A Beauty and the Beast type story, set in 1792 England. The writing is floridly purple and gothic, but I still like this book 20 years after it was written. The heroine's father has huge gambling debts he cannot pay, so tries to get her wed to a rich man to solve his troubles... ok, not a premise that's anything new, but I like the twists Woodiwiss puts into it.

Bookray!
Started on its journey 9-8-03

1. GuinevereII NJ
2. clawdette LA <--- has
3. lduggan1 CA
4. tho Portugal
5. Sossap Portugal
6. nikel27 Germany

Released on Saturday, September 13, 2003 at to another BookCrosser in bookray, postal release USA.

Yay! Recieved in the mail yesterday from the loverly fruitbat as part of a bookray. To be read!

Yay! I'm done. I did like this book, despite the fact that I thought the style was cheezy and that the main character was too much of a damsel-in-distress for most of the book. I figured out the plot twist by page four, which was disappointing. The author does make up for it though, with a pretty good, attention-grabbing story. To me, this book was pretty much your typical Avon Historical Romance. I'm not so sure why Woodiwiss is a bestseller, since her writing's pretty much standard in the terms of romances. That's okay though. :) I'm glad she's successful.

And I still like the book.

For my thoughts on the story with spoilers---meaning don't read unless a) you've read the book or b) you really, really don't care about hearing major plot twists and stuff---click here.

Edit: This book helped me with me practice SAT the other day! How? Question was: The term "the Captain" in line 55 most likely refers to (a)the master of a sailing ship (b) a police officer (c) a highwayman (d) an innkeeper or hotel employee or (e) a town official. I knew it was "(c) a highwayman" because the book used that term a lot. A point in the book was how "the Captain" was merciless to his followers who failed a mission. I'm glad I got that question right, so I bumped the rating up a notch. [7:45pm 10/17/03]

Mailed to clawdette via regular, standard mail. Hope she enjoys!

P.S.: I glued the little bookmark with the list of names onto cardstock, since I abused it. Since it was being used a bookmark, I dropped it on the floor of a bus several times, wrinkling it. So I thought I might as well give it some reinforcement. :)

received this yesterday...I have a few other books to read before this one, but will try to get to it as soon as I can.

I'm ready to send this to lduggan1, but waiting for an address. Will post when I send it on.


As of today, 11/22/03, I still have not heard from lduggan1 with an address...I am leaving for Houston for a week in a little while but will take the book with me. I have also contacted fruitbat, with no response, to give her an update. Hopefully I will hear from either one of them soon to send this book on.

I'm back in town and am sending the book on to lduggan1 today.

I too was a little disappointed that I was able to figure out the plot so soon in the book. But enjoyed it otherwise.

I liked it. It took me a while to get into it, but then I enjoyed it.

Now it is off to Portugal.

tho appears to be on vacation, so it might be a few more days until I have her address. Then it will go off on its merry way.

This finally did get off to pho in Portugal. My sincere apologies for taking so long. I did send it the fast way though...

Arrived on the mail today !!! Will try to read it soon ...

Definitely a very cheesy romance, and somewhat of a disappointment to me (well, when I saw the cover I sort of knew what to expect :-)
The storyline is OK, but quite predictable, and I didn't feel that much empathy for the heroine ...
I used to read dozens of these romances when I was a teenager, but now for some reason I don't seem to enjoy them as much (maybe a Julia Quinn once in a while, but that's about it ..)
Thanks fruitbat, for organizing this and sharing it with us (and for all your other bookrings that I've signed up for :-)

This will be delivered to Sossap soon.

Tho deliver it to me...I don't recall this bookring...sorry, not of my league, i'll pass it trough... next please.

finally the book arrived at my house, look's like I am the Last in this BookRay

update:
Very good read, now I think I will put out my German Edition and will re-read.

promised to Catherine in France via a trade in Jan. 2005

RELEASE NOTES:

Thanks for trading with me, EnJoy the book !!!

Quite enjoyable! I'm trading it though! Can't keep them all!
Thanks for the trade
Catherine