Winterbourne [Unbound]

Product Details

• Unbound
• Publisher: Fawcett Books
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0449004562
• ISBN-13: 978-0449004562
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 3.9 x 3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,767,974 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars (sigh) If only it hadn't fell short near the ending . . ., January 23, 2002

By 

Victoria Summers (New York, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Winterbourne (Mass Market Paperback)

All right, 4 1/2 stars maybe. Yeah, that's the sound of me caving under all the good memories of the story. But there are bad ones as well, I have to admit. Ms. Carroll somewhat sunk in the ending but then it's very hard to maintain a relationship between your two main characters when they are . . . umm, I suppose that would be revealing too much. The idea is that I'm making allowances for how badly the ending was cut short (or torn short). It sort of felt like she (Ms. Carroll) just got tired of the entire thing and said to hell with it, they might as well finally overcome all their unresolved insecurities and swore that they would never, ever, on her mother's grave, ever have any communication problems ever again. Ever. This of course was at odds with my practical nature. If an author is taking her plot seriously and Ms. Carroll was, then you have to go in depth about how the characters suddenly achieve their happy ever after. Because just saying that you're the author and you say it's so doesn't convince me. That sounds funny, I know, but really good characters (and these characters were GOOD) extend past the author.

The basics are that it's a medieval romance that in my opinion is great. The characters are well defined and in a lot of respects, deeply scarred which causes the plot to become more interesting. Somehow, the plot goes for years and is deeply involved in the political situation before and during the signing of the Magna Carter, not deeply enough to be boring though, in my opinion. What's really good in this though, is how convincingly emotional it is. The heroine pretty much risks everything to love the hero and I mean everything. Things she has to go through with him is "Damn" by modern day standards but "Wow" by medieval. I was impressed with how effective Ms. Carroll was in conveying the feeling of her characters. Although, yes, she even ebbed in that area by the ending as well.

Despite, to me, it'll always be a keeper. Maybe because this is the first book I'd read by her, and thus remained untarnished by the excellence of the St. Leger series, which I can't stop saying how much I love and am praying she will continue.

Okay. I can breathe now.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Well-written, but..., January 27, 2007

By 

Andi (United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Winterbourne (Mass Market Paperback)

I was somewhat torn about how to rate this book. It was a very well-written and intelligent novel. It leapt right into the action, which was a good thing and it took a long time to read, because there was so much that went on. The plot stretched on for years. It was thoroughly researched and planted the characters right in the middle of King John's tyranny, which is always an interesting time period.

The real problem came with the romance and the hero. The characters basically have a great week of love and then years of torment, where there are large amounts of time that they are apart. This is actually pretty typical of medieval romances, so the author kind of stays true to that. The hero, Jaufre, was too mean and cynical for my taste. Don't get me wrong. I have loved plenty of dark, tortured heros, but there is a certain point where they become too dark. We didn't see Jaufre even gradually changing; it was just all of a sudden at the very end of the novel. Well, by then, I wasn't too interested in the virtually non-existent romance between the two.

So, the first part of the book is pretty great, but the rest is just torment after torment and it gets to be too much. This was the first book that I read by this author and since I've heard such wonderful things about the Bride Finder, I think I'll give it a shot, because she is clearly talented, I'd just like to find something a little more uplifting.

11 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars More about politics than romance, November 21, 2001

By 

TooManyHobbies "too_many_hobbies" (New Orleans, LA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Winterbourne (Mass Market Paperback)

This novel started out on a high note, but I quickly lost interest. It had an unusual plot and well developed principal characters, but I found it concentrated too much on the political problems of the era and not enough on the romance between the two principal characters. The story is set in the Middle Ages during the reign of King John of England. A lot of time and effort is spent describing the social unrest in Wales, the political battles between the King and his Barons, the struggles between England and France, and the cruel and vicious actions of King John. In contrast, very little time is spent on the interactions between the main characters (they spend most of the novel apart doing their own things), and there is a very obvious lack of humor in the book (I think I cracked a smile once).

As a history refresher the book has some merit, but if you want to read a good romance novel, I would suggest skipping this one and picking up Ms Carroll's other novel "The Bride Finder". That one is a real gem.