Review: Made me LIVE the story!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 01 17, 2014
Wow! This is the first work of Ms. Stein's that I've read and I'm ready to go buy ALL of them! Compelling, relatable characters, a subplot that moved along nicely but never got in the way of the romance and simply some of the best characterization and tightest writing I have seen in a long, long time.Head-hopping -- wildly swapping points of view between the heroine, hero and even the villain -- has become a big problem in modern romance novels, IMHO. Stein NEVER loses focus, instead allowing us to absolutely inhabit the mind of Margot through ever word on the page. Yet while never dislodging the reader from Margo's awareness, Stein also gives us plenty of cues as to what Sergei is thinking and feeling, and they're all the more savory because Margot so often misses or misinterprets those same cues.Margot is every misfit trying to fit in and find love, and Sergei is that most wonderful archetype, the hero with steel biceps and a soft, mushy heart. It's rare indeed that I read a romance novel in which I equally adore the heroine and the hero - usually one is more appealing than the other. But both Margo and Sergei are profoundly lovable, heroic figures.Finally, the humor is ever-present and always appropriate, mixing slapstick, pathos and outright raunch in the perfect blend. Love scenes are HOT and descriptive, but clearly exist to move the story along and not just for titillation.I'm now officially a Charlotte Stein fan!