Reviews

Un amour interdit by Alyssa Cole

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val_books_of_leisure's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

mrsdoubtflyer's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Didn’t love it. Was just underwhelmed after some hype from the romance reader community. Maybe I’m just not a historical romance fan. No one calling using the word lass is bed works for me, no matter the era and frankly especially not this one. The sudden lust was not so believable for me and so it sort of went nowhere or a bit downhill from there. Appreciate Cole as a writer but this one wasn’t for me.

hownovelle's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

mg_in_md_'s review against another edition

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4.0

I originally selected this as my pick for the 2019 BookRiot Read Harder Challenge prompt "an historical romance by an AOC" and ended up using it for two other challenges, too. It was my pick for the 2019 AACPL Reading Challenge's February prompt (read a book written by a person of color) and the 2019 Modern Mrs. Darcy prompt "a book by an author who is new to you."

Not having read much in the romance genre previously, I wasn't sure what to expect. I was quite pleasantly surprised and thoroughly enjoyed reading this story. In fact, I liked the writing and plot so much that I'm considering continuing with the series, even though romance is outside of my genre comfort zone. I may even try something from the author's contemporary series based on this introduction to her work!

I loved the heroine (Elle), the research and historical details that were incorporated into the story (especially after reading the author's note and reader's guide at the end), and the pacing of the story. I felt like Elle's and Malcolm's work as Pinkerton detectives was equally important to the story as their budding romance and I was eager to find out if they would be able to carry out their missions. The fact that several characters were based on actual historical figures appealed to me quite a bit, and added to the intrigue of the story. While I probably would not have sought this one out on my own, I'm glad that the BR challenge gave me a chance to try something different and to discover a terrific author.

ra042312's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny inspiring tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

uncommonloon's review against another edition

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I thought "I need some light, fluffy reading material" and checked out a random romance without fully realizing what the setting/context was. I will return to this at a later date