Burns has a way with bringing damaged souls together, in spite of themselves, and others, with dishonorable plans, that would strive to separate them! She also proves, AGAIN, she DEFINITELY knows her way around STEAMY love scenes! A fact that I always appreciate!
I am a huge fan of this author and was delightd to find OBSESSION had been reissued, expanded and in Kindle format.
Take a chance on this Monica Burns book, it's a good story, with a hero you will like from the first page!!
Helen and Sebastian
Enjoyable read.
. . Sebastian was a tragic sort of hero to me, His inability to express his feelings elongated the story and created a great deal of frustration for this reader,
Helen was the type of heroine I like, She was assertive and did not allow herself to dwell in a victim's story, Horrible things continued to happen to her, but she kept trying to take care of herself and establish her independence,
I enjoyed the tieins to real life events and the terror those events engendered in the population at that time, I was a bit disappointed in the epilogue though, I had been looking forward to a certain couple's HEA throughout this book and to learn that there would be no such thing saddened me, "This is a revised and expanded reissue of theedition of Obsession, New content is included in this digital edition, "
An interesting and intriguing tale of two souls with dark secrets that haunt them both, A Victorian retake on Jack the Ripper's London, with many twists, Fast paced with tortured and injured souls, secrets, passion, romance,diabolical murders,past hurts, and finding forgiveness and healing to move forward, Well written with beautifully written erotic scenes, engaging characters who desire more than passion but need security and finally some peace and love, Compelling,with moments of scary situations, intriguing with mystery and suspense, A must read. Ms Burns is a constant storyteller who wins fans hearts with your compassionate, loving characters and her unique, intriguing storylines, An absolutely wickedly delicious and seductive tale from the first page to the last, The Rockwoods are fantastic in more ways than one, A must read. Fans of Historical Romance, Victorian era romance, erotic romance and epic love stories will enjoy "Obsession",
I adore this authors stories, her charismatic characters and her unique storylines, Well done. Can't wait for the next grand adventure,
Received for an honest review from the author
Rating:,
Heat Steamy
ed by: AprilR, courtesy of My Book Addiction and More I really liked this one, The beginning sucked me in, I love Sebastian's demeanor. Helen was perfect for him and I loved her brother Edward how he seemed very mature for his age, The first convo with themin the carriage was cute to me, The introduction to the Rockwoods will for sure keep me entertained in this series, I also loved the mystery murder elements of the side plot is happening in the story, I will be reading the next one "Dangerous", . . "Jane Eyre meets The Mummy!!!!!" COUNT ME IN!,Stars
This book was a frustratingly mixed bag, I enjoyed the story very much, and I was eager to see where it would go, There is plenty of suspense, a bit of mystery, and several interesting sidestories that could have been followed, Sebastian is a wonderfully written hero flaws and all and Helen is a great heroine, The supporting cast is strong, though somewhat undeveloped in several cases, I liked the characters overall, and I read to the end,
The problems were a gaping plot hole Helen doesnt know her estranged grandfathers title only his surname and so cannot find him in London.
Now, correct me if I am wrong that is just the sort of dilemma that Debretts Peerage was made to solve, right! But the book is never referenced.
There are also a bunch of editing errors, Missing words and incorrect homophones discrete is NOT the same as discreet! abound, I was frustrated with the epilogue it is always good to flashforward in tome to see the HEA, but I didnt think it needed another full love scene.
Less is sometimes more! I completely fell in love with Sebastian from the beginning of this story, An earl, he is a kind and very responsible eldest brother taking care of his family, running his estate, and trying to match his siblings while trying to keep his beloved Aunt Matilda from matchmaking him.
Hes very selfdisciplined and used to being in complete control of his life and Helen upends it completely the way he constantly looks at his timepiece is hilarious.
Hes also a consummate pianist and he plays to relax when he can,
He stumbles upon Helen in a brothel, when he helps his brother, Caleb, rescue a young woman who has been kidnapped she is being auctioned to the highest bidder.
He feels for her and is disgusted by the process so, to protect her and keep her from his loathsome nemesis, Viscount Templeton, he bids for her and wins.
He takes her to his familys London home and, in exchange for helping her, he ashamedly asks Helen to pose as his fiancée for his fastidious aunt.
Because she feels indebted to him, she agrees, especially after he also rescues her precocious younger brother, Edward,
For my full review on my historical romance and history blog: sitelink ly/gvAA Great series starter!
This book is one of the reasons why Monica Burns is one of my favorite authors.
Obsession draws you in from the first page to the highly satisfying epilogue, It has everything that makes a romance successful, A handsome alpha hero and a sassy heroine that throws said hero for a loop when she gasp doesn't just fall in line with his plans for her.
Not to mention a cute kid, meddling family and a nasty villain that you can't decide if you love or hate!
The writing flows so well to the build up that you don't even realize the climax of the story is happening until you are sitting there, biting your nails on the edge of your seat and in my case yelling at my ereader and just she you think it's over BAM! She draws you back in for more.
Monica Burns writing is the kind where you really feel like you have been there, in the story, along with all the characters, if that makes sense.
I felt like Sebastian's personality was kind of cold, It seemed like only his sister Louisa could bring out a more "fun", cheerful side to him, Idk
He kept his emotions inside, but to the point to where I'm like did the author just make him the generic cold rake, because I don't think any guys have personalities like his.
I have no idea if this even makes sense,
Helen was slightly boring too, I don't know why all these guys were obsessed with her, except for maybe her beauty, Also, I thought she was a virgin unless her cousin had raped her, but she expressed no pain or discomfort when she and Sebastian first had sex.
Like too many romance books, I needed more conversation between them that didn't relate to the circumstances at hand,
The story definitely improved as it went on, I thought someone was truly crazy, . . Wish we knew the backstory behind him, with his unsavory sexual appetites
The epilogue confused me, I thought it started a few days after the main story because Helen was looking at a newspaper clipping talking about the Marquess of Templeton, but it was actually ten years later And then why did Devin, who had married Louisa, die The epilogue shouldn't introduce unanswered questions.
As other reviewers brought up, there were a few editing mistakes in this book, The story sounded interesting enough, and I loved the basic character descriptions, However, poor editing and a repetitive, expository, writing style kept me from finishing this book,stars
Pretty raunchy/sexy and wasnt bad but would have been better at about half the length honestly, the heroine went through one hell after another drugged and auctioned off at a brothel for starters and it was just dragged out, with even Jack the Ripper making an appearance.
The hero was OTT starchy, and the heroine very stubborn, Way too long.
Pretty shallow, predictable plot, the usual clichee of characters not communicating with each other, taken to a ridiculous level, It lacked humour and wasnt very well written,
I did not get a lot of enjoyment out of it, I kept rolling my eyes constantly through the first six chapters, The plot got a little more interesting eventually, However, the characters were just TSTL all around and it was all just so painfully obvious,
Definitely not going to pick up anything else by this author, coming soon to a computer screen near you, I was disappointed in The Rogue's Offer by this author, but one thing I enjoyed in that book, was the Rockwood family members that made an appearance.
For this reason, I went ahead and took advantage of the free download of Obsession in exchange for signing up for Ms, Burns' newsletter. I'm glad I did, this book was a great improvement over that one, despite having been written much earlier,
While I knew Burns was clearly capable at character development, I doubted her ability to form a cohesive plot, She overcame that problem in Obsession, The romance here developed well and was drawn out just enough, The tension came from an inability to admit feelings, rather than repeated and annoying miscommunications, In addition, it would have been easy for the story to get lost in all the side plots introduced, We have an abusive uncle, Jack the Ripper, a crazy spurned suitor, and a grandfather to find, Somehow, the author manages to use all of these elements effectively without getting sidetracked from the main love story,
There are some weaknesses that prevent it from earningstarts, The writing, especially in the beginning of the book seems unpolished, The same word used too frequently in a paragraph, some poor grammar, the weird affectations to make the aunt sound Scottish, . . these are all things that distract from the storytelling and could have been easily improved with better editing or just taking al little more time and care before publishing.
I also found myself repeatedly confused by the passage of time in the story, There would be a
surge of events that felt like should take at least a week, only to be a few days, then it would seem a month or more had passed.
Then the author decided to place their wedding anniversary in July, If the story follows the dates of the Jack the Ripper murders, Sebastian and Helen should have reconciled after her second rescue in November of, To wait until the following July to wed after all that had transpired between them seems odd, to say the least, This odd choice for dating the epilogue was completely unnecessary and had me scratching my head and questioning if I'd gotten the timing wrong in the rest of the book.
Just strange, and like I said, completely unnecessary,
I may have to buy more of this series, I did find myself truly enjoying this one, I'm curious as to the stories for the other Rockwoods, despite knowing how they all end up thanks to reading the spinoff Rogue's Offer, After all, you never start a romance novel doubting how it will end, .