Customer Reviews

Violet (Seven Brides)

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is book #6 in the Seven Brides series. This is about Jeff & Violet.

Description from the back of the book:

Broken and bitter, Jefferson Randolph could never forget all he had lost in the War Between The States--or forgive those he had fought. Long after most of his sex brothers had found wedded bliss, the former Rebel soldier kept himself buried in work, only dreaming of one day marrying a true daughter of the South. Then a run-in with a Yankee schoolteacher taught him that he had a lot to learn about passion.

Violet Goodwin was too refined and genteel for an ornery bachelor like Jeff. Yet before he knew it, his disdain for Violet was blossoming into desire. But Jeff feared that love alone wasn't enough to help him put his past behind him--or to convince a proper lady that she could find happiness as the newest bride in the rowdy Randolph clan.

*** I love this series but so far it's my least favorite. It was still good but just didn't measure up to the others. I wasn't big on the setting & I kept getting the impression that the author forgot at some points that Jeff only had 1 arm. At one point he said that Jeff grabbed Violet by the shoulders & turned her to face him which I guess could be possible but then at the end of the book in an intimate moment "His HANDS were soft but strong". I also felt that there were a few loose ends left when the book was over. I wanted to see the Rodeo & find out what happened with the twins & a few of the others but it never happened. Well, although this wasn't my favorite it was still good & I highly recommend this series.

P.S. Leigh Greenwood is a male author & not a female. It's a nice change & gives us a better view from the hero's perspective.

I have read all the Seven Bride books when they were first released. I continue to this day go back and reread them. Violet was my favorite of them all. I fell in love with Jeff from the begining. I could not wait for him to find his true love and I am so happy that he fell for a Yankee. It did serve him right. Jeff and Violet were both injured souls who really needed each other. They fought their attraction but knew it was hopeless. You have to read this book even if you haven't read the others. It explains so much of emotional suffering and the happiness that can be discovered when you are not looking for it. I wish the Ms. Greenwood would contiue with the Randolphs with the next generation. It would be interesting to see what happens to the twins and the other children of these men.

I have read all of the "Seven Brides" and all are great...But Violet has been my favorite. It made me laugh (having Jeff up in the attic of the girls school because he was to impatient to read the quartine signs is worth the price of the book), made me want to cry because Jeff was so emotionally screwed up from his fathers abuse and the war. I just loved how Violet could just slip in past all of Jeffs defences and find a nice snug place in his heart against his will...:) If you haven't read the "Seven Brides" do so in order and this story will be all the better.

Despite the fact that the seven Randolph brother's were emotionally abused as children by their handsome yet cruel father, they grow up into good and strong men. Yet their damaged inner child makes him feel incapable of loving or worthy of being loved.

Jeff Randolph, bright and sensitive, believed strongly in the cause of the southern states and just as strongly that war was not the way to resolve the problem. His father taunts him for being a coward and threatens to kill him himself if he doesn't fight. Jeff does the only thing he can do and follows his older brother George into the conflict. In doing so he loses his left arm and spends the rest of his time in a yankee prison camp.

Returning home, Jeff already riddled with feelings of inadequacy, uses his disability to keep other people from getting close. He despises Yankees and his only dream is to return to the family home in Virginia and the gentle life he once knew. And of course a gentle southern belle to go with it.

Jeff finds his place as the family banker. He sees it as a means to obtain his dream. Family obligation lands him in the middle of a quarantine at his nieces school. There he finds the most irritating Yankee woman who not only sees beyond his disability but finds something in him to love as well. Through his insecurity he drives her away and in doing so realizes he can't live without her. When tragedies strike he comes through for both his family and his woman. Violets unconditional love and his own courage opens his heart to love of himself, his lady, and his family, dispelling his father's legacy forever.

I was surprised to find how much I fell in love with Jeff Randolph (especially since he's been such a jerk from the beginning of the series). Great character development. I laughed out loud the whole time he was trapped in the school. Hilarious!

This was actually the first book of the series that I got, and read first. While I wouldn't say it was my favorite, after reading the rest, it is definately worth reading. I would recommend this book, as well as the rest of the series. You can't read one without them all, as they are all truly part of each other.

I really like the fact that the author is a man. It is a nice chance from the ordinary and goes to show that anyone (male or female) can do what they set themselves out to do.

I was pleasantly surprised by how well I liked this book. It's right up there with Laurel in my favorite books.

To be honest, I wasn't looking forward to reading this particular brother's story. Jeff was so unpleasant in the previous books of this series that I wondered how on earth Leigh Greenwood would manage to make a hero out of him. Well, I think Leigh succeeded. Jeff comes across as the tortured hero all right, but his actions speak more for habit than anything else--a fact pointed out by Violet on more than one occasion. I have to say that his constant hang-ups about "Yankees" got rather annoying but he did finally see the light, so I'll let it go.

Violet was far more likable than I was expecting. Perhaps it was the fact that she was a little older than most heroines in romances today, but she seemed far more sensible and level-headed. Not that she didn't have spirit or a temper; she just knew how to control herself. I really liked her.

My biggest complaint has to be the tiny, and I mean tiny, part of the story that dealt with Violet's uncle's silver mine claim. It felt like it was added as an afterthought, almost as if the publishers didn't think there was enough suspense in this story. I think it would have been a wonderful story without it. But, that's just my opinion.

This story contains graphic love scenes.

I have just finished reading VIOLET. Its a great novel, especially when read following the earlier BRIDES books. The premise is unique which adds to the enjoyment of the story line. I am now starting LILY and on completion of LILY will miss the Randolph family enormously.

When I first started reading the seven brides series Jeff was my least favorite of the seven. But the tranformantion into someone who can love from someone who didn't feel he deserved to be loved was wonderfully touching. I enjoyed the way Violet taught us that often times it not what is on the outside or even what someone may want to pretend to be that makes a person but what they really are but what's inside that makes the person. I loved watching Jeff fall but I was glad Violet was there to catch him.

VIOLET WAS GREAT.... I HOPE THAT EVERYONE WHO SEE'S THIS WILL GO AND GET HER.. I LOVED ALL THE BOOKS IN THE (SEVEN BRIDES) VIOLET, WELL SHE SHOWED YOU HOW TO LOOK PAST THE OUT SIDE OF A PERSON AND REALLY LOOK ON THE IN SIDE... SHE GAVE OF HER SELF WITH OUT ASKING ANYTHING IN RETUREN... I WICH I COULD BE MORE LIKE HER.. SHERRY