Adora

Bertrice Small is my favorite author right now. I have read almost all her books, and this was my least favorite. I don't know why exactly, but I just found it a little boring and hard to get through. (but I HAD to finish it, and the ending was kind of weak) I didn't like ANY of the characters, I didn't care if Murad and Adora ever lived happily ever after at all. Still, it is a Bertrice Small book, so it is still better than almost any other romance out there. Full of history and intrigue, but the characters just weren't as full of life as usual. Adora just kept going on about how smart & clever she is, thanks to her Greek ancestry, and Murad was just a big jerk. And it just wasn't believable that Adora would enjoy getting so brutally raped at a funeral--and she even saw swirling colors of passion & so on at her "crisis". (Huh? What was that? Now you really want to read it, right?) I see a lot of other reviewers really enjoyed this book, and to me that goes to show that even my least favorite Bertrice Small book is still pretty darn good...So give it a read, but read some of her other books, like the Kadin, Love wild and Fair etc. too! I enjoyed them much more! I think that her other novels were just so good, that this one just didn't live up to them for me. Maybe if I had read this book first, I would have liked it more.

This was an interesting based on true facts of the rise of the Ottoman Empire! It was also a love story of Theodora the Byzantine princess and her Turkish Sultan Miranda. Bertrice Small makes it a page turner as we follow the loves of Adora. She survives her many enemies, though she seemed to have so many.

I read Adora nine years ago in another country. OF course it was in another language. After I moved to America, I couln't stop thinking about this book. All those years, it still gave me the great feelings...I had to have this book in English version. It took me 10 weeks to have this book because this book had different title when they were published in my country. Now, I have the book that I wanted for a long time. I can't tell you how much I wanted this book. Now, I can read it whenever I want. I hope you can see the great affection that i saw nine years ago...

I love a romance story. This was romance without the HEA.. I so wanted Adora to have true love from a man forever. 3 husbands, and only one who loved and adored her monogamously. She perceiver's. The story of her life depressed me. Always having to give up her own happiness for the greater good of an ungrateful family. I understand it represents historically how women were treated but it still grieves me. I read this as suggested to be like "Golden Dynasty" by Kristen Ashley. Not true. For Adora, did not make me laugh, ever.

Originally published in the early 80's, "Adora" is much more readable and much less sex-driven than many of Ms. Small's later works. Theodora is as well-rounded a character as you'll find in these types of books, although as usual Ms. Small finds a way for her heroine to sleep with "forbidden fruit" so that Theodora can hook up with the handsome pirate Alexander. Glad to see this is out in paperback again.

This title is one of Bertrice Small's tougher finds. I'd been searching for years for this book, and once I found it, I wasn't disappointed. It was everything I remembered, and then some... and as a side comment for the reader who touched on the book's "rape" scenes - it's perfectly believable, given the time period and the history of the places where the book is set. Perhaps a history lesson would be in order.
Excellent book. Well worth the time.

Adora and Murad are wonderful characters. When we first meet Theadora she is a child, so we really feel like we know her by the books end. Murad is a very complex man. On one hand he loves and wants Adora, yet he also is unable to forgive her for marrying his father. The struggles these two go through are seemingly insurmountable,yet they somehow manage to conquer everything. At times Murad is worthy of your dislike, yet in the end all that he has done makes no difference. The Turkish history in this book is fascinating. and the story excellent.A great book!

I have read everything that she has written that I could find. I loved Adora, it was filled with her beautifully written descriptions! I always love her ability to take me to a new world and fill my senses with the sights, sounds, and emotions of that world.

words can not describe how incedably well writen this story is. The author goes threw adora's life and places her in realistic stiuations that women faced every day back then. you will fall in love with adora and cry when she does, love when she does, and hate when she does. You can't help but cry in the end.

This book compells you from the mintue you pick it up. "Adora" is a hero for the ages. The love that she an Murad endure and enjoy is timeless and very profetic.
I hope that you enjoy it as much as I did.

Ugh, I don't know where to begin. Horrible writing! I couldn't make myself finish reading this. I have read many reviews including negative ones that state the history is what made the book. Seriously????? It seems to me, not a single person who made that statement has any knowledge whatsoever on history. I have to say that this is a hard period to write but if you take up that gauntlet, do your damn research!!!! Too many modern words. Abortion???? Really? That's when I finally had enough.

I read this book many years ago...the first Beatrice Small novel I picked up and I've been hooked on her books ever since. I've just read it again for the 2nd time after so many years and it was just as wonderful as I remembered it.

Trash, total trash.
Poorly written trash.
Inconsistencies, choppy dialog and shallow characters.
Main character finds it enchanting that men who want her, sometimes have to rape her to get what they want, never the less she falls in love with them, finds pleasure when they rape her and even loves them sometimes. The author overindulged in the "rape" fantasy here. This book is total waste of money. Read "The Love Slave", much better history, superb writing and real interesting read, although again forceful sex is omnipresent.

Bertrice Small is one of the best historical romance novelists I've ever read. She crafts characters that are easy to connect with and feel sympathetic toward, and her deft handling of all things historical transport me to another time, every time.

I originally read this book when I was thirteen and I have read it at least four more times. I absolutely love this book.
If has love, passion, revenge, heartbreak, etc. everything to make it a smash.
I'm glad to see it in print again. Way to go Beatrice!

Kadin is a very nice book, well documented regarding the history of the Otoman empire, its fights for power, the oriental environment and I, warmly. reccomend this book. The O'Malley saga is somehow connected to this book and its characters.

Nothing romantic here...
Stolen or sold "heroine" - raped by all husbands...yet loves them all?
Very predictable formula writing here. Couldn't wait to finish it and not because I cared how it ended!
Totally unsatisfying for a Small novel.

I agree with some of the other reviewers about this book. I have read most of Bertrice Small's books and I was hoping that this one was another Skye or Kadin. It was Not! It started out good, got a little brutal and disgusting with some of the characters. I did like Adora and Murad was O.K. At least there was enduring love between the 2 of them. Her books and harem life can have some very yucky parts to them. I would like to have had her sister reach a bad end but seems that never happened, unless I missed something. The last quarter of the book got a little boring, redundent and slow. I am glad I read the book and the very very ending was good. I would recommend the book if you like Bertrice Small, but in my opinion it was far from her best.