Customer Reviews

When a Stranger Loves Me

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I've enjoyed this series until this point, but When A Stranger Loves Me was so disappointing that I'm not sure I'll pick the fourth book up. It's not badly written, the characterization is consistent, the actions taken make some sense based on who they are, but it's all of my least favorite romance cliches bundled into one neat package and iced with pages and pages of skimmable sex.

And it's all so neat. For such a messy bundle there should be one or two loose threads, but by the end of the book it's not just happily ever after - it's happily ever after for everyone without a bit of anything else. Villains are foiled, true loves are revealed several times over, motivations are forgiven or explained - babies abound. Yet in the middle I never could care about what happened to any of them. I cared more about Blake in The Mistress Diaries than I did here. Without having anything of his former life (where he feels suffocated by love) to compare his current situation with, his petulance is only childish. When he decides he wants to 'take measures' to prevent conception, it's just a sentence he tosses off so he can get mad about it later. Like all of his statements, there's no conviction. He feels angry with the world and entitled to act that way. The heroine is so willing to enable him that she takes every chance she gets to bolster his sense of injury. It is apparently beyond her to require anyone to bear their own burdens, never mind taking up her own.

They meet, they have sex, they like it so they have sex as often as they can, they find out they might not be able to have sex anymore, and they figure out how to have it again, the end. I don't mean to be so harsh. I really like the author, I wanted to like the book, but I found it an unpleasant read.

I wanted to like this book but I had a hard time even getting through it. Interesting was the choice of location on the Jersey Islands and refreshing that, with the exception of Chelsea's wishy-washy harpy of a mother, she actually had a pleasant relationship with her brother and sister-in-law. Readers (I think, anyway) are a bit tired of the poor, victimized heroine who has cold and unfeeling relatives with evil in-laws intent on causing nothing but emotional pain and misery. How nice that Chelsea's sister-in-law Melissa was actually quite a decent character. But, of course, there has to be an evil relative in the form of Jerome and his oh so "generous" offer to marry Chelsea -- despite her position as an outcast. Kudos to her for standing her ground and wanting to decide her future. (although being "ruined" because she tried to elope with a ne'er do well could hardly be considered a "scandal of such notoriety" that this poor girl is banished to an isolated island -- it's not like she was a royal princess who fell from grace very publically)

The storyline is not as clever as others are giving it credit for being. Swap out names, locations, circumstances and an amnesia victim is still an amnesia victim. Haven't we seen enough of this in daytime soaps? It's almost ridiculous how easily Chelsea & Blake/"Jack" (haven't we had enough "Jacks" in the H.R. genre?) engage in sex and how frequently they do so. Others have commented on some "noble" aspects --- a stranger recovering from a life-threatening wound and with no memory quite easily takes advantage of his saviors' good will and hospitality (even though Chelsea virtually jumps in bed with him, over his mild attempt to refuse her at first) Then, the whole premise of WHY she is jumping in bed with him -- so far fetched; with the entire family in cahoots! I do GET the whole reason behind this scheme but there is simply beyond what I expect from a novelist of Julianne MacLean's talent..... because she DOES have talent --- but I have not seen her at the level she had previously displayed in books like 'To Marry the Duke" and "Love According to Lily" (and the others in that series) Those were very well written and with interesting plots.

When A Stranger Loves Me is the third book in the Pembroke series and, like other reviewers had commented, Blake was more interesting as the minor character (younger brother) in the two previous books. In this book, I found myself not even caring about the struggle for him as he regained his memory, the associated side-story as to what was going on when he was injured and subsequently ended up on Chelsea's island. I just wanted the story to end. Points for making this conflicted part of the story more interesting with a sympathetic Elizabeth and for showing that Blake's siblings have matured in their relationships. I'm really not trying to trash this whole story but it just did not come across in the sophisticated way that one hopes an experienced author would put forth. Not a whole lot of depth to the characters nor the story line. Yes there were moments when you felt their emotions but not deeply. I guess I prefer a "novel" that has the ingredients that will make me feel my time was well invested; stories that make your eyes tear up or put a smile on your face while you're reading.

And another thing that I have found -- not just in this book -- but in (unfortunately) quite a few others. The lack of editing -- what I mean by that is: not having the prose reflect the "period" If this is a "historical" novel, there should be more attention to customs, behavior, vocabulary, etc., that would have set the tone, time and place. The reader has to rely on the author to take us to the setting they are writing about. Many times, the text could easily be a contemporary story rather than a historical. I had to flip back to check the fictional date (1874) because the behavior and attitudes seemed a little too current for me. Call me a stickler but it's little things like these that turn me off. I just can't help but think that the author wasn't thinking of this and the copy editors weren't either.

Sadly, there is simply not enough authors who have the ability to transport readers to a different time and place and open a window into a time period that many of us enjoy escaping to. That's the main reason I read historical romances -- to escape the hustle and flow of our real world.

Julianne MacLean is better than this. If she can recapture the writing style she had in her earlier books, I will continue to read her. But I will not be paying full price for the remaining books in the Pembroke series. I almost feel that she has a ghost writer assisting her. Read "To Marry The Duke" and compare that with these recent offerings... you'll see what I mean. Sorry if I offended anyone. Just frustrated with some disappointing books of late; especially those which are anticipated, such as a continuation of a family's saga.

When a Stranger Loves Me is the third installment in USA Today bestseller Julianne MacLean's Pembroke Palace series. In the previous book, The Mistress Diaries, Lord Blake Sinclair went missing and we find out precisely what happened in When a Stranger Loves Me.

Lady Chelsea Campion has lived somewhat in exile on the island of Jersey for the last seven years. At 18, she ran off with a fortune hunter and created a scandal that her family has never been able to live down. And now she feels the pressure of possibly having to marry her father's cousin and heir because her brother (the current earl) and sister-in-law have produced no offspring after ten years of marriage. Despite this, she is happy living on the wild Jersey coast. She loves walking along the beaches and cliffs and listening to the pounding waves crashing to the shore. Doing so feeds her imagination and breathes life into her writer's soul. While on one of her seaside excursions, she discovers a man's gold watch with the initials B H S inside and immediately starts daydreaming about whom it might belong to and what the initials might stand for. She then enters one of the sea caves and is stunned to see a man laying face down on the ground. A naked man. Chelsea checks his pulse and then hurries home to summon help. The unconscious man is seen and treated by the doctor and when he later awakens, he has no idea where he is, how he got there or even who he is. Chelsea befriends him and eventually conjures up a plan that may save her and her family -- she intends to seduce the handsome stranger and conceive an heir. What she didn't intend was losing her heart in the process. When her scheme is exposed and her lover's identity is revealed, Chelsea is left wondering if their love will be enough to withstand all of her lies.

Chelsea is one of those characters that, despite the fact that the reader knows she is doing something dishonest, you can't help but sympathize and root for. She has a good heart and good intentions in wanting to atone for her past sins by helping her family out now. And as much as she thought she was happy with her life, it isn't until she spends time with Blake that she realizes that writing a romantic story and actually living one are two completely different things.

Blake is confused and discouraged because of his memory loss. He has no clue of his name, his station in life, of any responsibilities he might have or of any family or friends. It was as if his life started the day he was rescued in that cave. Because of that, he clings to the only thing he does know - the beautiful woman who saved his life, Chelsea. Ms. MacLean did a fantastic job conveying Blake's amnesia. It was extremely realistic and I truly felt his frustration in needing to find out who he is and also his trepidation in not wanting to know because it might disrupt the happiness he found with Chelsea.

When a Stranger Loves Me is a beautiful, tender love story full of the heart and emotion that Julianne MacLean's books are known for. If you're longing for a stirring, character-driven historical romance, look no further - this one is definitely for you!

Andrea
Romance Novel TV
4.5 stars

Humph. Julieanne MacLean is a talented writer. Her prose flows beautifully and her characters are memorable. Unfortunately, the plot in "When a Stranger Loves Me" was just a bit too outre FOR ME.

Chelsea lives a life of freedom now that she's disgraced. However, she's perfectly content with her writing and her rambles about the seashore. But since her brother and his wife have been unable to have a child, he and her mother are looking to marry her off to the presumptive heir--a nasty, smelly old man. Desperate to save herself, when a stranger with no memory washes up on the seashore, Chelsea's inventive mind begins to spin a plot.

He has no memory, no clothes, and almost no life! Since he woke up, 'Jack' has clung to the woman who saved him. Their time together is increasingly special and passionate. But when he discovers Chelsea's plot...nothing can convince him of her true feelings.

Chelsea is a truly unusual heroine. But even understanding her reasoning didn't wash the foul taste from my mouth. And the complicity of her mother and brother was the last straw. For me, there were just too many things that didn't make sense. I understand they were needed to progress the story, but I just flat out didn't like or believe them. That made the whole book more of a chore than an enjoyment.

On the plus side, everything else carried Ms. MacLean's normal great writing--pace, tension, relationship--all were there for me with the big exception of a few plot devices. The good news is, if this doesn't bug you, then "When a Stranger Loves Me" will be another winner for you!

After reading a disturbing letter, Chelsea is taking a walk on the beach when she discovers a handsome, naked! Stranger. Little choice left, she takes the stranger to her house where she lives with her mom, her brother and his wife.

When the handsome stranger awakens they discover he can't remember a single thing... Not how he ended up naked and stabbed in the water, nor his own name or his past...
Facing a future she wants to avoid at all cost and an attraction to a stranger she finds hard to deny, she sets up a daring and sensual scheme. Unfortunately the plan didn't include the strong feeling she develops for the stranger who seduces her body by night and her heart by day. Living a dream has only one disadvantage... One moment one must wake up and face reality again...

This is part 3 of the Pembroke Palace Series by Julianne MacLean.
In this wonderful novel MacLean takes us on a journey with the missing Blake, the responsible, loyal brother.

Only with no recollection of whom he is, Blake is able to show the side he has to hide for so many years. With no one to remember, he is drawn to Chelsea without any inhibition. Faced with a love blossoming, but no memory of a wife or fiancée who might be searching for him. The love between Chelsea and Blake is strong and heartbreaking. Blake is heartbroken when he finds out what Chelsea planned and as his brother shows up to take him home, there's only one thing he can do... Take Chelsea with him to see where to go from there and to have her by his side in a world that is so unfamiliar to him. Blake is arrogant, caring and more like his brothers than we would have assumed previously.

Chelsea is going to be forced to a wedding she doesn't want. Ruined by a youthful elopement it's the only marriage proposal she can expect. And since her brother's wife hasn't conceived yet, it up to her to keep the title in the family. Thus a plan developed in her mind... Chelsea started as a dreamer, a writer with her head in the clouds. But as the story continues she has to learn to deal with reality and face the fact that she is as free as she would like to believe... But when the truth is discovered, all her dreams seem to scatter around her.

The latest novel by Julianne MacLean is a heartbreaking story that grabs your heart and won't let go until you finished the very last sentence...
Julianne MacLean's wonderful talent combined with a heartbreaking plot and well developed and growing characters resulted in a book that will most definitely be on your keeper's shelf.

With this book Julianne MacLean hits the stars. It has everything... Passion, love, betrayal, hurt and lots of emotions. I can honestly say this is the best book by this writer so far! And I have loved her work from the very first one... When a stranger loves me touches your heart in a way you won't forget easily.

I have mixed feeling about Julianne MacLean's new novel, When a Stranger Loves Me. The hero is mysterious and dashing and his storyline was quite good but the heroine was rash, indecisive and hopelessly naïve yet at the same time there was an innate sweetness about her.

Chelsea lives on the Jersey Isles, living a life of seclusion because of a scandal; she tried to elope with a fortune hunter seven years earlier. She is for the most part content with her life as a writer until she finds a naked man on the beach injured and unconscious.

The man awakens with no memory at all of his personal life but he speaks and carries himself as a nobleman. Chelsea is attracted to him and she concocts the most harebrained scheme: to assist her brother and sister-in-law she will seduce this man, hopefully get pregnant, then give the baby to her sibling so the Earldom can stay within the immediate family and not be passed to their older cousin Jerome, a sixty year old lecher wanting to marry Chelsea. What is most shocking about this, beyond taking advantage of a vulnerable man who could possibly have a wife or fiancé, is that her brother and even her mother go along with this plan.

Needless to say Chelsea and the mysterious stranger, now calling himself Jack, do engage in several bouts of lovemaking but Chelsea's feeling are engaged. She still plans on giving away her child though. Her plans change when Jack's family arrives and whisks him back to their estate in England with Chelsea in tow. Seems "Jack" who is really Blake, a nobleman with a loving family, has discovered Chelsea's little plot. He wants to be assured she is not pregnant and if she is then they will marry. Chelsea follows Blake because she has a guilty conscious plus she really loves him but there are many surprises awaiting them once he reclaims his old life.

This novel flowed well and Jack's inner life was actually pretty heartfelt. His attachment to Chelsea in the midst of his amnesia was believable. Chelsea at first is noble then becomes conniving but then by the end of the novel she redeems herself nicely. In fact, the best parts of this book besides the handsome hero are the beginning and the ending chapters.

In 1874 on the Western tip of the Jersey Islands, Lady Chelsea is besides herself after receiving a note from Lord Jerome Carruthers. He coldly informs her that her brother Lord Neufeld has no offspring after a decade of marriage and is ailing; he will inherit leaving her and her mom homeless unless she marries him, a man many years her senior. When she finds a man lying on the beach having been washed from the sea, she thinks she has the answer to finding an heir. She will seduce the stranger who has no idea who he is as he suffers from amnesia. Her pregnancy will keep the estate and her from odious Carruthers.

However, Chelsea's plan goes astray when she falls in love with the kind amnesiac. His family arrives to bring him home and he realizes how his nurse used him. As he learns more about the cause of his memory loss, he too is in love, but no longer trusts his hostess.

Though readers might assume Chelsea's risky plan as inane, her desperation will convince the audience that she sees no alternative unless she marries the despicable Jerome. She and her amnesiac make for a fun Victorian tale although his mystery memory loss seems too easily resolved. Still historical romance fans will appreciate Julianne MacLean's fine Victorian romance (see MY WILDEST FANTASIES and THE MISTRESS DIARIES).

Harriet Klausner

This was the story of the 3rd Sinclair brother from Pembroke, Blake. He had gone missing in the 2nd book (Vincent's story). His story is an engaging as the stories of his two older brothers. His heroine is another sexy hellion... she is a perfect match for him but he doesn't realize it for a time.
No mention of Iris in this book and I was so hoping to learn more about her. (Hint, hint... to the author). This was another very engaging read... I didn't want to put it down once I started. Action was occuring on land and over the water... Enjoy!

Love romantic trilogy that keeps you guessing until the last book!! I have read the 1st 3 of Pembrook Palace and can't wait for the last!

WHEN A STRANGER LOVES ME is the third book in Ms. MacLean's Pembrooke Palace series and I recommend that you read the two previous books prior to reading this one, because in WHEN A STRANGER LOVES ME, the reader gets to know what happened with Lord Blake Sinclair as the previous book, The Mistress Diaries, left the readers wondering what happened when he disappeared.

Lady Chelsea is getting desperate, because her family's poverty is forcing her to choose a husband. The old and vile Lord Carruther seems to be her only choice. But one day her prayers are answered when she finds an unconscious man on the beach near her home. Her family needs a male heir and Chelsea hope that the man with no memory is the solution to her family's problems. Everything seems perfect till she falls in love with him, but what will happen if he regains his memory?

Memory loss is nothing new in world of romance, but still Ms. MacLean manages to give this plot her own kind of brand and makes an often used plot line still interesting. Chelsea and Blake are what make the story special. They are just perfect for each other. While reading the story I could hardly wait to see what happens next and how the story would develop. Once you start reading it the story will capture your interest and you won't be able to put it down. The book is a great combination of witty and mystery elements.

Courtesy of Loveromances and More!