Broken Promise

I liked the first half of this book better than the last half. I enjoyed the thing that caused the hero to feel he owed the Earl to find his son's wife. It caused a quite believable feeling of something owed. I liked the hero's job and his determination. I liked the way he stuck to his guns and stuck to the heroine, and the way he took care of her. I liked the intensity of the way the heroine cared about the boy. <input type="checkbox" class="spoiler__control" aria-label="The following text has been marked spoiler. Toggle checkbox to reveal or hide." onchange="this.labels[0].setAttribute('aria-hidden', !this.checked);" id="f7ccb032-ec98-4f73-832f-3df8cdeb9474" /><label aria-hidden="true" class="spoiler" for="f7ccb032-ec98-4f73-832f-3df8cdeb9474">At least at first, but later when she knew he had a true home and family to go to, I think she held on too long. And I'm a person who becomes frantic at the thought of separating mothers from their children</label><br /><br />But there were some problems:<br />The hero should have figured out who the heroine was much much sooner. Even when he knew she wasn't who she claimed to be, he didn't make the incredibly obvious intuitive leap.<br /><br />There was too much repetitive introspection.<br /><br />The thing that kept them apart became less believable as the story neared the end.<br /><br />The rationale behind the plot at the end to reveal the bad guy didn't really make sense. <input type="checkbox" class="spoiler__control" aria-label="The following text has been marked spoiler. Toggle checkbox to reveal or hide." onchange="this.labels[0].setAttribute('aria-hidden', !this.checked);" id="16a7e4d3-4dc3-4666-8447-2c8d5c290283" /><label aria-hidden="true" class="spoiler" for="16a7e4d3-4dc3-4666-8447-2c8d5c290283">If you were determined to kill a baby for it's inheritance, granted killing him before anyone knew about him would have been fine. But when you've failed at that, the smart villain would not have tried to kill him on the evening of the announcement of his existence. In the 19th century, there were many many ways that a child could come to grief. Wait a couple of years or even a couple of months to attempt something that looked like an accident or Act of God, instead of sneaking upstairs and and trying to stab him with the house full of your relatives. Way to point the finger at yourself dude. And the other brother sneaking in to visit the baby as a red herring was just not real believable.</label><br /><br />So all in all a fairly decent book with some high points and some not so high points.

I didn't finish this book. In fact I didn't get very far. I just couldn't get around the fact that Landon had the French torturing their British allies during the Crimean war. FYI and according to Wiki: The Crimean War (October 1853 – February 1856) was a conflict in which Russia lost to an alliance of France, Britain, the Ottoman Empire, and Sardinia. One must hazard that wars are rarely won when allies take to torturing each other.

Have you ever read a book that screamed <i>girly writer</i>??? That kept buzzing you with so many sugary descriptions of feelings and thoughts that you just feel the need to shout to the heroine <i>"Get on with it already!"</i> ?<br />That's how I felt while struggling to finish "Broken Promise". Because I do have the trait of being an obsessive-compulsive reader and need to finish each book I start. I just can't give it up even though it might turn my eyes into a yo-yo from the eye-rolling...<br /><br />I got "Broken Promise" as a freebie from amazon, and having read all the great 5-star posted reviews, I was under the impression I 'd made a good deal. A really good deal. Weeeeeell, not so swell as I thought.<br /><br />Up to 85% through the book I was relentlessly yawning from the constant repeats between the characters' thoughts and feelings. This novel was supposed to have a little suspense. Or at least, that's what the excerpt said.<br />Then why was I constantly presented to Sara's internal inane battles of her Jonathan-related emotions? (Which by the way, I got tired being told of by the author, instead of being showed to). And how about the extra-terrestrial intuition Austin showed when Sara's lack of breathing/unsteadiness/waterworks occurred and was there by her side every single time? Again, and again, and again. It is, a historical romance, not a paranormal novel with mind-readers, right? Or maybe I am mistaken... The couple was just otherworldly to me in their 19th-century regency manners and their between a maid and a member of the peer reactions, as the author wanted them to be...<br /><br /> The story could have missed 100 pages of <i>she felt that and he felt this</i> and be in a much better shape than the unedited jungle of dragging scenes, repetitive facts and big "revelations" of secrets -although after the 5th time, "revelations" that had been presented the exact same way as the previous 4 times, were just old news.<br /><br />Even though "Broken -not one, but many- Promises" caught a better pace by the time it reached its resolution, literally, this novel had nothing new, nothing fresh and nothing intriguing to add to the historical romance genre. In the end, all I felt about it, was <i>what a waste of my time...</i>

This was a kindle freebie. The second in The Brotherhood Series by Laura Landon. This one started off nicely with lots of potential but sadly slowed down for me.<br /><br />Captain Austin Landwell has been tasked to find the Earl of Penderly's daughter-in-law. Instead, he finds Sarah Bentley, who he believes to be the daughter-in-law, and the Earl's grandson. But Sarah is not making his task easy and escapes. <br /><br />It was a decent read and not bad at all but the second half just slowed down and wasn't keeping my interest like the first half did. Still I would recommend it to readers of light historical romances.

I loved this book. I thought it was better than the first book in the brotherhood trilogy. Great author. Her books are right up my alley. Regency romance with suspense. What more could a girl want?

The first half of this book was an intriguing read....the second half became a little too silly for me. I still enjoyed reading the book.

It spent many pages going over and over the same thing. Her feelings of obligation to the dead actress. His feelings of obligation to the dead soldier. His sister-in-law spotted the fake identity right off. He was a spy and couldn’t tell that something was off? Did he not get a description of the actress to go by? He found her by asking about a woman with a baby? Then there were pages of tell him who you really are. And in those days there was no way a maid would be accepted as the wife of a member of nobility. Not even a second son. And then the climax? The red herring of the nephew who had the most to lose by the new heir being found coming into the nursery to look at the baby that had already been introduced to the whole family. Please. And the logic from the actual murderer that his brother would inherit and then he’d be set for life because his brother would take care of him? Most second sons knew they had to make their own way. There’s never enough money for the family of the heir and his family plus younger siblings to live in style.

Sigh. Is it just me? Am I tired of books right now? Impatient? Uninterested?<br /><br />Maybe. <br /><br />This book just bored me. I slogged through until about half way and then just skipped forward and read the last few chapters. Snorfle snorfle.<br /><br />Second time this authors work has left me cold.

<strong>Honor and devotion</strong><br /><br />Really enjoyable reading; I find myself wishing there was another book in this serious, I.e. Harrison. I will follow this author to see how she develops future plots.

<strong>Heart warming story</strong><br /><br />I never retell a story in my reviews. I just tell that the stories are well worth reading. The characters are wonderful and the stories are well written and I thoroughly like enjoy reading Laura London’s books.