Wednesday, January 6, 2010

[NOR Review]: "The Amethyst Amulets"


Title: The Amethyst Amulets
Author: Cillian Burns
Publisher: Wild Rose Press
Publication Date: October 2009
Available In: E-Book, Print
Genre: Time Travel Romance
Summary (Barnes and Nobles):
Julie Summers, a teacher of medieval history, acquires a knight in shining armor, but not in her own time. When a magical amulet whisks her to thirteenth century England, she finds herself the pretend wife of a handsome baron. At first, she demands to be returned to her own century, but as time passes, she begins to fall deeply in love with him. Will she give up her twenty-first century life to remain in the past with Nicholas?


Baron Nicholas de Montclair thinks he needs help protecting his son from his evil brother-in-law. But when he brings Julie back to his time, he finds it's a year earlier than he left and there's no child to protect. He and Julie are forced to overcome sieges, abductions and pregnancy with the aid of the amethyst amulets. Then Julie is forced to return to the future. Has he lost forever the woman he's come to love?





Places to Order The Amethyst Amulets at:
Amazon.com **
B and N.com





My Review:

Despite a promising enough beginning, The Amethyst Amulets only managed to leave me wanting something more than what it had to offer.



Based upon the plot, which managed to peak my interest even before starting the book, I had high hopes for this novel. But although it was not a waste of time, nor a completely disaster, I was still disappointed long before the end of the novel.




The fault lies not so much in the story line development, though at times, this too seemed a bit lacking, but in the characters themselves. As hard as I tried, I couldn't fall for the hero, Nicholas, nor could I find the spunk and strength in Julie that I'm accustomed to finding from the heroine.




For brief moments, sprinkled through out the story, these two characters almost managed to grab my affection. During a few scenes, Julie started to show that spark that I connect with the heroine of a romance novel, but almost as quickly as it showed up, it then disappeared again. Perhaps a bit more of a polish to her character development would fix this, but other than that, I can't say what it was about her that failed to help me connect with her. I will say that towards the end of the book, she showed more of the passion and flare that I expected.




The same was true of Nicholas, unfortunately. I was at times unable to understand why Julie loved him so much--- there were only a few moments during the book when I would start to fall for him as well, before he would quickly do or say something that would once again make me loose interest. Neither of these two characters were horrible, by any means, but neither were they memorable, something that is very essential to a good romance.




As for the romance itself, while it was in fact there, it took the greater part of the book to see it. The passion was slow to kindle and only hit a low smolder. Not overly romantic, nor touching, though there were a few spots towards the very end that improved drastically.


Sadly, the word that comes to mind after reading this book is “average”. Nothing horrible, but nothing spectacular either. Don't get me wrong-- I still liked this novel, and I will probably recommended it to future readers, it just won't be at the time of my list.


3 STARS! Although The Amethyst Amulets had it's enjoyable moments, it didn't quite meet my expectations, and came away as only average on my scale. In the end, I was left wanting more--- more romance, more connection, more of a story line around the time traveling. I'll still give Ms. Burns another chance in the future, for I'm sure I'll like her other books more, but this one just didn't hold my complete attention.





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Thanks to Night Owl Romance, where I received this e-book for free in exchange for reviewing the book. (Free book does not equal biased review, however!) This review is the property of NOR.

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Enjoy!



Until Next Time,
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2 comments :

JennJ said...

Great honest review hon! It sounds like it had a great premise just didn't quite achieve all that it could have in the pursuit of it.I have read many a book like that myself there was so much that they could have done with the situations they had but for whatever reason they just don't sometimes. Doesn't mean it's a bad book just didn't reach all that it could have. :)

Cecile Smutty Hussy said...

Great honest review honey! That is all we can ask for, you know that! I am just sorry that the book did not live up to the beginning!

Now on to a clearly new note....
YOUR BLOG IS ROCKING HONEY!!!!!
Lovin it up!!!! I hope you love your new home!!!! Jen rocks!

Have a great weekend!