[Giovanna Clairval]

I read them all, all the darped eleven. I was captivated by the first four, and then I kept reading for the following reasons:

1) wanted to know how the various stories would end;
2) the characters grew on me (although RJ didn’t understand much about the feminine psyche), and I liked the way RJ handled the POVs;
3) in spite of the manifest incompetence of the line-editor, the writing was lulling, with all those dresses, and details, and actions (for the first novels); it made for great evasion!
4) a few passages and swirls of imagination were remarkable indeed, not the whole, though. At some time, I thought RJ was just paying off his stables full of Arabian horses, or a mansion overhanging the ocean or whatnot.

Too, too long, but those great passages, and the characters, and the wealth of details… I did enjoy the read, while my rational mind snorted, and Rubescant, my kind sword, was wagging her hilt and wanted to slash a sentence here, a sentence there…

I hope they publish the last one. They must!