BACK COVER BLURB:

A woman called Patience.

A desire that would put her name-and love-to the test.

Known for her exceptional beauty, Patience Emmalina Dare fears she'll never find a man who touches her deeply-until she shares a passionate kiss with her enigmatic brother-in-law. But can she reconcile her desire for him with her desire for a life that's her own?







This is one of the hardest reviews ever written. Because I have no idea what to say and I'm going to be totally unfair and for that I apologize.

If I hadn't read Passion and picked up Patience, I would've thought Patience was a darn good book and given it a B or B+. However, since I read Passion, Patience was a let down. I know that this is totally my fault and a result of my higher than normal expectations that are unfair to the author.

What I mean to say is that Patience is better than 85% of the historical romances out there, 98% better when you count in the erotic historical romances, but when you put it side-by-side with Passion.

Sigh!

I closed the book and my first thought was 'Really?' Imagine me thinking 'really,' in a nice sarcastic tone you get when you see other authors giving their friends and peers five stars reviews and great cover copy blurbs, just to be nice. Or when a certain publisher who I've met and is an awesome person but you find out goes on review sites and gives their author books five stars.

That is so wrong of me isn't it? It's like expecting someone's whole life to be compared to their one hit record back when they were a teenager. Or in this case, one hit book.

So in the spirit of fairness I'm going to do my best to wipe Passion from my mind and judge Patience on its own merit's and not compare Patience to Passion. I'm probably going to fail. But at least I tried.

Here we go . . ..

Patience and Matthew are well-drawn out characters. The D/S aspect of Patience didn't bother me, because I felt Patience and Matthew's actions, motivations, and conflict were well drawn out. I did feel that Patience accepted the submissive role a little too swiftly and I could've done without Matthew's reasoning when he tried to justify the lifestyle. He brought the Bible into it. As a lapsed Christian who is too lazy to get up in the morning and go to church every Sunday, that gave me a mild 'ewww, don't go there feeling.

What really bothered me . . .. Crap, I can't tell you that because then I'll be comparing and I promised not to . . ..

Oh well . . ..
What really bothered me is that Passion breathed emotion. Emotion bled on every page on Passion. You really felt for Passion and Mark. I didn't get that same gut-wrenching emotional connection that I got reading Patience as I did reading Passion. With Passion I wanted to jump in the book and start having . . . (never mind). Anyhoo . . ., having said that, Patience is still totally better than anything getting published in its subgenre.

I'm so wishy-washy. I feel how wishy-washy I am. I am not a good person, people. I can only tell it like I see it, even if you think I'm wrong!

I understood Matthew's need for vengeance. What I didn’t get was the total horror at the situation (Matthew being a bastard). I'm not an expert but from what I understood about the time period is that everyone was sleeping around and you could never be sure who your younger children's father's were. I thought that it was an unwritten rule that as long as you gave your hubby an heir and a spare all bets were off. I could be wrong and often am, but this was in my mind as I thought about how awful everyone was to Matthew. I didn't think it had to be so in your face, especially from the men.

I did love the conflict that split them apart. I was expecting something else and I was so glad to be proven wrong, because what Ms. Valdez used to separate them was so much better than what I was thinking. I liked that the plot wasn't predictable. I also agreed with Passion and felt that Matthew could've found another way to work around his problems, because he was acting like a moron at times.

I like it when I agree with a fictional character. LOL.

So in the end, Patience is a well-written satisfying read with great character development and interesting plot twists. I found it much more interesting than that Lord of Scoundrels that everyone raves about, which to me became boring as dirt once the hero and the heroine married.

Oops, I'm wandering, but hey, it's my blog . . . . I can wander if I want to.

Anyhoo . . . Just don't do what I did and expect it to be the second-coming. That's unfair. Read it and judge it on its merits.

Just do a better job of putting your feelings down on the matter than I have!

EDITED TO ADD: BTW, here's my review of Passion which is slightly less crazily written. LOL

WHERE PURCHASED:
When hubby went to Wal-Mart one night, I refused to let him back in the front door without this book in his hand. That is to say, I bought it.

RATING:
B+