Reviews

Beyond Compare by Candace Camp

fringebookreviews's review against another edition

2.0

This one didn’t age well oof the story was fine but there wasn’t much at all to the romance. And frankly he was just too close to a confederate to ever root for him.

andipants's review against another edition

3.0

This one wasn't bad, although it felt weaker than the other two I've read so far in the series (1 and 3). The supernatural elements were so subtle and vague as to be essentially useless to the plot -- the one concrete detail Kyria gets from her dreams is

Spoiler

the symbol of Inanna

, and even that doesn't move them any closer to solving the mystery. In fact, they make no meaningful progress on the case at all until the answer drops itself into their laps at the climax, which is a bit of a pet peeve of mine.

I also felt like the romantic plot got a bit short shrifted. While the main characters were busy running around chasing useless clues, the romance seemed to be just taken for granted. There was no stupid, manufactured conflict-for-conflict's-sake, which I appreciated, but on the other hand, romance-wise, there wasn't really a conflict at all. I could deal with the mystery being half-hearted if the romance was great, or vice-versa, but really, neither plotline here rose much above "meh".

I did like Kyria as a character very much, and the dialogue in places made me actually laugh. Con and Alex are a little over the top as a walking mischievous-twins stereotype, but I found them cute. I also appreciated the curmudgeonly relatives; they were clearly only there for comedic relief, and I don't care because it worked. So while it wasn't the greatest romance I've ever read, one could certainly do worse.

bettybumpkins's review against another edition

lighthearted mysterious

2.5

I liked Kyria and Rafe, but the plot was a bit confusing and the ending felt rushed.  

Also, what was with all the armed intruders and kidnappings?  You would think they had some form of security on staff putting up a resistance.  

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Kidnapping and Racism

thebookcoyote's review against another edition

2.0

This is a terribly stupid book. Anachronistic, poorly written, boring, with poorly written dialogue, this book is more of a mystery than a romance. The characters are not in the least developed, with all the time going to working out the stupid mystery. I hate mysteries, and I don't buy romances because to read them. And it would have been nice to have more than five pages dedicated to the romance. We don't see them fall in love at all, we just see them chasing this stupid relic around. Argh! Did not like this book!

ssejig's review

3.0

I loved listening to the first book in this series and immediately ordered the rest of the series through PaperBackSwap.com. I'm not sure if it was the fact that I didn't like it as much because it wasn't audio or if this book was just harder to connect to but it took me a LONG time to finish this book.
Kyria Moreland is incredibly beautiful but still unmarried. Rafe McIntyre is a friend of her sister's husband. American and incredibly attractive, Kyria is intrigued. She gets to spend more time with him when a mysterious box is sent to her family's house and the courier dies practically on the doorstep. His last words? Kyrie.
Bullets, knife fights, and kidnapping ensue. But it does go on a little bit long with not as much movement in the romance as there is in the mystery.

leenyx's review

1.0

I tried to ignore the casual racism of this book, and how boring I found it, but when it both sides THE CIVIL WAR I'm out. There's no justifiable excuse for fighting to own human beings. No matter the North's problems, you don't get to position the South as tragic, misunderstood folk heroes.

kittyfoil's review

2.0

Under normal circumstances this book would get three stars from me, which I consider a neutral rating. Historical romance is my guilty pleasure, and I would read a book, rate it three stars, and never think about it again. I don't normally review them, but this book did something that irked me. It features the main characters running around London trying to figure out why everybody wants a near eastern religious artifact. It has supernatural elements, but they aren't pronounced enough to be considered a paranormal romance. This is the Victorian era, and the hero is from the American South. Did you catch that? I haven't read the first book, so when they mentioned he fought in the war, I was like which war? The war of 1812? The Mexican-American war? But no, they are talking about the Civil War, and this is the part that really, really annoyed me because this book mischaracterizes the Civil War to justify falling in love with a man from the American South. Most people know that the Civil War was fought over slavery. As in the Confederacy fought to keep the institution of slavery. This does not mean that Union fought to abolish slavery. The Union fought for nationalism, to preserve the Union. Most white people in the North were apathetic about the issue of slavery, unless they were abolitionists. Freeing the slaves was incidental. The Emancipation Proclamation explicitly "freed" slaves that were in the territory of the Confederate States, which means that when it was issued no slaves in those territories were actually free. The issue of slavery is brought up in the clumsiest way, where the protagonist asks her love interest if he owned slaves. The protagonist's parents are very progressive, which, ok. He acts really offended about this, because as it turns out he turned his back on his family to fight for the Union because owning slaves is wrong. The two protagonists bond over this, and this is part of the reason why the love story is so weak. This would ring true if he was specifically depicted as, like, an abolitionist, which if that is the case why is he still in London? The cause isn't over just because the 13th amendment was passed. The author clearly included this to reassure the white reader that even though slavery is very much a thing, that he isn't a bad guy. My advice, as a black reader, would be to not touch this issue with a 40 ft pole if this is how you are going to handle it. It wasn't necessary. We know from his actions in the book he is a good guy. Fighting for the Union doesn't make him any less complicit in the institution of slavery and racialized subjugation than the female protagonist is complicit in colonialist imperialism whenever she drinks tea. Why wasn't his struggle with PTSD or something to that effect? Tl:DR this book was trying to be woke, but it just called attention to how hard we were trying not to be racist.