Customer Reviews

On a Wild Night (Cynster Novels)

5 star:		(29)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(12)
1 star:		(16)

 

 

I won't describe the plot since others have done that well. Rather I have a question:
Is it just me or is it true that every Cynster male in every Cynster book (with the exception of Scandal's Bride) is exactly the same man? Moreover, the tension in every relationship in these books revolves around the man's refusal to say "I love you" and the woman's refusal to marry until he does so. And then of course there is the requisite attempted or actual murder or some mystery to solve.
By the time I read this book, I felt like saying Enough already! Come up with a new problem for the men or make the woman fearful of saying the words or...well, something, anything...this is getting really boring!" If I had not read the previous books, I would have enjoyed this book more, but since it is one in a long series, the lack of diversity in male character development was glaring.
Moreover, I never felt that we "knew" Amanda  her entire goal from beginning to end was to marry a man just like her male cousins  this does not suffice for an entire character in a book of this length. Her ability to mislead her parents, or rather the lack of parental involvement in her life, seems a little unlikely in this time period. The couple's ability to find empty rooms for sex or to slip away to Martin's home for sexual assignations also seemed unbelievable. The scene I found most hard to believe was the swing scene in someone's conservatory while Amanda's male cousins guarded the room from the outside. If they are SO protective, why are they not only complacent about her premarital sexual escapades, but actually assist in the assignations? ( I just did not buy the argument that they did so to further Martin's courtship, for crying out loud just tell the guy he needs to say "I love you.".) Please, Ms. Laurens, devise some new male characters.

I suppose that my biggest problem with this book is that the major characters never take the time to fall in love. Amanda meets Martin once and decides to pursue him. And the pursuit is so very predictable - rogue takes innocent to dens of iniquity. Then once Martin is "caught" the story is stretched out as Amanda tries to force him to admit that he loves her. Neither character receives more than surface development. This is book without Cynster fire and humor. Too bad.

This is the first Laurens book I have ever read and it may be the last. There is not much of substance to keep one interested. The characters are not well developed, the relationship is shallow and the murder mystery is [bad].

First of all, what did she see in Martin? Admittedly, he seemed promising at their first meeting when he rescues her during an ill-advised card game, but after that? Almost every facial description of him used the word "stony" or he was gritting his teeth or barely suppressing anger. Though he's handsome and sexy, what else is he? He has no sense of humor, does nothing but brood - sounds like fun! The author was a bit more generous with Amanda, but though she is smart and vivacious, she also comes off as completely calculating and shallow. Other than sex what was there between these two characters? Not much! Once the thrill of forbidden sex is gone, will these two have anything to say to each other? I never thought I'd say this but there were so many sex scenes in the book (though they were hot) it became boring!

And what's with Amanda carrying on in such a "shocking" fashion for the times? How is she getting away with this? I hardly think her behavior would have been acceptable nor even possible for an aristocratic young lady of the day. How is she sneaking off with a houseful of family and servants? Where are her parents? And then when Martin tells her male cousins what has transpired between him and Amanda, they aren't even shocked! They immediately accept him as a part of the family!! It just all seems so unrealistic and even silly.

Well, I guess I'll be reading the companion book about Amanda's twin Amelia anyway, since I've already bought it, but if it's anything like this one, it's going to be tough to finish! But at least Lucien Ashford seems to have more going for him than Martin - more personality, more humor. At least I hope so!!!

On A Wild Night is the newest installment in the Bar Cynster series, the story of Amanda Cynster. Amanda and her twin sister Amelia are fed up with the insipid males society has had to offer since their coming out. At the ripe old age of 23, they are ready to take the bull by the horns, and do whatever it takes to find men who fit their ideas of the perfect man---much like their older cousins, those notorious Bar Cynsters.

Amanda is the first to embark on her adventure, and she has just the idea of where to find a man who fits her ideal profile-in the shadows, the gaming hells and those balls and many places that are surely unsuited for an innocent such as herself. But she's determined, and so convinces a family friend to accompany her into the London nightlife, seeking to trap the man of her dreams.

Rescuing Amanda from a situation she finds herself in is something Martin, Earl of Dexter, cannot resist. He hasn't rescued a damsel in distress, or even been exposed to any damsels, since he himself was a youngster at the age of 19, and found himself the center of a scandal that forced his father to exile him. Having not returned to London until after his father's passing, he's determined to keep to himself, and not enter back into society, risking the cut direct.

Finding that Amanda has plans to engage in some of the wilder escapades that are known to the ton, and knowing of no way to save her from herself, he finds himself volunteering to escort her on her wild jaunts, never realizing that he himself is being set up like the fly by the spider. It's not long before he feels himself being tangled up in Amanda's web, but the question is, has she truly set out to trap him, or is he just falling for her? Finding the answer is no easy task, and Amanda truly leads Martin on a wild escapade through the London night life, all the way back to the ball rooms of the ton.

Miss Laurens has out done herself!! This tale is a wild romp from page one; with me anxious to turn to the next page to see what Amanda will think up next. What a fun and wild romp! And with a few appearances of the Bar Cynster, this book delivered everything this reviewer could want, and left me salivating for more. The thrill is that the other twin, Amelia, has a book coming out at the end of this month, On A Wicked Dawn. This reviewer will definitely be standing in line for more of Miss Laurens superior writing!

I have never written an online-review before, but I am inclined to do so now in order to warn others not to buy this book. It seems that one is reading the same pages over and over. The book seems computer-generated (just string all clichés and platitudes together). The main characters are one-dimensional (she: blond, blue eyed, porcelain skin, he tall, dark, handsome as sin (yawn) and of course haunted by past injustice). She has no character at all, we only know about her that she tries with blatant come-ons to seduce him, he - of course - resists (yawn). This book is so boring, I did not finish it (not even my discipline of reading books to the end could make me) but threw it in the trash.

Whereas "Devil's Bride" remains one of my all-time, won't-ever-loan-it-out, dog-eared favorites, this was a sad disappointment. Character development was non-existent and I skipped the sex because it couldn't hold my attention. I gave this book away at the first opportunity.

Normally I would not feel compelled to add to the 62 reviews already written but some are deceptively glowing and that's why I decided to try Laurens again (the previous book I'd read also left me cold, but this one was worse). This is 400 + pages devoted to the story of a spoiled brat manipulating a man into telling her he loves her. The hero, who has no emotional depth, demonstrates his feelings, overcoming his solitary, society-shunning bachelor ways which are poorly justified, and admits his willingness to marry the heroine (why, I don't know, she's completely self-centered) in the first 3rd of the book, leaving more than half of the book devoted to manipulating the actual words 'I love you' out of his mouth, which at this point is a foregone conclusion to the reader and the heroine, who knows he loves her but absolutely has to hear it. I read a lot of romances, and repetitive plot lines aren't a problem to genre-afficionados as long as they are emotionally compelling. But there was no emotional reality, so all the same old plot twists we've all seen a thousand times left me feeling used. There are great descriptions of lots of raunchy and completely anachronistic sex (as another reviewer pointed out, no unmarried lady in the 1820's can just regularly spend the night at a man's house), so if that's all you want from a romance novel, go for it. Otherwise, don't waste your time.

This was my first Stephanie Laurens book and it will probably be my last. I couldn't even finish it, I was so bored. I didn't connect with Martin and Amanda at all and I'm not quite sure how they connected with each other because it was never really dealt with by the time I got 2/3 of the way through the book. I quit reading when all they did was meet on terrace after terrace and steal a kiss and then he'd go off into the night, promising to meet her at the next ball. For another kiss? And I wasn't quite sure if she really liked the man or if it was all a big game for her. She was much too sure of herself. I also didn't care for the detail. There was too much of it and this wasn't a "light read". It drove me crazy the way the author would carry on a sentence, like, "She kissed him long, lingeringly." and "she laughed seductive, sultry." Aren't these the same things? Long, lingeringly? Seductive, sultry? And sentences like "He found her reticence disconcerting. Disorienting." I think they mean the same thing. Her sentences were much too choppy, didn't flow together at all. "He looked. Nodded." It's a pretty drastic change to go from "Romancing Mr. Bridgerton" to On A Wild Night. And what's with all the corny names? Vane, Demon, Patience? Sorry, but I couldn't give this one more than 2 stars and I'm not sure why I gave it that.

I agree with other readers that Amanda's careless behavior in going after Martin was really unbelievable. Ms. Laurens claims to have read Georgette Heyer, and how she could not have a sense of Ms. Heyer's more authentically rendered Regency stories is a real puzzle. Amanda is in no sense a Regency woman, or for that matter of any part of the 19th century. She pretty much believes herself to be pregnant, and still refuses to marry the man even after he's proposed (and it not because she doesn't love him) because once again in that now familar Laurens storyline, the male must admit his love, while the woman remains mum as well. I also agree that the so-called love scenes have become formulaic, boring, and perhaps too numerous. The one thing that keeps me buying these books is because I want see what's happened with characters from the earlier Cynster books. And, yes, Ms. Laurens could use a real editor.

I am generally a fan of Stephanie Laurens and the Cynster series but this book is so boring. It has almost no plot and no character development. It took me over a month to finish this book, usually I finish a book in a day or two, because I could always find something better to do.