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Rating: 
Summary: Couldn't put it down!!
Review: A love a good book with romance, twist and adventure. When someone gave me this book to read, I set it aside, not really interested. When I was out of anything else to read, I picked it up and couldn't put it down. She goes into great detail...like you are almost there and can feel what they are feeling. It is not the best book I have ever read, but one I will never forget...
Rating: 
Summary: Where did she go wrong?!?
Review: Chase Wilcox thinks all women are lying, scheming _________ (fill in preferred noun here), because of an experience with such a woman. He meets Nicole Ballard, who he thinks is trying to ruin his brother's marriage. Though it is clear that she is anything but, he cynically sees her as having a hidden agenda that everyone else is too stupid to pick up on.He takes her to bed, calls her a tramp, and hurts her badly. He later tries to amend this, but can't seem to get her to trust him (or herself). So, he decides to help her learn to trust herself (and gain self-esteem in the process), and leave before he asks her to do something she doesn't want (like get married). Obviously, the story is much more complicated than that. This book is OK, just not my type of plot. I find the hero, portrayed as a very intelligent man, a contradiction in his low opinion of women. I mean, getting burned real bad once does not guarantee that all women are alike. The book was also quite dramatic. I like a bit of emotion in a romance, but the analogies of butterflies throughout the book might have been over the top. I also knew something was very wrong when the characters started speaking in rhyme. On the plus side, I have always loved the descriptive writing of Elizabeth Lowell which is displayed in this book. And yes, I will read more of her books. All in all, this may be someone's idea of a good read, but everyone has something different to say.
Rating: 
Summary: Not worth re-publishing
Review: I expected a love story, a romance. If there was any doubt in my mind it was confirmed by the ending which was all about sex. I have only read one other book by Lowell so I am not a particular fan of hers or the genre. This book was not that bad. I was particulary moved by the misunderstanding in the middle of the book. But from that point on the book lost all credibility. Nicole never held Chase accountable for his rudeness. And later she did not challenge him on his assumptions about her motives. No way would I forgive someone without having that conversation!
The only other gap I will point to in the story is the absense of the other characters toward the end of the book. I think Lowell could have done a better job of developing some of the other adult characters and making them a part of the story. What about Jan? She is such a great person but she does not have a line past the first chapter. And Dane. Give us some of the conversation between he and his brother at the end. Okay, one more gap... how does Chase know how to drum for Tahitian dance? I thought he was from Hawaii but later it seems he is not. Oh well. It is not a mystery novel, it is a romance. Boy gets girl - boy loses girl - boy gets girl back. I just wish Lowell had ended the book with Nicole's clothes on. Nicole said she did not want to be a man's "thing" yet in the last scene she is naked in the lap of a fully clothed man. Duh?
Rating:
Summary: Sexual healing
Review: I expected a love story, a romance. If there was any doubt in my mind it was confirmed by the ending which was all about sex. I have only read one other book by Lowell so I am not a particular fan of hers or the genre. This book was not that bad. I was particulary moved by the misunderstanding in the middle of the book. But from that point on the book lost all credibility. Nicole never held Chase accountable for his rudeness. And later she did not challenge him on his assumptions about her motives. No way would I forgive someone without having that conversation!
The only other gap I will point to in the story is the absense of the other characters toward the end of the book. I think Lowell could have done a better job of developing some of the other adult characters and making them a part of the story. What about Jan? She is such a great person but she does not have a line past the first chapter. And Dane. Give us some of the conversation between he and his brother at the end. Okay, one more gap... how does Chase know how to drum for Tahitian dance? I thought he was from Hawaii but later it seems he is not. Oh well. It is not a mystery novel, it is a romance. Boy gets girl - boy loses girl - boy gets girl back. I just wish Lowell had ended the book with Nicole's clothes on. Nicole said she did not want to be a man's "thing" yet in the last scene she is naked in the lap of a fully clothed man. Duh?
Rating:
Summary: Not up to her usual
Review: I love many of Lowell's books (the Donovan clan series, built around gemstones, for example) but this was so formulaic and ridiculous that I threw it in the trash. Stunningly beautiful-but-wounded innocent (who somehow managed to become the world's best, most erotic dancer in a couple of years), beloved and protected by the entire island of Hawaii, it seems, falls for a brilliant, world-leading scientist who is somehow too stupid to understand that a bad experience with one woman doesn't mean that all women are cheap tramps. This chick's all but got bluebirds twittering around her head (all the little children love her, all the women adore her) but he misses that, too, takes her to bed--where he awakens those ole' hidden fires--but then calls her a tramp. She's immeasurably wounded (and, get this--all those loving, protective islanders apparently figure that because the guy's REALLY in love they don't need to do anything about it). He immediately feels bad about misjudging her, wins her back with a lot of nonsense about butterflies licking from his hand if he'll only hold still long enough, then dumps her. Takes a volcano eruption that the whole world except the heroine knew about to get the guy to rescue her and have a happy ending. Stilted dialogue, one-dimensional characters, improbably talented, gorgeous people. C'mon, Ms. Lowell. You can do MUCH better than this.
Rating:
Summary: Sweet but Silly
Review: I purchased the audio version of this book knowing it was one of the author's earlier books. I've always been a fan of Elizabeth Lowell's and when you compare her early works to her current books I can see the difference in character and plot development. Eden Burning lacks depth, though I do give the author points for trying to incorporate some of the technical aspects during a volcanic eruption. I thought the addition of drums as a sound effect on the cassette was a little silly and distracting as it made me think of cannibals rather than Hawaiian dancing. I felt the book ended too abruptly (at least it did on the audio version, I don't know how it is on the text version) and there was a brief message from the author noting she had revisited the characters and had beefed up the storyline. Some things are best left unvisited, and Eden Burning is one of them. Only the most die hard of Lowell's fans may want to read this and appreciate the literary growth of Lowell's skill in her more recent work.
Rating:
Summary: Sweet but Silly
Review: I purchased the audio version of this book knowing it was one of the author's earlier books. I've always been a fan of Elizabeth Lowell's and when you compare her early works to her current books I can see the difference in character and plot development. Eden Burning lacks depth, though I do give the author points for trying to incorporate some of the technical aspects during a volcanic eruption. I thought the addition of drums as a sound effect on the cassette was a little silly and distracting as it made me think of cannibals rather than Hawaiian dancing. I felt the book ended too abruptly (at least it did on the audio version, I don't know how it is on the text version) and there was a brief message from the author noting she had revisited the characters and had beefed up the storyline. Some things are best left unvisited, and Eden Burning is one of them. Only the most die hard of Lowell's fans may want to read this and appreciate the literary growth of Lowell's skill in her more recent work.
Rating:
Summary: UNSYMPATHETIC CHARACTERS, WEAK PLOT INSULTS HAWAIIANS
Review: When is it going to dawn on writers/Mainlanders running from their mistakes that we in Hawaii don't want them to come here and bring their "baggage" with them? No matter how "at home" you feel, what kind of spiritual moments you think you have here, you will be an outsider until the day you die-preferably somewhere else. Lowell buys into every tourist cliche ever contrived when she misuses famous Hawaiian names and then names her heroine Pele:that alone should be enough to make Kilaeua erupt in indignation. Using the hula for sexual tension and having onstage clinches is another major no-no. Did she do ANY research with local Hawaiians? This is a formula book with the requisite cute meet, sexual tension, sloppy sex, the "bump" when there is a misunderstanding, and the reconciliation. Romance readers should skip it because it appears hurriedly written and poorly edited, not to mention the commodification of Hawaiian culture for a draw, and just plain bad research - I was a fan until read this one. Now it'll be a while before I buy Lowell again and I hope she rewrites this one with more sensitivity to the culture she pillages for material.
Rating:
Summary: Tepid and embarrassingly dramatic
Review: When the descriptions of Mauna Loa and volcanic regions Kilauea breathes more sprite and fire than the romance, it becomes crystal clear that the classic love story is tepid and embarrassingly melodramatic with one-dimensional characters who are too brittle to hold against the majestic Hawaiian background of the story. Nicole Ballard haunted by the emotional scars and label as frigid by her ex, relives her humiliation when Chase Wilcox, a volcano expert and misoygnst thinks her brazen to break his brother's marriage attempts to seduce her and pour cold water. Nicole is too dishy and wimpish; and Ms. Lowell attempts to cover up the insubstantial plot. The emotional honesty and cool-headed heroines are sadly elusive in this lackadaisical romance that does injustice to the readers as well as the author.
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