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Thursday, February 9, 2012

**Romance Report**: Her Dark Knight by Sharon Cullen

Title: Her Dark Knight

Author: Sharon Cullen

Publisher: Carina Press

Publication Date: November 2011

Genre: Adult Romance

Series or Stand Alone: Stand Alone

Synopsis can be found here.
Netgalley review.


Review:
I was intrigued by the synopsis on this book. A Knight, Christian, forced to guard a treasure for eternity. His enemies, also immortal, and willing to do whatever it took to take what they wanted. And the woman, Madeline, who stood in the way.


I enjoyed the pace of the book, the back and forth between Madeline's past life and the present day. It kept the book interesting. Every time something was about to happen, I would be thrown forward into time, piecing together the puzzle just like Madeline does. There is enough intrigue to keep me reading, but after a while, I realized I wasn't invested in any of the characters.

Christian is every romance book hero. Strong, broody and pining away for a woman who he thinks is long lost. He's interesting at first, but quickly seems more storybook cut out than real, complex man.

Christian's enemies are pretty damn creepy. Lucien makes my skin crawl, even now that the book is over. Ewww... And Cullen does an excellent job at writing these dangerous and threatening scenes. I really feared for Madeline. These bad guys mean business. And they're not out to just kill you either.

Unfortunately, the character I liked least was Madeline, present day Madeline to be exact. Cullen tells us Madeline is strong, brave and smart. But no where during this book did I get that feeling. She was constantly latching onto Christian as her knight. She immediately agrees to move in with this stranger, who is spinning stories about past lives. I'm told to believe it's because of this powerful connection she has to him, but instead I get the feeling she is weak and wishes to hide behind him instead. 

Come. On. I know, we're talking about past lives, and treasures and immortals. I'm totally OK with suspended reality and jumping in with both feet. But Madeline is a light shadow of the woman that could be the heroine of this novel. And that got to me quickly.

Halfway through, I knew that I wanted to finish it to see what happened, but not because I cared about any of the characters.  The story was interesting enough to keep going, but there were some plot twists thrown in towards the end that leaves me scratching my head.

Rating 4, Not My Cup Of Tea

3 comments:

  1. premise sounds intriguing but, you're right, if you're not invested in the characters, makes for a pretty poor read. thanks for reviewing it.

    ReplyDelete
  2. premise sounds intriguing but, you're right, if you're not invested in the characters, makes for a pretty poor read. thanks for reviewing it.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I thought this one sounded pretty good, but sorry to hear the characters are not very engaging.

    Thanks for sharing your review!

    ReplyDelete