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6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Utter dross, 26 Nov 2001
I have never read one of Johanna Lindsey's books before, despite them enjoying quite a good reputation. I finally took a chance and picked out 'Secret Fire' because of the unusual setting - "A Russian romance," I thought. "Hmm, sounds interesting."Unfortunately, the book has turned out to be so bad that I haven't finished it. I read the first hundred pages, skimmed the rest to see whether it got any better, and have now put it into my "Get rid of this quickly" pile. The premise is that Lady Katherine St. John is mistaken for a common maid, and is kidnapped to serve the pleasure of Russian prince Dmitri Alexandrov. Through some extremely loose reasoning, she is taken back to Russia. Of course, Dmitri falls in love with her and they all live happily ever after. The most striking problem is that the standard of writing is possibly the worst there is: not bad, but competent and pedestrian. There is no life in the prose and it is dull, dull, dull to read. Another big difficulty was the first sex scene. Lady Katherine is given a potent aphrodisiac, and she is so aroused that it is Dmitri's duty to satisfy her. Is it just me that finds this a little dubious? Swap the handsome prince for a less physically attractive individual, and would the situation be the same? I don't think so... And a last, rather petty gripe: the cover sucks. I didn't get the edition you see above, but rather a nasty peach affair, with metalic turquoise script and a poor painting of a torch. Don't get burned - avoid 'Secret Fire'.
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by Johanna Lindsey
by Johanna Lindsey
by Johanna Lindsey
by Johanna Lindsey
by Johanna Lindsey
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