| View previous topic :: View next topic |
| Author |
Message |
PamelaM
Joined: 15 Mar 2010
Posts: 166
|
 Posted: Sun Jun 24, 2012 2:32 pm Post subject: |
 |
|
| JMM wrote: | | Does the hero sleep with other women at all during the book? |
The answer to this gets a bit tricky...I'll send you a PM.  |
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
pamahla
Joined: 14 Mar 2012
Posts: 2
|
| Posted: Sun Jun 24, 2012 3:23 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| PamelaM wrote: | | JMM wrote: | | Does the hero sleep with other women at all during the book? |
The answer to this gets a bit tricky...I'll send you a PM. |
Can you please send me a PM with an answer to that question, too?
Thank you. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
bijoux
Joined: 30 Jan 2009
Posts: 379
|
| Posted: Sun Jun 24, 2012 4:24 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Another candidate for the PM. 
Cannot wait to read this one. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
erika
Joined: 26 Mar 2007
Posts: 290
|
| Posted: Sun Jun 24, 2012 6:57 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| mirole wrote: | | erika wrote: | | Curious if this author is so liked here because of her unconventional heroines? I looked at Thomas's backlist and noticed she doesn't do traditional heroines. |
Nope, for me it's not the reason why I like her. I don't look for unconventional heroines in romance.
I, personally, love her because of her writing. I have only read two books, Private Arrangements and Beguiling the Beauty, and the plots of both, particularly the latter, are pretty contrived. Yet Ms Thomas is so talented, she makes it work both times. |
Thanks for responding. I notice that authors which write unconventional heroines have lots of fans here. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
rithofker
Joined: 30 Jan 2011
Posts: 2
|
| Posted: Mon Jun 25, 2012 10:38 am Post subject: |
|
|
| pamahla wrote: | | PamelaM wrote: | | JMM wrote: | | Does the hero sleep with other women at all during the book? |
The answer to this gets a bit tricky...I'll send you a PM. |
Can you please send me a PM with an answer to that question, too?
Thank you. |
May I also be PM on this topic too! Thank you! |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Kayne
Joined: 31 Mar 2007
Posts: 783
|
| Posted: Mon Jun 25, 2012 1:24 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| rithofker wrote: | | pamahla wrote: | | PamelaM wrote: | | JMM wrote: | | Does the hero sleep with other women at all during the book? |
The answer to this gets a bit tricky...I'll send you a PM. |
Can you please send me a PM with an answer to that question, too?
Thank you. |
May I also be PM on this topic too! Thank you! |
Me too please. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Winnie
Joined: 07 Sep 2009
Posts: 91
Location: Utica NY USA
|
| Posted: Mon Jun 25, 2012 6:10 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| ME TOO - PM please |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
misty9
Joined: 11 Jan 2009
Posts: 68
Location: Italy
|
| Posted: Tue Jun 26, 2012 3:57 am Post subject: Ravishing the Heiress |
|
|
I was going to skip this book but now I can't resist - PM me too please.
If the answer is more or less 'NO' then I might change my mind
_________________
Books to the ceiling,
Books to the sky,
My pile of books is a mile high.
How I love them! How I need them!
I'll have a long beard by the time I read them.
Arnold Lobel |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
bijoux
Joined: 30 Jan 2009
Posts: 379
|
| Posted: Wed Jul 04, 2012 4:50 am Post subject: Re: Ravishing the Heiress |
|
|
| Dabney wrote: | I have to say, I disagree with Jean's assessment of Hastings and Helena's relationship bringing down RtH. That relationship was begun in the first book--it is crucial to the plot of the first book--and it has organically developed.
|
I can actually understand the criticism since Ravishing the Heiress is actually quite short and Fitz and Millie such a compelling couple that you want more pages with them. That said, short it may be, but it's wonderfully constructed and I don't feel there's an extraneous sentence. Taking the book as a whole, I find only one fault with it, and that's the quick ending. But even that I don't mind too much, as I'm counting on some scenes in Hastings and Helena's book.
I simply adored both Fitz and Millie. I felt for her since reading the excerpts but I was worried about how he would come off once Isabel returned. What Thomas did wonderfully was to clearly demonstrate how Millie wasn't only the woman he relied on, but the woman who intrigued him as well. Bonus points for recognizing the attraction well before the main plot started. I never got any of that with Isabel. Yes, she was very pretty and he was still caught up in the wonderment of having his first love back but the veil started to fall quickly even if Fitz wasn't ready to admit it.
I will say that I found Isabel exasperating. I felt for the girl being dealt a bad hand, but not for the woman 8 years later. Fitz and Millie created a shared life together over that time even though it was far from smooth sailing. From what I gathered of Isabel, she stuck her husband in the role she had mapped out for Fitz and then wanted to stick Fitz into the same pigeonhole. Her disregard for how her actions would affect and reflect on her children didn't really speak well of her either. It was somewhat a parallel to Helena's actions but Helena was a single woman, her siblings already successfully married. Her stupidity would only affect her.
I will read the last book of the trilogy but I'll be going into it liking Hastings much more than Helena. I can't put my finger on why she didn't click with me. Like I said, her actions are dumb and the guy hardly seems worth the risk but she's the only one at risk. (Except for poor, dumb, besotted Hastings. Seriously, you nitwit. Once you're both past 15, there are better ways than pulling on the girl's figurative pigtails to get her to like you back. Or admit to liking you back. Sack up. Go to Millie for advice. She seems fairly adept at it.) Maybe it's that she seems to focus on proving a point. Any point, she just wants to prove it. That seems exhausting.
On the other hand I loved Fitz pointing out the contrast to the way Millie handled the board after her father's death. And their conspiring showed both how in tune they were, but also how young they were at that point.
Another thing that stuck out was the cricket match. It started balls rolling off the grass in both Beguiling the Beauty and Ravishing the Heiress. In fact I wondered if this was the same match, but I think considering the timeline the one in BTB had to have been a few years prior to this. It actually made me want a scene between Millie and Lexington. However, the one Millie and Hastings shared after the ball was terrific in its own right. Another thing (among many) I love is what a natural part of Fitz's world Millie had become.
SPOILER (I suppose):
Even had she and Fitz separated or got an annulment, I have no doubt that his sisters and Hastings would still be Millie's closest friends. They'd become her friends and family independently of Fitz. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Rosie
Joined: 01 Apr 2007
Posts: 278
|
| Posted: Wed Jul 04, 2012 8:32 am Post subject: |
|
|
Well said, bijoux. I agree with every point. I find Thomas' writing extremely compelling. I rooted for Fitz and Millie to get their happy ending -- even when I wanted to shake them both.
I hope to like Helena more in her book. I'm eager for her to "see the light." I've enjoyed the page time with Helena and Hastings in both of the books in the series so far. It's so obvious to everyone but her that he has it bad.
I read where Isabelle will get a novella in an anthology Thomas is a part of. I really have no desire to read that. I found Isabelle very ... pathetic, for lack of a better word. Yes, she was dealt a bad hand at 18, but the way she handled herself 8 years later did her no favors. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
desiderata
Joined: 23 Oct 2007
Posts: 226
|
| Posted: Wed Jul 04, 2012 10:55 am Post subject: |
|
|
| I like Thomas' writing but I've read 2 reviews for this book and the "hero" continuing his first love infatuation and numerous affairs for 8 years into the marriage while the heroine patiently suffers quietly -- nfw. I don't think any author's storytelling or writing skill is enough to rescue this plot to my satisfaction. I'll pass. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
bijoux
Joined: 30 Jan 2009
Posts: 379
|
| Posted: Wed Jul 04, 2012 12:10 pm Post subject: |
|
|
desiderata, for what it's worth, I got the impression that Fitz stopped pining after a couple of years. No pining I detected during their trip to Italy for example, some 3 years into their marriage. Had Isabelle not come back I doubt he'd have thought much of her other than the girl he had once loved.
As for the other women, I understand your objection completely but in addition to the way things are set up, Fitz also makes it very clear that Millie is his WIFE and his mistresses don't trump that and shouldn't dream of it. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
jaime
Joined: 23 Sep 2011
Posts: 356
|
| Posted: Wed Jul 04, 2012 4:31 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Did he still have sex with his mistresses after he and his wife finally consumated their marriage? The timing would make a difference to me as you can't really expect a young man of that time period in a platonic marriage to be celibate for eight years. Of course the modern woman I am is miffed that while he gets to sleep around the wife is expected to remain celibate and a virgin.
I have the book but after all the stuff I have read online about the hero being such an insensitive dick and the heroine such a pathetic martyr doormat I am afraid to read it.  |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
bijoux
Joined: 30 Jan 2009
Posts: 379
|
| Posted: Wed Jul 04, 2012 5:22 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| jaime wrote: | Did he still have sex with his mistresses after he and his wife finally consumated their marriage? The timing would make a difference to me as you can't really expect a young man of that time period in a platonic marriage to be celibate for eight years. Of course the modern woman I am is miffed that while he gets to sleep around the wife is expected to remain celibate and a virgin.
I have the book but after all the stuff I have read online about the hero being such an insensitive dick and the heroine such a pathetic martyr doormat I am afraid to read it. |
SPOILER:
No, he doesn't sleep with anyone else after he and Millie start being intimate. I can't even remember him thinking sexually of Isabelle since her coming back. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
HEAreader
Joined: 20 Feb 2011
Posts: 151
|
| Posted: Wed Jul 04, 2012 5:57 pm Post subject: |
|
|
I just finished RTH - read it in one sitting b/c I could not put it down.
I don't think there is another writer who can provoke such emotion in me - for a few hours, I "became" Millie and, though I knew a happy ending would come, I could physically feel her longing, her hope, and her pain. I felt this way when I first read Private Arrangements. In fact, the painful feelings were so intense that I could not bring myself to reread that book in its entirety, though I consider it a DIK. Ravishing the Heiress makes it into my top three favorites, along with Not Quite a Husband and His at Night.
As to whether this book is a stand-alone or not - I can't imagine reading it w/o reading the other first, any more than I can imagine skipping even one of her books. I had to wait OVER A YEAR for Beguiling the Beauty - no way I would have skipped it.
Can't wait for the third installment in this story. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
FAQ
Search
Memberlist
Usergroups
Register
Profile
Log in to check your private messages
Log in
