Review by Willow & Donna
When the heart is stronger than stone.
This brings together all three
Crystal Fragments books into one volume. When Kris Avelar runs away from another
failed love affair to an isolated cottage in Scotland, her desire to be alone is
nothing compared to that of the stranger she meets: Daniel Logan. Tall,
handsome, but also scarred by more than the marks which line his face, his
attempts to push her away only inspire her to greater curiosity about him - a
curiosity that will lead to dark and forbidden desires as she enters his private
world.
As she discovers that this mysterious stranger is actually Daniel
Stone, the charming and urbane founder of Stone Enterprises, she seeks to
discover more about him - just as he becomes increasingly obsessed with her. Yet
if Kris is the most perfect lover that Daniel has known since the death of his
wife, she is not the first, and others will seek to come between the two of them
and their happiness.
When Daniel is caught up by his own dangerous past,
Kris sets out to save him and to show that while everyone else will turn against
him, she is determined never to let him down - or let him go. It is at that time
that she discovers that her own submission, what she has thought of as a
weakness inside her, is actually the source of her greatest strength.
The
trilogy includes:
Fractured Crystal: Sapphires and Submission
Fragile
Crystal: Rubies and Rivalries
Refracted Crystal: Diamonds and Desire
What Donna Says: 5 Stars (Written 07.12.12)
Well what can I say.....I thoroughly enjoyed this series and all in one hit with no cliff hangers!! Woo hoo!! Fantastic debut by a very talented author!!
Kris and Daniel were fabulous characters that I absolutely fell in love with, both complex characters, each had their history and back stories that slowly came out over the course of the trilogy. The romance side was a believable story and you actually lived and felt them fall in love despite their problems, even though this is a dominant millionaire story, the actual back story plot was gripping and a real page turner...the goings on at Stone Enterprises made the story, especially the last instalment. Loved the way Kris was at the end and how she saved Daniel...I had tears, laughter a bit of angst..not too much...absolutely hated Maria, which I think was the intention and it so worked...what a biatchhhhhhh...if I could of killed her myself I would have!! A lovely story that no doubt I will read again..slower this time as I was reading at such a pace as I needed to know what was going on...a real addictive read...well done MJ Lawless, can't wait for another read by this author!!
What Willow says: 3.5 Stars (Written 04.01.2013)
This is a tough one for me to review. I had been recommended this trilogy and I really wanted to like it - not to mention M.J is so nice. But I've got to be honest and go with how I really felt about this. This edition is all three books together, but i'm going to talk about each book individually because in my opinion the books did get better.
Book 1. Having read the blurb I was intrigued and was looking forward to reading this book. I have to say that shortly after I started the book I was slightly shocked at the the language and the directness of some of the scenes. This didn't put me off - It was just not what I was expecting. I loved the idea of Kris meeting this man, forming a relationship with him and then finding out he was someone else entirely, however I found the book a little slow and I was finding it difficult to connect with the Characters. However it did pick up and I found myself wanting to read on to find out more about Daniel Stone. Alas this didn't happen. Sometimes the book felt disjointed, spending a lot of time on certain scenes and then jumping. I found the ending a little odd. I have to say that if I had bought this book separately I wouldn't have bought the next one.
Book 2. The first part of this book takes place in Portugal. Again I found it slow to begin with. I found that I was getting bored with what I felt were over descriptive detailing of the surroundings. Don't get me wrong, I get that you have to set the scene, make readers feel where they are, but I found this over the top in proportion to the rest of the writing. When Maria turns up into the story, I thought here we go another ex/jealousy story (thinking of a similar story line in two other trilogies!) BUT - I was pleasantly surprised at where this story went. I wont say too much to give it away, but it was the last thing I was expecting. At this point the story became very interesting and I was starting to read it more quickly. I was a bit disappointed in the lack of Daniel in this book though. I understand that he has a business to run and in someways I respected this more because it was more real life in the fact that he actually did have to do a lot of work for his business (and not amazingly just have loads of free time for Kris), but I would have liked to see more of him, to learn more about him. I definitely enjoyed this book more that the first.
Book 3. With book 2 being much more interesting and going somewhere so different than the usual, I was excited as to what this book would hold. IMO it was the best book of all three. I actually didn't want to put the book down. There was lots going on to keep you reading on. having read so much of Kris I definitely had some connection with her, but still none with Daniel. We did learn more of Daniel though and there was more of him than there was in the Second book. My only complaint about this book was that it felt a little rushed at the end.
General comments: My main issue I had with these books was not being about to connect to Daniel's character. I know part of the story was the mystery about him, but I really feel that readers would like him/connect with him more if we saw more or knew more about him in these books. I buddy read a lot with my friend Dawn and we are forever arguing over who gets each guy in the books we read. I have to say that neither of us claimed Daniel, which is a shame because I think that he was a good base for a character, I think he just needed more, but that's just my opinion. There is no doubt that the story lines and the writing got better with each book. I would say that the first and last book are worlds apart in that respect. There were a few editing/grammar issues, but again I noticed less as the books went on.
I'm giving this trilogy 3.5 out of 5. I feel that the second book was a 3, with the third book being a 4. With all that I said I think this is the longest review I've ever written so there was definitely something I really enjoyed about this trilogy. :-)
