Knave of Hearts By Stacy Absalom
Instead of Knave of Hearts this should be titled Idiots with Foolish Hearts.
The entire cast of characters were watered down milk toast. The tension in the story was caused by significantly overplayed assumptions. By the end of the story, my head was spinning. One to two misunderstandings dials up the tension and makes a plot move forward. Finding one on every other page ends up frustrating and boring the reader.
2.5 stars, rounded to 3. I would recommend a pass on reading this one.
Stacy Absalom Not a lot of angst, but a well-written story with a smarter than average heroine and a non-objectional hero. Some might call it boring, but the writing and the heroine's spine and intelligence in the face of the evil OW's machinations is fun. Yes, I could have used more comeuppance hence 3 stars.
Read for the evil OW's relentless shenanigans as even the hero gets sick of her. One reviewer mentioned that she gets no comeuppance, but I'd like to think that she's going to have some 'splaining to do on why she couldn't reel in the hero.
If you've read Ishbel's Party, this heroine is nothing like Bethan as this one has a personality. As much as I love IP, the heroine is a little vanilla. Stacy Absalom There are only two Stacy Absalom books on open library and this one is very different in tone to Dark Night Dawning, which was an angst fest. This had a typical Harlequin Romance tone from that era (1983). Very English, very descriptive of the countryside and cuisine. Since I like HRs from this era, it was all good.
The heroine is a chef working at a marina for canal boats in central England. The hero is a businessman who buys the marina from the heroine's friend. Heroine is antagonistic at first because she doesn't like all the changes, but she soon warms up. The angst is provided by the antics of the OM and the OW who are trying to keep them apart. There are a lot of descriptions of the canal and the party of people they are catering to. The pace is about that of a slow-moving canal boat, but it's an interesting way to pass a few hours. Stacy Absalom 2.5 stars
It was boring and once again the nasty person got away I didn't care much for Jessamy, Luke or Barry. The angst level was 2 to 2.5 stars, the characters were mediocre at the best, and I didn't feel the tensions and the emotions that was necessary to carry this plot line. What I found were argumentative, jumping into conclusion main characters with no real guts. They were all talk. Stacy Absalom The h was brittle in part due to her youth and, I think, in part due to fact that the H consistently avoided any sort of straightforward conversation with her. I'm inserting some modern dynamics when I say that considering that he was older and the boss and she was at sea, that was a terrible power differential and I'm not surprised that she was trying very hard to be as icy as possible. Also, she was being pursued by 3 of the 4 men on the cruise. Two of them were ostensibly taken and were accompanied by their partners. Suffice to say the partners of these lechers were also extremely hostile to the h. Given those circumstances, I was really impressed with her spine and professionalism.
Aside from the lechery, the H was pretty nice, he just had a complete inability to keep the h informed about things that she should have known about. Stacy Absalom
Jessamy had finally got herself together ...
With her certificate in Cordon Bleu cooking and a job she liked at Barry Hanson's small marina, she was beginning to enjoy herself. Then along came Luke Munro.
Changes came thick and fast with his takeover of the marina. Against her better judgment Jessamy let herself be persuaded to stay.
It was a mistake. Jessamy found Luke an arrogant, aggravating, unreasonable man --- and fell in love with him just the same! Knave of Hearts
This heroine was immature and OTT emotional. It was hard to believe H wanted anything to do with her! Stacy Absalom Knave of Hearts is the story of Jessamy and Luke.
Maybe its because the last two books were so fantastic, I felt this was a colossal disappointment.
The story revolves around a chef heroine, who is forced to work for the hero when he takes over ownership of the small marina she works on. They lock horns, and deal with the intense feelings they arouse in each other, complicated by a VERY evil OW and idiotic OM.
The author writes the most vindictive and psychotic OW, and this book was no exception. OM was rapey and unlikable. Not sure why every book had to have an almost sexual assault scene on the heroine.
Hero and heroine spent more time arguing than actually talking or romancing. Ending was underwhelming.
Sad that this author didnt write more.
Safe
1.75/5 Stacy Absalom Gosh this book was a struggle as both MC’s were pretty unlikeable.
The h was a proper shrew and the poor H couldn’t get a word in edgeways she accused him of all sorts or bad behaviour without any evidence and literally jumped down his throat at any perceived slight.
The H wasn’t much better he decided he wanted the h and the word no wasn’t going to stop him although what he saw in her is anyones guess!
2 stars because this a lot of this is set in a narrow boat and there’s lots of descriptions of accurate narrowboat life with the locks etc. as a child I grew up alongside the Leeds Liverpool Canal right next door to the Bingley Five Rise locks - the steepest rising locks in England therefore having the tallest gates!
I spent much of my childhood (in the days pre health and safety mania) crossing the locks and helping open the gates for the many boats that cruised up and down here and I used to walk alongside the canal across a footbridge on my daily yomp to school.
Poor h and H taking a dip in there though - this is not really recommended in the 80’s they were a Petrie dish of diseases and I’m sure both of them suffered a bout of dodgy tummy’s afterwards. British Waterways have done much to improve them since then and now wildlife abounds in much of the canals I still wouldn’t fancy falling off my paddle board into it even now though. Stacy Absalom Jessamy had finally got herself together ...
With her certificate in Cordon Bleu cooking and a job she liked at Barry Hanson's small marina, she was beginning to enjoy herself. Then along came Luke Munro.
Changes came thick and fast with his takeover of the marina. Against her better judgment Jessamy let herself be persuaded to stay.
It was a mistake. Jessamy found Luke an arrogant, aggravating, unreasonable man --- and fell in love with him just the same! Stacy Absalom
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