Customer Reviews

Beauty Like The Night

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

 

 

This book had everything - great characters, romance, mystery, unrequited love, delightful child and a big ginger tabby cat. What more can you ask for?

Helene is everything you want in a heroine. She is self-sufficient and a force to be reckoned with. But she is also mindful of her position as a governess and though rather a wild child at 17, she is quite different at 27. She returns to Chalcote Court and is reacquainted with a Camden Rutledge, Lord Treyhorn, her childhood cohort and first love. His young daughter, age 6, has not spoken in three years and is just the type of special child Helene has worked with for years. Camden, a widower, carries a world of responsibility on his shoulders. He also loves his daughter and wants the best for her. His staid personality conflicts with Helene's passionate nature and tension abounds each time they interact. Eventually even Cam cannot resist what his heart desires. The love scenes are sensual but not intense.

All the secondary characters are wonderful from the aging valet, to the angelic child Ariane. Bentley, Cam's brother, and Catherine, his sister, are so well fleshed out; they feel like family to the reader! And each is scheming to achieve ... what? (I'll leave you to read the book and find out!)

There are many stories in this one novel and you become thoroughly embroiled in each. And I just love a man who talks to his big ol' cat (Boadicea). I did not give this a 5 because of a rather distasteful incident involving Bentley and Helene - I didn't think it added to the story. But I still will recommend this highly - and I am off to find other Liz Carlyle books since this was my first, but definitely not my last!

This book introduced the Rutledge siblings Camden, Earl of Treyhern, his sister Catherine (No True Gentleman) and youngest brother Bentley (The Devil You Know). I read (and enjoyed) Catherine's story first, then read (and adored) Bentley's so I thought I should go back and read Cam's. Ms Carlyle has a definite knack for creating an overall tone that reflects her characters. Cam is pensive, circumspect and deliberate and, as with the man, this book had me a bit impatient waiting for things to happen. Therein lies my only complaint with this book. Because much of the story is told in flashback, at times it felt slow, like nothing was happening.

Their father, the dissolute and lecherous Randolph "Randy" Rutledge is a notorious libertine who is quickly running his estate and family into ruin. When Cam was young, his father took a mistress whose daughter Helene became Cam's best friend. But as they grew to teenage, they became something more and Cam wound up compromising Helene. Helene's mother whisked her off to the Continent never to be heard from again breaking both teens' hearts.

It falls to Cam to drag the family back from the brink of financial ruin and he does so by marrying the malevolent, but wealthy Cassandra. The marriage is torture but ends several years later with Cassandra's death and leaves Cam with a daughter who cannot or will not speak. After his father dies (while debauching the governess) Cam hires a new governess - who turns out to be his long lost Helene! The shock of seeing one another again after all these years turns them both inside out and both realize that the attraction they felt so long ago is still very much alive. But what to do about it? He's an earl and she's a mere governess. Not to mention that Cam has made a verbal agreement to marry his cousin, Joan.

Meanwhile Helene is making good progress with Ariane and determines that there is nothing physically wrong with her - that the child has suffered some sort of trauma that has caused her to keep silent. During her years on the Continent Helene studied the controversial subject of psychological disorders and feels confident that she can reach Ariane. But perhaps someone does not want Ariane to speak for fear of what she might reveal!

There's lots of emotional angst here, between Cam and Helene, between Cam and Bentley (that boy is such a lost soul!). There are also secrets to be revealed about Cam's late wife Cassandra, a shocking trip to Gretna for an unexpected couple and of course, will Ariane ever speak? A recommended read.

This story was so interesting, such a page-turner. And the author put in just enough suspense to make the reader never want it to end. I would highly recommend.

This one is not your same old romance novel. It first struck me like what you would find on a PBS series. Well written and well paced. The characters are real. The visuals you see in your minds eye are wounderful and realistic. You can feel the tension between the characters. The sexuality is smoldering. The story is intense and keepts you turning from page to page. This ones a keeper.

LC hooks the reader within the first few pages of her story. I loved that the story flows so well. LC's descriptions and depth to the characters made me feel that I truly knew what they were feeling. The flashbacks, to set the stage for certain scenes, were put together very well. These scenes were artfully introduced into the unfolding plot and helped provide clarification for the story line, especially as it pertained to the past relationship of characters. The hero's young daughter, mute and with psychological problems, was charming and engaging. The hero, a fellow with a hard exterior, is softened by the flip side we see in the fondness he feels for his cat. The love scenes are not excessive. When the characters finally come together, the reader is also highly anticipating their physical reunion at this point. The hero's young brother came across both favorably and negatively. A cad at first, he redeems himself in the end, and I truly hope Ms. Carlyle gives him his own story in the future. It's a great opportunity for a sequel. The book kept me up for two nights running, and I enjoyed every minute of it. It is highly recommended.

This is the second book I've read by LC (the first being My False Heart) and I'm simply amazed. Beautiful characterization, good suspense (well, if you've been reading them as long as I have you may figure this one out), great love scenes. . .Buy it. Enjoy it. You'll want to keep this one and read it again at a future date. PLUS, all women should buy LC's books to support her tasteful covers. No ridiculous looking half naked men and women in uncomfortable poses. Thanks LC.

Ms. Carlyle produces nothing but masterpieces! The richness of her writing, the beautiful characters she creates, and the story lines which neither insult your intelligence or make you cringe with their silliness all make her books -- all of her books -- the elite of romantic fiction. I cannot wait for her next book to be published!

"A beautifully written story" are the words that came to my mind while I was reading "Beauty Like The Night" by Liz Carlyle and those are the words I felt as I finished it. It is EXQUISITE. Liz Carlyle has a very special talent. She is a writer of "quality". Quality storylines, quality characters, quality "words". She is intelligent and so are her stories and characters. It is apparent to me as a reader, she writes with great "care".

Cam Rutledge and Helene de Severs are complex characters but one's you can feel comfortable with and care for both of them. Helene is especially interesting to me because of her "occupation" in the little studied (at the time) field of psychiatry. Their love for each other is established immediately and the obstacles between them are handled in a way that is reasonable - but not uncomplicated - yet not silly with "mistaken assumptions" - you know what I mean.

Generally children in my romance reads are very irritating to me, but the child in this story is KEY and is not "overdone". She is very endearing (and her thoughts are quite humerous in some parts).

If you haven't read this book yet, I say you'd best not miss it. Mz. Carlyle has done it again - and I say that with all sincerity.

It did not have as much sex in it as "A Woman Scourned", but as with most things, "quality" far outweighs "quantity". The love and sexual tension is beautiful, as is the "act" when it happens. I simply cannot find fault in this book.

Congratulations Ms. Carlyle on another fine piece of work!

Well I was not disappointed with the latest Liz Carlyle novel. From the first paragraph I was hooked, and chuckling all the way. I love Ms Carlyle's turn of phase and her use of humor, as she told the story of Helene and Cam. Two very contrasting individual's that are the perfect foils for each other. I am still chuckling about the way that Helene with no effort or even knowledge had Cam turned inside out and not knowing which way was up. He meant to do one thing, but just being in her presence found him doing the opposite I loved it. But more than that the book plot had substance and lead you down a merry path right into the mouth of danger. A tender story of first love's second chance, doing the right things even when they are the hard things and taking the risk for happiness. This book has something for everyone. Hats off to a great storyteller, and please keep them coming.

After writing 2 magnificent books, My False Heart and A Woman Scorned, Liz Carlyle has again written another winner! Beauty Like the Night is a wonderful, beautiful book!

When but just teenagers, Cam and Helene were best of friends. During their friendship they realized that their feelings for each other ran far deeper than friendship: They were in love with each other. Unfortunately, Helene's mother, who was the paramour of the previous Earl of Treyhern, discovered them both in a compromising position. Because of her mother's station in life, a wedding between these 2 was not permitted. So Helene was sent away to a private school in Switzerland while Cam, left with a broken heart, decided to do his duty and marry a woman befitting his station.

Faith has brought these 2 star-crossed lovers together again 10 years later, because Camden Rutledge, the Earl of Treyhern and now widowed, needs a special governess for his child Ariane who has stopped speaking after suffering a traumatizing experience. Helene de Severs, who has built a name for herself across the Continent for healing children, was just the right woman to do the job. Here starts the story of Cam and Helene rediscovering their feelings for each other with the help of excellent supporting characters that only Liz Carlyle can write!

Ariane, the 6-year-old child in the story, is believably portrayed. Not like some children in historical romances where the children are smarter and know more vocabulary far beyond their years. No, Ariane is the typical child trying to understand words and things she doesn't know. The way Liz Carlyle wrote about Ariane and her feelings is poignant and beautiful.

Bentley, the younger brother of Cam, is an absolute rake and definitely deserves a story of his own. He supported the story magnificently! Yet never overshadowing our hero and heroine.

Beauty Like the Night is so well written that the author virtually brings you in the world of Cam and Helene. When Liz Carlyle writes, she makes you feel, see, touch and smell everything giving you the feeling like you're in the book yourself!

Beauty Like the Night by Liz Carlyle is a book to definitely read and be savored, for it is a book that once you start, you will find it difficult to put down, because Liz Carlyle knows how to write romance! She delivers brilliantly and her prose is superb! BEAUTY LIKE THE NIGH is going up, together with My False Heart and A Woman Scorned, in MY KEEPER SHELF!