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Just Imagine

Just Imagine

List Price: $6.99
Your Price: $6.29
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The Ultimate Romance
Review: JUST IMAGINE flows from the fertile imagination of romance fiction's queen, Susan Elizabeth Phillips. As such, it is the ultimate romance novel.

The reader must remember that romance novels follow a certain structure. There is only one primary plot, the heroine of that plot always is beautiful, there must be a happy ending. So it is more difficult rather than less for an author to stay within these limitations and still turn out a compelling novel.

Yet Ms. Phillips manages to pen a winner every single time one of her books hits the stockrooms of the retailers. The reason for this success is simple: The woman can write!

By the explanation in her foreward, JUST IMAGINE is the reworking of her first published novel, which was written at a moment in time when the ethics were different than now.

Nonetheless, even in this more moderate, politically correct version, no one creates sexual tension better than SEP, or sustains that conflict long past the point where the reader's interest should remain engaged.

With it, Ms. Phillips spins a fine yarn about the South in those immediate years after the Civil War. As Rhett Butler would have said, "Scarlet, JUST IMAGINE is a damn good read!"

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: awesome
Review: Just imagine is definitely one of my top ten! I had a real hard time just putting the book down. I've read several romance novels in my life, some are just so boring I don't want to even finish them. This was not one of them. I hated finishing the book, Kit and Cain became a part of me I didn't want to let go. I have never read Susan Phillips before, but I will search out her books immediately! Way to go Susan!!!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Just Excellent
Review: Just Imagine is SEP's earlier work. it is, in my opinion, one of the very good Historical Romance genre: you will ache for Kit and Baron Cain and laugh with them. Try it and you will understand.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Better than before...
Review: Let me begin by saying that this is not a new book, but it’s not a reissue either. Ms. Phillips took her first solo book, revised and updated it, and Avon sent it back out to the purchasing public. Now, for those of you who hate buying a book you’ve read before, this is my last warning that you’ve read this book… well, okay, almost twenty years ago. But this warning comes with my usual caveat (don’t I always include one? ) that you’ve never read this book before. But this is a point I’ll address again after I do the usual stuff.

The War Between the States might be over for the rest of America, but it will never be over until Kit Weston kills a man. Dressed like a boy, she’s come to New York City to track down and kill Baron Cain, the man who’s inherited her South Carolina home. A man she’s never met yet he makes her blood boil to think that a Union hero could inherit the plantation she’s loved since birth. You see, Kit’s father married a woman who succeeded in banishing Kit to the slave cabins in the back. A woman who never wanted her own child, let alone the offspring of another woman. And the same woman who was given Kit's inheritance upon her father's death. Now that she's dead, she's left Risen Glory to her own child and not Kit. After waiting so long to finally get her hands on Risen Glory, Kit refuses to wait any longer. If she has to kill Baron Cain to get her land back, then so be it...(...)

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: It kept my interest, but. . .
Review: Like many, many people, I have LOVED most of Susan Elizabeth Phillip's other books, but anyone can tell that "Just Imagine" is a past (and outdated) book. In the 80's, it was common to have abusive, emotionally unavailable heroes, and that's what the hero is in this novel. The heroine is childish and spiteful in her obsession to obtain her family home. In short, you have two pretty dislikable characters who misunderstand, fail to communicate, and deliberately attempt to control and to "top" each other. In defense of the book, I did, however finish it; I just didn't really enjoy it much. Ms Phillips has come a long, long way in her writing.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: SHE HAS WRITTEN BETTER BOOKS
Review: MAYBE IT WAS BECAUSE I HAD NO SYMPATHY FOR THE FEMALE LEAD, BUT I JUST COULDN'T GET INTO THIS BOOK. KIT SEEMED LIKE A ONE THOUGHT PERSON, AND THAT THOUGHT WAS A DETRAMENT TO HER HAPPINESS, UNTIL THE LAST CHAPTER.
I WILL STILL BE LOOKING FORWARD TO HER BOOKS, BUT THIS ONE WAS A DISAPOINTMENT TO ME.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Entertaining reworked version of Phllips' old saga.
Review: Susan Elizabeth Phillips has taken her early historical
Risen Glory and elevated it to new heights as the revised Just
Imagine.
The Civil War has ended, leaving shattered lives
behind. Kit Weston has decided to take the healing of her wounds
into her own hands--she means to kill Baron Cain. When her
father died, he left the plantation Risen Glory to Kit's
stepmother--Baron's mother. She always hated Kit, who
ran wild and lived with the slaves. Then Kit's stepmother dies,
leaving Baron the plantation. If she kills this Yankee war hero,
she will own Risen Glory, which is the only thing that matters to
her. But Kit is Baron's ward, and after she can't bring herself
to kill him, he puts her in finishing school. When she gets out,
she has turned from tomboy into knockout, but Kit and Baron are
still at loggerheads....

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A lovely escape into the American South...
Review: Susan Elizabeth Phillips never disappoints and this re-issue of her old historical novel, Risen Glory, is no exception. Fun and funny, with fantastic characters (as well as scene stealing secondary characters), Just Imagine is the perfect escape into a romantic adventure.

Kit Weston may be sent to charm school to reform her from a dirty, mistaken-for-a-boy, no-manners, scamp into a proper southern lady...but no amount of time in school will dull her sharp mind, indomitable spirit, generous heart and absolute spite for the Yankees. Unfortunately for her, it's a Yankee who has her keeping!

Enter Baron Cain, a rake who spends his life gambling and bedding gorgeous women, until he discovers that Kit and the plantation, Risen Glory, have been left in his care. While he quickly finds the hard work of putting the plantation back together in the wake of the war of independence a welcome distraction from a life which had become boring, preparing Kit for a life in society prooves too much for him. He sends her away to school, solving the short term problem of cleaning her up and making her presentable.

However, three years pass quickly and Kit returns to Risen Glory a full grown, astonishingly beautiful woman of grace and dignity...with the singular goal of reclaiming Risen Glory from Baron Cain.

Watching these two characters spar is well worth the price of the book -- Kit has some absolutely precious lines (and Baron Cain manages to get one or two digs in as well!). And as I said, the secondary characters are often scene stealers.

A wonderful read!

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: "Just Imagine" gone with the wind..
Review: Take Scarlet out of her curtains and put her in some boys' clothes and make Rhett a Yankee. That pretty much sums up the story between Kit Weston and Baron Cain.

Like Scarlet, the land is the only thing that Kit truly loves. Her father's plantation Risen Glory is Kit's legacy. Unfortunately, that legacy has been stolen from her by her step mother.

In shades of Cinderella, Kit's step mother has inherited Risen Glory and upon her death bed wills it to her son from a previous relationship.

Kit knows what she must do in order to inherit Risen Glory. She must kill her never before seen step brother, Baron Cain.

I have mixed feelings about this book - I neither loved it or hated it. On the one side, it is filled with cliches. Gone with the Wind is obvious. So is Cinderella. My Fair Lady is in there, too.

On the other hand, I enjoyed watching Kit grow up. She's so filled with hate and pride that it takes a long time for her to grow up. And she does a lot of mean spirited things in the process. But eventually, she does grow up.

Cain is very much the alpha male. Compared to him, all other male characters seem flat and unfinished.

Read it if you can - it's certainly a good book, but save your money and buy it used.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: "Gone With the Wind" the way it should have been. NOT!
Review: The above quote is from JUST IMAGINE's cover and should have been a warning for me not to waste my time with this rewrite. I could never mesh with the lack-luster story or characters. I couldn't even keep enough interest to read through to the end.

Phillip's contemporary works are better. Try them instead, if you are a first-time reader, and you'll be pleased.


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