We’ve reviewed Anne Stuart 36 times. She began writing in 1977–I believe her first published book was Barrett’s Hill. We didn’t review her until 1996 when we gave Prince of Swords a C-. Laurie Gold wrote:
….made me even less happy with Prince of Swords, which suffers from a hero so unrepentant and just plain bad that the only decent thing about him was his love for the heroine, admitted on the very last page of the book. This ne’er-do-well is the Earl of Glenshiel, Alistair MacAlpin, a cat burglar who steals from the rich and gives to the poor – only the poor is himself, which he isn’t … anymore. Oh, I suppose the author thought to make him a bit more palatable in that he only steals from those who can afford it. And, once, he actually did a kind thing for one of his victims. But in general, he has no remorse, for himself, for others, and especially not for the heroine of this tome, impoverished noblewoman Jessamine Maitland, who gets him all hot and bothered with her intriguing eyes and innocence. Frankly, he expects to die and doesn’t care a whit about anybody or anything along the way.
We like the next book we reviewed, A Rose at Midnight, much better. That book, a DIK, we praised for its masterful writing and blazing hot chemistry.
Over the past 26 years, we’ve given Ms. Stuart nine DIKs, 29 Bs, 4 Cs, and two Ds. I can attest that every time one of her books is a Steal or Deal, we sell it like hotcakes.
I personally count several of Ms. Stuart’s books as personal favorites. Reckless is one of my favorite historical romances–it would be in my top ten– and I routinely re-read the Ice series because it’s just so compelling. That said, it’s been over ten years since she wrote anything I’ve loved–I gave the last book I reviewed of hers a B.
Stuart is one of those authors that makes many readers and reviewers angry. Search Anne Stuart reviews on the web and you’ll see her heroes defined as rapists, asses, and dishonorable. Her heroines can be TSTL, overly naive, and unbelievably enviably sexually responsive. And yet readers love her–her latest, a self-pubbed historical romance, is a 4.5 star read at Amazon.
What do you think about Ms. Stuart? Do you love her works? Have you changed how you see them? And if you don’t like her stories, why not?
I never got into her.
Because so many people love her, and people whose reviews I trust review her highly, I have tried her contemporaries (Nightfall and a few more), and her historicals (Reckless among them) , and they never clicked for me.
I tried maybe 4 or five times, over years, so I just conclude “she does not work for me.”
Main reason:
Her heroes grate. I do not mind their morals, or their history, that could be fun, I have liked much worse heroes – but they are so convincingly despising /hating/ demeaning women in general & her heroines in particular, that I just do not believe they will ever respect them, even should they love them. They are a macho trope that I just do not like, where love is like breaking apart and becoming a lesser person, like a defeat, not a surrender to something greater.
And the heroine seems to accept it, and even forgive it, which makes her unhealthy for me – she is settling because of love, not better off.
Her books end in a lose/lose, not a win/win = not a HEA for me.
I like other “unhealthy” relationship tropes, including HPs, and some of those Ice Barbarian /forced seduction fantasy type books are fun to me, so I have just concluded that it is something about her tone of writing the h/h that does not click.
Lieselotte, you pretty much nailed this author for me as well. Tried her several times. (The Ice series is the one I can recall specifically.) And the writing just never worked for me. My reading journal notes suggest that I don’t like her characters. More than one “TSTL” comment. More than one DNF for me in the handful I read/tried.
I agree in that Stuart has stuck with her version of romance–very iffy men whose behavior IRL would be a non-starter–AND yet I love reading about them.
I just discovered Anne Stuart in the last year, based solely on a recommendation I read here. The heroes are so BAD and yet I can’t stop reading! And when I do put the book down, I can’t wait to pick it back up. I prefer story lines where the hero and heroine clash for most of the book. If they get together too early, I lose interest. So, I guess Anne Stuart just checks all my boxes! 🙂
I just read Nightfall–a terribly flawed book, it reads as if half the book is missing–and I STILL couldn’t put it down.
Whatever it is she has, it’s unique.
I’ve tried her a couple of times and liked but didn’t love the books. I always plan to pick up some of her other works to see if they work better for me but never seem to get around to it. 🙂
I don’t know that there are many authors who write heroes the way she does and I absolutely love her for it. Ruthless and Breathless are two of my favourite historical romances.
She’s very hit or miss for me, and there’s no predicting what I’ll like or dislike. Often what I like is in spite of problems or tropes I dislike in the story. I agree that her books are often compulsively readable. She’s a guilty pleasure sort of author for me. And kudos to the author for writing what she wants rather than following trends.
Yes. This.
It’s been ages since I’ve read her but I think that she might fall into that ‘liked when I was a teen, not so much now’ ravine that Catherine Coulter’s work lies in within my mind.
I listened to her Ice series on audio, which were excellently narrated, and really enjoyed them even though the heroes are not my type even back when I read them. I won’t revisit them because I suspect I’ll hate the heroes now and it will ruin the memories for me. 🙂
It depends on the book for me.
Like Dabney I really enjoyed some from her Ruthless/Reckless series. There was one from that I hated though because for me the hero crossed the line into psychopath.
I do appreciate that she has her own style and ideas and stays true to them. If it’s not for you, then there are plenty of other authors.
I think she was ahead of the times in some ways as I recall her having a hero that was very nonchalant about having been with men before as well as women at a time when it was very shocking and somewhat polarizing.
You’re talking about Lucien from Breathless, I think. He’s one of my least favorite Stuart leads of all time. Just a creep from beginning to end. BUT, I adore the secondary romance in that book between Janey and Jacob, the King of Thieves. It’s just the best. So, I end up liking that book despite the icky Scorpion.
I love most everything she has written. She’s an auto buy. I have fewer and fewer of those these days. There have been a few of her earliest books I didn’t really like, but the vast majority of her books just catch me in just the right way. Maybe it’s the bad man who continues to be not so good that contrasts so well with the perfect men in most books. One would think I would also be drawn to the motorcycle club books or the mafia books, but they don’t appeal at all.
it’s just a great voice with a different appeal.
I do think there’s something compelling about a flawed hero/heroine. Recently, I’ve read a bunch of books where the leads are so admirable and–I think this maybe says something dubious about me–I find it dull. What’s to root for?
I love how Stuart makes us root for men and women that we just aren’t sure about–she makes me want to keep turning the pages.
Exactly! Two other books that really hit me just right were Chase’s Lord of Scoundrels and the Kleypas book Devil in Winter. I know these two books are debated often, but they, too, are favorites.
Both very popular books with complex, very flawed heroes.
It’s some time I’ve read one of her books. As I remember I started reading her in German and that’s really long ago. She was never a favorite – because of the morals of her heroes and the problems with the doormat heroines. As I remember correctly after starting reading romance in English (ebook times arriving!) there were many more choices to select from and Stuart was no longer of interest.
“A rose a midnight” was a DNF for me. Not because of the heroine, who definitely wasn’t one of Stuart’s doormat editions, but because of the whiny, self-pitying and posturing hero.
Interesting. I don’t remember it well.
I think I only read her contemporaries for Harlequin American. I looked at Goodreads, and I am sure that at one time I read Banish Misfortune; I would need more cover images to sort out other titles I might have read. Some I might have reread before 1998 or so, but I think I have discarded them all. The only Harlequin Americans I know I have now are by Anne McAllister.
As I recall, I did not even buy her historicals. When I like an author, I try to read their work even if they involve different subgenres, although I don’t always read everything. My recollection is that Stuart’s work outside of the HA titles just did not appeal to me at the time. So I stopped looking for her work.