Reviews

The Spare by Carolyn Jewel

dumblydore's review against another edition

2.0

I'm trying to read all of Carolyn Jewel's backlist, but I can definitely see that she's made HUGE improvements over the years. A hit The Spare is not. She doesn't write poorly per se, but the plot isn't compelling, nor are her characters.

bosullivan's review against another edition

3.0

Enjoyed it for about 2/3 of the way through, then felt it could have used a good editor. But then, I don't have much patience with supernatural claptrap. And without it the story would have read more linearly and perhaps have been more satisfying.

jkh107's review

3.0

This was marketed, electronically, with the subtitle "A Sexy Regency Romance" which made me think it would be much like the same author's book [b:Lord Ruin|1967867|Lord Ruin|Carolyn Jewel|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1191030679s/1967867.jpg|1971035] (also marketed the same way)--a romance/mystery with some good plotting between the sex scenes. However, this is a mystery/gothic/ghost/love story without much sexytime at all. Our hero is recovering from war wounds and attempting to solve the mystery of his brother's murder. He becomes sexually and romantically interested in our heroine, who was mysteriously injured during the same attack, and he wonders about her involvement. Complicating matters, there is an ancestral ghost (well, why not?), who makes a nice plot device to get the two together and also adds atmosphere. I found it hard to track what was a dream sequence and what was reality, seems like most of the love scenes were dream sequences except when they weren't. Also the evil villain fizzled out to pathetic at the end, which was kind of disappointing. Again, a promising book that didn't quite pay off (and I really love Jewel's more recent historicals, enough to keep buying her backlist).