Customer Reviews

While You Slept (Zebra Historical Romance)

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

 

 

The heroine, Katherine (or Danae), was an abused, ungrateful, exaggeratedly self-pity, blindly in doubt of her hero's feeling towards her. She did not deserve her hero. Sion was such an ideal man for Danae but he was so confused of the situation. I thought he would finally straighten out his "lady Danae", but not even for the sake of a bit of reality, the confrontation between the two just kept repeating towards the end of the book. At first I did not believe Sion would be that weak. Oh well, love is blind. I am an easy reader; I have read quite a few romance books and liked almost all of them. I could not believe that I so disliked this one. Although, her writing was pretty good.

After reading her first book, Love Me Again, I ran out and got this book as soon as it came out. While she still has some unusual twists in her story, this time I didn't like it as well.
The heroine, katherine, is an abused, overweight woman who is married to a jerk, and has a father who is insane. The Hero, Sion, is a man who has tortured himself for years over the death of his first wife. When Katherine has a wreck in her carriage on the way to London to meet her husband, she ends up at Sions estate in a coma for months. Sion is still an alcoholic, until his last servant leaves and He is forced to take care of her and himself. Katherine wakes up, to find her self slim, and Sion ends up getting sober. They still have their battles with their weaknesses, she is scared she will become overwieght again, and he thinks about going back to the bottle. Through it all, they start to fall in love.
Katherine decided she doesn't want to go back to her old life, and they decide to make things look like she died in the carriage accident. Her father comes to verify, along with her husband, and everything seems to be fine. Then, they move to london and the whole story seems to fall apart. Katherine ends up acting like a total jerk, with Sion being drug into the fray. After they went to London, I had a difficult time finding sympathy for Katherine, because she acted like a spoiled brat. If I was Sion I would have tossed her out on her ear. I don't want to spoil the story, just suffice it to say that Katherines charactor didn't act like I would have expected her to at the beginning of the story. I am not sure that I can reccomend the book because of it. But hey, the beginning was good, which is why I rated it at a three and not lower.

Actually, the word heroine doesn't fit Katherine at all. Ungrateful, beligerant, shrew, and a few others not fit to print describe this awful woman.
Sion Sinclair takes Katherine in after she is in a terrible carriage accident and nurses her back to health. Sion has troubles of his own, but they pale in comparison to what he winds up with after getting stuck with Katherine. The woman rants and raves at him, never seeming to remember that he helped save her miserable life. And after being abused during her life previous to the accident, you'd think she'd be at least a bit grateful for someone like Sion, but gratitude is beyond her. And what was with the "Countess Danae" bit? This was the stupidest, saddest heroine I have ever encountered. I couldn't finish the book, as I couldn't make myself care what happened to Katherine The Awful. This author also wrote "Love Me Again," which was much, much better, although the heroine there had her annoying monents, too. I can't see myself ever finishing While You Slept. I would give it zero stars or less if I could. Spare us all from people like Katherine.

Wendy Burge has proven again that she is an unusual romance writer who possesses the skill to combine dark, passionate characters with themes you usually only find in fine literature. In her newest novel WHILE YOU SLEPT Katherine Beatrice Camden-Carey, Viscountess Halsingham has been held captive all her life. She has been locked up in her abusive and embittered father's home for 21 years; never even allowed to venture further than the estate gardens. She has been trapped in a loveless marriage to a handsome, philandering husband who openly flaunts his many mistresses. And worst of all, she has been prisoner to her overweight body. But this is all about to change.

Angry and disgusted that after three years of marriage Katherine still isn't pregnant, her father sends her away to London to be with her husband. But before she reaches her destination the dangerously dilapidated carriage has an accident killing everyone with her and leaving Katherine in a coma.

The "Hellhound" of Dereham Hall, The Marquis Sion Sinclair finds her and brings her to his home entrusting her to the care of his one remaining servant Mrs. Turlow. You see he doesn't give a damn about the fat, ugly, nearly dead woman. All he thinks about is drinking himself into an early grave. Since Victoria, his beloved wife's, [demise] a few years before all Sion cares about it forgetting the terrible role he played in her and his unborn child's deaths.

This all changes when he fires Mrs. Turlow and Katherine's life is left in his drunken hands. While looking upon her emaciated form he finds the strength within himself to care again. Suddenly he is fighting his need for brandy and nursing the comatose young lady into better health.

WHILE YOU SLEPT is a stunning story of rebirth and self empowerment. When Katherine wakes up she doesn't believe what has happened. She is not only thin and beautiful, but with Sion she is, for the first time in her life, happy. Deciding that no one will recognize the "new her", she kills off "Katherine" and becomes Contessa Danae. What she doesn't realize is that just because she is thin doesn't mean her life will be simple. This is what I liked most about the book.

Burge has proven that she knows how to write "real" characters with "real" stories. While reading WHILE YOU SLEPT I never felt anything was sugar coated. Even though Katherine is reborn into the beautiful Contessa Danae, and The Hellhound gets a second chance at finding himself, nothing is easy for either of them. They both have to fight the same demons - they just have to do it in new guises.

I was especially stunned at how well Burge dealt with a fat to thin heroine. I hate plots where the fat girl looses weight, turns into a beauty, and BAM gets a man. In WHILE YOU SLEPT you slowly discover that the hero's first wife was stunning to him, but not really a diamond of the first water. What he loved about her was her, not her physical appearance.

Bottom Line: Burge has a unique voice and can spin a truly riveting tale. Watch out for this author, her novels will soon find their way into your Keeper pile.

Only sporadic enjoyable scenes kept me readig until the end. I wondered several times.
Sion is a troubled man who overcomes his adversities to emerge fairly heroic -- except sometimes in his relationship with Katherine. I liked their constant battles except when they (mainly Katherine) deliberately hurt each other. Sometimes she was so unlikeable, so unworthy of Sion (strange name, BTW). Her situation before Sion was appalling, but she was so distrustful and rash that she created real problems. Some parts of her side of the story were very good and realisitc, but she became too annoying.
In addition, the dialogue and actions were often not in sync with the historical realities. And there was a lot of repetition in Sion & Katherine's relationship. I wouldn't bother, if I were you. There's so much more to choose from.

Somehow I don't think the other two readers read the same book I did. I loved this love story. It had two great characters, that I feel were well developed, and made me want to know them more as the story progressed. Unlike some books, there was actually a story and plenty of chemistry between the characters. It had me laughing at the dialog between the Danae and Sion. Two sad people with troubled pasts come together and learn to live again, Sion after years of trying to destroy himself in self pity after loosing his wife and unborn child and Danae, after years of mental and physical abuse by her abusive father. Give this book a chance, it quickly grabs you and has you hooked. I loved it.