Customer Reviews

Veiled Passions (Zebra Historical Romance)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a hard one to rate. The lovely prose makes this a step above most of the pedestrian stuff offered on the historical romance aisle but other aspects of the writing bogged down the reading for me.

When I first started this, I thought I was really going to like it. It's Georgian. Yay! Has a heroine with a past. Woo hoo! Revenge! Love! I can eat all that up and come back for seconds.

The author's writing had an old skool flava to it. Some might call it lush. Others would call it wordy and flowery. The author also showed a wearying desposition for repetition. It seemed like a page did not go by without a sentence on how the heroine has become "cold" because of what happened. A scene did not go by without a description on how gorgeous either the hero or heroine was at that moment. Combine all this with a plodding pace and it took me TWICE the time that it normally takes to read a historical romance. And I really had to force myself to finish this book just for closure.

The best parts of the book were the depictions of the hero and the villain. The villain seemed totally evil at the start of the story but I appreciated that he was more nuanced than that. The hero was delicious. He was a self-made man: a playwright, a libertine, an artist, and a gambler. He spoke the language of the seducer very well. Example:

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He reached out, skimmed her jaw with the back of a single finger. "Know this about me, for you are a lovely girl and you deserve to know who stands in your cabin this evening. Let me tell you what I am capable of: I could make you my mission. I could turn you into the focus of my entire existence, pursue you in a seduction to which you would have no defense. I could seduce you into my life, consume you with my world, and have you willing in my bed. I could possess you. I could play you like the cello, make you feel things you never dreamed possible. I could bring you pleasure beyond your imagining, and in doing so, I would enslave you. You would lick the floor in front of me, if I asked you to. You would do anything for me. And you would be mine, for as long as the affair lasted."

His eyes changed. They grew distant, regretful. He looked as though he were turned inward, trying to figure out when he'd become this man whom he spoke of with such familiarity. "And when I lost interest in you, I would walk away."
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Unfortunately, the good points could not outweigh the bad for me no matter how much I wanted it to.

3.5 Stars

This book started off wonderful! It had the perfect kind of hero I love to read about. Matteo was so darn sexy! He is Venetian womanizer- and A well portrayed one too! When you hear the things he says, you believe that he can seduce any woman. The way he dresses and his style is also that of A seducer. I also thought the plot would have been an interesting one - with Kieran wanting revenge on a man for a wrong that was done to her. Another great potential was in the secondary character of Nilo. I loved that the author bought a black man of that time to life, with him being a servant and not a slave, and he was compassionate and sweet, with his own little love story.

Even with all those wonderful things that should have made this book great, it still fell flat! The heroine destroyed this book! She was an unlikable woman that had no idea what it was that she wanted! One minute she despises the villain for what he did to her so much that she even wanted to die. The next minute she's contemplating marriage to him because he was a duke! I don't care what her motives were! Her actions confused the plot and made it un-enjoyable until you found out her real intentions. She also felt that she was better than the hero because he was a Commoner and her pride would forbid her to marry him. Even after he told her that he loved her, she was still thinking that she didn't love him because of that! Her family had to actually put her in her place. Through out the whole book I was trying to figure out what in the world the hero saw in her. I was actually wishing that he would have ended up with his Venetian mistress instead of her. There was also only one miserly love scene in this book and they don't even kiss untill half way through the book. This book could have been A winner but I'm sorry to say that it didn't make the grade.

This has got to be the best of the three book series by Tracy Macnish. Main character Matteo is just so wonderful and alluring. It's a must read for any romance reader. I must stress that you should read the first 2 books before you read this one. It helps to understand the charaters better. Poor innocent Keirin in the second book was so traumatised. Really sad. But this book takes Tracy's writting to new levels. My favorite by far. I hope this isn't the end of The Veiled series. She is a fantastic writer. One of my favorites.

Haven't you found many book reviews on Amazon.com uneven and so naively opinionated that they don't help guide you at all? Then take it from The Romantic Times, the New York Times of Romance writing, when it comes to Veiled Passions. They gave it their top rating and added their KISS accolade (Knight in Shining Silver, I think it means) for top hero. If you enjoy three-dimensional characters with real rather than formulaic emotions, clever plotting, and meticulous attention to period detail, you'll love this book. It's set in 18th century England and Italy and serves as the third in a series that traces the lines of British aristocratic and Irish seafaring families.

If I were to only rate this novel solely on the hero this book would be a five star novel. Alas, this book is not only about the hero but his heroine too and because she was so unlikable this drops my review down to a two and a half star rating.

Kieran is in Venice with her brother, Rogan the Duke of Eton and sister-in-law participating in carnival when she sees the Duke of Westminster, a man she despises with her entire being and for good reason, three years earlier he along with his friends debased her and now Kieran is a cold, unfeeling ice princess. She and the Duke quarrel and she falls into the canal to be rescued by Matteo de Gama

Oh Matteo. He is incredibly romantic, a real charmer a gambler, a Casanova of Venice. When he saves her, Kieran attacks him and flies at him in rage, for an ice princess Kieran becomes enraged rather easily.

Kieran thinks she will never see Matteo again after he leaves her with her brother but that is not to be, as he needs her for an alibi. He is accused of treasonous acts the night he saved her life. She and her brother go to his trial and save him from conviction but Matteo is still exiled for five years from his beloved Venice.

Kieran's brother offers one of his homes in London as payment for saving Kieran's life and he accepts as Matteo is very interested in Kieran. On the voyage to London the two become better acquainted. Matteo knows Kieran has something to hide and intuitively guesses that she would like revenge against the man who hurt her. Kieran has decided to take up this vendetta against the Duke of Westminster with Matteo's help. On the ship she warms up a little to him, not much, but for Kieran this is monumental.

In London, Matteo agrees to oversee the restoration of one of Rogan's nearby properties since his pride will allow him only to live in the Duke's house if he can pay his way. This is his first real job. Kieran is fascinated by this man and tells him about her past hurts, something she has shared with no one. He also shares his past of being an unwanted child of a whore, and also being a boy toy of an aging countess. Matteo has such compassion for Kieran that he will do whatever he can to assist her revenge.

Kieran is grateful and interested in Matteo sexually and that is about it. His feelings do not matter much to her. When she does not get her way she becomes dismissive and unkind. I really really had a hard time liking Kieran because she was so self serving and self involved. She is snobbish and really considers Matteo beneath her socially. Even when confronted with her spoiled attitude she does not change until almost the end and I do mean quite literally the end of the book. Her saving grace is that she takes her revenge in a very interesting way.

Matteo was so special, a cellist, artist, musician, writer, and philosopher. He is unlike almost every other romance hero. He is a rake but one who allows his heart to soften. I liked him from the start but I never warmed to Kieran and he so deserved someone as special as he was.

Having read the first two novels in this series and loved them it was hard to believe that anything could surpass them. However, the story of Kieran and Matteo was totally engaging. I found myself transported to a different time and place and completely engrossed in Kieran's struggle to reclaim the person she once was. The dynamic between Kieran and Matteo was totally captivating, and I couldn't help hoping with each page that they would overcome the darkness of their past and embrace love. Tracy MacNish has written a story that is the essence of true romance.

I read Melissa's three star review and must say that I disagree with her opinion of Kieran. I found myself routing for Kieran and felt that her response to what had happened to her was a very typical and believable human response. I think Melissa's review shows that she really just did not "get it."

If you like Historical Romance then give this book a try; I have read scads of Historical Romance books and with so many of them their plots are so similar, so very predictable.

It was nice to read a romance with different twists and turns from the beginning of the story to the end. I did not like the heroine in this book, I still don't---quite honestly,I wanted to slap her silly throughout the story but the hero in this story held my attention to the final pages.

I considered this book a worthy Historical Romance read, worthy of my time. Give it a try.

In 1777 in Venice at the insistence of her worried brother Rogan, she thinks back to her carefree London life that ended three years ago. Since the incident that she refuses to speak of even to her beloved brother, Kieran Mullin lives in self imposed exile. She only occasionally comes out of her "prison" to attend costumed events.

At Carnivale she sees the person who destroyed her life three years ago; he notices her too and reacts. He pushes her into a canal. Hedonistic rake Matteo de Gama rescues the drowning Kieran. He offers to help her enact vengeance and she accepts. When they go to England, her sibling allows Matteo to stay with them because he knows the musician has brought some light into the life of his sister; he is unaware she has brought light into his music.

This is an exciting late eighteenth century historical romance with a touch of intermittent suspense that enhances the fine tale. Kieran is a fascinating lead character as she unsuccessfully struggles to cope with the nightmare she witnessed and keeps seeing in her mind. Matteo is an interesting multifaceted individual as a musician-philosopher who loves the cards and the women. Fans will enjoy Tracy MacNish's fine Georgian tale of love.

Harriet Klausner