All About Love (Bar Cynster) (Paperback)

There is a murder plot: the old friend whom Rupert - Lucifer, as we�re supposed to call him - has come to visit has just been killed. And Lucifer knows that Phyllida knows something about the murder, just as he later discovers that her life is in danger - which gives him a very good reason to insist on protecting her. And, being a Cynster, he does a lot more than just protect her. Which begins to sound somewhat familiar...

Here's the formula for any Cynster book: Alpha-male hero, dead set against marriage, does his best to escape the plotters among the rest of his family. And then, when he least expects it, he runs into an unusual woman, very different from the run-of-the-mill female in that she's independent and confident, and immediately he falls in love and wants to marry her. Said female, on the other hand, does not want to marry him - for various, usually not very convincing reasons. Cynster male then exerts multiple powers of persuasion, some not exactly fair, but the one thing he refuses to do is to *tell* her exactly why he wants to marry her. So if she's holding out for a declaration of love, she's unlikely to get one, and this is what carries the story, which could really have been over within 150 pages, on to close to 400 pages.

Oh, and there�s always some sort of mystery/murder/crime plot, which generally gets far too much time and attention devoted to it, and which is usually pretty much paper-thin.

But clearly the formula works, since Laurens seems to be selling millions of the books in this series. This one's okay, although the murder plot dominates rather too much and at least some of the links were far too obvious from the beginning. If I�d read it as a stand-alone novel, since I did quite like Phyllida and Lucifer I'd probably have given it a three or four; however, it really feels as if I'm just reading the same book over and over again.

wmr-uk

Ms Laurens manages to combine a well written tale with humour and wit, great primary and secondary characters and a plot that has enough "meat" to flesh out a sensual love story.

I was very impressed with the communication between the main characters. Nothing annoys me more than an entire plot based around a misunderstanding that a 5 min mature conversation between the "hero" & "heroine" on page 1 would have negated the need for the rest of the story. In "All About Love" there are, of course, some misunderstandings but they are recognised and discussed in a mature and sensible way adding depth to the development of the characters as they discover their feelings for each other. The hero was perhaps a little "too" perfect, but what the heck - we can all dream. Although I don't share many of the character traits of the heroine, she was someone I would like to call a friend.

The love scenes were well crafted with a sensual more than sexual feel to them. The attraction was both believable and well developed. They worked their way through awareness to desire and finally love. This seems a much more realistic approach than the full blown passion at first sight that a lot of historical writers indulge in.

All in all a good read. My only complaint was that it was a very quick read. However, with a whole series out there this was just an appetiser!