Customer Reviews

Storm Winds

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Can't stop reading until I finished this book. Great read!

One reason that this book is so great is that it is long enough to let us get to know and care about the characters. This is the second book in her Wind Dancer Series...after THE WIND DANCER and before REAP THE WIND. The book FINAL TAGET is also related to the series.

First of all I should mention that this book has two aspects that not all readers might enjoy. The hero of our story is overbearing. He's hard on her...he makes her do things that are rough on her but help her in the end. For the most part the men in this series are a little that way, so if you think that will bother you, this might not be the book for you! Secondly, this book takes place during the height of the French Revolution. Some pretty nasty things happen to the aristocrats of the novel...including the main characters. I don't want to give it all away, but these aren't women that are fresh out of a school room...dancing at balls and meeting men...it is a well-researched romance novel about a war against aristocracy ...including women and children.

That being said, I love love loved this book! Johansen's writing style in great...I loved Juliet, our neglected, frieldless herione. She has that all too true "fix-it" attitude with everyone around her takes charge of almost every situation. The novel takes us all over France, which I liked, and lets us follow the stories of the more minor characters without feeling like we are losing time with the main ones. We also get some time lapse which was nice because Johansen really let us get to know her in her adolescence and then shows us how that changed her later. This book is great and I think everyone should check it out!!!

Storm Winds is a novel unlike any that I have read. It may take place during the French Revolution, as many other historical romance novels do, but this one is exceptional.
Juliette is courageous and yet vulnerable. Alone in the world except for her paints. She meets Jean Marc and the two are drawn to one another. Jean Marc is dark and brooding. It seems as if he must wear a mask to hide his true feelings.
Juliette forms a friendship with Catherine, Jean Marc's cousin. Catherine is kind and sweet. At first she may seem shy and weak, but after everything that she and Juliette go through, she becomes strong and sure of herself and finds love as well.
Jean Marc and Juliette risk everything for the Wind Dancer. And in the end Juliette finally feels needed and loved and Jean Marc finds that he can love and trust a woman again.
Iris paints a fascinating picture with words. She makes you feel everything you read, everything a character is going through, you can see it through their eyes.
All in all if you want a book and an author who is utterly unique read Storm Winds and you won't be dissapointed.

This story is set during the Reign of Terror in France and, while some historic liberties were take, the author does explain what she did in an author's note. There is the main romance between Juliette, a woman who grew up at court and doesn't know the meaning of the world "subtly," and Jean Marc, who is a businessman who is very subtle and manipulative but also passionate and loyal. There is a secondary romance between Catherine, Juliette's best friend and Jean Marc's ward, and Francois, a revolutionary paid by Jean Marc to marry Catherine.

Juliette and Jean Marc are two of my favorite romance characters. Catherine and Francois have an interesting and strange side romance. All their stories are rather dark, compelling, and sensual. This is not a light afternoon read, but instead a gripping tale. This is the first book I'd recommend if I were to recommend an historical romance to someone who doesn't normally read romances.

I have read a lot of historical romances and this one is absolutely on the top of my list, and I am a very critical reader. I have read all three of the triology, and I find that Iris's style of adding another romance to the main plot very interesting indeed, because not a lot of authors at all do that. Some of my freinds found that irritating, for they say that the second-romances could have been made into books of their own and not as a sidedish pushed into the story. But I think it is quite an catching style. The double scenes gave an enthralling contrast as to the two pairs personalities and their love story. For instance, I personally do like Juliette and Jean Marc's romantic story better, most likely because I am much more found of Juliette's character over Catherine's. But Catherine and Francois have a class of their own, thier story is so different yet so much attached to that of Juliette and Jean Marc's. And Iris chose,wisely, what I think is the best setting for romatic books, during wartime. The background gave the story much more taste, for the characters change so much during the book, which I think such dramatic changes can only be seemly with along the setting, and war is the perfect solution.
I've heard that a lot of readers found this book too bloody and barbaric...
This is absolutely fantastic book, read it, and maybe you have just found a jewel for your romatic fantasy world, because I had.

Iris Johansen is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors, there's not one book I have read by this author I haven't liked yet! Strom Winds captivated me from start to finish. I felt the characters and the plot were very well developed and strong.

Juliet, a woman hid behind armor, strong persuasive and brutally honest yet behind it all caring, sensitive, and a wish to be loved. Her childhood wasn't easy - her mother blinded by Royals and gold. Her nanny, cruel and abusive. Her only escape was in her paintings.

Jean Marc Andreas, a man of strong will, great business sense and also caring sensitive man whom is determined to fulfill his fathers greatest wish, to return the Wind Dancer back to the Andreas family.

France is at war, The King, Queen and many nobles captured. Life everywhere is in shambles, not even women, children or Godly figures are excluded from the madness.

And yet Jean Marc and Juliet share paths time and time again... fate ?

There's so much more to this story...
Storm winds will forever be etched in my memory
A must read !

It is well written book. No doubt. It is worth 5 star in some aspect. But I just feel sick when I'm through this book. It is literally bloody everywhere, just horrible. The reason I write this review is that I want to warn someone who check the previous reviews before buying books. When I read romance book I expect something sweet that gives me a few moments of rest. There are more than enogh bitterness and cruelty in my real life. I don't want extra emotional suffering for entertainment.

If you are one of my kind, never try this one or one of its trilogy. I hardly understand why this book is in romance book category. It is anything but romance.

I'm a big fan of Iris Johansenn and never regretted spending my money on her books. This is one of the great historical romances trilogy stories, starting from The Wind DAncer, Storm Winds and finally Reap the Wind. It has great plots, rich characters,gorgeous sceneries and of course dazzling heroes and heroines. You will fall in love in these books and will transport you into another time in a totally different world. Ms. Iris Johansenn switched into suspense thriller+ action nowadays and she didn't dissappoint her fans at all. She still a great "love story" writer no matter what genre she's into.

This book has truely opened my eyes to the suffering that the ppl of yesteryear faced. now it doesnt seem so glam anymore. to me the romance betweeen juliet and jean marc was the pulling fator for me. in fact i totally didnt notice catherine's love life. of course i pitied her but then.....she wasnt as strong or as endearing as Juliet was. i really really fell in love with juliet and jean marc....they were just perfect. what jean marc gave to juliet towards the end of the book was also i think something i had not seen in other romance books. it wasnt my first iris johansen book and i just think she gets bettter and better. juliet is my heroine..she never loses her strenght even when her adversaries r too huge for her. jean marc is the perfect jaded hero who learns to trust dear juliet.

definitely one of me top books

three cheers to Iris Johansen

If you chance to be considering this book, get it and read it. I shan't dictate the choice of books, but this has me enthralled. The trilogy has me spellbound.

This was the first I read of the Wind Dancer series despite its not being the first in sequence, but Juliette and Jean-Marc will live on in my mind even when I forget who they are. They are shown so elementally and at such a level that it's hard not to identify aspects with them.

There are shocking parts of 'Storm Winds' and it may be a little too intense for younger readers, but it has a poignant flavour and has such a unique plot, so well entwined, that one cannot help but admire it. It could be mistaken for simplistic writing but it's not for light reading at all.

Catherine, especially, is one character besides the vibrant Juliette that I shall keep dear to my heart. A woman who has experienced what she does may be able to empathise. The Wind Dancer itself is a symbol of Catherine, I think, more than anything else; it has an unparalleled immortality, legendary and powerful, able to capture the fascination of sensitive beholders, and yet in this story we may all read the price one pays for the existence of something with such earth-shaking value.

Anyone who reads this series should, I believe, be able to extract something deep and rich to chew on, and can fall in love with reading such a well written book. Congratulations, Johanssen.