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romantically_swept_away's review
3.0
*all of my reviews contain possible spoilers*
**NOTE: This review is written using my old process. Which is just me chatting about the book. All new reviews starting in 2022 will be written with my easy to read, easy to understand, review layout!
This is the first Valerie King book I've ever read. The first "category" historical romance I've ever read. (Though I own many.) And this is the first Halloween historical romance I've read. Since it's October I thought, "Why not give it a go!?"
Was I disappointed? No, not entirely. But neither was I in love with this. It was overall an ok story. Definitely a neat one if you enjoy Greek mythology, and are looking for a Halloween themed romance, and something quick to read. At only 320 pages it is close to the size of a "category" romance.
The synopsis led me to believe this had ghosts in it. But what I expected to be ghosts turned out to be characters from Greek mythology. Gods and Goddesses, immortals and half-immortals.
We have Anteros who is Cupid's brother. Dealing with jealousy and embittered feelings towards his brother. Even for their mother as well, for seemingly treating Eros(Cupid) better than Anteros, and favoriting Cupid over Anteros. He has strong feelings of aloneness and being unloved. And is also dealing with the pain of being in love with Eros's wife Psyche. All of these emotions and feelings have caused him to become an extremely desolate and angered man. Intent on causing pain to everyone else and finding his own type of revenge along the way. Anteros is the god of unrequited love. So, as said in the book, it's rather ironic that he loves someone who does not and cannot return his affections. I actually found myself very interested in his character more than any other character in this book.
Years ago, Anteros and his mother Aphrodite plotted to get rid of Psyche once and for all, (Aphrodite in the past had already played many tricks on her to try and get rid of her) but they decided to let some time pass and first trick Psyche into believing they were finally accepting of her marriage with Cupid first. To build their trust with her essentially. (Aphrodite never approved of Cupid's choice of wife and never liked her.) Finally the time came to enact their plot. Anteros essentially felt that if he couldn't have Psyche then noone could. She ends up on earth and has only so many days to make sure Alexandra and Launceston are in love and engaged, and then she has to be at the portal to Olympus by midnight on All Hallow's Eve. If she misses her chance to go through the portal at the appointed time, she will never be able to return to Olympus and will remain on earth as a mortal and eventually die.
If you couldn't tell, there was ALOT of detail put into this aspect of the story. Which was a wholly unexpected aspect for me, going by the synopsis.
I have thus learned that this is the second book in a series of 2. The first book is actually about Alexandra's parents. Whom Psyche had also helped to fall in love and be together in their book. Which was not surprising given that there were quite a few moments between her parents in this one, and little snippets of past events and past characters. This alone told me that there was a chance that there was at least one previous book before this. But since it was about her parents, I wasn't sure. Not until I finished the book and came to Goodreads! That's when I saw the first book which is titled Captivated Hearts. And the synopsis for that book is in no way misleading like this one. It mentions both Psyche and Cupid. Will I read it one day? Maybe? But there's a high probability that I won't. Simply because this wasn't a great read for me. Not in a sense that I fully enjoyed it and loved it, enough to invest in the other one.
It wasn't bad, and it was enjoyable at parts. There were times when I really got into a specific scene, moments when I laughed out loud, etc. But none too many to endear me to it very much. But enough to say that it was a decent read.
I truly did enjoy the characters in this, enough so that I felt like this could've been a really amazing novel/series if there had been more to the story. If the book had simply been longer. The first 70 or so pages dragged quite a bit. With lots of unrequired details that had no real impact or bearing on the story. I almost considered putting it down during this time and moving on to another book. But I'm glad that I didn't! Not that it turned out to be an amazing read, but it definitely got better! And it was written well enough that it managed to keep my interest.
It had the knack for dragging out unrequired details randomly in the book, which I felt could've been used to better build characters and their relationships and tell the story. Like all of the descriptions we get while they are at Mylor Grampound's home, for an example.
I think Valerie included so many details & descriptions because this book in many ways didn't focus mainly on one couple. We got lots of page time on Cupid, Anteros, Psyche, Aphrodite, and other Olympus residents, possibly more so than the main characters even! As well as several moments between Alexandra's father and mother. And even a bit of side story with her 2 sisters and a little with Mylor Grampound. Most of this felt unnecessary due to how short the book was. (Most of it, mind you some of it would have been just fine.)
So to me it felt like this detracted from the romance between the two main characters. Enough that even though romance was the focal point, it still felt a little lacking in that regard. It felt like there were actually multiple main characters and that we were getting all sorts of side stories. So much so that it needed to be a full novel at the least, and at the most a series.
For such a short book, that was intended as a romance, I felt like there was just too much thrown in. Even though the story came off well and things seemed to progress in a decent manner. It never felt too rushed, most of the time anyways. And that's a credit to the author. It may have needed way less things in it, but even so it was well-done.
I'd say if you're looking for a light fun seasonal read, you'd really enjoy this. And also if you're into Greek mythology.
If your main focus is romance, you may not enjoy it quite as much. And if you require some steam in your romances, you definitely won't get that here! There are only a handful of embraces between the characters, usually including some kissing, but that's it. There's not a single mention or scene of anything sexual taking place at all. No intimate touching either. But it doesn't come off as if the author is writing a clean romance, because they do embrace in a manner that shows desire. Those more intimate moments just aren't included. And no, they do not happen behind closed doors either. They simply do not take place during this book at all. Their embraces and interactions were just like any other histrom I might've been reading, they just didn't proceed to anything too intimate. (All that fun stuff I guess happens later after they're wed. After the book is over.
**NOTE: This review is written using my old process. Which is just me chatting about the book. All new reviews starting in 2022 will be written with my easy to read, easy to understand, review layout!
This is the first Valerie King book I've ever read. The first "category" historical romance I've ever read. (Though I own many.) And this is the first Halloween historical romance I've read. Since it's October I thought, "Why not give it a go!?"
Was I disappointed? No, not entirely. But neither was I in love with this. It was overall an ok story. Definitely a neat one if you enjoy Greek mythology, and are looking for a Halloween themed romance, and something quick to read. At only 320 pages it is close to the size of a "category" romance.
The synopsis led me to believe this had ghosts in it. But what I expected to be ghosts turned out to be characters from Greek mythology. Gods and Goddesses, immortals and half-immortals.
We have Anteros who is Cupid's brother. Dealing with jealousy and embittered feelings towards his brother. Even for their mother as well, for seemingly treating Eros(Cupid) better than Anteros, and favoriting Cupid over Anteros. He has strong feelings of aloneness and being unloved. And is also dealing with the pain of being in love with Eros's wife Psyche. All of these emotions and feelings have caused him to become an extremely desolate and angered man. Intent on causing pain to everyone else and finding his own type of revenge along the way. Anteros is the god of unrequited love. So, as said in the book, it's rather ironic that he loves someone who does not and cannot return his affections. I actually found myself very interested in his character more than any other character in this book.
Years ago, Anteros and his mother Aphrodite plotted to get rid of Psyche once and for all, (Aphrodite in the past had already played many tricks on her to try and get rid of her) but they decided to let some time pass and first trick Psyche into believing they were finally accepting of her marriage with Cupid first. To build their trust with her essentially. (Aphrodite never approved of Cupid's choice of wife and never liked her.) Finally the time came to enact their plot. Anteros essentially felt that if he couldn't have Psyche then noone could. She ends up on earth and has only so many days to make sure Alexandra and Launceston are in love and engaged, and then she has to be at the portal to Olympus by midnight on All Hallow's Eve. If she misses her chance to go through the portal at the appointed time, she will never be able to return to Olympus and will remain on earth as a mortal and eventually die.
If you couldn't tell, there was ALOT of detail put into this aspect of the story. Which was a wholly unexpected aspect for me, going by the synopsis.
I have thus learned that this is the second book in a series of 2. The first book is actually about Alexandra's parents. Whom Psyche had also helped to fall in love and be together in their book. Which was not surprising given that there were quite a few moments between her parents in this one, and little snippets of past events and past characters. This alone told me that there was a chance that there was at least one previous book before this. But since it was about her parents, I wasn't sure. Not until I finished the book and came to Goodreads! That's when I saw the first book which is titled Captivated Hearts. And the synopsis for that book is in no way misleading like this one. It mentions both Psyche and Cupid. Will I read it one day? Maybe? But there's a high probability that I won't. Simply because this wasn't a great read for me. Not in a sense that I fully enjoyed it and loved it, enough to invest in the other one.
It wasn't bad, and it was enjoyable at parts. There were times when I really got into a specific scene, moments when I laughed out loud, etc. But none too many to endear me to it very much. But enough to say that it was a decent read.
I truly did enjoy the characters in this, enough so that I felt like this could've been a really amazing novel/series if there had been more to the story. If the book had simply been longer. The first 70 or so pages dragged quite a bit. With lots of unrequired details that had no real impact or bearing on the story. I almost considered putting it down during this time and moving on to another book. But I'm glad that I didn't! Not that it turned out to be an amazing read, but it definitely got better! And it was written well enough that it managed to keep my interest.
It had the knack for dragging out unrequired details randomly in the book, which I felt could've been used to better build characters and their relationships and tell the story. Like all of the descriptions we get while they are at Mylor Grampound's home, for an example.
I think Valerie included so many details & descriptions because this book in many ways didn't focus mainly on one couple. We got lots of page time on Cupid, Anteros, Psyche, Aphrodite, and other Olympus residents, possibly more so than the main characters even! As well as several moments between Alexandra's father and mother. And even a bit of side story with her 2 sisters and a little with Mylor Grampound. Most of this felt unnecessary due to how short the book was. (Most of it, mind you some of it would have been just fine.)
So to me it felt like this detracted from the romance between the two main characters. Enough that even though romance was the focal point, it still felt a little lacking in that regard. It felt like there were actually multiple main characters and that we were getting all sorts of side stories. So much so that it needed to be a full novel at the least, and at the most a series.
For such a short book, that was intended as a romance, I felt like there was just too much thrown in. Even though the story came off well and things seemed to progress in a decent manner. It never felt too rushed, most of the time anyways. And that's a credit to the author. It may have needed way less things in it, but even so it was well-done.
I'd say if you're looking for a light fun seasonal read, you'd really enjoy this. And also if you're into Greek mythology.
If your main focus is romance, you may not enjoy it quite as much. And if you require some steam in your romances, you definitely won't get that here! There are only a handful of embraces between the characters, usually including some kissing, but that's it. There's not a single mention or scene of anything sexual taking place at all. No intimate touching either. But it doesn't come off as if the author is writing a clean romance, because they do embrace in a manner that shows desire. Those more intimate moments just aren't included. And no, they do not happen behind closed doors either. They simply do not take place during this book at all. Their embraces and interactions were just like any other histrom I might've been reading, they just didn't proceed to anything too intimate. (All that fun stuff I guess happens later after they're wed. After the book is over.
prationality's review
2.0
I honestly thought I had read this in my youth, as Valerie King was a Regency Romance name I trusted, but if I had I blocked it out (and 1838 is pushing it for the Regency time period, since it ended more like in 1820).
While Alexandra resembles me in some ways, she decidedly does NOT in others. Additionally the split plot meant the entire backcover felt like a different book.
While Alexandra resembles me in some ways, she decidedly does NOT in others. Additionally the split plot meant the entire backcover felt like a different book.
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