Customer Reviews

The Untamed Bride [With Headphones] (Playaway Adult Fiction)

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

Very familiar plot line. No spark, no interest in the main characters. Frankly, they could have been very pleasant secondary characters but as the main characters rather boring. Not a bad book but no point in reading again. I was incredibly upset realizing that at least a fifth of the book was advertising for previous books, not that this book actually needed more pages but thought I was buying a half-way decent size book. Books are getting shorter and shorter and prices higher than higher. Stephanie Laurens used to be a buy in paperback but is heading quickly to library check out.

See if you can tell me the name of this book:

Handsome, heroic nobleman meets independent-minded, feisty noblewoman. He is instantly attracted and pursues; she is attracted and resists. Her lungs seize. He flashes a wolfish smile. He seduces her. Lots of sex scenes. Oh, and there's a mysterious traitor/murderer and at some point the hero and heroine are in physical jeopardy. He gets overly protective, she resists again...

Yes, it's a template for every Stephanie Laurens book in print. What makes this one a bit different is the cast of thousands from prior novels who converge at one place toward the end of the novel. Here's the sad part -- when gathered together in the same place at the same time, most of the characters, especially the women, are so interchangable that the reader really doesn't need to know anything about their individual backstories. And that's the problem with this book: the two lead characters are so two-dimensional, so identical to the protaganists in prior books, that it's hard to view them as anything but carbon copies.

Generally, I'm able to get beyond the carbon copy plot because Laurens is a very capable writer (unlike so many others who tend to make up their own rules of grammar), with a very fluid, lyrical style. Not this time; I just couldn't warm up to this book. I can only hope that the next one in the series has some glimmer of originality...

Colonel Derek "Del" Delborough and four of his friends have been tasked by the Governor-General of India to bring down the Black Cobra, head of a cult that has been terrorizing Indian villages, raping, pillaging, and murdering Indians and Englishmen alike. After discovering the identity of the Black Cobra, Del and his men know that to bring them down, they're going to need hard evidence and help from the powerful Duke of Wolverstone. Del's mission becomes personal when one of his friends is killed by the Black Cobra's men while securing the evidence they need. Under Wolverstone's instructions, Del and his friends split up, one carrying the original piece of evidence, the other three carrying decoys. Each is heading to England by a separate route; and that's just the beginning of Del's adventure.

Arriving in Southampton, Del receives word from his aunts that he needs to escort a neighbor back home with him. Since Del is on a mission, he absolutely refuses to do so. Too bad for him Miss Deliah Duncannon, has no intention of being packed off by herself. As Deliah is drawn into Del's mission, the now-retired colonel realizes that while he has faced off against numerous enemies, he has no chance against one brash, stunning Englishwoman, or his attraction to her. The Black Cobra's men are closing in on the pair, but possibly more frightening to both than losing their lives is the possibility of losing their hearts.

Though the Black Cobra Quartet is all new, The Untamed Bride is classic Stephanie Laurens. It has a strong, protective hero, an unconventional, intelligent heroine, romance to warm your heart, and action a plenty. Del is a hero straight out of Ms. Laurens's library with his strong sense of honor and his acknowledgment that he's powerless to resist his desire for the woman destined to be his. As for Deliah, she's a woman with a somewhat scandalous past who may seem unusual among women of her time, but fits right in with Ms. Laurens's other heroines. The similarities to previous heroes and heroines is apparent because the Cynster cousins, Bastion Club members, and their wives all play strong supporting roles in The Untamed Bride. Readers new to Ms. Laurens's work do not have to fear being lost, for The Untamed Bride is written to stand on its own. Those already familiar with Ms. Laurens's books will likely enjoy revisiting some of their favorite characters once more; I definitely did.

While the romance between Del and Deliah is at the heart of The Untamed Bride, equally important is the baiting game the group plays with the Black Cobra and his men. I was drawn into Del's mission and avidly read the story to see what would happen next in terms of intrigue, every bit as much as I did for the love story. All in all, The Untamed Bride was a satisfying read and a strong start to what is sure to be an exciting quartet. I'm eager to see what happens next and as such, can't wait to read book two in the Black Cobra Quartet, The Elusive Bride.

Shayna

Reviewed for Joyfully Reviewed

What a disappointment! The first six Cynster novels were first class. Since then, Laurens has milked the nieces, nephews, in-laws, aliens, ...ANYONE who might have a Cynster connection... in order to create a book. OK, then she did the Bastion Club books. Again, the first two were pretty good. After that, the formula became the same. I really hoped with this Black Cobra series she might be starting something different but I was disappointed. First, the hero and heroine have stupid names. Second, the villain starts as dangerous and then seriously fizzles out and becomes laughable (will this be sustained through 3 more books?).

If you look at her books, you start to ask the same questions: exactly how many aristocratic women (who go on to marry Cynsters or Cynster kin...) are willing to lose their virginity to men who are not their husbands/boyfriends/fiances in the 1820s? How did they have this much sex and NONE of them ever get pregnant before they get married? None of the women, at least, even seem to consider this possibility/worry about the societal ramifications. And where were the parents, siblings, servants, etc. who didn't notice all the nocturnal comings and goings? Why don't these women want to hear the "I love you" words before going to bed? And why would you want to continue to have sex with someone who ravishes your body at night but barely acknowledges you during the day?

Save your $$$$ Save your time.

This book is exactly what readers expect from Laurens -- a handsome, confident hero becomes fascinated by an independent, quirky woman. You know they'll face dangers together, fall madly in love and have lots of sex. Unfortunately the descriptive language in those scenes is so repetitive that they become ho-hum. What was most disappointing was the ending which was not an ending at all. It was simply a leave 'em hanging excuse for the next book in this series. When I finished what turned out to be the last chapter and turned the page to read the next only to find advertising instead, I vowed to skip the rest of this series. Like another reader, the publisher's decision to fill the last one third of this book with ads instead of content, was insulting.

Why I even bothered giving this author a second chance is far beyond me; I guess it's because we've been trained to automatically think that we should always give people a second chance at anything. I read (A Fine Passion)a long while back and other than the riveting sex scenes, the plot never held a solid storyline. This book was no different. Furthermore, it is extremely inconceivable to think that Stephanie Laurens will have us readers believe that a hired servant boy can simply manage to sneak into a hotel and appear so unnoticed by both the hero and heroine's staff and is mistaken by both household's to work for the other when in fact he didn't work for either and was hired by the villain's (Black Cobra)second. The hero's mission was of such vital importance and having lost one of his fellow military friends, one would think that he would exercise extreme caution and scrutiny when it came to dealing with not only his staff, the heroine's staff, but surely to any outsider they would come across. Futhermore, the author would have characters solve the most obvious conclusions with hardly even a second thought and therefore any lack of suspense. This read lacked imagination and originality. It was VERY difficult to get through this very boring and mundane read. The read felt as lengthy as the story's journey and travel from India to England. What would've taken me a mere of only two days to read, took almost a month to complete, because the author completely failed to engage me into this story. Based on the prologue, it is clearly evident that the ending was not going to be a complete solving of the Black Cobra capture, in that Ms. Laurens informs us that these four heroes will leave India and return to England with very incriminating evidence via four different routes. Personally, I do not have four years of my life to waste on reading what will evidently lead to reading four different books.

The only positive about this read are the very steamy love scenes and far above average vocabulary/language used within this book. For this reason, I don't think I will be reading any more Stephanie Laurens books. Ms. Laurens will have to catch up with her reader audience and give us more credit. We want action, suspense and good romance. The story had possibilities, but in my opinion it failed drastically in unfolding itself to a more solid plot. Moreover, villains from the middle east do not all have to be named "The Black Cobra."

I loved this book and couldn't put it down. I know others haven't reviewed it favorable but I loved this book. I always love series and really love that favorite characters from her other books showed up in this book. Don't let the bad reviews scare you, give it a try you'll love it.

I am a long-time fan of Stephanie Laurens' books, but this one is not worth the cover price. To me, there's a middle ground between a namby-pamby heroine who sits around waiting to get saved, and one who is so idiotically head-strong you kind of hope something bad happens to her. Unfortunately, with this book, Laurens took the second path.

Deliah Duncannon's family has arranged to have Colonel Derek Delborough escort her home (I know...the names kill me too). Her family arranged this without notifying him, naturally. When he shows up at the appointed meeting spot to tell her he can't take her, because he's on a government mission, she insists that he take her anyway. And then (spoiler alert), in her presence, someone tries to kill him, and she STILL wants to go with him. Even though she could have died just as easily as he could have. And she also badgers him to tell her every detail of his super-secret spy mission. And he obliges her, even after she wanders outside alone (like a complete twit)and almost gets herself kidnapped, because she "didn't realize she was in any danger." Because apparently she forgot about that whole assasination attempt.

And worse, she volunteers to be the bait to draw out the villains. What kind of nitwit inserts herself into the middle of a military operation? And has the gall to tell the commander (you know, the guy trained to fight and survive by the military) that he's just as easy to kill as she is? I'll tell you what kind. The kind that rushes outside into a fight between soldiers and mercenaries, because she thinks she can help. All of which reads less as spunky and more as annoying and arrogant.

So, to sum up, whatever intrigue the plot created, the heroine killed this book for me. I wanted to strangle her myself, and save the Black Cobra cult the trouble.

I am so so disappointed in this book. The last series (The Bastian club)I notice that I was starting to get bored but then the last book in the series brought my hopes back up. This book was so boring and filled with unnessecery details, its just the same plot with differnt names. I will not be buying the rest in this series. Hopefully her next will be worth reading.

When I first spied The Untamed Bride and found it was the first of four books in The Black Cobra Quartet I was excited. Its been a while since I've read a Stephanie Laurens novel and I must admit I simply adored the Cynsters - although by the time the last novel in that series came along I was ready for a pirate or a vampire. Then came The Bastion Club and for some reason I couldn't wrap my head around the sameness of those books. They were plotted exactly like the Cynster series although mercifully there were less of the Bastion Club novels.

So I picked up The Untamed Bride hoping to find a change. Well the locale has been changed and the premise is good - four officers of the Crown fight against a deadly enemy called the Black Cobra. They are charged with learning his identity (in India), procuring evidence against him, and bringing said evidence back to London. Since the Black Cobra knows the identities of these officers it is most unwise for them to travel together so each carries identical boxes containing the so-called evidence. However, only one of them carries the real thing; the others carry copies. Not even the officers knows which of them carries the real thing. They are each given a different route by which to return to England. At least this device gives us a glimpse of different locales.

Of course we have a lovely British lass, the handsome and dashing British officer, some contrived reason for them to be together, at least two good reasons why each of them hasn't thought about or sought marriage, and the eventual falling into each other's arms.

The trick with this book, and one that Ms. Laurens is a master of, is weaving four tangled threads (the books in the quartet) and making the reader wait until the last book to bring everything together. That is about the only reason that I can find to read all four books.

If you are a die-hard Stephanie Laurens fan then you will of course adore The Untamed Bride. Likewise, if you are reading this historical romance for pure escapism, then you are bound to enjoy this book. I found it good enough for those reasons although if I don't get to read the successive books for a year or two it won't bother me in the least.