"...In Her Dear & Loving Husband, Allard weaves together a story which flows easily back and forth between an historical and contemporary setting, through the narration of Sarah's dreams. As a fan of both historical fiction and paranormal fantasy, I enjoyed reading something which contained elements of both. The fact that the story centers around the Salem witch trials is what garnered my interest in the book, and I wasn't disappointed on that front; Allard has clearly done some research in order to make the events believably personal to the characters, and I thought the execution was well done...

...A reincarnation aspect to a romance certainly has a bonus factor for me in lessening the distaste I tend to have for Insta-Love, and it's also an intriguing tool for a "time travel" aspect that turns out to work quite well in the way Allard utilizes it...

...Sarah may be one of the main characters in this book, and the first character we are introduced to, but I felt pretty neutral about her throughout the entire thing. She doesn't seem to go anywhere emotionally, unless you count panic attacks from her night terrors, or the dilemma she ultimately faces as an apparent skeptic...

...Overall, I wouldn't say this was "omg the best book ever," but I did really enjoy reading it, and look forward to eventually finishing the trilogy. I think if Sarah had been a bit more dynamic a character in this one, I would have a stronger opinion about it as a whole, so I hope she will develop more in the second installment."

(For full review, please visit me at Here Be Bookwyrms on Blogger) ( )

I'm always sad to see a really interesting speculative fiction love story go wrong. This book made me want to read a really good novel about a woman who acutely feels what the victims of the Salem witch hunt felt, the empathy and emotions and memories all traveling strong and clear through time itself, so that she can only be one thing. One of them.

This book was not that. It was a vampire story combined with something that was trying to be about a reincarnated "witch," but stalled in the middle. Almost childish in its simplicity, the author didn't spend time digging deep or fulfilling the potential of the idea. The characters who inhabit her modern-day Salem were an embarrassing assortment of two-dimensional vampires, werewolves and "real witches" who snap their fingers and make things poof.

Equally as bad, the romance was...lifeless... no pun intended. Even when a seductive idea goes horribly wrong, the time spent reading can sometimes be redeemed by a good love story at the heart. In this book, I felt absolutely no attraction between the characters. In fact, they were so ill developed, I couldn't imagine them having the intense emotions a real person would have in such a situation. In the end, I took this as a learning experience for me as a writer. I don't recommend it to anyone, though, even as a lesson. ( )

I'm always sad to see a really interesting speculative fiction love story go wrong. This book made me want to read a really good novel about a woman who acutely feels what the victims of the Salem witch hunt felt, the empathy and emotions and memories all traveling strong and clear through time itself, so that she can only be one thing. One of them.

This book was not that. It was a vampire story combined with something that was trying to be about a reincarnated "witch," but stalled in the middle. Almost childish in its simplicity, the author didn't spend time digging deep or fulfilling the potential of the idea. The characters who inhabit her modern-day Salem were an embarrassing assortment of two-dimensional vampires, werewolves and "real witches" who snap their fingers and make things poof.

Equally as bad, the romance was...lifeless... no pun intended. Even when a seductive idea goes horribly wrong, the time spent reading can sometimes be redeemed by a good love story at the heart. In this book, I felt absolutely no attraction between the characters. In fact, they were so ill developed, I couldn't imagine them having the intense emotions a real person would have in such a situation. In the end, I took this as a learning experience for me as a writer. I don't recommend it to anyone, though, even as a lesson. ( )

I was drawn to this book by the promise of the covers; the image on the front and the synopsis on the back. I did not get what I was expecting or, if you ask me, what I was promised. Sometimes that can be good but this time, at least in my opinion, it was a disappointment. I was expecting a tale about the Salem Witch Trials, a reincarnated spirit or two and a bit of fantasy and time travel. What I got was a mash up of all the (SPOILER ALERT) vampire/werewolf otherworldly stuff that is so popular now. I do not generally like vampire stories so I would like to know I am getting one upfront.

The historical aspects where the Salem Witch trials do come in was interesting and the writing is well done. I just felt like I was given something I did not ask for and that frustrates me with a book synopsis. Quite often you make a reading decision based on what is written on the back of a book and find yourself reading something so different from what you expected...

Had I not accepted it for review I would not have read the entire book. I did and it had appeal in areas but the romance was a bit bland. I understand there are sequels and I suspect they will answer the questions left at the end of this book. If you are a fan of the vampire/werewolf/paranormal genre then I suspect you would enjoy this book. ( )

I was a little torn as to how to rate this book. It was very interesting as I don't typically read paranormal or fantasy type books. The author was able to weave together the past and present almost flawlessly and the characters were all likeable. The book was a good reminder of how one should act towards the ones they love and how tight family bonds should be. It was a light, easy read and worth the time it took to read it.
The repetitiveness was a bit overbearing at times. The phrase "oh so very long" was repeated on just about every 5th page (or so it seemed) and to me, this line is not worthy of repeating more than once. With that, the fact that James was 319 years old was also mentioned numerous times throughout the book (he was over 300 years old, he was 319 years old, he was around for 3 centuries, he was there for the Salem witch trials). We get it, he's a vampire, he's old! If all the repetition of the two previous mentioned, as well as the fact that James loved his wife and Sarah was having someone elses dreams, were removed, this book would have gone from 262 pages to about 90.
There was very few typos and grammatical issues in the book which surprised me due to the price being so low. But, the fact that the characters were watching the fourth quarter of an ice hockey game really threw me off. That one sentence was burned into my brain for the rest of the book. ( )