Comments on: REVIEW: Beau Crusoe by Carla Kelly

By: Questionable Taste: Analyzing The Cannibal Romance - Olivia Waite

Questionable Taste: Analyzing The Cannibal Romance - Olivia Waite — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 22:23:58 +0000

[...] reviews across the web are mixed, but count me as one of those who fell completely in love with our hero and this [...]

By: DeAnn Wiley

DeAnn Wiley — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 22:12:33 +0000

My doughters, husband & I are BIG Kelly fans, but were ALL very disappointed that she had to bring the sex into her novel. Her book would have been just as wonderful as all her other Regency’s without the explicit sex!

By: Jayne

Jayne — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 23:14:39 +0000

Yes, I did get the epilogue (and can’t really see why her editor wanted it cut) so I saw that things worked out but I still would have been leery of ever heading out to sea again, myself. ;)

By: jmc

jmc — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 16:04:30 +0000

Jayne,

Did you contact CK for the “Dear Reader” epilogue that she wrote? It is quite short, but her editor cut it; she offered it to readers on the RtR message board at AAR.

I’m not a big fan of epilogues that wrap everything up neatly, but this was not one of those. It did let you know, though, that the risk turned out okay.

~jmc

By: Jayne

Jayne — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 14:34:07 +0000

Yeah, what Rachel said! ;)

By: AAR Rachel

AAR Rachel — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 14:21:06 +0000

Jayne, I had a very similar response. Thanks for the review.

By: Jayne

Jayne — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 14:03:19 +0000

Phyl, I hope that HH has the sense to contract Mrs Kelly to many more books. As I said, I think she did a great job with the longer HH length. Other former trad regency authors have stumbled a bit with excess padding but not CK.

I’m also a CK fangrrl but I had to be honest about some of the problems I saw in this book.

But I so totally agree with you that it’s a delight to read a book that isn’t bursting at the seams with Dukes and Marquesses. CK has always had a nice touch with the Common Man.

By: Phyl

Phyl — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 13:10:25 +0000

I liked this well enough to give it an A in my log. Maybe it’s the CK fangirl in me, you know, just the plain old joy of holding a brand new Carla Kelly book in my hands, but I truly think that BC is one of CK’s better books (Mrs. Drew still being tops in my mind). While I agree that 2 weeks was too short a time for some of this stuff to happen, I also think CK did her best to make it as believeable as possible. I liked the way James’ backstory is slowly unveiled; there’s no massive info dump to start the book. Perhaps I’ve watched Master and Commander too many times, but I found it easy to visualize his life at sea. And I could totally get that after 5 years of total isolation, life around people would make him claustraphobic enough to make certain choices that are probably spoilers.

But through all of it, I just enjoyed CK’s style of writing: the way we hear her characters talk to themselves, her touches of humor, characters who are closer to “normal” people than dukes, and nary a spy is sight. When I wrote her to ask for a copy of her epilogue I told her how much I’d enjoyed this and asked if she has more books planned. She replied that she’s submitted 2 ideas to Harlequin but hadn’t heard back yet. Here’s hoping they’re buying.