Happily Ever After (An Avon Romantic Treasure)

Rating:
Summary: Tanya Anne Crosby writes another winner!
Review: I loved this book, was kind of skeptical of it - from the plot outline & the back cover. It turned out to be great though! I loved Sophie, she was the perfect heroine. A little insecure, afraid and unsure of things around herself after being brought up as a 'perfect' lady. But she was also very brave & strong when it needed to be. This book struck a chord with me because I like Sophie hate trying to live my life perfectly as people or society see it and just want to do something for myself - follow my passion. Jack was also a great character, he was an archeologist and thankfully he wasn't puffed up into being a stereotypical super-strong hero, since that would be too unrealistic. Their erotic scenes were just completely sizzling! And the plot was very interesting and unique. I've read most of Tanya Anne Crosby's book and I just love them all. This is another one I have to add to my growing lists of favorites. Also recommended are "Once Upon A Kiss" and "The MacKinnon's Bride".

Rating:
Summary: Happily Ever After
Review: I loved this book, was kind of skeptical of it - from the plot outline & the back cover. It turned out to be great though! I loved Sophie, she was the perfect heroine. A little insecure, afraid and unsure of things around herself after being brought up as a 'perfect' lady. But she was also very brave & strong when it needed to be. This book struck a chord with me because I like Sophie hate trying to live my life perfectly as people or society see it and just want to do something for myself - follow my passion. Jack was also a great character, he was an archeologist and thankfully he wasn't puffed up into being a stereotypical super-strong hero, since that would be too unrealistic. Their erotic scenes were just completely sizzling! And the plot was very interesting and unique. I've read most of Tanya Anne Crosby's book and I just love them all. This is another one I have to add to my growing lists of favorites. Also recommended are "Once Upon A Kiss" and "The MacKinnon's Bride".

Rating:
Summary: A wonderful romp
Review: I've never read a Tanya Anne Crosby book before but after this one, I definitely will read others. I found the book as a whole quite fun with a delightful hero and heroine. I always enjoy a hero who is more than the stereotypical brooding he-man with too much brawn and misery for the author to bother to make him charming or likable. Jack is likable. Though he has moods he isn't some relentlessly dark and brooding male.

Jack is a turn of the century anthropologist trying to debunk late Victorian academic fashion (and truthfully a rather racist belief) that Mayan and Aztec societies would have had to have been founded on Western cultures believing that "native" cultures would be too backward to develop so extensively on their own.

Sophie is a woman bounded by the era within which she lives. While she dreams of adventure and higher education, she was raised to be nothing more that a decorative wife and mother whose intellect and ambitions not only need not be taken seriously but are not expected to exist at all. When Sophia discovers her philandering fiance (Jack's rival in research)is simply using her and her father for grant money for his so-called "research expedition," Sophie is suddenly liberated and off on an adventure (and a little revenge since she is determined to dump her fiance in person. . .even if it means venturing to Belize to do so).

I found Jack to be likable, believable, and charming, and I liked Sophie. While I can quibble that I would have preferred more development on Jack's past, his theories, and his history with Sophie's ex-fiance not to mention an explanation for Sophie's seeming blind spot near the end when she cannot understand why Jack is upset about her upcoming reunion of her fiance (the author never gave what I thought was a reasonable explanation for an otherwise bright heroine to be so inexplicably unobservant) the book as a whole still worked for me.

I always find it preferable when you can imagine the characters liking each other as well as falling in love with each other, and Sophie and Jack seem to have that aspect to their romance. They could easily be friends, and with their shared intersts it's possible to envision a "happily ever after" for the two of them.

I thought the book was quite enjoyable as a whole.

Rating:
Summary: Happily Ever After
Review: Not much to say in regards to this book except that it contained many unhappy characters. The unhappiest character was the hero, wohm was depressed and cynical. Jack MacAuley, the supposedly hero, was a botanist/scientist whom had submitted his research findings and theories to a wealthy philanthropist by the name of Vanderwah, with dreams of receiving a reserach grant from Vanderwahl's board of directors. However, Jack's theoretical research had been stolen and submitted by his partner, H.H. Penn IIII, whom received the grant to travel to Mexico. Penn also decided to become engaged to Vanderwahl's daughter, the beautiful but insecure and sometimes foolish, Sophia.

When Sophia was made aware of her fiance's fiasco's while wasting her father's money, she decided to travel to Mexico and personally break their engagement. (What a waste of time and money - when she could have asked her father to immediately stop funding the project and send a letter - beter yet, a telegram, notifying him of the broken engagement). Sophia hired Jack MacAuley for transportation and as a guide. The rest is left up to your imagination. Sophia and Jack fell in love within one week while traveling to Mexico on his 'piece of a junk' ship.

I could not connect with either the hero or heroine and felt that both were unsuited for each other. Jack was strong and of course being a captain exhibited leadership qualities, however, he viewed Sophia about as inept as a toddler. He wasn't overbearing with Sophia but he also wasn't very protective, leaving her to natural elements of the sea after she unwittingly put a whole in the room of her room. I just could not picture these two people living happily ever after, digging up fossils in Mexico and South America. But you read it to judge yourself!

Rating:
Summary: Give me a strong hero.....
Review: Sophia needs Jack to help her find her cheating fiancee, Harlan. After Sophia reads a revealing letter Harlan has sent to a friend, she realizes she's being used for her father's money. After much persuasion, and an offer of money from Sophia; Jack says yes. And, Sophia joins Jack on his ship. And, I believe that's the plot of this silly book.

Oh yes, there's the usual adventures on board the ship...Sophia and Jack spying on each other, Sophia learning to cook, Sophia wearing pants. And of course, Jack's whole crew loves her!

Love scenes are weak and one-sided. One gets to envision Sophia's beauteous charms...her "smooth thighs", "soft dark curls,"beautiful little bottom," But what of Jack? All a reader knows about him is that he's handsome, the ship's captain etc. In the love scenes, he's an observer, a server, almost non-sexual.

Besides being too light and silly a book, it's too much about Sophia. And maybe Jack could have been a good hero, a sexual man, a strong presence. But, not in this book. I didn't care if these two people lived "Happily Ever After".

Rating:
Summary: How to abuse the term "happily ever after"...
Review: Sophia Vanderwahl is the beautiful yet empty-headed heroine of this novel, who, after discovering her fiance's philandering tendencies, concocts an ill-thought out plan to confront him with the aid of an adventurer she doesn't know, one Jack MacAuley. And that is just about the sum of this puerile plotline.

Sophie manages to irritate the reader throughout the novel with her foolish behaviour, which the authour tries unsuccessfully to convince us is for the sole purpose of the heroine freeing herself from the societal strictures imposed upon her. She also has a propensity for causing stupid accidents - the scene where she manages to fire the ship's cannon into the air only to land safely by going through her stacked chests of clothes stretches the limits of credulity.

Jack MacAuley's words to her early on sum up her character succinctly when he tells her "you're a spoiled rotton brat used to getting your own damned way", yet this promising sign of intelligence from him quickly fades as physical desire becomes synonymous with love in his head. However, to be fair to a hero who is not given much of an opportunity to develop in this story, his mental faculties would certainly be called into question if he came to desire her intellect, or more accurately, lack of, as well as her physical form.

If you must read this novel, do yourself a favour, borrow it from the library, and imagine a more fitting ending, one which includes a plank-walking scene, perhaps...

Rating:
Summary: Happily Ever After
Review: This is a delightful seafaring romp featuring a refreshingly non-wimpy heroine and a gruffy but good-natured hero. The relationship between the hero and heroine is well-done, with just the right blend of passion and laughter.

Indeed, while Sophia's bungling around the "Miss Deed" may be a bit hard to swallow, she makes up for it with a healthy dose of spunkiness and fire. And Jack is an intelligent and kind man despite his bluster.

When I finish this book with a big smile, why, yes, I'd call this a keeper. Jack and Sophia are indeed two of the funniest and well, perfect romantic leads I've ever read. It is easy to believe a happily ever after for them.

One thing though: the cover depicts a nice garden scene. The closest thing to a garden in this book is the Yukatan forest. What is the art department thinking?

Rating:
Summary: Nice to know there are Happily Ever Afters
Review: While I have enjoyed most of her books, Ms. Crosby scored a hit with me with 'Happily Ever After.' The author has drawn her romantic pair as warm, funny and, well... just plain sweet. Jack, the hero, was a NICE hunk and Sophie was a beautiful woman (who didn't know she was lovely) coming into her own. I really thought it was a nice touch at the end of the book to have Sophie writing her parents with her recipe for happiness. If you want a really enjoyable read that will make you laugh and make you cry(and not because it is sad), don't overlook this book. It's well worth the time.