Rating: 
Summary: The best book I have read in years!
Review: "The Fairest of Them All"Was the best book I have ever read.I really didn't like romance books until now.First of all this book does not have a picture of a shirtless man groping a half naked women on the cover.Second,It didn't make such a big deal out of Holly's beauty as it could have.This book is basicly about a woman who is so subborn,she won't marry the man her father tells her to so she tries to make herself look so ugly that no man will want her.But she is mistaken,someone does want her,Sir Austyn of Gavenmore.Holly finds out about herself and the demons of Austyn's past.The ending was excellent and made me want a sequel.If you buy any romance book buy this one!
Rating:
Summary: True love is the fairest of all
Review: Because of a curse, Sir Austyn of Gavenmore didn't want a beautiful woman as his wife. Holly de Chastel was actually a beauty but she considered herself cursed because she could not enjoy the freedom that she wished. Since she fend off her suitors, her father was fed up with her and organise a joustling tournament. The prize is a marriage to Holly. The men were cheated as they feasted their eyes on Holly. Here the lady of unspeakable beauty, but the gossip prove wrong when an ugly maiden burst into the scene. Her hair was shorned, her teeth were black and she was simply fat. This, was actually a facade since Holly was truly a beauty. That suited Austyn just fine since he wanted an ugly duckling. Austyn married Holly but then, twists of events revealed Holly's real beauty to Austyn. He felt cheated and shut Holly in a high tower. Austyn was bitter and he could not confront his own problem with his father. After some fateful events, Austyn did break the curse with his Holly as true love is the cure for the curse.
Rating:
Summary: Magical!
Review: FAIREST OF THEM ALL is one of the most charming medieval romances I've ever read. Holly de Chastel is a feisty, endearing heroine who must teach Sir Austyn of Gavenmore that the blessing of true love can overcome even the darkest curse. A delightful story that kept me turning pages as fast as I could. I loved it
Rating: 
Summary: Too much mystery and mistakes
Review: Far too much mystery and mistaken identity here for me - Holly was constantly "disguised" from Austyn (I do so hate modern sounding names in medieval romance!) because she was sick of being beautiful and wanted to be loved for herself - yeh right!! He didn't care who he got so long as she was ugly in case he ended up killing her because of a family curse. YAWN!The plot is a well-used one and I can't really say that I resent it as such but here it just dragged on and on and I ended up not caring whether they got together, liked each other, parted or even murdered each other. Why did she stay "disguised" - it didn't amount to much - for so long anyway why couldn't she just talk to the guy and explain the situation? She could have then told him that the "curse" was tosh and not to be so stupid - I certainly wanted to!!
Rating: 
Summary: Curses, curses, curses
Review: For both Holly and Austyn beauty is a curse. That's the basic premise of this "marriage comes first, revelations come second and love comes later" romance. I'm sure it's hard to come up with original ideas in a genre with so many existing plots. Still, this one stretched my ability to suspend disbelief. Her family would let her get married looking like a hag rather than risk disgrace? Austyn, a pretty smart guy, couldn't tell she was costumed? Yea, right.... I read this because it was the winner of Romantic Time's Reviewer Choice Award in the Love and Laughter category in 1995. It's my first Mederios novel. Overall, it was a pleasant enough read but nothing exceptional. Nothing made me laugh out loud but there were a few scenes that brought a smile to my face.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent and humorously entertaining
Review: found it a beatiful love story.funny when the heroine disguised herself to be ugly.
Rating:
Summary: THIS AUTHOR NEVER DISAPPOINTS!!!
Review: HOLLY DE CHASTEL IS RUMORED TO BE THE FAIREST WOMAN IN ALL OF ENGLAND, BUT SHE THINKS HER BEAUTY A CURSE. SHE DOESN'T WANT TO BE SOMEONE'S TROPHY. SO WHEN HER FATHER SETS UP A TOURAMENT AND OFFERS THE WINNER HOLLY'S HAND IN MARRIAGE, HOLLY SETS HER WICKED PLAN IN MOTION...TO BECOME UGLY AND SCARE AWAY HER SUITORS. SIR AUSTYN OF GAVENMORE IS CURSED. THE GREAT WITCH RHIANNON HAS CURSED HIS FAMILY FOR GENERATIONS... ANY GAVENMORE MALE BE HIS OWN UNDOING BY JEALOUS RAGES THAT CLAIM THE LIVES OF THE GAVENMORE WOMEN. SO WHEN HE SEES THE UGLY HOLLY WHO WILL NOW BE HIS WIFE, HE FEELS THAT THE MARRIAGE SHOULD WORK BECAUSE NO OTHER MAN WOULD WANT HER AND TEMPT HIS JEALOUS RAGE. BUT WHEN HER UGLY DISGUISE STARTS SLIPPING AND AUSTYN LEARNS OF HOLLY'S TRUE BEAUTY IT MAY BE DAMNATION FOR THEM BOTH!!!! THIS BOOK WAS SO WELL WRITTEN, THE CHARACTERS ARE INCREDIBLE. THE PAIN THAT THEY, AND THE BACKGROUND CHARACTERS FEEL IS SO FAR REACHING, YOU WILL CRYING ALONG WITH THEM. REMINDS ME OF BEAUTY AND THE BEAST.
Rating: 
Summary: Suacy Spicy and not too nice!
Review: I am an absolute fan of Theresa Medeiros books. She chooses subject matters that are greatly appealing to me and writes with humor, candor, pathos, and good straight psychology. This book was just a little bit edgy for me. I loved the mix of fairytale themes, which is present in every book of hers that I have read. This one featured the Princess held captive in the tower with echoes of 'Beauty and the Beast' and 'Snow White'. Much of it was delightful and funny as I have come to expect, but I found this book to be just a shade darker than usual. The hero's treatment of his lady was slightly sadistic and painful. While this was in keeping with the psychological makeup you would expect from someone with his ancestry, it was still dark reading. However, it all comes right in a believable and enjoyable way. So if you can grit your teeth through the suffering, you will mostly enjoy the book. As with most of Theresa's books the lovemaking is very explicit, extremely well written but not for the modest reader.
Rating:
Summary: Sure I believe in recycling, but this is ridiculous!
Review: I bought two Teresa Medeiros books-- this one and 'The Bride and the Beast'. I read 'Bride' first, then this one, and was left with the conclusion that I may as well have just saved my money and read 'Bride' twice, since the plotlines of both were so similar! How many times can Ms Medeiros use these same twists in her stories-- the mad father, the woman locked in the tower, the man being a beast, etc.-- before she grows weary of recycling the same tired old plots? Don't get me wrong, Ms Medeiros is not a bad author. Sometimes her writing really grabs me, and several times I've caught myself laughing out loud at her witty japes. But there's not enough of this sparkling gold to outshine the dross and repitition, and I was left with that same feeling I experienced upon watching the first series of '24' on tv-- you know the one, when you wonder just how many times per episode the wife and daughter can get kidnapped! If Ms Medeiros can come up with some original plotlines (and stop using the word 'twas so often, which really got on my nerves by the thousandth repitition)and use a little more realism (you have to suspend logic rather too often whilst reading her books)then I think she'll be a really good writer. Until then, though, I wouldn't recommend her work very highly, unless you're really bored, or you fear change and enjoy the claustrophobic comfort of things always staying the same! More specifically, though, I wouldn't recommend her books if you have a problem with Stockholm Syndrome being used as a plot point, because it seems that the more the gals in Ms Medeiros's books get locked up and treated horribly, the more they fall in love with their men. This author seems very fond of the 'treat 'em mean, keep 'em keen' theory. If you find battered wives romantic, then this is for you!
However, if you want a gripping romance with decent plotlines about an intriguing hidden beauty, I would recommend Shana Abe's 'The Secret Swan' instead of this.
I initially gravitated towards this book because I'm a fan of fairytales written for adults. However, this oft-times disturbing tome is no fairytale! (Or not one of the happier ones, anyway.) Don't let the pleasant, benign, even witty beginning of the book convince you otherwise--it gets worse, fast. And don't think that it's full of fairytale magic and wonder, either, even though some reviews of the book give that impression. Other than the fairly ludicrous subplot about one of the 'hero' Austyn's forebears having had a failed romance with a fairy woman, who then cursed him and his male descendants throughout successive generations to hurt the women they loved, this is not a magical story set in any enchanted fairytale world. (Actually, to me the fairy's curse seemed like a weird, illogical thing--as an aggrieved woman herself, surely she would not want other women to suffer as she did, but rather would seek to hurt only the menfolk involved! To that end, cursing the men with something else, like ugliness, exceptionally bad body odour or heriditary gout, would have made far more sense than enacting a curse that doomed WOMEN!)
Another fault with this book is that it doesn't seem very historically accurate--in spite of the fact that it is supposed to be set in England in 1325, it really could have occurred in any other time or place. This author seems very lazy with her research and narrative: there is no real evidence in the book that the characters lived in 'ye olde England'--not in their speech, their manner or their lifestyles. Even worse, though, is the fact that the author tries to convince us that Austyn is Welsh. Shyeah, right, he's Welsh--about as Welsh as Coca Cola or koalas. If he's Welsh then I'm a Martian!
I'm usually quite a forgiving critic if I can see that the author at least had good intentions and gave it a damned good try. I'll even suspend logic on occasion, so long as I'm intrigued or well entertained by the storyline. But there's no forgiving this! It's lazily written, unrealistic, duplicitious of the author's other books, and expects us to believe that a woman will fall in love with a man who not only torments and humiliates her repeatedly, but then also imprisons and practically rapes her too. (Most of the sex scenes take part when the heroine is taken prisoner against her will by the hero!) If this were the subject of a text book about psychology then it might make compelling reading, lending us an insightful, heart-wrenching glimpse into why women stay with abusive partners. But this is supposed to be a light-hearted romance. A ROMANCE, goddammit! Forgive me if I didn't really find this book romantic. I'm just not that dumb.
Rating:
Summary: Fair enough.
Review: I didnt like it as much as Whisper of Roses. If I had read this one first it wouldve been better. Also I dont care for books with spells in them. That was what really soured me on it. But it was very humerous, especially in the beginning. And I love funny romances.
|
