Rate this book

The Substitute (2000)

by Tionne Rogers(Favorite Author)

4.11 of 5 Votes: 5

languge

English

genre

Romance

publisher

Tionne Rogers

series

Guntram de Lisle

review 1: Ooops i guess i am in minority here..i enjoy reading a good dark romance, unfortunately I did not like this book. Yes, it has all the elements of a good dark read but i somehow just couldn't connect with the characters so the 2 stars. I found the characters too emotionaly conflicted to my liking. And one of the biggest reason of not liking this book is the cheating bit. Its my personal choice that I hate my heroes when they cheat no mater what situation. Anyways this is my view, but readers who like to read dark books with alpha heroes should definitely give it a try :)
review 2: Reading this book was a very strange experience for me. I think I've never felt such mixed feelings before: one moment I wanted to quit, a moment later I couldn't read fast enough.This... more story has several things I wouldn't generally like: over the top events, a main character, Konrad, who is never really likable, lots of unnecessary characters popping up here and there. And still, I couldn't make myself quit and in the end, I found myself liking it.The first half, right after Konrad and Guntram establish their relationship, is too long and repetitive: Konrad wants to control every part of Guntram's life, because he's obsessed but also because there are risks for Guntram in being Konrad's partner, while Guntram doesn't understand the need for such control and tries to rebel against it. A lot of events happen that are all about this contrast and after a while it was just too much.The second part instead, was better, and this is kinda strange because that's when actually things between Konrad and Guntram go downhill and there's a lot of angst. In spite of this not being an happy time for them, I found it more interesting and engaging and this is where I couldn't read fast enough, so eager I was to know what would happen next.It's difficult for me to even say what it is that ultimately made me like this book. Konrad never really changed that much, even in the end he's still too controlling and obsessed with Guntram. I think maybe what kept me glued to the pages is Guntram: he's naive to the point of being even a little stupid at times, but he's such a generous, loving guy that I found myself rooting for him and wanting him to have a happy ending. The fact the story is told from his point of view, since it's supposed to be his diary, helped me really "feeling" him as a character and made him dear to my heart.The secondary characters are some good, some bad: I liked Konrad's men and the relationship most of them established with Guntram: they loved him, considered him often as their son or brother and even took his side against Konrad at times. There is a lot about the Order Konrad is part of, there's a lot of plotting against enemies, there are details about banks and the world Konrad works into, but I didn't really care about any of that. It's Guntram that makes the story, at least to me, and while I can't say, even at the end, that I like Konrad, I still wanted Guntram to have his happy ending with him. less

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