Gua emang paling lemah sama tematema cerita macam ini, si pria yang pada awalnya mendekati si wanita bukan karena cinta, tapi karena memanfaatkan si wanita untuk kepentingan pribadinya sendiri hehehe.
Sebenarnya sih mau kasihbintang karena emang suka temanya, tapi berhubung perjalanan ke akhir ceritanya itu terkesan terlalu terburuburu, plus karena emang khas cerita harlequin ya, mudah banget si tokoh wanitanya memaafkan tokoh prianya, gah! Sebal!
Okelah, overall, bacaan ringan yang menghibur, cukup membuat emosi naikturun walaupun beberapa kali mau jedotin kepala si tokoh utama prianya ke tembok P
"The Most Coveted Prize" is the first book of Russian Rivals, Demidov vs Androvonov and the story of Kiryl and Alena.
Kiryl wants a contract that Vasilii Demidrov is sure to get and in order to obtain that he decides to seduce his innocent half sister, Alena.
Alena is barely, and wants to take over her mother's charity even though her brother finds her young.
She is surprised when she's swept off her feet by Kiryl and falls head over heels for him.
. only until she discovers his real motives, .
Typical revenge plot about an naive heroine caught between ott chauvanistic males, There was nothing special about it, but Im glad Kiryl started having feelings for h while she was falling for him too.
Also it was good to know that the H felt at least an ounce of regret for what he did.
Safe
/Pudo haberse desarrollado más, algo falta en la historia, se desencadena muy rápido.
Alena Demidova merasa berhasil mengecoh kakak lakilakinya, Vasilii, dengan "menyingkirkan" pengawas yang selalu diminta Vasilii untuk menjaganya.
Kakaknya memang terlalu melindungi dan masih menganggapnya anak kecil, Padahal Alena merasa telah siap menjadi perempuan dewasa yang mengurus harta warisan ibunya dan merayu satu dua pria.
Pria seperti Kyril Andronov, misalnya,
Alena terpukau pada daya tarik seksual yang terpancar dari pria itu dan dengan terangterangan mengamati Kyril secara terbuka.
Semula Kyiril tak tertarik pada gadis muda yang menatapnya penuh damba itu, Tapi saat mendengar nama sang gadis, dan mengetahui bahwa Alena adalah adik semata wayang Vasilii yang tampaknya amat sangat dijaga oleh Vasilii, Kyril seolah mendapat jalan keluar dari masalahnya.
Ia bertekad menggunakan Alena sebagai titik lemah Vasilii agar ia bisa mendapatkan kontrak yang ia mau, Maka ia mulai merayu Alena,
Namun kepolosan, kegairahan dan keterbukaan gadis itu bukanlah hal yang mudah diabaikan,
Akankah Kyril tetap pada rencananya dan merusak Alena, gadis yang mulai menghangatkan hatinya yang beku
Bisa dibilang saya lebih suka The Most Coveted Prize daripada The Power of Vasilii.
Vasilii terlalu bersih, terlalu baik dan gentleman sejati, jadi pergulatan batinnya nggak terlalu terasa, Tapi Kyril lumayan bajingan, jadi pergolakan batinnya dapet banget,
Saya selalu bilang bahwa yang saya suka dari Penny Jordan adalah penulis ini nggak pernah pelit memperlihatkan emosi heronya.
Dari awal saya dimanjakan dengan paparan perasaanperasaan Kyril juga pergulatan batinnya, Saya lebih suka tipe penulis yang seperti ini, Menggunakan POV orang ketiga tapi berimbang antara hero dan heroinenya,
Terlebih Penny Jordan selalu bisa bikin heronya menyesal dan memohon, Oh, how i really love it! Di bagian si hero dihantam kenyataan, hampir kehilangan lalu memohon itu memuaskan batin saya.
Wkwkwk
Dan begitu pun yang saya rasakan pada Kyril,
Tapi saya nggak suka Alena, Hahaha mungkin karena saya baca kisah Vasilii dan Laura lebih dulu, jadi saya sebel karena Alena lah yang membuat Vasilii salah paham terhadap Laura.
Keinginannya untuk bebas selama sesaat itu terasa egois dengan membuat orang lain dirugikan, Tapi kepolosan dan keinginannya untuk mencintai itu menggemaskan,
Bagian yang saya suka di mana lagi kalau bukan di St, Petersburg. Kota favorit saya yang terasa romantis dalam penuturan Penny Jordan, Bukan hanya dari deskripsi tempatnya tapi juga suasananya pun ditulis dengan cantik banget,
Kisahnya mungkin sederhana, yah novel harlequin kan memang jenis novel ringan, Konfliknya lebih pada pertentangan batin sang hero dan penemuannya akan cinta,
Menghibur, ringan, lumayan blakblakan dan maniiiis, aah, . saya jatuh cinta pada Kyril dan makin cinta pada St, Petersburg. Firstly,This heroine was by far the most TSTL heroine EVER, . . the heroines immaturity annoyed me and ruined it for me, I just wished the entire book she would grow up,
. there was so much inner dialogue, I skimmed so much of it, And the book had a sex scenes that was so god awful, . .
. I didn't like any of the characters at all
I am genuinely dissapointed in the entire book.
I can not believe Penny Jordan submitted this book for publishing, Russian oligarch Kiryl Androvonov has one rival: billionaire Vasilii Demidov, Luckily, Vasilii has an Achilles' heelhis younger, overprotected half sister Alena,
Kiryl's master plan is to seduce the tantalizingly beautiful Alena, Then, once he's had his fill, he'll use her to blackmail Vasilii for the contract that will complete his business empire.
The Russian tycoon can't losethis might be the business deal of the century, however it's Alena he covets most of all.
But then she discovers just how ruthlessly Kiryl has been using her,
This was a sweet, angsty read with, as most reviewers said, a good, warmhearted heroine and a ruthless.
embittered alpha man. I could just imagine how shattered Alena must have felt when she walks in on Kiryl making a deal with her brother using her as a pawn, the man whom she'd fallen in love with, to whom she'd given her innocence and everything.
And, I liked how Kiryl had to constantly tussle with his conscience and heart as he went about doing what he'd planned to do, ending up as miserable as Alena, knowing that he was the cause of her pain.
Even after he'd achieved what he wanted he found no joy, no euphoria in it, I liked the house scene where Alena tells Kiryl he is undermining his late mother by giving importance to what his late father thought about him and thereby becoming just like the father he'd hated all these years.
I also liked the communication of pain between them in the eyecontact when she was about to get in the cab and he is looking at her from the house window.
What I didn't like was too much emphasis was given on every outfit Alena wore or bought, what they ate, etc.
There was not much interaction between the two after they'd agreed to marry, In fact, they hardly met, Would have loved to see a little more of the two having no choice but to be with each other thereby battling anger, pain and attraction for the other.
I nevertheless liked the book, I liked Alena and Kiryl, They made an awesome pair, I liked Vasilii too. It's amazing what a reread will yield, This time I noticed the lack of action and winced at the excessive inner monologuing, which was sappier and more purple than I remembered Jordan's reliance on monologues seems to have increased over time.
The dialogue was unfortunately written in the same manner, The author also went into overdrive with the metaphors comparing the characteristics and emotions of the protagonists to physical aspects of Russia.
LOL
In spite of these flaws the romance remained compelling,
Original review
Kiryl and Alena are classic examples of the ruthless, alpha hero and the naive, virginal heroine.
Both behaved within the parameters of their archetypes, which totally worked for me,
Kiryl, having been rejected by his wealthy father at a young age, was driven to succeed at all costs and prove his father wrong about him.
So much so that hurting sweet, young things like Alena is just par for the course, The joke's on Kiryl, however, when he falls for his pawn,
Alena was a very young heroine,, for a modern Harlequin Presents book, but I believe this was a deliberate move on the the author's part to highlight the vileness of Kiryl's plan.
I didn't find Alena to be immature or annoying, just a little naive and trusting, so I gave her a very big pass for not recognizing Kiryl's deceit in advance.
Alena's naïveté was balanced with a strong will and compassionate, independent nature, In particular, I liked her dedication to her charity, She could have had dedicated her life to becoming a vapid socialite, but instead sought to improve the lives of others.
A satisfying romance about an embittered man who learns that the love of a good womannot vengeance or financial rewardis the true coveted prize! I was really excited when Penny Jordan released her two book Russian Rivals series.
Russian heroes are an Achilles' heel of mine, after all, Pulled this one out of my bookcase as an impulse read yesterday evening as part of my Harlequin Presents Readathon.
Overall, pretty good, but not great,
First of all, I think the late Ms, Jordan who is a longtime favorite of mine went overboard with the metaphors in which she compares the emotions and the characteristics of the main characters to aspects of Russia.
Don't get me wrong. I love Russianness in my Russian reading, but it felt kind of awkward and excessive the way she does it.
For instance, she refers to Alena's eyes as the silver of the frozen River Neva a couple of times, and there are other instances where she inserts these awkward metaphors.
Okay, we get the idea that this book is about Russian characters and don't need to be beaten over the head with it.
One thing I appreciated is that Kiryl is actually a very credible villainous hero, It was hard to see his deliberate seduction of Alena, knowing his goals, She was like a fly in a spider web, and that wasn't comfortable to read, However, I could see how he wasn't unaffected by the powerful attraction between them, even though he uses it to his advantage against Alena.
He does feel a bit conflicted about his coldblooded plans towards Alena, but they really don't stop him from doing something that dirty to her.
In the end, he comes around, and that was much more meaningful, because I saw how he really did change because of her love.
Her words to him were pointed and harsh, but needed, He had fixed his whole being on proving his father wrong, and in the process forgot all the good that his mother had instilled in him.
Alena told him exactly right, and that took a lot of courage to do,
Alena is a very young heroine, which might not work for some
readers, Nineteenyearsold and very sheltered by her older brother, You feel like Kiryl is kicking a puppy, While I can understand her brother's desire to protect her, he did her a disservice allowing her to be so naive that she fell so easily for Kiryl's ploys.
Despite her young age, she does show some selfdetermination and a maturity that transcends her young age and the mistakes she makes along the way.
In the end, I ended up liking Alena a lot more than Kiryl, although he showed some strength of character in the end.
This wasn't a fantastic book, It was pretty decent, but I was disappointed with the unnecessary metaphors, which bogged down the narrative instead of enhancing them.
More than anything, I was intrigued with Vasilii, Alena's older brother, and it made me want to read his book immediately, which I ended up doing.
I think it's a good read for fans of Russian heroes who are not nice guys until love changes their hearts.
The Russian scenery is really great as well,
Overall ,/.stars. .
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