Reviews for A Syllabus in Modern European History From Charlemagne to the Present (800-1920)

The average rating for A Syllabus in Modern European History From Charlemagne to the Present (800-1920) based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2007-12-23 00:00:00 Alex Markman RE Risky Business - SKR joins the HPlandia outings with a Canadian tale about a 25 yr old h who is an oil scout and all about career and independence, until she runs into the H who is the head of an independent oil company. The h's job is unusual to say the least, she goes out to spy on test oil well drilling on land wherw the oil leases are open for bidding on by rival companies. She often gets 'friendly' with a man working on the site to pump him for information. After she has enough for a report, she moves on to the next job. She also has a running battle with her mum, who wants her to get married and have grandkids and 'settle down". The h meets the H when she is spying on his test well. She is dating a geologist who works on the well and when he won't break off seeing her, the H fires him. The geologist sorta loses it, and decides the h is going to marry him. She is not interested and so a sub-plot is the fired geologist stalking her and as he is making plans, the H is making his move to seduce the h. The H came to the site specifically to check the h out, he is very attracted and there are tons of punishing kisses and almost moments. The h is doing her best to get information about the well status out of the H and he is blocking her at every move. They eventually wind up in bed and then the h decides the H seduced her to keep her away from the well. They verbally spar to a standstill and then do the insulting each other/ avoidance dance and wash, rinse, repeat. There are some minor drama's with the h having to look after a sick mum's kids and starting to feel the nesting instinct. The H and h are estranged, but the H is better with the kids than she is. There is also someone shooting at her, but the h doesn't realize that she is being targeted, once she is convinced that it isn't some one the H hired to frighten her off. The h's and H's behavior gets more juvenile as the story progresses. With the h deciding she 'needs a macho man to boss her around' and the H stealing her keys so she has to hot wire her transportation. The big finale is the geologist attempts to kill her at the test rig with newly discovered oil pouring out of it. The h manages to rescue herself, then the H shows up and avows true love and the h swears to be his sub doormat for the rest of their lives and HEA. This one isn't a bad effort for a newbie, but the h's sudden reversal from independent career woman to ' I yearn to be his love slave doormat' was a bit sudden and her behavior degenerates accordingly. (Unfortunately this habit of infantilizing her h's continues on for a few more of SKR's books - she takes an intelligent woman, paints her a sorta shady character in the character's own judgement over the course of the story and so has the h decide that she 'needs' the big strong H to take over and make her decisions for her.) The h in this one gradually decides that her dating, (in the beginning it was described as casual, but by the end the h believes it was just short of prostitution,) oil rig employees in the process of getting information has put her lower than that harlot Jezebel, and so she abdicates her decisions to the H, who is suitably cavemanish in chaining her to his bed via a wedding ring, etc. The story does move along nicely, but the subplot of the would be killer ex and the devolution of the h's character along with a lacklustre H make this book just ok and not one to really break out the HP sparklies for. Fortunately SKR can and does do better in her later efforts, though her best book is an HR Foolish Deceiver - that is a story about a child computer prodigy genius who gets betrayed by her first lover and takes a summer job helping out a widower and his son as a housekeeper/nanny - but she has NO domestic skills and NO clue about practical things and so the H winds up kicking her out because he thinks she is too unintelligent. FD is a pretty funny and insightful book about having to leave an ivory tower and live in the real world and it is definitely SKR's best work.

Review # 2 was written on 2009-01-19 00:00:00 Nick Castruita Both MC's in this bickerfest were not nice people. Its a shame as I quite liked the setting in the oil fields and the h had a pretty cool job. The h used men to get info out of them on every job she did trading on her feminine wiles to get info from them. She realises in the end that she would have hurt a lot of them and her latest she really does a job on causing to have a mental health relapse. HP h's shouldn't be rotten so I didn't like her. She was also a total lazy slob and stubborn. The H was doing so well at the start. He was tolerant and played her at her own game then he went very dark and Pete Tong. His sins: threatened to break her arm and left bad bruises, he also took advantage of her when she was sleeping by fondling her lady upper lady bits. What a horrible little deviant he really let himself down and from that point there was no redeeming either character. After that I couldn't wait for this to be over and wash the bad taste it left in my mouth out with copious amounts of rum. Boogenhagen has the full deets I don't want to pollute my brain with this one anymore :)