Tonight was the June WoWO Discussion and we discussed Wild Heart by Lori Brighton. The WoWO group won copies of Wild Heart from Lori through the
http://www.authordiannalove.com/ website. This is a really great website with lots of information on Dianna Love as well as other authors. If you sign your book group up they give away copies of books regularly; just sign up once and you are entered for all drawings. When I was contacted by Cassondra from the authorDiannaLove.com website I was so excited that the WoWO won copies and we would read a book from a debut author. Little did we know that it would be such a fantastic book, and that Lori would be so pleasant to deal with when sending the copies and so much more. Lori signed each book individually named to each member, she included a bunch of goodies that can be found in England, autographed book cover memorabilia boards (sorry I am unsure what to call them but they are cool) and the all this came with a very nice personal letter from Lori to the group. Lori made the entire experience of winning the books and discussing the story, that much more enjoyable.
WoWO Rating: 4.3/5 Stars
Personal Rating: 4.5/5 Stars
Pub. Date: November 2009
Publisher: Kensington Publishing
Format: Mass Market Paperback, 320pp
ISBN:
1420108654Genre: Historical Paranormal Romance
Debut Novel
About Wild Heart:
In Sussex England in the late 1800's, Ella is hired to be governess to Leo Roberts who is the next in line for earldom. Leo, the grandson of Lord Roberts is said to be wild and in great need of refinement. Ella does not know what to expect from this boy who is to be earl, but how bad could it be? When Ella learns that the grandson to be Earl is actually a grown man she quickly becomes concerned that he is too wild to refine. Leo is completely untamed and animalisic, raised on his own in the wild of India after his parents were brutally murdered. Leo's grandfather needs Ella's help in making Leo presentable enough to take over earldom when the time comes. Ella wonders how she is suppose to make him presentable, refined and learn the ways of his class when he is a grown man who seems to be too wild to help and doesn't particular care to be helped. Ella, and this reader of the book, become taken with Leo rather quickly and their attraction is too wild to contain.
The romance scenes in this book are STEAMY and well written. Coming from someone who does not typically read romance, I was completely captivated by this story. This book is not just a Historical Romance, there is a twist of paranormal running through this book as well as some mystery and adventure. I don't want to give away anything to the plot so I left the paranormal out of the synopsis, but trust me it adds an extra element to make the story even better than the steamy attraction between Ella and Leo.
Personally , I absolutely loved this story. I wanted to give it 5 stars but just couldn't bring myself to do it. My main reason for giving the book a 4.5 over a 5 was more about the genre than the book itself, I think Im in denial that I love Historical Paranormal Romance. I can't find anything wrong with the story itself, the writing was absolutely spot on and perfect, but I have trouble giving 5 stars to a book that isn't a book like "The Help". I'm working on this though, and will definitely read the next book that Lori has coming out next year called "Wild Desire".
The WoWO Discussion (Contains Spoilers):
Everyone of the WoWO who read the book, loved it. We all pretty much agreed on every point of the discussion. We felt that in the beginning we did not know what to expect from this book. By the cover and synopsis it looked to be on the trashy side but once we started reading, it grabbed us and we realized quickly that it was very well written and the romance wasn't trashy at all. The different scenes and settings in the book were vivid and easily pictured. We thought that the supernatural elements (Ella feeling emotions) was a nice twist to the story, standing itself out from other Historical Romances. We liked that you didn't know much about Leo and his past but the reader learned about him through Ella's point of view, with her flashes of memories she got from Leo and his telling her stories as well.
During Leo and Ella's first conversation by the sea, everyone expected that Leo really needed Ella and we were surprised and happy that he was pretending to be savage and he was actually well spoken and intelligent. As far as the romance in the story goes, we though it was STEAMY and enticing and well done. Some of our favorite steamy scenes were the picture painting, the skinny dipping, the folly in the rain and the final love scene where they finally get to consumate their attraction. One of us was frustrated with the lack of completion of the earlier love scenes in the book (She wants all sex all the time - lucky girl ;)), but the rest of us loved the suspense and attraction that it caused and how happy we felt when they finally did have their moment.
Some of the early suspects to Leo's parents death were Akshay, Henry, Henry's father. No one really suspected that the Grandfather was involved in the cover-up but we feel it made for a good twist to the story. The author stated to me in a note that readers either love Leo or hate him and we can't figure out why anyone would hate him, he was absolutely perfect. Everyone liked Ella and felt she was a lucky girl to have found Leo :) (Hey Jealousy!) Everyone's favorite character was.. surprise --- LEO. Our Least favorite character was the Grandfather - He only cared about a having a proper successor and didn't care who was hurt in the process.
Our final thoughts on the story were that we all enjoyed the book more than we thought we would at first, it was a very pleasant surprise. We would definitely recommend the book to others (I already have!) One of us, loved the meat of the story but was disappointed in the beginning and the ending, she felt the ending left too many loose ends. Everyone else however, loved how the ending was left open for more of the story to come later in another book.
We felt the cover of the book was fitting to the story. We thought the title was good but something more savage like would have been more fitting for us... "Savage Heart" was our best take at a good title (We don't claim to be experts here..lol)
We as a group would love to read her next book called "Wild Desire", coming out in 2011. This book features Ella's cousin Colin, so we hope it continues the story. We would however be more excited to read the continuation of Ella and Leo's story. We would like to see a follow up on the Statues mentioned in the story and more about what the map is, as well as what the future holds for Leo, Ella, Akshay and Fran.
Top: Myself, Linda
Bottom: Louise, Karen, Peggy
Missing from Picture: Lori
(Yes, that picture in the background is the WoWO painting from the Love Ceiling!)
The book chosen for next WoWO discussion is Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert on July 30th.
This book fits the following Category/Challenges:
- Hogwarts Reading Challenge
- The Romance Reading Challenge
- RYOB Challenge
- Monthly Mixer Mele Challenge
- New Authors Challenge
Rating: 4/5 Stars
