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laura_sorensen's review against another edition
3.0
I liked the characters a lot, especially the heroine; but the ending seemed rushed.
lissielove's review against another edition
5.0
The best thing about Laura Lee Guhrke's newest series, Abandoned at the Altar, is the time period. I find so few romance novels set in the very late Victorian/early Edwardian age and I'm not sure why. The aristocratic world was fighting to keep everything exactly the same, but the rest of the world was jumping forward and this pre-war Britain is the perfect time setting. I hope Guhrke continues to mine this era for gold.
The first book was amazing and I'll find time to review that, but this second book was even better. Julia as a divorced woman was one of the most fascinating heroines I've read in a long time. The conservative Aidan was so uptight, that like Julia, you wanted to ruffle his cravat (or whatever fashion men were wearing at that point). The chemistry between Julia and Aidan just poured from the page and it was wonderfully complicated by their history together, which was not quite that Aidan thought it was.
My one criticism, and it is very small, was that Julia's marriage wasn't fleshed out until three-quarters of the way through the book. It was clear almost from the moment Julia appears in Wedding of the Season that her marriage is disastrous and her behavior stems from a desire to push her husband into divorce. We know the lengths Julia has gone, up to and including deceiving Aidan and dragging him into the divorce proceedings, which is a very large stain on his reputation. But we don't know why and by the time Julia reveals it, it's lost of a little of the punch. I don't disagree that the timing in the book was right for Aidan's discovery, but the reader ought to have been included somewhat earlier.
That's a very small problem that really don't detract from my enjoyment of the boy. Everything Guhrke writes is beautiful and her characters and plots are some of the most engaging and original novels on the market. This? This makes my expectations of her next book even higher.
The resolution of Julia and Aidan's story happens nearly on the last page, but the story is well-paced and I was sorry to see it end. I've reread the last scenes between the two and it's as satisfying as it was the first time I read it.
The first book was amazing and I'll find time to review that, but this second book was even better. Julia as a divorced woman was one of the most fascinating heroines I've read in a long time. The conservative Aidan was so uptight, that like Julia, you wanted to ruffle his cravat (or whatever fashion men were wearing at that point). The chemistry between Julia and Aidan just poured from the page and it was wonderfully complicated by their history together, which was not quite that Aidan thought it was.
My one criticism, and it is very small, was that Julia's marriage wasn't fleshed out until three-quarters of the way through the book. It was clear almost from the moment Julia appears in Wedding of the Season that her marriage is disastrous and her behavior stems from a desire to push her husband into divorce. We know the lengths Julia has gone, up to and including deceiving Aidan and dragging him into the divorce proceedings, which is a very large stain on his reputation. But we don't know why and by the time Julia reveals it, it's lost of a little of the punch. I don't disagree that the timing in the book was right for Aidan's discovery, but the reader ought to have been included somewhat earlier.
That's a very small problem that really don't detract from my enjoyment of the boy. Everything Guhrke writes is beautiful and her characters and plots are some of the most engaging and original novels on the market. This? This makes my expectations of her next book even higher.
The resolution of Julia and Aidan's story happens nearly on the last page, but the story is well-paced and I was sorry to see it end. I've reread the last scenes between the two and it's as satisfying as it was the first time I read it.
adelebuck's review against another edition
DNF’d at about 40% in. Nothing wrong with the book necessarily, just wasn’t what I was in the mood for.
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