Beautiful setting! Loved the Moroccan backdrop, Teresa did an exceptional job painting the Middle Eastern desert, the sights, sounds and the characterBeautiful setting! Loved the Moroccan backdrop, Teresa did an exceptional job painting the Middle Eastern desert, the sights, sounds and the character interactions and culture there. Everything felt so vivid and very real, I loved all the attention paid to every finite detail in the Moroccan culture. The palace, the harem, the desert weather, the hammam, the concubines and dancing girls. Fun and so enchanting! Really loved the Sultan, Farouk and the surprise side love story between him and Clarinda's best friend the bespectacled cheerful Poppy. So so charming and adorable! Those two honestly stole the show for me in this as far as couples. I kept wanting to skim pages in hopes of catching another scene between them. I kept wishing we got more page time with them and their HEA near the end was a little bit rushed. The overall ending of the story was dragged out a *little* too long and I did struggle to feel the connection between Ash and Clarinda for some reason. I don't know why, there was a whole lot of tension and sexual chemistry between the two but I just struggled to feel that oomph, something for them, Clarinda in particular. I think part of it was the whole 'we loved each other when we were kids' lovers reunion that I'm personally not a fan of. I struggled to believe the idea of these two longing and dreaming about each other for 9 years straight especially over their one brief awkward tumble in the meadows when they were teens. And I wasn't crazy about the whole reasoning/misunderstanding behind why Ash left all those years ago. Meh.
I have to say the reason I'm giving this a 3 star is because of the last 2/3rds of the book. I was for sure going to give this a 4 star until I came to the end of the book. After Ash and Clarinda make an escape, the sultan catching up with them, Farouk's quick decision regarding Poppy, etc...I didn't feel satisfied enough, I felt a little bit underwhelmed to be honest. First, like I said earlier I really wanted more page time with Farouk actually courting Poppy and falling for her, most of it seemed to happen off the page and his feelings for her were never really voiced until the very end where he's kind of cajoled in to asking her to stay (I didn't like that, I was hoping for more) in front of an audience no less. The second reason, once Ash and Clarinda are free to go, the whole drama with Ash's brother Alex just seemed to drag on tirelessly and took a while to come to a conclusion. The confrontation at the very end for me wasn't as dramatic as I thought it would be (given all the build up) especially with the surprise secrete revealed by Clarinda, which by the way felt too contrived for me. Like these two didn't have enough misunderstandings and secrets to deal with, this had to be thrown in there too? Yikes. Too much. And then you have 3 characters spilling everything in literally the last 3 pages of the book. It just became silly and exhausting. The ending just wasn't as satisfying as I was expecting it to be given how engaging the rest of the story was up until that point. But still, it was a very wonderful book. These were my own personal gripes, the rest of the story was very fun and enjoyable with tons of adventure and laughs. The banter in this was wonderful! The quick wit and humor was very charming and very Medeiros. Ash and his sidekick Luca cracked me up. :)...more
I'm a BIG fan of Teresa Medeiros' books, I love her work which is why this was really frustrating for me to read because it disappointed me so much. II'm a BIG fan of Teresa Medeiros' books, I love her work which is why this was really frustrating for me to read because it disappointed me so much. I was surprised by this book. I don't know what happened but this isn't at all like her other work.
What I liked: The nod to the fairytale story of Beauty and the Beast. Who doesn't love that story? A woman falling in love with a lonely beast.
What I didn't like: I quickly started losing interest in the second chapter with all the cartoon-like characters who seemed more contrived then real. I know this is part of her fairytale series but even for a fairytale story there were things that were a bit far fetched and not really fleshed out. You have a village full of people who can't read, who all believe in a fire breathing dragon and the women are all busy making babies. Apparently the only sensible person in the entire village is Gwendolyn and that's emphasized repeatedly, she's such a good girl who can read and is 'fat' (not really). It was as if Medeiros was trying very hard to convince me of it by constantly bringing it up. Gwendolyn's sisters for another I just thought were a bit much. All three of them are complete light skirts who get a thrill out of finding men to have sex with like it's a competition and have no sense at all. I'm surprised the youngest one Kitty even got paired with a man with all her wailing and naivete. And then the father who supposedly went crazy over some big 'secret' only to find out it's not really a secret. I found myself getting more agitated then sympathetic to the characters which wasn't a good sign.
My biggest problem: The love story wasn't really much of a love story. The 'dragon' and Gwendolyn barely interact throughout the book. They share two 'scandalous' kisses while she's staying at the castle then all of sudden she's giving him her heart saying she loves him even when she's never seen his face. The idea behind it was nice and had a nice moral to it but it just came off superficial. I just could not buy it. Then to have her be furious with him over revealing his identity just came out of left field. I tried really hard to like the main characters in this and believe the story but I felt they were very one-dimensional. The ending wasn't very fulfilling more anticlimactic then anything. Just none of the characters made any sense to me and came off more cartoonish then believable. There was a lot missing which is what made it so disappointing for me.
Comparing to her other works this is my least favorite. It just was completely boring and underwhelming overall. Not at all what I was expecting to get from a Medeiros book. She's an amazing story teller I just don't think this was her best work....more
First book of Teresa's I read and I fell in love. This was recommended to me and I read the synopsis and I was intrigued. I'm glad I took the recommenFirst book of Teresa's I read and I fell in love. This was recommended to me and I read the synopsis and I was intrigued. I'm glad I took the recommendation. I was honestly expecting to hate it given the plot and deception on the heroine's part but I was pleasantly surprised. This was very eerily similar to a storyline I watched on a soap (yes go ahead and laugh) same EXACT plot only the woman who pulls off the lie and tells the guy she's his wife I wanted to strangle, her desperate lying and scheming I couldn't stand. Which is why I was REALLY hesitant to read this but surprisingly enough I ended up enjoying this.
Medeiros way of handling a tricky story set-up like this was really well pulled off. The story and characters and dialogue made me fall in love. The story may not be for everyone so fair warning. And what the heroine does is pretty scheming and while I didn't agree with it I understood her reasonings behind it. I couldn't hate her. Love the hero Sterling! Yum. :) Love him and how he dramatically yet slowly changes from an arrogant cold-hearted shut off man to compassionate and understanding and humbled one. The tension and struggle between him and Laura is really suspenseful and dramatic and just delicious. I could have easily hated Laura for what she did but her reasons behind it and her actions I completely understood and sympathized with her. The pull between them and struggle to fight off the feelings and passion is really angsty. Very passionate, vulnerable, raw love story. So good! I loved everything about this book. All the characters are fully developed and just fun to read. 5 stars from me hands down!!!! ...more
Goodness gracious these two were so loveable and sweet. *swoons* I was dying to read this and it did not disappoint. Julian is just delicious as a darGoodness gracious these two were so loveable and sweet. *swoons* I was dying to read this and it did not disappoint. Julian is just delicious as a dark brooding heartbroken vampire. Very dashing charming witty lovable hero. I fell in love with him in the previous book. And of course he made me swoon in this. And Portia is so adorable. Witty sassy charming with an innocence that's really endearing. Great couple their love story is very passionate forlorn and heartbreaking. An amazing fun suspenseful read. The dramatic conclusion did not disappoint. You never know what to expect with Medeiros. Of course you expect a happy ending but the way she goes about it in her books really grabs your attention and your heart, always full of surprises. Forgive me for the cliche saying but it's true, I was at the edge of my seat while reading this. Loved it! ...more
Loved this book one of the first book's of Teresa's that I read and I loved it. So suspensful and heartbreaking and raw. I adore Gabriel in this. His Loved this book one of the first book's of Teresa's that I read and I loved it. So suspensful and heartbreaking and raw. I adore Gabriel in this. His struggle to deal with this blindness and stubborn headed pride at asking for help was expected but charming and fun to read. I liked Sam in this but I have to say I'm probably in the minority in this but I was disappointed with the surprise 'reveal'. Yes there were some clues hinting at something more going on that Sam didn't want Gabriel to know, but considering his history and how it lead him to his current situation I wasn't too crazy about finding out Sam wasn't who she said she was and turned out to be the very person who selfishly asked too much of him and ended up deserting him. But considering she seemed to realize her mistake and grew up a lot by the end of the book I ended up loving it and understood her more. Plus the heartbreak and longing between them was really enthralling and makes you catch your breath. What I love most is the author's ability to throw in surprise twists here and there that you don't necessarily see coming. I loved how they reunited in the end, not the typical cliche ending you expect in romance novels, it was cleverly done. Great read! Another goody by Medeiros.:)...more
Great book! Loved Adrian and Caroline. Great love story. Really dark and suspenseful and whitty. One thing Medeiros never fails at including in her boGreat book! Loved Adrian and Caroline. Great love story. Really dark and suspenseful and whitty. One thing Medeiros never fails at including in her books is humor and charm which I love. It's a darker story with paranormal theme yet the dry humor is still there. Characters are really charming and fun and very endearing. At times I did think Caroline's protectiveness of her sisters was overbearing but all in all loved it. And it made me really anxious to read the next book. I fell in love with the innocent young love sparked between Portia and Julian. *sighs* So sweet. ...more
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