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roxnn2000's review against another edition
5.0
The fourth in the Love at Stake series.
This was a very interesting book to read. I loved every part of it. The characters were so well developed and I could feel the emotions coming off them as if I was really there.
I also loved the surprise that was constantly hinted at during the whole book and finally revealed at the end. Even though it was a little obvious if one is paying attention, it was still good to read.
I love how Jean-Luc (whose name I love by the way) is so honest with his emotions with Heather and she can see right through him. I love also how he grows close to Heather's daughter, Bethany, and live-in sitter, Fidelia. He sees them as a family, and one he so much wants to be a part of. I thought it was beautiful.
So far I have to say that this one is my favorite of the Love at Stake series.
This was a very interesting book to read. I loved every part of it. The characters were so well developed and I could feel the emotions coming off them as if I was really there.
I also loved the surprise that was constantly hinted at during the whole book and finally revealed at the end. Even though it was a little obvious if one is paying attention, it was still good to read.
I love how Jean-Luc (whose name I love by the way) is so honest with his emotions with Heather and she can see right through him. I love also how he grows close to Heather's daughter, Bethany, and live-in sitter, Fidelia. He sees them as a family, and one he so much wants to be a part of. I thought it was beautiful.
So far I have to say that this one is my favorite of the Love at Stake series.
yodamom's review against another edition
2.0
It was the typical HEA read I expect from this series/author filled with humor and lusty bits. it should have been great I love her characters but the voices, ARGUH ! The French vampire had the cheesiest cartoon worthy accent (Pepe le Pew), the Texan woman was so dang terrible think Foghorn Leghorn and you are close.
(I hated hearing her voice) The Scotsmen who were done so well in the previous book by the previous narrator sounds like sickly women. How could I could I enjoy what should have been sexy, scary, smart, interesting, intriguing but was like listening to a 70's cartoon ?
BAH ! I am stuck with this ridiculous French accent in my head. Pepe le Pew go away !
(I hated hearing her voice) The Scotsmen who were done so well in the previous book by the previous narrator sounds like sickly women. How could I could I enjoy what should have been sexy, scary, smart, interesting, intriguing but was like listening to a 70's cartoon ?
BAH ! I am stuck with this ridiculous French accent in my head. Pepe le Pew go away !
mariahistryingtoread's review against another edition
2.0
So far this is the worst one. Each book has gotten progressively more annoying in some way and this definitely follows the trend.
Centered around fashion as Jean Luc is a famous fashion designer and Heather is an amateur designer who left her dreams behind due to her controlling mother, the shaming of the female body is off the charts. Tons of snide remarks implying models are little more than self absorbed bimbos and that 'real' women wouldn't be caught dead doing such frivolous work.
It's all so embarrassingly 2000s. A woman is a woman as long as she identifies as one therefore size is not at all a factor in determining womanhood. It's also wrongfully demonizing the women for feeling obligated to conform to harmful beauty standards instead of society for creating them in the first place. The book has Heather rally against the fatphobic fashion industry in the name of womankind only to in the same breath have her criticize any woman who doesn't fit her narrow view of how a woman should be for something outside of their control.
Women are absolutely not above criticism - these books were written by a woman and I'm clearly not pulling any punches - but if you're going to be critical the criticism needs to have legitimate merit. Individual women deserve denunciation at times too because our decisions are not made in a vacuum, but systemic issues need to be discussed on a broader level to properly address the full breadth of the problem. Blaming one another for trying to forge our way as best as we can within the system is what allows those in charge to continue profiting of us behind the scenes. The women who choose to perpetuate harmful standards so they can get ahead can still be held accountable, but I'm just saying that there is a lot of nuance to this conversation that this book feels totally comfortable ignoring. It adheres strongly to a binary based on 'not like other girls' rhetoric.
Heather is in some nebulous space where she's supposed to be fat but the author clearly doesn't think fat women can actually be attractive. She says she's a size 12. I googled it to see if I could get a proper guage of what she may look like and it's obvious from the descriptions of her that she's closer to the skinnier side of 12.
The body type that Sparks is talking about still includes an hourglass figure. I'm not opposed to telling a story where a woman believes she's fat due to outside factors because it's not uncommon for young women to think they're fat and/or think being fat is a bad thing, but with all of Heather's 'we need clothes for women like me!' talk she needs to actually be fat. Because honestly it seems to me like she's only making clothes for women one size up from the women who she claims to be so distant from. It's especially ridiculous when you think about how erratic women's clothing sizes are in the first place. She's a size 12 in one pair of pants sure, but she could easily be a size 2 in another depending on how they're made.
Also Heather's ideas of clothing for women like her are conservative and uptight. Think high necklines, long skirts and billowing sleeves. Apparently if you're fat you can't wear clothes like skinny women with plunging necklines and mini skirts. This defeats the whole purpose of making clothes for 'women like her' since there are plenty of fat women who want to be and are scantily clad. That's not a size issue, that's a personal hang up projected onto all women. If you don't want to wear halter tops don't do it, but don't say all fat women don't want to or worse, imply they shouldn't, as that is patently not true.
Lots of romanticization of small towns. Small towns can be cute but don't act like they aren't hot beds for small minded ideology as evidenced by the sheriff - Heather's high school bf - coming over to her house several times just to throw his weight around and facing no consequences because he's the highest authority around for miles.
Heather has an abusive ex husband and a four year old child which was an interesting change up from the single, mostly unattached ladies of previous novels. Unfortunately, the abuse is merely a device.
So her ex Cody is controlling and verbally abusive. He sees his daughter like every other weekend or something like that. Yet, Heather never has any reservations about this? It can be really difficult to win full custody especially in a small town and if the other person is abusive without any proof. Heck, with proof it's astronomically difficult, the proof just means you might stand a chance at primary custody.
There is never any mention of her trying to gain full custody or fear of what he may do to her daughter or say around her daughter. There is no way a man so virulently misogynistic and needlessly nasty is not projecting his abhorrent beliefs onto his very young girl child. Heather has no concerns about this whatsoever.
Sparks and by extension Heather seems to think that abuse can be compartmentalized. Abuse can be directed at one person specifically - look at the golden child/scapegoat dynamic - however that still impacts both people negatively regardless of one or more people technically being treated 'better'. For arguments sake let's say abuse can be limited in this manner. Him being a bigoted, overbearing creep is still reason enough that any good parent would be worried about his influence on their kid.
The only reason Cody's abusive at all is so Heather can prove how strong she is for leaving him - the long term effects of abuse are not taken into consideration at all.
More of the vampires not taking full advantage of previously introduced plot points. I'll dig deeper into this next book because that is where it's the most egregious.
As for now this book ignores the existence of nightshade as a paralyzing agent, compulsion is used for a cheap joke when it could have been used to stop a man from being abusive, and Roman seems to have totally abandoned the stay awake drink because it ages a vampire for a year each day they take it when he could have simply kept working at it to make it not do that instead.
I'm not sure why I'm still at this. I mean, I do feel validated in my moral superiority which is nice I suppose. Then again, Phineas is getting a book in the future and I am dreading the deconstruction of the microaggressions if not outright racism I know I'm going to have to do.
I'm two books ahead at the time I'm posting this review so clearly there's no hope for me. Wish me luck.
Centered around fashion as Jean Luc is a famous fashion designer and Heather is an amateur designer who left her dreams behind due to her controlling mother, the shaming of the female body is off the charts. Tons of snide remarks implying models are little more than self absorbed bimbos and that 'real' women wouldn't be caught dead doing such frivolous work.
It's all so embarrassingly 2000s. A woman is a woman as long as she identifies as one therefore size is not at all a factor in determining womanhood. It's also wrongfully demonizing the women for feeling obligated to conform to harmful beauty standards instead of society for creating them in the first place. The book has Heather rally against the fatphobic fashion industry in the name of womankind only to in the same breath have her criticize any woman who doesn't fit her narrow view of how a woman should be for something outside of their control.
Women are absolutely not above criticism - these books were written by a woman and I'm clearly not pulling any punches - but if you're going to be critical the criticism needs to have legitimate merit. Individual women deserve denunciation at times too because our decisions are not made in a vacuum, but systemic issues need to be discussed on a broader level to properly address the full breadth of the problem. Blaming one another for trying to forge our way as best as we can within the system is what allows those in charge to continue profiting of us behind the scenes. The women who choose to perpetuate harmful standards so they can get ahead can still be held accountable, but I'm just saying that there is a lot of nuance to this conversation that this book feels totally comfortable ignoring. It adheres strongly to a binary based on 'not like other girls' rhetoric.
Heather is in some nebulous space where she's supposed to be fat but the author clearly doesn't think fat women can actually be attractive. She says she's a size 12. I googled it to see if I could get a proper guage of what she may look like and it's obvious from the descriptions of her that she's closer to the skinnier side of 12.
The body type that Sparks is talking about still includes an hourglass figure. I'm not opposed to telling a story where a woman believes she's fat due to outside factors because it's not uncommon for young women to think they're fat and/or think being fat is a bad thing, but with all of Heather's 'we need clothes for women like me!' talk she needs to actually be fat. Because honestly it seems to me like she's only making clothes for women one size up from the women who she claims to be so distant from. It's especially ridiculous when you think about how erratic women's clothing sizes are in the first place. She's a size 12 in one pair of pants sure, but she could easily be a size 2 in another depending on how they're made.
Also Heather's ideas of clothing for women like her are conservative and uptight. Think high necklines, long skirts and billowing sleeves. Apparently if you're fat you can't wear clothes like skinny women with plunging necklines and mini skirts. This defeats the whole purpose of making clothes for 'women like her' since there are plenty of fat women who want to be and are scantily clad. That's not a size issue, that's a personal hang up projected onto all women. If you don't want to wear halter tops don't do it, but don't say all fat women don't want to or worse, imply they shouldn't, as that is patently not true.
Lots of romanticization of small towns. Small towns can be cute but don't act like they aren't hot beds for small minded ideology as evidenced by the sheriff - Heather's high school bf - coming over to her house several times just to throw his weight around and facing no consequences because he's the highest authority around for miles.
Heather has an abusive ex husband and a four year old child which was an interesting change up from the single, mostly unattached ladies of previous novels. Unfortunately, the abuse is merely a device.
So her ex Cody is controlling and verbally abusive. He sees his daughter like every other weekend or something like that. Yet, Heather never has any reservations about this? It can be really difficult to win full custody especially in a small town and if the other person is abusive without any proof. Heck, with proof it's astronomically difficult, the proof just means you might stand a chance at primary custody.
There is never any mention of her trying to gain full custody or fear of what he may do to her daughter or say around her daughter. There is no way a man so virulently misogynistic and needlessly nasty is not projecting his abhorrent beliefs onto his very young girl child. Heather has no concerns about this whatsoever.
Sparks and by extension Heather seems to think that abuse can be compartmentalized. Abuse can be directed at one person specifically - look at the golden child/scapegoat dynamic - however that still impacts both people negatively regardless of one or more people technically being treated 'better'. For arguments sake let's say abuse can be limited in this manner. Him being a bigoted, overbearing creep is still reason enough that any good parent would be worried about his influence on their kid.
The only reason Cody's abusive at all is so Heather can prove how strong she is for leaving him - the long term effects of abuse are not taken into consideration at all.
More of the vampires not taking full advantage of previously introduced plot points. I'll dig deeper into this next book because that is where it's the most egregious.
As for now this book ignores the existence of nightshade as a paralyzing agent, compulsion is used for a cheap joke when it could have been used to stop a man from being abusive, and Roman seems to have totally abandoned the stay awake drink because it ages a vampire for a year each day they take it when he could have simply kept working at it to make it not do that instead.
I'm not sure why I'm still at this. I mean, I do feel validated in my moral superiority which is nice I suppose. Then again, Phineas is getting a book in the future and I am dreading the deconstruction of the microaggressions if not outright racism I know I'm going to have to do.
I'm two books ahead at the time I'm posting this review so clearly there's no hope for me. Wish me luck.
cheesygiraffe's review against another edition
3.0
Oh la la! A French vampire in Texas. Jean Luc is the sexiest of the Coven vampires in my opinion. And Heather is one lucky gal.
vikingwolf's review against another edition
3.0
Heather attends a fashion store opening in her small Texas town.She meets Jean-Luc, designer( and vampire),who offers her some work.Suddenly they are attacked by his enemy Lui who informs him that he will kill Heather next.Now Jean-Luc and his vampire friends have to save Heather,her daughter and friend from the evil vampire who likes to kill women that Jean-Luc cares about. Despite the danger,Jean-Luc and Heather start to fall in love and he knows he must confess that he and his friends are vampires.Will she still love him knowing he is a monster?Will they survive long enough to have a future together?
This was a good book-sexy vampires,men in kilts,good human characters,a different plot from most books I've read,and there is a good mix of humour(I'm a cockroach!),action and tension.I very much enjoyed this book and will be reading more by this author.Perfect for those who like some vampire romance but even if you don't,there is still plenty in this book to keep you interested.
This was a good book-sexy vampires,men in kilts,good human characters,a different plot from most books I've read,and there is a good mix of humour(I'm a cockroach!),action and tension.I very much enjoyed this book and will be reading more by this author.Perfect for those who like some vampire romance but even if you don't,there is still plenty in this book to keep you interested.