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Coltrane #5
Love and Splendor
DESTINY OF LOVE...AND SPLENDOR
When Dani Coltrane flees to Paris, she leaves behind heartache and pain, and vows no man will ever control her. But then the proud heiress to the Coltrane dynasty meets the dashing nobleman, Drake, and her determination is rocked. Banished from Imperial Russia to roam the glittering capitals of Europe, he has an eye for beautiful art and beautiful women. Dani Coltrane possesses both a painting he covets and a loveliness he can't resist. Drake is determined to make these treasures his.
From the sumptuous salons of Europe to the fabulous court of the Russian Empire, from the dark cellars of a chateau in Monaco to a deserted, danger-ridden palace, Drake pursues the headstrong and illusive woman. And as his cold obsession turns to soul-searching love, Dani's resistance melts...until they are swept toward a stunning confrontation with destiny and the triumph of a love dazzling with splendor.
When Dani Coltrane flees to Paris, she leaves behind heartache and pain, and vows no man will ever control her. But then the proud heiress to the Coltrane dynasty meets the dashing nobleman, Drake, and her determination is rocked. Banished from Imperial Russia to roam the glittering capitals of Europe, he has an eye for beautiful art and beautiful women. Dani Coltrane possesses both a painting he covets and a loveliness he can't resist. Drake is determined to make these treasures his.
From the sumptuous salons of Europe to the fabulous court of the Russian Empire, from the dark cellars of a chateau in Monaco to a deserted, danger-ridden palace, Drake pursues the headstrong and illusive woman. And as his cold obsession turns to soul-searching love, Dani's resistance melts...until they are swept toward a stunning confrontation with destiny and the triumph of a love dazzling with splendor.
345 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 1987
1 person is currently reading
83 people want to read
About the author
Patricia Hagan
45 books60 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
Please see: Patricia Hagan
Pat is the published author of over forty books of romantic fiction. Several of her titles have appeared on the New York Times Bestseller list. One of her books, "Ocean of Dreams", is based on her own shipboard romance when she met her former husband, a Norwegian engineer.
She is also a former Radio/TV Motorsports Journalist, covering NASCAR Grand National Stock Car Racing. Her work has won many awards by the National Motorsports Press Association.
Pat has cruised the eastern and western Caribbean extensively, as well as the Greek Islands, the fjords of Norway all the way to the North Cape, and has made several transatlantic crossings.
She prefers traveling single, because it gives her more opportunities to meet and make new friends. While she admits going solo is not for everyone, she says for her it is perfect, because she is an outgoing person, and, being a writer, enjoys meeting new "characters."
The only thing she does not like about traveling is having to leave behind her best friend and companion, Krysy, a 14-year old Wire-haired fox terrier.
The author also uses the names:
Patricia Hagan Howell
Maggie James (4 spaces)
Please see: Patricia Hagan
Pat is the published author of over forty books of romantic fiction. Several of her titles have appeared on the New York Times Bestseller list. One of her books, "Ocean of Dreams", is based on her own shipboard romance when she met her former husband, a Norwegian engineer.
She is also a former Radio/TV Motorsports Journalist, covering NASCAR Grand National Stock Car Racing. Her work has won many awards by the National Motorsports Press Association.
Pat has cruised the eastern and western Caribbean extensively, as well as the Greek Islands, the fjords of Norway all the way to the North Cape, and has made several transatlantic crossings.
She prefers traveling single, because it gives her more opportunities to meet and make new friends. While she admits going solo is not for everyone, she says for her it is perfect, because she is an outgoing person, and, being a writer, enjoys meeting new "characters."
The only thing she does not like about traveling is having to leave behind her best friend and companion, Krysy, a 14-year old Wire-haired fox terrier.
The author also uses the names:
Patricia Hagan Howell
Maggie James (4 spaces)
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
May 24, 2012
This book caught my interest due to the Faberge plot line. There is not much historical romance based in Russia or around the Romanovs, but it is a time period that I really enjoy reading about. I didn’t realize when picking up the book that it is one of a series, but that did become readily apparent upon reading.
Dani Coltrane is a spoiled nineteen year old reconnecting with her father and stepmother after her tumultuous past. She is suspicious of anyone trying to manipulate her and wants to exert total independence. The problem being she does not understand what independence actually means and she is constantly making selfish decisions in the name of independence. In fact she’s not far off what I imagine many 18-22 year old girls today can act like.
Drake is a Russian playboy, for lack of a better description. He has spent the last ten years or so in exile from Mother Russia and searching for the key to restoring his family honor (by finding the Faberge Egg). He is a womanizer and his moral code is pretty loose believing that behavior is justified so long as the intentions are good. He’s a snake that you want to like because you think he can change and grow up, but deep down you know it’s not true.
The best way to describe this book is Dynasty meets Jerry Springer. The author spends inordinate amounts of time describing how elegant, cultured, and sophisticated this family and their associates are only to have them open their mouths and act completely opposite. Dani can be shrew, demanding, and bratty. You expect Drake to be extremely refined, and at times he is. While other times he’s a complete ass. Both of them are oblivious to how their actions are seen or the havoc they cause, or they are just to rich to care. While atypically,you do not meet the hero until about 15-20% through the book, which was okay given how she presented the start of the story. But from there until about 75% through the book was horrible, three ring circus mess that seemed to go on forever.
There was no need for the Coly/Lily subplot line at all. It added nothing to the story except making me hate all the characters. Dani for being so wishy washy and such a teen. Lily was just horrendous and I absolutely expected a hair pulling cat fight between the two at some point. But even worse, the author perpetrated the myth that men just can’t control themselves, sexually, around any slightly attractive and willing woman. The only fairly explicit sex scene in the book is Drake’s running dialogue of how much he can’t stand Lily, how much he dislikes her and doesn’t want to do this, how he thinks Dani may be the one, all while he’s pounding away at Lily. Of course, this was a repeat of Colt’s inability to control himself around Lily either, but at least he thought he liked her. If your going to have the hero of the novel be unfaithful, at least let it be for a better reason then he had some slight desire, she was there, and well I just can’t stop myself.
The author gets around to pushing the actual plot of the story in the last 25% of the novel. This entire plot is extremely rushed and ends up being an afterthought in the novel. Also, Dani and Drake finally coming together is so shallow. He tells her his family story and she forgives his lying cheating ways. She does so, in spite of him currently lying to both her and Colt. All in all, the entire romance lacked maturity. It held the flavor that rich and beautiful (or handsome) was all that was needed to make a couple happy. This couple lack any depth and are barely tolerable let alone sympathetic or romantic.
Several times I almost gave up on this book. I started skimming at about 55-60% through just because I did want to know what happened to the egg. I half expected that plot to roll over to another book when it still had not been barely mentioned three quarters through the book. The resulting ending was unsatisfying and I wish I hadn’t bothered reading on. It would have saved me from being disgusted with both couples.
Dani Coltrane is a spoiled nineteen year old reconnecting with her father and stepmother after her tumultuous past. She is suspicious of anyone trying to manipulate her and wants to exert total independence. The problem being she does not understand what independence actually means and she is constantly making selfish decisions in the name of independence. In fact she’s not far off what I imagine many 18-22 year old girls today can act like.
Drake is a Russian playboy, for lack of a better description. He has spent the last ten years or so in exile from Mother Russia and searching for the key to restoring his family honor (by finding the Faberge Egg). He is a womanizer and his moral code is pretty loose believing that behavior is justified so long as the intentions are good. He’s a snake that you want to like because you think he can change and grow up, but deep down you know it’s not true.
The best way to describe this book is Dynasty meets Jerry Springer. The author spends inordinate amounts of time describing how elegant, cultured, and sophisticated this family and their associates are only to have them open their mouths and act completely opposite. Dani can be shrew, demanding, and bratty. You expect Drake to be extremely refined, and at times he is. While other times he’s a complete ass. Both of them are oblivious to how their actions are seen or the havoc they cause, or they are just to rich to care. While atypically,you do not meet the hero until about 15-20% through the book, which was okay given how she presented the start of the story. But from there until about 75% through the book was horrible, three ring circus mess that seemed to go on forever.
There was no need for the Coly/Lily subplot line at all. It added nothing to the story except making me hate all the characters. Dani for being so wishy washy and such a teen. Lily was just horrendous and I absolutely expected a hair pulling cat fight between the two at some point. But even worse, the author perpetrated the myth that men just can’t control themselves, sexually, around any slightly attractive and willing woman. The only fairly explicit sex scene in the book is Drake’s running dialogue of how much he can’t stand Lily, how much he dislikes her and doesn’t want to do this, how he thinks Dani may be the one, all while he’s pounding away at Lily. Of course, this was a repeat of Colt’s inability to control himself around Lily either, but at least he thought he liked her. If your going to have the hero of the novel be unfaithful, at least let it be for a better reason then he had some slight desire, she was there, and well I just can’t stop myself.
The author gets around to pushing the actual plot of the story in the last 25% of the novel. This entire plot is extremely rushed and ends up being an afterthought in the novel. Also, Dani and Drake finally coming together is so shallow. He tells her his family story and she forgives his lying cheating ways. She does so, in spite of him currently lying to both her and Colt. All in all, the entire romance lacked maturity. It held the flavor that rich and beautiful (or handsome) was all that was needed to make a couple happy. This couple lack any depth and are barely tolerable let alone sympathetic or romantic.
Several times I almost gave up on this book. I started skimming at about 55-60% through just because I did want to know what happened to the egg. I half expected that plot to roll over to another book when it still had not been barely mentioned three quarters through the book. The resulting ending was unsatisfying and I wish I hadn’t bothered reading on. It would have saved me from being disgusted with both couples.
September 1, 2021
This book being the fifth in the Coltrane series is supposed to pick up where we last left off but, it doesn't so scrap any thoughts or cares you had for finding out what happened after the lackluster climax of the fourth book, Love and Fury. The Briana de Paul character and her brother are tossed aside quite literally by Colt Coltrane and the author. Their mysterious absence is explained away several pages in and are treated as an afterthought. Briana aka Dani in book 4 and Colt realize they have nothing in common besides liking having sex with each other so Briana apparently liked being a servant so much that she moved to the east coast, away from Colt in Nevada and she became a nanny or something but refused Colt's money. None of this matters and they're forgotten about entirely.
Beyond that Dani, Kitty and Travis Coltrane are all filthy rich but we already knew that but this book is 80% about how extravagant and expensive everything in their lives are. Kitty and Dani make a trip to Monaco to retrieve some stuff from Dani's old dwellings and find some old art, one piece in particular is really ugly. Upon returning to Paris, Kitty and Travis feel that Dani isn't doing enough with herself spending time being a spoiled heiress in her family's *other* home in Paris (they're just so rich they have so many houses) so Kitty encourages her to go elsewhere and be a spoiled heiress. This book is basically only about rich people doing rich people things with rich people problems. It's not interesting in the slightest, there's far too many elaborate details that I didn't care about. Random and nitpicky but, there was a single sentence in the book regarding Kitty's eye color. The reason I have an issue with this is because the author droned on and on for the first three (?) books about Kitty's supposed purple eye color but in this book she mentions they're green?? Since when?? I guess even the author can't keep up with how dumb these stories have become.
Dani doesn't want to just be a spoiled heiress, she wants to pretend to have a regular job so she opens up an art shop in the Montmartre area of Paris and pretends to be a starving artist. She uses the rare and expensive pieces that she found in Monaco to open her art shop. Some annoying guy named Cyril, he's an art hunter or something, he's fame hungry and sees the ugly piece of art that Dani found and immediately he knows it's alleged to be hiding inside a Fabergé egg. He wants it but has to act cool about it, Dani refuses to sell it for whatever reason. He's annoying and won't leave her alone because he wants the painting. Then comes Drakar or Drake, the rich Russian playboy who is exiled or something from Russia. He wants the painting with the egg as well to restore his family dynasty, I don't feel like getting into the details of it because it's stupid and convoluted and really doesn't add anything of importance. He tries to woo Dani but she was a nun for a bit so she's not easy but they end up having sex anyway and Drake falls or Dani but Dani is a modern woman and is having none of that.
A random side character named Lily comes in the picture because she's poor and she wants to swindle Colt Coltrane and apparently Colt is too stupid to see through her ploy because literally everyone else can and tells him to run away from her. Logically, he tells his family that he plans to marry Lily and shit hits the fan, obviously. Colt is mad at Dani for really no good reason so I guess he wants to marry Lily to spite her and his parents though, I'm not sure what his parents did wrong. Anyway, she doesn't succeed and only exists to drive the plot of the next book. Lily is never heard from again after the big fight she has with Colt. The rest of the book was kind of a blur for me, I was mostly just skimming to get it over with. There's yet another random character and her back story is really stupid and flimsy. She's a Russian prima ballerina from the royal Romanov family but she spies on Dani for Drakar and pretends to be a poor servant to show Colt that not all women are gold diggers. In doing so she falls in love with Colt in apparently like three business days, as one does. I guess she comes clean to Colt and all is well.
Spoilers, I guess, even though it doesn't really matter because this book is stupid.
Dani goes to Russia trying to recover the painting that was stolen from her and she finds it and the egg and Drakar and they both admit they're in love with each other and in the end all is well.
The author spent so much time describing the setting that once again it seems she has forgotten the point of the plot entirely and just shoehorns a very rushed "climax" in to the last two or three chapters.
Beyond that Dani, Kitty and Travis Coltrane are all filthy rich but we already knew that but this book is 80% about how extravagant and expensive everything in their lives are. Kitty and Dani make a trip to Monaco to retrieve some stuff from Dani's old dwellings and find some old art, one piece in particular is really ugly. Upon returning to Paris, Kitty and Travis feel that Dani isn't doing enough with herself spending time being a spoiled heiress in her family's *other* home in Paris (they're just so rich they have so many houses) so Kitty encourages her to go elsewhere and be a spoiled heiress. This book is basically only about rich people doing rich people things with rich people problems. It's not interesting in the slightest, there's far too many elaborate details that I didn't care about. Random and nitpicky but, there was a single sentence in the book regarding Kitty's eye color. The reason I have an issue with this is because the author droned on and on for the first three (?) books about Kitty's supposed purple eye color but in this book she mentions they're green?? Since when?? I guess even the author can't keep up with how dumb these stories have become.
Dani doesn't want to just be a spoiled heiress, she wants to pretend to have a regular job so she opens up an art shop in the Montmartre area of Paris and pretends to be a starving artist. She uses the rare and expensive pieces that she found in Monaco to open her art shop. Some annoying guy named Cyril, he's an art hunter or something, he's fame hungry and sees the ugly piece of art that Dani found and immediately he knows it's alleged to be hiding inside a Fabergé egg. He wants it but has to act cool about it, Dani refuses to sell it for whatever reason. He's annoying and won't leave her alone because he wants the painting. Then comes Drakar or Drake, the rich Russian playboy who is exiled or something from Russia. He wants the painting with the egg as well to restore his family dynasty, I don't feel like getting into the details of it because it's stupid and convoluted and really doesn't add anything of importance. He tries to woo Dani but she was a nun for a bit so she's not easy but they end up having sex anyway and Drake falls or Dani but Dani is a modern woman and is having none of that.
A random side character named Lily comes in the picture because she's poor and she wants to swindle Colt Coltrane and apparently Colt is too stupid to see through her ploy because literally everyone else can and tells him to run away from her. Logically, he tells his family that he plans to marry Lily and shit hits the fan, obviously. Colt is mad at Dani for really no good reason so I guess he wants to marry Lily to spite her and his parents though, I'm not sure what his parents did wrong. Anyway, she doesn't succeed and only exists to drive the plot of the next book. Lily is never heard from again after the big fight she has with Colt. The rest of the book was kind of a blur for me, I was mostly just skimming to get it over with. There's yet another random character and her back story is really stupid and flimsy. She's a Russian prima ballerina from the royal Romanov family but she spies on Dani for Drakar and pretends to be a poor servant to show Colt that not all women are gold diggers. In doing so she falls in love with Colt in apparently like three business days, as one does. I guess she comes clean to Colt and all is well.
Spoilers, I guess, even though it doesn't really matter because this book is stupid.
Dani goes to Russia trying to recover the painting that was stolen from her and she finds it and the egg and Drakar and they both admit they're in love with each other and in the end all is well.
The author spent so much time describing the setting that once again it seems she has forgotten the point of the plot entirely and just shoehorns a very rushed "climax" in to the last two or three chapters.
March 1, 2020
Dani Coltrane's life , her love for her family, and her Russian love Draker.
May 6, 2014
There was parts of this story that were enjoyable. But when it got onto all the talk about the Russian family's & their history that was rather boring. I also found the back-story which was about art rather boring.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews