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Rating: 
Summary: I don't care what the 3 star reviewer this is a great read
Review: Maybe I really fell in love with this book because I have read the first 2 books in the hope chest series. But I really liked this a lot. I think how Dimitri acted when he was told that Cynda was from the future. He didn't believe her and he didn't want to hear stories about the future. That is realistic. If somebody came up to me and said they were from the future I wouldn't believe them either. This is a good book and is worth reading.
Rating:
Summary: I don't care what the 3 star reviewer this is a great read
Review: Maybe I really fell in love with this book because I have read the first 2 books in the hope chest series. But I really liked this a lot. I think how Dimitri acted when he was told that Cynda was from the future. He didn't believe her and he didn't want to hear stories about the future. That is realistic. If somebody came up to me and said they were from the future I wouldn't believe them either. This is a good book and is worth reading.
Rating: 
Summary: Not too bad, but...
Review: Overall the book was a good read. However, there were two major faults in the story that really stuck out like a sore thumb. Number one - when Cynda finally tells Dimitri she is from the future, not only does he not believe her at all, he doesn't even ask any questions about it even if just to test her. Even when they become lovers and all the way up until she gets shot with the bullet meant for him, he never believes her and it is not talked about. Give me a break. Even after she gets shot and he finally admits he believes her, the future is not talked about. This shows that the author has left out one huge factor of a human personality - curiosity, especially about something as out of this world as time travel. The second fault was that the main characters made love in detail so many times it was beginning to get boring. In most romances, the first time or two are detailed, which they need to be, and then after that, unless it is being used as main event part of the story, an author can summarize over it and not go into the whole thing again and again. However, the storyline kept you reading which saves this book from being 2 stars.
Rating: 
Summary: A whimsical escape -- Recommended
Review: There's something winningly whimsical and marvelously magical about the premise of the power of a hope chest and equinoxes winging characters across time to find healing and love. A hope chest found in the historic Chesterfield, now undergoing renovation provides the focal point for this series. In Karen Fox's GRAND DESIGN, the third book of the Hope Chest miniseries, it's the nameplate from a portrait that carries frustrated artist Cynda Madison back in time to find her love. Cynda Madison finds a strikingly handsome face beneath the years of filth in a portrait she's been commissioned to restore. Her own artwork lacks the sweeping passion apparent in every brush stroke, leaving her wishing for such bold zeal. When she's swept back in time, Cynda immediately recognizes Prince Dimitri Karakov from the portrait, finding the living man even sexier than the portrait. Her warnings of danger, however, fall on deaf ears when she tries to warn him that he's to die on December 12th. Duty comes before pleasure for Prince Dimitri Karakov, even when it comes to Cynda. He wearies of the husband hunting vixens at the Chesterfield, where he's accompanying his grandmother while she takes in the healing waters. Cynda brings a welcome respite with her forthright, direct speech and lack of flirtatiousness. While she's much too forward for a servant, her intelligence and quick-wittedness makes her irresistible. When his younger brother shows interest in Cynda, Dimitri's unprepared for his overwhelming jealousy. Too bad he's been pledged since birth to a proper woman for a Prince. Readers who enjoyed the previous two installments of this miniseries as well as fans of author Karen Fox's PRINCE OF CHARMING will thrill to this newest offering, GRAND DESIGN. As in PRINCE OF CHARMING, Fox brings her love of painting to GRAND DESIGN, when a portrait wings this heroine back in time. With her characteristic ingenuity, Fox paints a blend of the fantastic and the mundane, bringing enormous passion to her canvas in this portrait of love. Favorite secondary characters of this miniseries seamlessly connect the novel to the other parts of the miniseries, in addition to introducing two willful, strong-minded main characters. A playful, lighthearted read, GRAND DESIGN is perfect reading for an afternoon. Recommended.
Rating:
Summary: a very good book
Review: Well I read this book in one afternoon. I really enjoyed it. I am used to time travel books but most tend to go back to Midevil England or Scotland and go back many hundreds of years. This one goes back to 1887 America. Our heroine is a modern day woman who is cleaning and restorying a portrait of Dimitri Karakov, a Prince who was killed at the Chesterfield, a posh hotel now in ruins. She is strangly drawn to the Chesterfield and the painting. She can actually feel Dimitri's warm skin when she touches it. She is so facinated by the Chesterfield that when she goes there and finds a bent name plate that belongs to the painting she is transported back in time to the Chesterfield of old. She is greeted like they knew she was coming and she ends up meeting Dimitri. He is to be king someday and must fight his growing attraction for her. She is there she believes to save his life and keeps trying to warn him. He also must keep his feelings of jealously hidden. His brother Alexi is quite fond of Cynda and since he is the second son can marry whom he likes. Cynda isfired after Dimitri makes a complaint and he is sorry to have caused her a loss decides to have him paint his portrait, the portrait. They spend many hours at it and become closer and closer. He loves her spirit and her soul and she loves to make him smile and see him at ease. Together they must overcome thier stations in life and unseen dangers to be together. Along the way we encounter others that may have traveled through time as well. This is the third book in the series and I am going to go back and read the first two and then await the fourth.
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