Date: 23 May 2011, 07:57
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Because of the average star rating and the generally glowing reviews I decided that for my first foray into Susan Johnson's novels I'd choose Blaze (and Outlaw). A mistake of blazing proportions (pun intended). This book has gone straight into the charity sack. Why? Well, usually I wish a book could go on forever, not this one - it was too long and I think a lot of it could have been cut out to improve the rambling and convoluted plot; I found myself skim reading it, which is something I very rarely do. As for the hero (Hazard) and heroine (Blaze) - I disliked both intensely up until the very end, only slightly redemying themselves in my eyes. But what about the sexual tension and the sex? Very mundane. It's hard to see why Hazard was thought to be such a great lover. As for Blaze, she came across as desperate, and not in an attractive 'romantic' way. Love, you ask? I reply that until the very end of the book I was not sure if they loved each other; their relationship was not 'loving'. Moreover, Hazard doubted Blaze until very near the end; in my opinion in order to love you also need to trust them. As I got Outlaw at the same time and read them within days of each other it was hard not to compare them and find the similar in a lot of ways. I don't know if this is Susan Johnson's formula, but this is what I noticed: hero has a lot of sex with lots of different women before meeting heroine, meets and has sex/sexual encounter with heroine very quickly after meeting, stops having sex/sexual encounter with the heroine (and not uncommon for the hero to then have sex with someone else), hero has sex with the heroine, hero *suddenly* realises he loves heroine and vice versa, more sex, a misunderstanding or separation occurs, hero and heroine reunite. All pretty standard historical fare, which is not a bad thing. I suppose the problem I have with Blaze is that I found the relationship between the heroine and heroine unconvincing, added to the fact I found both unattractive. However, Outlaw is a lot better. I believed that Outlaw's hero and heroine (both attractive characters, although the hero was a bit annoying) did love each other by half way through, and they did have a loving relationship for about half the book; I still was not keen on the first half.
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