how long Nathan has been a pirate. It didn't really tie up with the previous book. Then there's the fact that Nathan is a marquess, while his father is an earl. Isn't a marquess above an earl, and therefore the father should bear the higher ranking? I know these are only minor issues, but I have read a lot of romance books and therefore a little picky when it comes things like these. But overall, this was quite an enjoyable read for the humor alone.

The complete series in order are: THE LION'S LADY, GUARDIAN ANGEL, THE GIFT, and CASTLES.

Ok, so this was such a good book. The writing was great! She put in funny little things that they would be thinking and it would crack me up.

So the story is about Sara Winchester and Nathan, Marquees of St. James. They were ordered to marry when he was 14 and she was 4 years old....... that's right FOUR! The reason was because the two families had been feuding for years and the king wanted peace and he thought the marriage would facilitate that peace. Sara's family talked bad about Nathan but she thought of him as her knight in shinning armor. Her family were not the nicest people. Nathan just wanted the gift the marriage contract would give them...at first.

Most of Julie Garwood's female character are very strong and Sara is strong but she is more of a "lady" than most of the others. I liked that change. Was I a little annoyed with Sara at first, yes, but I imagine a lot of women were like her back in the day. Sara has a strong mind. She is a bit of a dreamer and thinks only of the good in people.

Now Nathan is a whole different story. He likes being alone and doesn't want to depend on anyone especially a woman. He is jaded, but kind. He is at times a contradiction to himself. He would say he doesn't care about her feelings but then do things that would spare her delicate feelings. It was very sweet. But he does have a tendency to yell a lot...at her. But believe me it is funny when he does. My favorite line was when someone asked what endearments he calls her by and Sara says, "Damn it Sara." She did this because he never called her by endearments and wanted to upset him. Then he turns around and says "Damn it, Sara!" and then he starts laughing.

I could go on and on about this book but I will stop because I do not think I can do it justice. So much happens but I will not ruin it for you. I am going to stop now and just say....this is a very good book and you should think about reading it!

This is the 3rd book in a series. The first being The Lions Lady and the second is The Guardian. Although you visit some characters from the first and second books, this could also be read without having read one and two.
The Winchester and the St. James families have been feuding forever. The King comes up with a marriage contract in the hopes that it will bring peace to these families. 4 year old Sara Winchester marries 14 year old Nathan St. James. After the ceremony and the contracts are signed they go their seperate ways.
Years Later Nathan is ready to claim his bride. He knows nothing of what Sara looks like... Only that the Winchester females tend to be bigger that average.
They finally come face to face in a local pub after Nathan has to save his bride. Nathan immediately takes Sara on his ship, the Seahawk. There are parts of the contract that need to be fulfilled before Nathan can secure his 'gift', some money and land.
I love this book. Sara comes from a horrible family but trys to remain positive. She trys to exude confidence even when she is terrified. Nathan is a strong hero who lets his softer side show by finding his new bride very charming and amusing.
Their high seas adventure is filled with a series of unfortunate and humorous events. But it's when they arrive back home that their new relationship will really be tested. All the characters are endearing and interesting. Sara and Nathan are a well matched couple. There is a chemistry between them that will leave you anything but bored.
It was a great read.

I adore "The Gift". It is so much better than its prequel, "Guardian Angel", and sequel, "Castles". For one, it has a great title that actually corresponds to what is going on in the book. It also has fantastic characters. Sara may not be as strong as Jade but during the time when this book is supposed to take place, early 1800s, women were a lot more sheltered. Sara learns to loosen up and stand up for herself, proving she had strength all along but never knew it until she had to prove it. Meanwhile, her little "accidents" are adorable and hysterical and her plight to convince Nathan that he loves her is touching. Nathan is a perfect romantic hero, gruff on the outside and gentle on the inside. He is too hard-headed and cruel in the beginning but, like Sara, he matures and by the end of the book is more tame. Nathan and Sara are a great match and their sparring is terribly witty. I especially adore the last third of the book, when Sara is convinced that Nathan does not love her and he is determined to prove to her that he does and wants to make the most noble sacrifice. Nothing can be more romantic than the scene at the ball, when Nathan forgets, in his nervousness, that they are already married and almost goes down on his knees to propose to Sara.

Although Sara is prone to weeping, this does not make me think of her as weak. She shows her emotions openly and without restraint, and it is only natural that she tears up whenever she is upset. Her soft heart is what makes her so lovable, and tears are a part of the package.

Most importantly, I loved "The Gift" more than the other books because the story was very intriguing. In no other book, was the setting and the plot so perfect for furthering the story. This is a wonderful book, a gem to behold.

Now, I know most of you must have liked this Julie Garwood installation, and I could understand the attraction, but if you're going to compare it to her other works, it fails in comparison, and also because of comparision.

Nathan, the hero of the piece, sounds just like every other character in her novels. If I asked you, a Garwood reader, to guess the major elements of his personality, would you not have it down to science? Honestly? He's arrogant, rude, domineering, curt, and stern.

And the ego in this guy is really too much. Not only is he annoying, but he is also proclaimed to be the captain of a ship, the infamous pirate pagan, the scurge of the seas, when he can barely make it over the water. What doesn't make sense, is that Nathan, who is also the Marquess of St. James, cannot control his stomach on board. He gets serious sea-sickness and pukes out his guts more than once in the story.

This is where Sara comes in, you see, because she doesn't feel bad that he gets sea-sickness, because Nathan was rude to her. That was the smartest thing she did in the entire story. For, even though he's barely known her a day:

he's already trying to jump her bones (no control or what! Is that supposed to be attractive?).
he's mad that she won't have sex with him already.
he thinks she's incomptent and tells her so because she's a woman.
He never thinks she can take care of herself.
He didn't even care about her until he knew she was beautiful.
Right after that he wanted to kill everyone standing next to her, talking to her, because she was his property.

And yet, she falls hopelessly in love with him, even though he never really changes.

The moral of this story: Be an ass. Get laid anyways.

Garwood is usually so great, but when is she going to stop having the same guy in a different package in every story. Typically, I can stomach the main character because somehow or another, she makes it ok that they act this way towards females. But this story isn't interesting enough to where we can overlook the serious character flaws and think its ok for the male to keep thinking of the girl as useless, inept, and unable to care for herself. And as property. We can't forget that.

I was threatened into read this book. It was all kind of funny, really. I love to read. But the kinds of books I prefer was the small 100-200 page books about teens. Those 300+ novels scared me, even though I would probably finish one in two days. When I went to visit my cousin in Southern California for the summer, I was bent on having fun with her. How was I supposed to know that she had summer school? I seriously didn't want to do anything without her, so I stayed home, bothering the heck out of my aunt. Finally, my aunt, who was really annoyed with me, went up to my cousin's room and picked a random book off her bookself. She gave it to me and ordered me to do read it ... or else. I knew my aunt wouldn't hurt me, but I decided to placate her. The book she had chosen for me---The Gift.
I was drew in with the first sentence, "It was only a matter of time before the wedding guests killed one another." It took me my whole vacation to read it. I read it while my cousin was at school. I read it while waiting in the long lines at Disneyland. I read it while ON the rides of Disneyland. I woke up hours earlier than I use to to read it. I stayed up all night reading it. I was obsessed.
I'm not gonna tell you about the book since many others already have. But I have to tell you that you HAVE to read this. It's wonderful. It made me laugh, it made me cry. Julie Garwood is a GODDESS! (With one E or two?) The Gift immediately became my favorite book of all time. Heck, I even went out and bought it after I read it three times. The pages have creases and rips in it, and the spine is worn out. And I only owned the book for less than a year! So you can see how much I read it. I love to go back to it to get my mind off of things or to just relive the romance between Nathan and Sara. Months later, and fourteen Julie Garwood books, The Gift is still up there as number one. You'll love it, I swear.

I also recommend The Wedding, the Secret, the Lion's Lady, and Saving Grace. My number 2, 3, 4, 5 books.

I have read every single Julie Garwood book ever written and this one is probably my favorite. Its definately the funniest that I have read of hers. Between the "head in the clouds" heroine and the "much to masculine" hero the story continues to take turns for the best. Sarah, with her deadly parasols, is one of the most naive, clutzy characters of any book I have read that isn't strictly comedy. If your looking for a book to make you smile and even laugh aloud at times, this is definately one for the job. The other three books in the series are funny to. Its always good to start out with the first book in the series instead of the last (Order: Lyon's Lady, Guardian Angel, The Gift, and Castles) but they are good and make sense in any order. A definate read for Garwood fans.