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Summary: English romance in war-torn Austria
Review: Kat Martin writes a romance book like no other. Rarely am I even slightly disappointed in one of her books. Dangerous Passions was a fantastic read. Although I have owned the book for at least a year, I hesitated to read it because of the plot summary. Having a young lady (Elisa) from a good family travel from England to Austria, under a false identity, during the war seemed a bit of a stretch for me. On top of that she had her mother's permission, pretended to be a widowed countess, and was looking for a spy that probably killed her brother! I did not think that a very good story could come from such unbelievable circumstances but I was wrong. This is romance writing and unlikely circumstances are written all of the time. I gave Martin the chance to establish the story line and by page twenty, I was hooked and had a great time reading this tale.Elisa Tauber is an English country gal gently raised outside of mainstream society by her father, a destitute Austrian count, and her mother, a former actress. She is looking for a spy that her brother, prior to his recent death, had written of in his last letter. He gives three likely suspects and asks his family to not let this spy get away with any further traitorous acts if he should die. Now Elisa is in Austria, under the guidance of a friend of her dead father, and she is making herself acquainted with two of the three traitors listed in her brother's letter. Elisa, although an innocent, thinks her acting ability will make others believe she is an experienced widow used to traveling and societal affairs. She is fully dedicated in bringing the traitor down and very stubborn about it as well. However, she is dealing with dangerous men in more ways than one. Colonel Adrian Kingsland, Lord Wolvermont, is a career military man and loves the ladies and the ladies love him. He resembles so many of those historical romance heroes from England. He has hidden hurts from his childhood, takes no woman seriously, and certainly never plans to marry. When he and Elisa first meet, under very embarrassing circumstances, Adrian is immediately taken with her. He is determined to make this young widow his bed partner and makes no secret of it. He infiltrates her life in any way he can. Of course he is a very confident man and is aware of his considerable charm. However, he cannot understand her attraction to two particular men (two of the traitor candidates) and becomes quite agitated at the attention she gives them. There are a few familiar romance plot twists but Kat Martin writes them so well that you hardly notice. One of the things I appreciate about her writing style is that she seldom uses The Big Misunderstanding. Her leads usually interact honestly and any misunderstandings are typically settled within a few pages. The interaction between Adrian and Elisa is just plain fun in the beginning and moves to very serious by the end. Although there are times of laughter, this one will also cause a few tears to flow as well. Dangerous Passions is one of those books that you will not want to put down. There are frequent sensual scenes that rate a solid 4.0 out of 5.0 (see More About Me for rating guidelines). This book contains a lot of action and there is not a boring page. You will discover that it stretches the limits of believability more than once but if you can just ignore that occasional implausible moment, you will thoroughly enjoy reading Dangerous Passions.
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Summary: Another good read from my favorite historical romance author
Review: Kat Martin writes well researched historical romance novels and this is one of her best. It's sexy and hard to put down. I loved the tormented hero Adrian!
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Summary: Shallow. Don't expect too much
Review: The plot looks very promising especially at the beginning where Adrian got into the right bed with the wrong woman it it.But don't be misled. It is supposed to be a spy story interwoven with romance. Unfortunately, the spying becomes the excuse to depict some passions. Therefore the story is shallow and thin. The reader should not expect any exciting or thrilling escapades in espionage--- there was none at all. The heroine, a country mouse, embarked on a foolhardly and haphazard mission of revenge single-handedly. She had only good looks but no brains. Without strategy or help, she thought she would sleep with one of the suspects, General Steigler, and he would disclose to her the secrets and thus she would find her brother's murderer. How infuriating naive! There was no mention of how she would extract the secret from the other two suspects.Anyway, it is an unsatisfying read which makes you annoyed with the heroine's ignorance and the writer's writing skill.
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Summary: Typical.
Review: The premise was interesting. However, it is practically thrown into the book without much credibility. The characters were far too extreme to be really believable. At times it seems the story was too quickly thrown together without enough foreplanning and with an explicit purpose to write about sex and seduction. But then again that is the point of romance.
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Summary: story elements don't quite hang together
Review: The story got off to an intriguing start with the premise of a spy-hunter heroine, but faltered when Elissa (and the author) didn't really have a plan of action. I realize that the romance is the central storyline, but the spy story was too underdeveloped and the actions of the hero & heroine seemed arbitrary. Martin is a gifted writer and some passages are very moving, as when Adrian realizes he loves Elissa and the whole sub-story of Jamie. Not much investigation occurs, so there isn't much suspense. Initially, Elissa seemed too naive and Adrian too insensitive, but by the end their characters evolved into people you could care about. Unfortunately, the plot just didn't hang together.
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Summary: AMAZING! SPECTACULAR! WONDERFUL!
Review: There are not enough adjectives that would do justice to how great this book is. This is a keeper. Absolutely one of the BEST romance novels I have ever read. Buy it. Now. The relationship between Adrian and Elissa is perfect. I can't say enough about this book. I will read it again and again.
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Summary: Incredibly hot , steamy and witty
Review: This book was an incredible journey to the Naopleonic times. The relationships were incredibly steamy (specially between Adrian and Elissa). The story did a great job in susprising me and will keep you tuned in until the end. This book is to die for!
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Summary: Disappointing
Review: This book was very poorly done. (I almost said: It sucked, but that's not very polite.) It dragged on and on during the first and middle sections and then all of a sudden at the end, everything ended up "fairy-tale wonderful". Don't get me wrong - I LOVE fairy-tale wonderful! But this was so FAKE. During the last 10 pages, I uttered "Oh, brother!" and almost didn't finish it. But I did. This book had potential but did not reach it. No more Kat Martin for me...
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Summary: A credit to the genre, and a big relief.
Review: This book will never be credited as a great work of literature, but I'd like to give it credit for what it is. Too often romance novels depict sex scenes of obvious non-consent which the heroine ends up enjoying against her will. That sort of thing makes me sick, and I was so relieved to discover one book that shows clearly (from the begining of the novel and each sex scene) that the heroine is enjoying herself, even if she knows better. I loved it, and was pleased to know that a charming & moving love story can be written without forcing the lady against her will, or denying the fact that women are perfectly capable of saying yes on their own.
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Summary: done in 24 hours!
Review: This is the book that made me fall in love with reading again. I literally could not put it done and sat up and read it from cover to cover in one sitting. I have since read all of her books and found each one to be great but this was the best.
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