Afbeelding van de auteur.
15 Werken 1,159 Leden 10 Besprekingen Favoriet van 1 leden

Over de Auteur

Julie Beard is a best-selling, award-winning author of five historical novels. She is a former television journalist who has a Master's degree from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. She lives with her family in the Midwest.

Bevat de namen: Julie Beard, Julie ZZXX-Beard

Werken van Julie Beard

Romance of the Rose (1998) 79 exemplaren
My Fair Lord (2000) 76 exemplaren
The Duchess' Lover (2002) 69 exemplaren
The Maiden's Heart (1999) 67 exemplaren
Very Truly Yours (2001) 67 exemplaren
Dance in Heather (1996) 56 exemplaren
Falcon and the Sword (1997) 52 exemplaren
Midnight Angel (2003) 45 exemplaren
Lady and the Wolf (1994) 44 exemplaren
Kiss of the Blue Dragon (2004) 38 exemplaren
Touch of the White Tiger (2005) 16 exemplaren
Man in the Mirror 5 exemplaren

Tagged

Algemene kennis

Geslacht
female
Nationaliteit
USA

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Besprekingen

The Charmed anthology brings together four stylistically different authors under one common theme: romance at Halloween. Jayne Ann Krentz (writing as Jayne Castle, her futuristic romance pseudonym) takes us into the future to the novella that began her Harmony series of books, Lori Foster gives a passionate spin to treasure hunting and ghosts with a story that's part of her Winston brothers novellas, Julie Beard travels back in time to King Arthur and Eileen Wilks has a slightly gothic flair to a paranormal contemporary with djinn and witches.

Of the four stories I definitely enjoyed Castle's the best. I've been a fan of her Harmony books for several years now, but had not read this particular novella. There's less cohesion to the world, with more flair for the dramatic then usually found in the books, but the couple Sam Gage and Virginia Burch are sizzling. It was fun to see the guy so uncertain about where he stands with a woman and wanting love, not just sex. Virginia, also wanting love, but willing to settle for the sex if need be, is feisty and stubborn, but their respect for each other is apparent.

Foster's was the hottest of the four and gives the phrase 'grand passion' a literal meaning. I loved Allison. Hands down she was entertaining. Casually arguing with a ghost while trying to keep her wayward--and explicit--thoughts to herself and battle the flirtations of her long time crush sparked some interesting comments. Chase was very aggressive at first, but its understandable given the amount of frustration he must have been feeling. There was an unnecessary thread, involving an ex of Allison's, that was just kind of there as added 'danger' at the end, but overall this was a fun and often amusing story.

I enjoyed Beard's story the least of all the stories included. It was too pat, too predictable. It started out really well, with a crazy fortune-telling lady and misfortune and Woden's Curse, but devolved into a standard romance rather quickly. Tristan is entirely too nice and understanding for a guy in King Arthur's time, Katherine takes her time traveling really well (as well as the marauding Saxons) and the development of their relationship is pretty much off screen so to speak. Various mystics tell them both, about each other before they meet so they're already pre-disposed to falling in love. There is a clever trickery of words used, but even then the romance that develops from that is just so-so.

Wilks' story was a little confusing, and involved more psychological thinking then I usually like in a romance, but it was pretty basic. Dora and John, two seemingly dependable and staid people, are hiding secrets from each other. Which turns out to be an issue since Dora's secret puts her at risk because of John's secret and both together just makes them combustible. There was more wordplay trickery involved in here, which was funny but not discussed overmuch. The ending is a little abrupt with the consequences of their actions occurring and then lovely discussion begins, but it was fun. Plus I like romances involving djinns.

Overall this collection was entertaining and fun, but other then Jayne Castle I don't believe I'd read any of the other authors separate works based upon what I read here.
… (meer)
 
Gemarkeerd
lexilewords | 4 andere besprekingen | Dec 28, 2023 |
There are four stories in this book by four different authors. I liked the last two better than the first two because the cats were more involved in the stories.
 
Gemarkeerd
eliorajoy | Dec 16, 2019 |
Organized, easy to read, plenty of input from published authors, including everything from plotting to characterization to approaching agents and editors. All about writing and publishing and promoting your romance with all kinds of tidbits about the romance business. Helpful.
 
Gemarkeerd
jakohnen | Sep 13, 2018 |
 
Gemarkeerd
Ebeth.Naylor | 4 andere besprekingen | Sep 30, 2013 |

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Statistieken

Werken
15
Leden
1,159
Populariteit
#22,170
Waardering
½ 3.4
Besprekingen
10
ISBNs
22
Talen
2
Favoriet
1

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