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Rating: 
Summary: Not bad, but not very good either...
Review: "Leonie" was Elizabeth Adler's first novel, and she does weave together a good story. Unfortunately, it feels contrived, and that's why I could only give it 3 stars. Leonie is very young when she goes to Paris to find a living. She comes across many men, eventually befriending those who would play a paly in her destiny. Her first friend, Maroc. Her best friend and protector, Caro Montalva. Her first love, Rupert, who abandons her to marry into money. Her obcessed lover, Monsieur le Duc, Gilles de Cormont, who is quite controlling and throughly ruthless. Leonie then has a contrived encounter with a French count, and she becomes pregnant. What Gilles does in reaction to this isn't surprising, and thus, Leonie has to give away her child, so she could be free of the evil Duke's machinations. There are a lot of coindences in this novel, many near-meetings, and by the 400th page, all of this feels very contrived, and you think nobody can have that kind of luck. I did enjoy how Adler ended it. It was fitting, to say the least
Rating:
Summary: Not bad, but not very good either...
Review: "Leonie" was Elizabeth Adler's first novel, and she does weave together a good story. Unfortunately, it feels contrived, and that's why I could only give it 3 stars. Leonie is very young when she goes to Paris to find a living. She comes across many men, eventually befriending those who would play a paly in her destiny. Her first friend, Maroc. Her best friend and protector, Caro Montalva. Her first love, Rupert, who abandons her to marry into money. Her obcessed lover, Monsieur le Duc, Gilles de Cormont, who is quite controlling and throughly ruthless. Leonie then has a contrived encounter with a French count, and she becomes pregnant. What Gilles does in reaction to this isn't surprising, and thus, Leonie has to give away her child, so she could be free of the evil Duke's machinations. There are a lot of coindences in this novel, many near-meetings, and by the 400th page, all of this feels very contrived, and you think nobody can have that kind of luck. I did enjoy how Adler ended it. It was fitting, to say the least
Rating:
Summary: Not bad, but not very good either...
Review: "Leonie" was Elizabeth Adler's first novel, and she does weave together a good story. Unfortunately, it feels contrived, and that's why I could only give it 3 stars. Leonie is very young when she goes to Paris to find a living. She comes across many men, eventually befriending those who would play a paly in her destiny. Her first friend, Maroc. Her best friend and protector, Caro Montalva. Her first love, Rupert, who abandons her to marry into money. Her obcessed lover, Monsieur le Duc, Gilles de Cormont, who is quite controlling and throughly ruthless. Leonie then has a contrived encounter with a French count, and she becomes pregnant. What Gilles does in reaction to this isn't surprising, and thus, Leonie has to give away her child, so she could be free of the evil Duke's machinations. There are a lot of coindences in this novel, many near-meetings, and by the 400th page, all of this feels very contrived, and you think nobody can have that kind of luck. I did enjoy how Adler ended it. It was fitting, to say the least
Rating: 
Summary: A Riveting Story
Review: Fans of Elizabeth Adler will find this book as great as her others. Readers who have read "The Rich Shall Inherit" should also read this book. Set in the late 1800's to the early 1900's, it follows the story of Leonie, a poor young girl in France, and the obsession of one man she calls Monsieur. Living in the shadow of fear from Monsieur, Leonie becomes a famous singer and eventually finds true love. The story comes together in a final conflict that frees Leonie from her Monsieur forever. I found this book difficult to put down, and I'm sure you will too.
Rating:
Summary: Guilty pleasure
Review: Peach is the sequel (the titled heroine being Leonie's granddaughter) but the extra something that gave Leonie its spark is missing. But I'm not reviewing Peach... Reminiscent of the romances of the 80s with a touch of Steele and Susann, Leonie is nonetheless an enjoyable read. Messed up, somewhat lurid, it begins the story of Leonie, a provincal, beautiful French girl who leaves her hometown for Paris and eventually hooks up with Monsieur, a shadowy, powerful married man who becomes enthralled with her. It tells, in turn, of Leonie's interlude with Monsieur, Leonie's freindships, and how eventually Leonie breaks free of her obsessive and mentally abusive relationship. There are a few loose ends: Leonie's attraction to her Egyptian figurines, her parentage, and the climatic but ambiguous ending, but overall Leonie is a reasonably satisfying read.
Rating:
Summary: Guilty pleasure
Review: Peach is the sequel (the titled heroine being Leonie's granddaughter) but the extra something that gave Leonie its spark is missing. But I'm not reviewing Peach... Reminiscent of the romances of the 80s with a touch of Steele and Susann, Leonie is nonetheless an enjoyable read. Messed up, somewhat lurid, it begins the story of Leonie, a provincal, beautiful French girl who leaves her hometown for Paris and eventually hooks up with Monsieur, a shadowy, powerful married man who becomes enthralled with her. It tells, in turn, of Leonie's interlude with Monsieur, Leonie's freindships, and how eventually Leonie breaks free of her obsessive and mentally abusive relationship. There are a few loose ends: Leonie's attraction to her Egyptian figurines, her parentage, and the climatic but ambiguous ending, but overall Leonie is a reasonably satisfying read.
Rating: 
Summary: It's Been Done Before
Review: The only Adler book I can give five stars to is "The Rich Shall Inherit," because I adored Poppy, the main character, and the story-line was riveting. But "Leonie" is a hollow, unsatisfying character, and her main purpose in life seems to be jumping from man to man and moving the (somewhat stilted) plot along. Her love/hate relationship with Monsieur is at first entertaining, but his life-long obsession with her seems overplayed, and we never get a real idea of what makes him tick. And people always seem to die at such convenient points in this book; it began to get annoying. I hate to bring up real life in a book about pure fantasy--which is what all Adler's books are about--but there isn't enough reality in this book to give the fantasy something to stand on. Bottom line: in a book wherein everything you want to happen is inevitably going to, the journey there should be entertaining enough to make it work anyway. And in "Leonie," it isn't.
Rating:
Summary: It's Been Done Before
Review: The only Adler book I can give five stars to is "The Rich Shall Inherit," because I adored Poppy, the main character, and the story-line was riveting. But "Leonie" is a hollow, unsatisfying character, and her main purpose in life seems to be jumping from man to man and moving the (somewhat stilted) plot along. Her love/hate relationship with Monsieur is at first entertaining, but his life-long obsession with her seems overplayed, and we never get a real idea of what makes him tick. And people always seem to die at such convenient points in this book; it began to get annoying. I hate to bring up real life in a book about pure fantasy--which is what all Adler's books are about--but there isn't enough reality in this book to give the fantasy something to stand on. Bottom line: in a book wherein everything you want to happen is inevitably going to, the journey there should be entertaining enough to make it work anyway. And in "Leonie," it isn't.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: This is definitely one of my favorite books. Yeah, it has that trashy romance thing going on, but it is definitely a lot more than that. Also, the main charcater has tons of spunk, and is really rather liberated.
Rating:
Summary: This book could have been much shorter . . .
Review: To me it seemed that Léonie didn't have many facets to her personality other than that of a good, sweet person, far sweeter than she should have been given her circumstances. Her daughter was pretty much the same. Oh, Léonie was lucky of course - inexplicably so and mostly because of her astounding beauty. It really was quite annoying how every man she ever came across seemed to fall in love with her in less than a day. I mean, how beautiful can she be? She had far too many lovers, most of them rather unnecessary. So much of the story could have been removed without harming the plot at all. Most of it was written just to make the book longer, it seemed. After a couple hundred pages it just gets boring and repetitive.
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