Showing posts with label Lynsay Sands. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lynsay Sands. Show all posts

Monday, September 28, 2009

The Rogue Hunter - Lynsay Sands

I'll state outright that I'm a sucker for anything Sands. I've read all her Argeneau books and I love her historicals. I really enjoy the humor in her books. They never fail to entertain. I know some people get caught up in the fact that she uses some modern language in her historicals, but I get a kick out of it.

The Rogue Hunter is about Garrett Mortimer, an enforcer for the Council. He's the immortal equivalent of a cop. He's been sent up to cottage country searching for a rogue immortal who's been biting people instead of bag lunchin' it like they're supposed to. Samantha Willan is on a much needed vacation with her sisters and ends up in the cabin right next door. She's an overworked lawyer recovering from a recent relationship disaster and definitely not looking for a man. Garrett suspects she might be his life mate and is less than thrilled. He's looking for a knock out with voluptuous curves, think Jessica Rabbit, and Sam is too skinny, flat-chested, narrow hipped and chronically clumsy to fit his bill. Between Garrett's partners, who think he's lucky to have found his life mate and Sam's sisters, who think she needs a vacation fling, Sam and Garrett keep getting thrown together.

This wasn't my favorite Sands book. It might actually be my least favorite. It just wasn't on par with the Argeneau series. The mystery just wasn't that interesting and pretty easy to figure out, which, depending on how good the rest of the story is, might or might not be a deal breaker for me. In this book I found it annoying. I both liked and disliked the main characters. I found Sam more annoying as the book went on. Her personally just seemed to grate on me. Mortimer seemed just a bit too uptight at times and it bugged me that he was so stuck on the superficial things he wasn't happy about in his life mate. It's his life mate for crying out loud! Some vampires never get that, but he's too busy complaining to himself about her looks to be happy about it. GAH! Also, the dialog wasn't as funny as I've come to expect from this author.

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Love is Blind

Author: Lynsay Sands

(Re-posted from my old blogger)

Lady Clarissa Cambray is near sighted and blind as a bat without her glasses. So what does her "helpful" stepmother do? Basically tells her that "Guys don't make passes at girls who wear glasses." and when Clarissa insists on wearing them stepmommy dearest breaks them. She then sets Clarissa loose on the ton where she repeatedly causes disasters, like dropping food on herself, tripping, stomping on toes, mistaking people's laps for tables and burning their "piffles" with hot tea, and then she sets one suitor's wig on fire. This leads to stepmommy making her sit and do absolutely nothing during parties. She's miserable, she's bored and she's very aware that the ton laughs at her and calls her Clumsy Clarissa behind their fans. She doesn't know that they think she won't wear glasses for the sake of vanity.

Enter the Earl of Mowbray. Adrian Montfort, once thought one of the handsomest men of the ton and quite the rakehell, returned from the war a then years ago with a scar down the side of his face that had the young ladies swooning to prove their delicacy. That and a run in with one twisted lady, who pretended to like him when she just wanted to bed a freak, had our hero rusticating for a decade. Now he's back in town and still feeling the freak. His cousin, having been a victim of one of Clarissa's nearsighted accidents, warns him to steer clear, but Adrian is intrigued. The though of spending some time with a woman who might not cringe at the prospect of talking to him, much less dancing, holds a lot of appeal. He soon finds himself laughing and smiling more in a few minutes with Clarissa than he has in the last ten years. They both know right off that they'd like to spend more time together, but, of course, stepmom doesn't want them to get together. Adrian, not being someone to let something he wants slip away, enlists his family to help sneak her out to meet him. They're only too happy to do it since Adrian seems so happy and hopeful.

Some strange "accidents" have been happening to Clarissa and after finding her floating face down in a fountain with a bump on her head, having been lured out to the garden by a false note, Adrian suspects someone is trying to kill her. He waits outside her window so he can sneak in and talk to her about these accidents, but once he's in her bedroom, things take a turn for the naughty. When a fire breaks out right outside Clarissa's bedroom, Adrian gets her out the second story window and down to the ground, where the servants find them in less than perfectly clothed condition. Adrian asks for her hand and wedding plans are under way. There's just a few of things bothering our couple. Adrian is afraid that when she gets her glasses back she'll be disgusted by the sight of him and hate him. He's also worried about who might be trying to kill his wife-to-be. Clarissa is afraid that when he sees her with her glasses he'll think her ugly and she'll lose any chance that he might love her.

I'll come out right up front and state that I have a weakness for Lynsay Sands. It's just something about the way she writes her heroines. They're not what most people would consider perfect, but they end up being just that for our heroes. I know that her historicals have modern language in them and it tends to catch your eye when you're reading, but for some reason, it doesn't really bother me. I know the plot isn't spectacularly original, but I still found it enjoyable. The writing was definitely there and I really wanted Adrian to be happy at the ending of it all. I really liked his character. It was nice to see a hero who wasn't all alpha and swashbucklish. I'm a sucker for a hero who doesn't know what a great catch he is and is a bit insecure in his wooing. I see the alpha type much more often, so this type of her is a bit of a treat for me. I think Clarissa level of insecurity about her glasses was a bit overdone. I mean she was afraid the guy would suddenly think her ugly and not the least bit lovable because of a pair of glasses. If he's so shallow that a removable pair of glasses turns him off you permanently, then he is not a man you want to marry. I mean, if the glasses put him off that badly, what'll happen when she gains ten or fifteen pound? What about her body after she's had a kid or two? Know what I'm saying?