It's no small feat to pull off a historical romance like this-- or any romance. The characters cannot be vulnerable or even themselves with one another and yet Duran does a magnificent job of still making their vulnerability visible to the reader and the characters.

While the suspense is fun, it just helps up the ante and the backdrop of danger for this high-adrenaline couple. Phin is an incredibly appealing hero, but he is, at times, overshadowed by Mina, and I was just fine with that. Mina clearly has a whole world orchestrated around her, and was clearly Phin's perfect match from go. Though they were brilliant in partnership, they equally soared in their antagonism. I know I will return to this novel, as I will with most of Duran's. ( )

Incredible mother/daughter conversation in the first chapter. I really felt for both of them and could see both sides of the argument. There were a lot of insightful and very thought provoking comments in that conversation. The author's writing was very intense and spectacular.
 
This story definitely had a darker tone and may not be for everyone. I personally enjoyed the underbelly of human psyche aspect of the book.
 
This book was infused with intelligent humor and it was a treat to read a fresh, new view on regency romance stories. The romance field is starting to be over saturated with regency romance stories if you ask me; writers or publishing companies seem to have forgotten there are other historical time periods out there people wouldn't mind reading about. There were times when I was reading this story that the author's writing style made me think of Connie Brockway and faintly of Marsha Canham (but without the historical detail). This constitutes as very high praise from me.
 
This book took a long time for me to finish and I don't really know why. When I was reading it I felt very involved and the story had an emotional tenseness not found in a lot of books. However, when I stepped away from it, I found it very hard to get myself to pick it up again. I didn't feel the gripping desire to start reading the story I usually do with great books. It's so strange how I would find other things to do instead of getting back to the story. I think the bigger picture part of the story was not captivating enough.
 
On the other hand I enjoyed this author's intelligent, dark, intense writing style.At the end of the day (forgive me I have been watching way too much Sportscenter) this book just didn't do it for me. I never felt a burning desire to finish the story. The beginning intrigued me but the middle and end dragged for me. Like I said before it is a different take on regency romance so if you want something new it might worth a shot. Phin and Mina have such dark, deep layers to their personalities that I kept thinking the best way to describe this book would be to call it a cold blooded romance story. ( )

Overall, this was a good book, but I find it really hard to rate. I had some difficulty reading it and especially the heroine was hard to relate to for me. ( )

A huge disappointment after Ms Duran's magnificent [b:The Duke of Shadows|3112394|The Duke of Shadows|Meredith Duran|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1267785052s/3112394.jpg|3143676] and the slightly more orthodox but still enjoyable [b:Bound by Your Touch|5841513|Bound by Your Touch|Meredith Duran|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1267857244s/5841513.jpg|6013653].

Fifty pages into the paperback edition of this book I gave up and put it aside. A few weeks later I decided to try again, starting from the beginning as I'd already forgotten the convoluted and confusing start to the book. The second time around I managed to finish it, but only by reading 20-30 pages at a time and then taking a break for a day or two.

The cover of the paperback edition claims that this is the 'dazzling sequel to [b:Bound by Your Touch|5841513|Bound by Your Touch|Meredith Duran|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1267857244s/5841513.jpg|6013653]'. It's not. Some of the characters in [b:Written on Your Skin|5841535|Written on Your Skin|Meredith Duran|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1304382832s/5841535.jpg|6013675] appear in the earlier book, and vice versa, but only someone who's read both books and paid attention will note that the timelines are parallel, with just a couple of anchor points to bring the narratives into offset alignment.

[b:Written on Your Skin|5841535|Written on Your Skin|Meredith Duran|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1304382832s/5841535.jpg|6013675] was depressingly gloomy. I couldn't relate to either of the two main characters, and presumably neither could the artist who designed the cover of the paperback, the two models bearing no resemblance whatsoever to the characters in the book.

The main narrative is about spy versus spy, bluff and counter-bluff, guess and second guess, and find-the-traitor. In many ways it reminded me of some of the Cold War thrillers written in the 60s and 70s.

Ms Duran tries too hard to justify and explain the actions and emotions of Phin and Mina, and ends up weaving a tangled web of tediously recriminating dialogues, both internal and external, and ponderous narrator expositions.

The ending was a letdown and reminded me of several promising TV series that had to be wrapped up in a hurry because of the Writers Guild strike of 2007-2008. ( )

The plotline certainly sounded like it should have been better, but I longed for less analysis and more romance!

http://ktleyed.blogspot.com/2011/02/written-on-your-skin-by-meredith-duran.html ( )