My Dearest Enemy in Alpha Heroes & Spitfire Heroines

Feb 03, 2009 Dina rated it it was amazing

Shelves: historical-romance, dik

This was the first book by Connie Brockway I've read, but it won't be the last.

My Dearest Enemy has it all: it's funny and, at the same time, heartbreaking, Romantic - yes, with a capital "R"! - and has two of the most charming couples I've "met" in Romancelandia. Avery and Lily made me laugh with their initial witty banter, made me cry when their individual beliefs tore them apart, and made me sigh in happiness with their HEA.

There is NOTHING I can fault in this book. It's a keeper and I can se ...more

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Jun 09, 2010 鈾arlyn P鈾� rated it it was amazing

Shelves: genre-historical, top-100-favorites, read-2010, steam-warm

A super romantic historical, with an H/h story that was deeply passionate and from the heart. I loved it. I shed a few tears in the end. And such great bantering/dialog between the H/h, what fun it was when these two were communicating together. Set in the countryside of England in the late 1800鈥檚, he was a captivating beta-type hero who grew up with physical disabilities which he had to overcome, and she was a devoted woman鈥檚 rights leader with a past that fully explains her point of view on ma ...more

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Jun 10, 2009 Eastofoz rated it liked it

Shelves: historical-regency

A bit 鈥榤eh鈥�, a bit 鈥榖lah鈥�, a bit 鈥榦h-look-I鈥檓-on-page-150-and-still-nothing-is-happening-what-else-is-on-TBR鈥�, yeah this book just didn鈥檛 do it for me and I had some high hopes too. I was expecting a Lisa Kleypas 鈥淚t Happened One Autumn鈥� or a Loretta Chase 鈥淟ord of Scoundrels鈥� battle of words but it was neither and just a really average ho-hum read.

It's the story of two adversaries fighting it out to get ownership of a house in five years time. The hero who was supposed to inherit the house got A bit 鈥榤eh鈥�, a bit 鈥榖lah鈥�, a bit 鈥榦h-look-I鈥檓-on-page-150-and-still-nothing-is-happening-what-else-is-on-TBR鈥�, yeah this book just didn鈥檛 do it for me and I had some high hopes too. I was expecting a Lisa Kleypas 鈥淚t Happened One Autumn鈥� or a Loretta Chase 鈥淟ord of Scoundrels鈥� battle of words but it was neither and just a really average ho-hum read.

It's the story of two adversaries fighting it out to get ownership of a house in five years time. The hero who was supposed to inherit the house got on his dead relative's nerves and to teach him a lesson the dead guy decreed in his will that he had to play a wait and see game with the heroine. She (a nobody who was aquainted with the dead guy) does her best to manage the house and make a profit because if she does after five years it'll be hers finally giving her a place in society. During the five years she has to send the hero his allowance (he's roaming the world during that time) and that's how they stay in touch and write some in-yer-face-Jack letters to each other until they finally meet once the end of the five years approaches.

The back blurb is quite the eye-catcher with these scathing letters to wet your whistle between the h/h. Well that鈥檚 about as good as it gets. Sort of like the really good movie preview but a real dud of a movie when you see. This book had its moments but they were far and very few between. The h/h were well-developed with lots of potential but they were rarely together in the novel and having shared only two kisses over 220 pages I was really getting fed up. To top it all off anytime they were in close proximity someone was 鈥榮uddenly鈥� interrupting them. Now this can be used as a good tension builder but when the reader gets the feeling it鈥檚 going to happen every single time it gets irritating and it鈥檚 hard to enjoy the meager moments. Even the 鈥榖ig鈥� moment was disappointing and I felt short changed, gypped, scammed, MAD! Ahemmm, yeah, I hate reading a book that doesn鈥檛 deliver on the final goods so to speak. I鈥檓 not saying that they had to get it on early on or anything but a little more development in the bedroom would have been appreciated after all those 鈥榠nterruptions鈥� over the course of 300 pages (!)

There was some good banter, sarcasm but it never went anywhere. Things were at a standstill in terms of the relationship development between Avery and Lily. There was a lot of potential but the author felt it was more important to talk about the mundane with secondary characters or harping on women鈥檚 rights and a man being a gentleman than advancing the story at times. There's also a lot of narration that skirts the boring more than once or suddenly things happen and you have to go back and reread to make sure you understand where "that" just came from. It鈥檚 pretty much just a slightly less than average read with some good parts chucked in hither and yon so to speak to remind you it鈥檚 a romance novel :-/

Though it had a nice ending, I can鈥檛 say I really believed in the all encompassing love between Avery and Lily. They suddenly loved each other even though there was no real build-up to it. You can鈥檛 love someone if you鈥檙e hardly with them. Love/hate stories are my favourite and though the basis of this one had that, it just didn鈥檛 take off and sort of stayed at second base throughout all those pages. So it鈥檚 okay, but quite forgettable.
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Mar 12, 2009 ChloeLeeNH rated it really liked it

Shelves: antagonistic-h-h

I read this as a recommendation and I really enjoyed it. I feel that it was witty and orignial. But I could also tell that the writing was from at least a decade ago. Not sure if that matters but the witty wasn't 200- witty. I don't know it was just me maybe. I wished there was more correspondence but I loved how it really made the story come full circle with the events that happened when they met and did battle for the house face to face. Thank you for the recommendation everyone! ...more

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