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Desperate Duchesses series by Eloisa James
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25 comments:
shoots. i shouldn't have clicked your feed. i couldn't help but read your review once i started. huhuhu.
anyway, ash book doesn't come out here until the 5th so i'm dying a little. okay, a lot.
i shall return after i get my copy. :)
Very interesting. I'm on the fence about reading it. On the one hand, obviously I'm going to get it. But on the other..I feel like it was built up so much there's no way the final will ever measure up.
Thanks for the great review, though.
Thank you for this spoiler-free review, Kat. It is just the kind of insight I'd want before reading this highly anticipated novel. I'm keeping my expectations midlevel on this one, and from your review, that's probably a good way to go. Unfortunately, I've felt that SK hasn't been able to fully convince me of the true, forever kind of love that the hero and heroines claim to have for each other in her last several Dark and Dream Hunter novels. They've been nice, but just not terribly convincing, you know? It sounds like she still has a bit of that going on with Ash's love story.
Thanks so much for the thoughtful review.
(And thanks to Holly for giving me the heads up on your blog ;)
meeya, looking forward to hearing what you think. I think DH series fans will probably love this book.
Holly, I worried about that, too, but I think it helped that the first part is so different from her usual style. Made it seems less DH-y as I was reading it.
Christine, I tried not to spoil. It's hard--what kind of review doesn't even reveal the heroine's name? LOL I love spoilers, but since the book isn't even officially released yet, I thought it would be better this way. I definitely think the best way to approach the book is with midlevel expectations. Come back and let me know what you think when you've read the book. :-)
Ooh, you've given me plenty to be excited about, thanks for the review...I'm so jealous that you got it so early!
Rowena, I'm just so happy the local sf/f bookstore is on top of this stuff. The chain bookstores around here are hopeless when it comes to new releases in romance.
Like the others, thank you for a spoiler-free review. I usually don't mind them, but for this particular book? Heads would roll! LOL!
I'm looking forward to it. Her books are hit or miss with me. I'll read it and go on from there. :)
Bridget, DH is hit and miss with me, too. My faves are Vane/Bride, Valerius/Tabitha, and Talon/Sunshine, if that's any help.
As for the dialogue "What happened to wreck us?" That is a very authentic Southern thing to say. Kenyon is a girl from the south. I grew up in the northeast, but lived on the AL/TN border for about 6 years. And yeah, I heard that kind of phrasing all the time. :-)
What I want to see worked out is this..Ash needs to feed from Artemis or he goes all crazy. LOL. So, when Katra was bonded to Sin, I thought Ash said it could not be undone, and that it is also very sexual. So even though Ash gets his heroine, how is that gonna work out? I don't see Ash's heroine going for him snacking on Artemis. LOL.
Stargirl
Stargirl, good to know. Thanks!
If you want me to answer your question about Ash feeding on Artemis, you'll have to send me an e-mail. Then again, you might have a copy of the book by the time you read this. :-)
Having just got finished I have to agree with many of your points. But in the end for this Hardback hater, I don't resent spending the 21$.
On the age front though, I've always thought that he's 11000 years old - 21 then and 21 now... pretty big difference in looks, even for gods :)
Hi, Anne, I agree. The money was well spent on the hard cover version. The first part of the book had me totally hooked. As for the age thing, I think it's to do with his ability to heal and regenerate. I suppose that means no wrinkles! *g* I just don't find it attractive that he still gets carded at bars, so I stubbornly imagine him to be somewhere closer to 30.
Okay, so I bought this book on my lunch hour, on the fifth. I was done by my lunch hour on Thursday.
I loved this book. It wasn't perfect, but I loved loved loved it anyway. My heart broke for Ash in the first half. Parts were very difficult to read... must have been difficult to write.
It wasn't lost on me that Artemis's words to Nick were almost, if not identical, to what she said to Ash in the first half of the book. Wonder how that is all gonna pan out.
Gotta wait for the next book.
So Stryker's book is next huh? It is amazing that Kenyon can take a character you hate - because he is painted as being on the wrong side, like trying to kill Ash, but then make him sympathetic to the reader. I mean she has to do this if he is going to be the hero of his own book. Cause I could care less about reading whether or not an a**hole gets the girl!! LOL.
Stargirl
Stargirl, I'm rereading some of the DH books and having read Acheron has made me enjoy them so much better than the first time around. I don't feel that Artemis is unredeemable, but maybe that's because I haven't read all the DH books. It's going to be interesting to read her HEA, if she gets one. I bought Acheron because I thought I could read it and close off my interest in the DH novels, but it's done the opposite. I'm not sure Kenyon will ever be an autobuy for me, but I'll definitely be picking up a few more books in this series.
Kat,
Well, If you read Acheron and still think Artemis is redeemable, reading the other books won't change your mind. You saw her at her worst in Acheron. In the other books he takes a beating or two, and she likes to tug on his hair or breathe on the back of his neck. I knew he didn't like it, but never knew with full understanding completely why until I read Acheron.
I wanted her to be redeemable, but she was so terrible to him. And she still doesn't seem to get it. The way she treated him towards the very end when he needed to feed. The way she called him names for things in his past he has no control over - and here is is a god that defended her and is more powerful that she is. Her cruelty and selfishness amaze me. One minute she is a spoiled, angry, possessive Goddess, and then she had tears glittering in her eyes in that scene in Nashville near the end. My gut feeling is that in the very end, she was plotting again. I hope not, because if she is plotting again, she just might be unredeemable. It's like she doesn't get all that she did to Ash, but feels hurt by him instead -like it is all his fault. Very narcissistic. I think someone said she needs to be cursed to live as a human for a while to have a change of heart. That might be the answer. LOL. Or maybe a knock in the head where she doesn't remember her past and she is actually an nice person who becomes horrified at herself when the memories come back.
I suppose I struggle with her moods because I had an ex husband that said he loved me more than the world but in truth I was nothing but a possession. He could be a dream one moment, and then if I dared not give him his way, it got very ugly. He was narcissistic too. People don't change from that without serious therapy or a major life changing event.
If Artemis gets her own chance to be a worthy heroine, I'd read it. Although if everyone has to think she is this "virigin goddess" she is going to have trouble taking any man's hand and standing with him in public. And then she is immortal, she's gonna be around for a while, as is Ash, so something's got to give. I just don't think she deserves it unless she changed her 'tude! LOL. Like a taming of the shrew book. :-) Who could whip her into shape? A mere human, or DH? OR someone more powerful like Jaden, or Savitar? Hmmmm, gotta think on that one.
I'm still curious how Stryker is redeemable enough. I do feel sympathetic for his dad being so cruel to him. So that is a start.
Whew...where did all that come from??? LOL
Stargirl
I loved the first part of the book and I liked the second part but I think she could have done a better job of telling Acheron's love story if she had released the second book separately as was originally intended. I felt that the second part was rushed, I would have loved to see a little more lead up to love, instead there was the gratuitous arguing, the the girl suddenly realizes what a "great guy" he really is. I mean, the thing with the b-ball game was so predictable it was laughable. SK made him almost too perfect. Could she have at least come up with something a little more original?
I feel that if these two books had been sold separately then SK could have made the second book longer and added some crucial scenes that would have made their story a better read.
I've read all but the last two of her books. My intention was to read them all before Ash's story came out, but like someone said earlier, her books are hit or miss. Sometimes a I fly through the book and love it. Valerius and Tabitha or Wren and Maggie. And sometimes if feels forced and just a bit ridiculous. Ravyn and Susan.
One last thing before I finish my ramble. What is Nick's problem? He blames Ash? I understand that what Ash says happens and he has to be careful what he says, but my goodness. Don't we make our own decisions? Quit whining and accept responsibility for you actions. Dude, own it. Sorry, I used to love Nick and I hate what SK has done to his character.
Anyway, that is my rant. Bottom line, loved the beginning and this will probably be one of my many books I read over and over, but I would have like the second part to have been a little more ... filled in, is the only way I can describe it.
Thanks,
Rachael from TN
Rachael, I agree with everything you said. About the second part, about the hit and miss-ness of these books, and mostly about Nick. He was soooo annoying! But I haven't read all the books, so I don't have all the backstory on that. I have to say, though, that Acheron has motivated me to read the entire series.
Hmmm, if you are going to go back to read the entire series my personal recs would be Seize the Night, my favorite with Val and Tabitha and it tells what happens between Nick and Ash and my second fave is Unleash the Night with Wren and Maggie. I must have a secret obsession with quiet brooding guys.
There are a couple of others that are good, too, but I'll let you discover those for yourself.
Happy reading,
Rachael from TN
Hehe, I just finished rereading Seize The Night this morning. :-) My favourite is still Vane/Bride, though. I haven't read the gazillion other books between StN and Acheron, so I haven't read the book where Nick turns hostile. And in which book does Ash find out about Kat?
Good points. I do wish that the second half had a little more time for them to fall in love. And yeah, I agree with what you said about the b-ball game - and don't forget the playing video games saturday morning and helping to build houses too. Maybe if all that had been spread out through a longer book it would have come across a little better.
But I still loved his love story nevertheless.
Ash finds out about Kat in Devil May Cry - Which is Kat and Sin's book.
And with Nick...I have to go back and look in past books to be sure, but I seem to remember that someone (stryker, stryker's sister?) approached him like the evil devil on the shoulder, telling him how much it was Ash's fault, that Ash didn't care, and that he should be mad at Ash. It made me think that Nick never has gotten the entire story of how his mom really died. Granted, if he cared enough about Ash, he'd have taken the time to find out before just believing what someone who wants Ash dead has to say.
Linda
Thanks, Linda. I'll have to read DMC. I thought I already had, but I don't remember anything about Ash and Kat, so it must have been a different book. Do you remember which book Nick starts to blame Ash? And does he know who has his soul?
Linda has a point about Nick, I think Stryker did something, but I haven't finished Dream Hunter or read Dream Chaser. I don't think Nick knows who has his soul, unless that was in one of the books I haven't read.
Vane and Bride are fabulous too. And I can't wait for Fang and Aimee's story. Devil May Cry is one of my least favorites which is ironic considering that was the first one I read. I bought it not realizing it was part of a series. After reading it, I started from the beginning.
Acheron can be read as it is, but I think you get more out of it if you've read the other books. Ash is so mysterious in the books that you really want to know about his past, more so than any of the others. Why does he let Artemis treat him the way she does? Where did Simi come from? Why does he want to be alone?
I thought the big fight scene at the end was silly. Why would he put his friends' lives in danger unnecessarily? Other than giving SK a reason to bring all the characters back. She could have done that by having Ash drag her to a dinner or something.
I do have to admit I loved when Ash played with the Howlers. I'm such a sucker for that kind of thing. She got me there. LOL
After posting last night, I picked up Seize the Night and now I'm reading it again. Well, skimming to the good parts. LOL
Rachael from TN
What is with the fixation on Hershey's freaking chocolates? Of all the chocolates in the world, much as I love Hershey's kisses, they are not orgasmic. No, really, they're not.
LMAO.
haven't read it, probably will later, but had to laugh at this.
Lived in the US my whole life and although I love it, I gotta admit, we got the short end when it came to chocolate.
And Hershey's Kisses? Noooooo....
I've been seduced by the dark side, introduced to the world of VC, Crunchie and Flake candy bars. Nope, Hershey doesn't compare.
Mmm, Flaaaaake. Mmm, Cruuuuunchie. Shiloh, have you tried Valrhona's Celaya drinking chocolate? It's liquid gold.
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