Customer Reviews

Wild Orchids

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I wish the ratings had the option of 41/2 stars, but they don't. I thought this was an extremely fast-paced adventure chalked full of villians and similar to 'Romancing the Stone' with Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner from the 1980's.

Max is an ex-patriot on the run in Mexico's most dangerous sections of the jungle. He carjacks a woman named Lori Harding while she is on a much-needed vacation in Cancun. Lori hasn't been on a vacation in years due to her constant care of her ailing mother, when she dies, she leaves money to her two daughters and Lori uses some of it to travel. Little does the prim school-teacher know that her proper and controlled life is about to be turned upside down! Lori is dangerously attracted to the carjacker's muscular body, but chastizes herself for such "ditzy" thoughts and has a hard time trying to control her thoughts and feelings. Max is also dangerously attracted to the uptight woman he deems as "a good girl" and very out of his reach. Max has many deep-rooted problems and he cannot share his life with any woman. Lori soon finds out why and tries desperately to help him, but he doesn't want her help.
The story takes you through the steamy and tropical jungles of Mexico's Montana Mountains, one of the most remote jungles in the world and through the backroads of Mexico's rainforest. The descriptions were unreal and you felt as though you were there with Max and Lori. This tale teems with excitement and action and never stops! This should be a movie! The love that blossoms between them is steamy and heartwreching! Max is one of those heroes you wish you knew and Lori is someone you can connect to on a realistic level. If you're looking for adventure, non-stop action, running, hiding, druglords, and a little taste of 'Romancing the Stone', this is it! I loved it and couldn't put it down! This book restored my faith in Karen Robards. The only other book I read by her was "Island Flame" and I was dissapointed, but I decided to try again with this book, "Wild Orchids" and I was pleased. This is definately a keeper!!!

This was the very first book I read by Karen Robards, after that I was hooked! From the first page the suspence never lets up, there is also lots of romance and humour which is just what I like, the hero is very macho but the heroine gives as good as she gets and one of the scenes left me laughing out loud whilst the other ones left me breathless! This book made me go and buy all her others it was that good.

Absolutely loved this book. This was the first book that I tried of this author and her other contemps seem to always pale in comparison for me to this book. Have read this twice. Thinking of re-reading again!

This hero had a lot of baggage, and I guess we're supposed to excuse his mean attitude (which doesn't improve much over the course of the story), out of sympathy for him. It doesn't work. The writer does keep you on the edge with the story line itself. I just prefer a hero, with or without past ghosts, to still be portrayed in a better light. He could have been abrupt and still have had a conscience. After the second time he calls the heroine a b---h, I knew what I was in for. It was as if we're never supposed to like him. And there were many "emotion" repetitions. Like "I wish I had a penny for every time he said..." This was an interesting story, but I did contemplate putting it down for something that makes you feel good. It's definitely not a keeper.

I really had a difficult time with the first half of this book. The "hero" was so hateful and treated her so bad that even though I knew the romance was coming I had a really hard time accepting him. The things he said and did to her were too over the line for me to backtrack to sweet nothings later. Actually there weren't any sweet nothings. He was a jerk to the very end.

It is a testament to Ms. Robards writing style that I kept reading this book even though I found the hero not living up to that title at any point. I guess some women love that kind of rough and angry man but he didn't give me shivers at all.

And I really had a difficult time with him calling her a b*tch every time she dared to try to escape from the very probable rape and murder he threatened her with constantly. The very nerve of the heroine for trying to protect herself. I like this book even less the more I think about it.

I'm still giving it two stars because I did manage to finish it and I really did like the secondary character "Tunafish."

I could give this 10* if I could, it is not slow, and I totally not agree with other reviewers who gave only 2-3 stars...
This is one of the best romance I've read, Stockholm Syndrome? yes, this is best romance between the kidnapper and his victim, its so good that once started, I don't want it to end...

What more could I request, it has great adventure, great action, great tension, great chemistry, great romance, & great love-scene.

I'll buy and read all Karen Robards....

I read this book when it was first published in the mid 80's. I just loved it. I felt it flowed much smoother than "To Love a Man" - Ms Robard's first contemporary after many historicals. Max and Lora were a good match in my mind. I like my romance reads to "take me away" and be escapism from a hectic schedule. This did the trick, especially at the time I read it. In my mind it is for the beach or a plane ride, etc. It was a keeper and I still enjoy the read when I revisited it every two years or so.

I don't write many reviews but I could barely read this book--just too much sex and too little story. Have read other books by this author and this was disappointing.

While Karen Robards' books are often favorites of mine, WILD ORCHIDS had too many flaws. The "hero" isn't until late in the book. He's a jerk who hurts her physically and laughs about it, showing no remorse. Finally he steps up in an emergency--of his own making--but meanwhile the books drags in the middle. At first Lora hates him, then becomes attracted to him, which she recognizes as the Stockholm Syndrome. No kidding. There are sex scenes aplenty in the middle of the book, but they don't quite substitute for plot. This was, I think, her transition from historical romance to contemporary thriller. For a while the plots were always like this: disreputable-looking "hero" kidnaps and mistreats heroine while dragging her along as he is being chased by somebody. For no known reason, she "falls in love with him." Finally, he is shown to be a good guy, or at least a better guy. The climax of this book rather strained credulity, too. The Mexican Federales, the Mexican mob, and a drug dealer all are after drugs and money in the pair's crashed plane, which has a tracking device, which should make it a lot quicker to find even in a jungle. Not only do they wait two weeks to show up, all three armed contingents show up at once; and engage in gun battles for the drugs--a deux ex machina coincidental rescue for the trouble the hero has gotten them into, and from which he has no chance of extricating them himself. Robards' later thrillers are much better done.

This romantic novel was rather fun. Prim schoolmarm has spent her entire 20's caring for her grumpy and ill mother. Newly free of this burden, she vacations in Cancun only to be kidnapped at gunpoint by a giant, mustachioed man and taken on an adventure which includes, but is not limited to, drug cartels, a stay in a Mexican prison, crashing airplanes, a million dollar stash of heroine, and yes, a sidekick named Tunafish. The heroine is definitely a little flaky and the hero is definitely a bit of a jerk- but they both won me over by the end.

I would have liked the novel a lot more if the beginning had been... less harsh. Several other reviewers mentioned this too... but the part of the book where the hero ties the heroine to the bed was really hard to read and get past. The hero was seriously crossing major boundary lines for me. It was obvious that he did not need to do those things to her and I was really uncomfortable with it. Especially when the girl began to get attracted to him and even told herself it was Stockholm Syndrome, which I'm sure it was.

The novel also felt really dated. I'm not sure why, because I've read other romances from the 80's and I was just fine with them. Oh, and the story he told about his experience from Vietnam really did gross me out. I realize the heroine loved him no matter what, but I'm not sure I could get past what he did.

Overall, I did mentally cheer at the end and I was really happy for the two. But there were elements of the story that just brought it down. If not for those parts, it would easily have been a 4 or 5 star novel.