Customer Reviews

When Someone Loves You

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Before Waterloo "Duff" D'Abernon was a carefree Marquis who enjoyed life to the fullest as he appreciated the London social scene. After Waterloo, Duff became a brooding angry hermit who obtained some pleasure with his horses but never attended any galas. Thus everyone who once knew the lighthearted pre-war youth is pleased to see him about town again by 1816, but upset that his companion is disgraceful Annabelle Foster. She is a scandalized-making actress who has allegedly slept with half of Parliament and the Royals and had a child out of wedlock if you believe rumors before abruptly vanishing from the stage and the hypocritical criticism of the Ton.

Annabelle offers Duff friendship and companionship, but not her heart, having been burned once before which led to her disgrace. Duff accepts as both feels loneliness. That summer of healing leads to heated passion and perhaps love, but neither trusts the other with their fragile hearts and then there is little Cricket to consider.

This is an entertaining Regency romance starring two flawed societal outcasts, one discarded while the other self-exiled. The story line is fast-paced even the interludes as Duff and Annabelle fall in love, but their respective recent histories make a relationship between them seem impossible but a delightful historical possible. Fans will root for this couple to find a way.

Harriet Klausner

When I try new authors, I really want to enjoy their work. I saw this book and thought it would be a good read. I enjoy hot sex in a book, and I love historicals. If I like a new author, I immediately hunt for backlist or eagerly await new books.

Unfortunately, I won't be doing that with future books by Ms. Johnson. I liked the author's writing style to some degree, but I never came to care about her characters. I saw them as one-dimensional and flat. I didn't dislike them, they were pleasant enough, but they were superficial. I never really got to see beneath the veneer that covered each character, even though it was clear the author was trying to pull that veneer off. However, it just didn't work.

The one reason this book isn't getting a lower rating is because of one scene. It is the first sex scene, so called because I never experienced any emotion or even a great deal of sexual tension developing between these too, although there were inklings of it. The characters used words like love, but it wasn't expressed in the sexual acts. In the first act, Duff is in a somewhat catatonic, cathartic state as he mates with Annabelle.

It was the first really deep look into his wounded psyche, and displayed what this book had the potential to be. Ms. Johnson appears to have a talent that got buried under confusing dialogue and a mish mash of scenes that never really explored the inner depths of the characters.

Perhaps in the future, I might be willing to take another look at Ms. Johnson's work, but it's going to need rave reviews and rave recommendations from readers I know who have the same tastes as me. Interestingly enough, after I read this book, I went looking for reviews because I wanted to know what others thought of the book. I didn't find any at the more major romance review sites. This book had great potential and failed to deliver

This isn't a review of the subject book, but I would like to encourage and refer any readers new to Susan Johnson to her earlier works which are dynamite! My all-time favourite is "Sinful." This was the first book I read by Ms. Johnson and I was hooked! I've re-read it now approximately 5 times -- once every couple of years. The St.John and Kuzan sagas are great.

Alas, it seems to be the way with authors that once they've achieved any kind of significant success (as denoted by the mass market-sized and hardback books) that publishers put greater pressure on them to churn said books out and I've pretty much found that when an author starts putting out two books a year, the quality of the story goes down -- way down -- and Ms. Johnson has had her hits and misses in recent years (unfortunately more misses than hits).

But please give her another try through her earlier works. I guarantee you'll be thrilled!