Two of a Kind: Impulse\The Best Mistake [Perfect Paperback]

Product Details

• Perfect Paperback
• Publisher: Silhouette
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0373285817
• ISBN-13: 978-0373285815
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,898,550 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

64 of 65 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Nice Blend of Old and New, August 18, 2005

By 

Kara J. Jorges "Avid Reader" (Minneapolis) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Two Of A Kind: Impulse\The Best Mistake (Mira Hardbacks) (Hardcover)

Comprised of two novellas, "Impulse" and "The Best Mistake," this book serves as a showcase of Nora Roberts' talent from the early years to later. "Impulse" stars a likeable young heroine, Rebecca Malone, who impulsively quits her job, sells everything she owns, and goes on vacation til the money runs out. We catch up with her on Corfu, where she meets wealthy magnate Stephen Nicodemus. Stephen romances her, charmed by her enthusiasm for new things, while she frets over giving him the wrong impression of herself, even though she told him no lies. Typical of 80's romances, the heroine quietly longs for a man she thinks is out of her league while he's spellbound by her freshness. It was the 80's when first released, so I guess I can't complain.

It is obvious Nora had really blossomed as a writer, and started making a few of her own rules, by the time she wrote "The Best Mistake." It's the story of beautiful Zoe Fleming, working two dead-end jobs to support her son Keenan. To help make ends meet, Zoe rents out her upstairs apartment to Cooper McKinnon, a sportswriter. Coop quickly gets sucked into Zoe and Keenan's lives and feels his bachelorhood slipping through his fingers, and freaks out. Things really get bad when Zoe shrugs him off for being a jerk, and he comes to his senses. This was a cute, well-written modern family romance with a heart, showcasing Nora's talents in a quick read.

The entire book has merit, simply for showing the progressing talent of a major writer, and it was also a nice, quick read for those times a person wants to enjoy a good story, but doesn't have a lot of time.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Romance when you least expect it, August 17, 2005

By 

Gayle Surrette "omnivorous reader" (Brandywine, Maryland) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Two Of A Kind: Impulse\The Best Mistake (Mira Hardbacks) (Hardcover)

As usual the women are strong, competent, intelligent, and beautiful. The romance is the kind to bring a tear to your eye and a wish to you mind.

The first story "Impulse" while enganging and interesting is not very believable but nonetheless a good story. Filled with colorful descriptions and great characters.

"The Best Mistake" is more down to earth. A simple plan to earn more money by renting the houses extra apartment to help a single mother earn enough to cut back on her work hours to be with her son leads to more than she bargained for. I doubt if there is a single mother who doesn't wish a Coop could show up on her doorstep no matter how happy, confident, and competent she was.

If your in the mood for a romance you can't go wrong with these two.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Oldies still classics, May 9, 2006

By 

Himura Seraphina "Literary Sorceress" (Edmonton, AB Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Two Of A Kind: Impulse\The Best Mistake (Mira Hardbacks) (Hardcover)

When reading Nora's first books compared to her newest, there is a tremendous difference that some readers my not like. The old stories are shorter, purely romance-driven, often single-point-of-views by young, sheltered virgins--not much like the savvy, worldly, women of the newer books, whose plots are tense, full of twists and turns, unexpected villians and surprising developments.

But if you take Nora's early work in the proper context--that of the mid- to late-eighties romance genre, you see something else--the pure, focused talent of a woman who would become a driving force in the industry--not just in romance novels, but in woman's fiction, suspense, and futuristic novels.

Read the Nora books being reissued--and then read two or three other romance novels published in the same year as Nora's book. See the difference? Non-romance readers may not see it, as the differences are a bit subtle, but they are there. Nora and a handful of other female writers from the same period--many of whom, like Jayne Ann Krentz and contemporaries, still write and recieve almost the same fame as Nora--redefined the romance industry and novel, taking the guidelines established by publishers and male editors about romance and working around, under, or right over top of those rules.

Eventually, they were able to through those guidelines in the trash where they belonged, paving the way for the diverse romance industry we know today. Nora and those like her refused to be ashamed of writing romance, using their own names instead of pen names-virtually a requirement at the time. They made their heroines strong and clever and not to be manipulated by their older, worldlier male suitors. They gave those same males a voice, becoming the first writers to present fully-formed, human male protaganists whose point-of-view came across--hard to imagine your favorite romance written from only the ladies' point-of-view, isn't it? Men, even written ones, cannot be understood unless you can read minds, as we do now in stories told from multiple perspectives. These were the writers that began blending romance and suspense, adding fantasy and the supernatural to their stories. Some took their characters to other worlds (Jayne Ann Krentz as Jayne Castle); some to the future (Nora as JD Robb) and some into the past in a way only Austen and the Brontes every came close to managing (Stephanie Laurens, Mary Jo Putney).

Those of you who love romance, do not read these reissues books as relics, or scorn them as weak predecesors of the suspenseful romance we all love--read them with thanks and appreciation for their place in the development of the female-driven industry that we may not realize we should be grateful for. Enjoy them, look for Nora's phenomenal talent developing as she and her stories test their wings. Love these well-written early stories for what they are--the first lines in a lifelong achievement of storytelling and authorship.