Search for Love

by Nora Roberts

From #1 New York Times bestselling “consistently entertaining writer” (USA Today) Nora Roberts, Search for Love takes a woman on a journey to meet a family she never knew she had—and a future she never imagined.

After the loss of her parents, Serenity Smith receives an unexpected letter from a relative she’s never met. When she travels all the way from Washington, D.C. to the family’s estate in the Brittany region of France, she’s greeted with cold politeness by the Comtesse de Kergallen—her grandmother—and the charming, insufferable Christophe. As she learns of the wild grievances they hold against her parents, Serenity is determined to prove the accusations false. Getting the enigmatic Christophe to change his mind about her proves to be a challenge as tempers fly. But they can only fight their growing feelings for so long.

Genres: Romance, Contemporary Romance, Fiction, Contemporary, Audiobook, Harlequin, Chick Lit

161 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 1, 1982

About the author

Nora Roberts is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of more than 200 novels, including Hideaway, Under Currents, Come Sundown, The Awakening, Legacy, and coming in November 2021 -- The Becoming -- the second book in The Dragon Heart Legacy. She is also the author of the futuristic suspense In Death series written under the pen name J.D. Robb. There are more than 500 million copies of her books in print.

Reviews

[Cyndi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well it had to happen. Even a wonderful author like the Great Nora has to write a book I don't like. First of all our heroine comes to Britannia at the call of her estranged grandmother. When she arrives she is treated rudely by everyone, especially the 'hero'. Now for me, this guy is more of an antihero, but anyway...
She is immediately attracted to him, because...why not? She is the kind of character who waffles a lot back and forth. Meanwhile, her grandmother has finally decided to be nicer to her and not hold the actions of her parents against her.
Now, on to the guy in this story. He is arrogant, snappy and rude to her. Okay, it was the '80's and, Lord Love Us, we ate up that kind of hero. We were stupid. We thought it was passion?? I don't know, I had young children at the time and was numb to most things.
So I let some of the rudeness go because I figured he'd be nicer to her soon. Even when he continued to grab her and force kisses on her. I thought, "well, hmmm." But then the big sex scene (I think) begins and he grabs her off her horse, throws her on the ground and begins the attack. Or at least it seemed that way to me. But, afterwards when he says that he always seems to be hurting her and she says she is tough. The red flags are flying everywhere. It was a red flag parade.
But, he says he loves her in French so she forgives and off they go to tell everyone a wedding is imminent. Of course, to me, a restraining order at the very least would be imminent, but that's why I could never be the heroine in a novel. I know how to use power equipment.

[paige (ptsungirl) · Rating 4 out of 5]

"From the moment I saw you step off the train, I was lost, bewitched, and I fought it as a man fights that which threatens to enslave him. Perhaps this slavery is freedom."

[Kari · Rating 1 out of 5]

When I read books like this early one from Ms. Roberts, I have to remind myself how far this author has come from the early years. I love her writing, but this book was just awful. I wasn't the writing, it was the story. Serenity travels to Brittany to connect with her long lost family. Her cousin by marriage does nothing but be a jerk to her, yet she falls in love with him. How and why? Because he is a good kisser? I didn't buy the love story at all. Honestly, be cause there is no love story. The mystery of the missing painting wasn't even exciting enough to save the book

I listened to the audio and the narrator didn't do that great of a job. The french accents were bad and I couldn't distinguish between the male and female voices. I don't think that would have made much of a difference, but I thought I would mention it anyway. I'd say skip this one. Nora has lots of other, much better earlier works.

[Geo Just Reading My Books · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Pe urmele fericirii” este un roman de mici dimensiuni, din vremurile de început ale autoarei. O poveste plină de emoție și inocență. O călătorie ce înseamnă maturizare și cunoaștere de sine, dar și cunoașterea rădăcinilor.
Tânăra Serenity este tristă și simte că și-a pierdut direcția de când părinții ei au decedat într-un accident aviatic.
O scrisoare primită de la bunica ei despre care nu știa absolut nimic o scoate din apatia acelor vremuri.
Astfel, ajunge în Franța, în Bretania. Iar aici are parte de emoții, șocuri și bucurii.
Își cunoaște bunica, o bătrână contesă demnă, ce pare rece la prima vedere. Îl cunoaște și pe nepotul acesteia din a doua căsătorie, Christophe...
De câte ori cei doi se află unul în preajma celuilalt, atmosfera este pe punctul de a exploda, temperamentul ei vulcanic spunându-și cuvântul de câte ori tânărul o provoacă. Și se întâmplă adesea. De câte ori acesta pierde controlul asupra măștii aristocratului fără sentimente, de câte ori atracția pentru ea este cea care câștigă...
Dacă mai punem la socoteală și secretele ce ies la iveală, avem parte de o lectură captivantă care ne oferă o clipă de bucurie.
Alertă, dulce și duioasă, această poveste aduce zâmbetul pe buze cititorului.

[Ron Wroblewski · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not my type of book. Characters were not realistic or believable.

[Mara · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well... there are glimpses of La Nora's brilliance that peak out from time to time, but overall, that is not enough to save this from being a very Of Its Time category romance. The Breton setting adds a little pizzazz, but overall, if this was written a little later, it would have been called sometime like Painting for the French Count's Pleasure

CW: dubcon

[*CJ* · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Search For Love" is the story of Serenity and Christophe.

The heroine travels to France to meet her estranged grandmother after her parent's deaths. She meets her snooty grandmother, the disapproving "cousin" and heir- and despite their misconceptions and a fight- falls in love with the place and decides to stay. Ofcourse, a romance blooms between them, she wins everyone's heart, truth is revealed and the book ends in a HEA.

A good one time read with loads of French seduction. I also liked her dedication towards her parents and how this book has no negative characters!

Safe
3/5

[Cruth · Rating 2 out of 5]

Author: Nora Roberts
First published: 1991
Length: 140 pages
Setting: Contemporary. Brittany, France.
Sex: Third base but no home run.
Hero: Distant cousin by marriage, French Duke with large estate.
Heroine: Artist.

Very much a category romance with all that implies.

~ Unlucky in love, Naive, Virginal heroine.
~ Stoic, Rich, Lusty Hero.
~ Love at First Sight. He fights it, she embraces it.
~ Heavy petting culminating in an almost rape. She is so enticing he can hardly control himself!
~ Mis-communication, possible alternative paramours, jealousy, anger, hurt.
~ HEA.

It works fine but is eminently forgettable. A book for the plane where you’ll enjoy it while it lasts but happily leave it in the seat pocket for the next traveller.

References:
Author’s website: noraroberts.com

(Read in Claiming Love ISBN 9781743564516)

-CR-

[Esther]

DNF.

30% in and I just couldn't anymore, these two MC were just not for me.

[Julija · Rating 2 out of 5]

Uhhhh. What? Was this seriously a Nora Roberts novel? Because it has zero elements I love Nora Roberts for. What it does have is cringe-worthy romance novel prose, too many "punishing kisses", no development of any kind, falling in love in a few days, too many third parties creating too many misunderstandings, and a hot-and-cold routine that will probably give you a whiplash.

(I'm gonna blame it all on romance fiction trends of times long gone and possibly pretend it didn't happen. Because Nora Roberts is still queen.)

[Kaitlin · Rating 2 out of 5]

So obviously an early NR, where she's just testing her abilities. A cliche romance, with a Harlequin feel. Still not bad. No NR can ever really be bad. But in comparison to her other books, it could have been written by an entirely different author as it's nowhere near the caliber of her later books.

[Ash · Rating 2 out of 5]

Re-read
Now that I have re-read this book after so many years I realised that she had glorified rape.

[Sara ♥ · Rating 2 out of 5]

Oh wow. This book was published before I was born!!!! We'll see just how dated it feels.......

December 28-29, 2016

Well, this book is VERY OBVIOUSLY an 80s book. And it wasn't because no one had cell phones and people were WRITING ACTUAL HANDWRITTEN LETTERS(!!!!), but rather... the style.

I liked Serenity... to a point. She was feisty and stood up for herself. She wasn't the typical TSTL heroine of the 80s.... but then, she also seemed to cry... all the time. I liked that she's a virgin. There's not enough of that in contemporary romance these days.

But then, Christophe... He was TOO broody and TOO virile. And I mean that in an UMMMMM-you-need-a-lesson-about-consent sort of way. Because he would just grab her and kiss her all the time to "punish" her.... and at one point, grabbed her and laid on top of her and had his hands and mouth all over her... and she refused to kiss him back, so CLEARLY WAS NOT CONSENTING to the very sexual encounter. That really rubbed me the wrong way. There's alpha, and then there's borderline rapist. Call me a prude, but I prefer my books to stay on the consensual side of that line.

Anyway, it's somewhere in this section of the book (I think in the midst of the riding lessons Christophe insists on giving Serenity against her will) that she "falls in love" with him. Yeah. Uh huh. *exasperated sigh* Just one question, Serenity: WHY??????? Because he's hot and a great kisser? *eye roll*

Now I will say that Christophe did seem to experience some character growth during the (SHORT) book. He started out as an I-can-have-anything-and-anyone-I-want aristocrat (aka entitled near-rapist) and, by the end, was actually kinda sweet... Like maybe he actually listened to Serenity when she told him about how her father loved her mother and treated her like an equal in life and in their marriage. [Aside: This book is only 34 years old (published 1982). Were things so different back then that this was a new concept to Christophe? SRSLY? I'm so glad I live now.] BUT, Serenity doesn't fall in love with him at THIS point during the book. Nope. It was back near the beginning. When he's a horrible person. Yeah.

Anyway, also this book was just too.... oh, what's that book I hate called? The Bronte one? Jane Eyre? No, though I hate that one, too. Ah, Wuthering Heights. It was too Wuthering Heights-y. BLEGH. Like they spend the whole book sniping at each other. And not in a nice way. Not in a way that makes you think, "I SPY SEXUAL TENSION!!!" No, it was just MEAN. And then they'd randomly kiss out of nowhere, and I was like, "UHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.... I'm not buying this." Then some friends came to visit and Christophe is COMPLETELY JEALOUS of the guy. And not, "Awww! He's jealous! How sweet!" No, it was jealous in a you're-my-object-and-no-one-else-can-touch-or-look-at-you sort of way. And Serenity is jealous of the girl, but handles it a HELL of a lot better than Christophe does. Welllllll... she went beyond selfless and straight into the martyr zone, but it was still better than being overly-possessive.

And then, because that wasn't enough, her ex comes over from America. And Christophe is actually LESS jealous of that guy, who is clearly a doof. (Also, they dated for a year, but she's still a virgin, remember? Thus Christophe has a low opinion of the dude's uhhhh... virility.) But they (Serenity and her ex), who, I guess have been on a break (WE WERE ON A BREAK!) call it quits for good, and she runs to her room to cry hysterically over this moron who she literally hasn't thought about since she left America. And, of course, she runs into Christophe on the way up, so he sees her crying over the doof. *eye roll*

And then... uhhhh... random declaration of love from Christophe, complete with marriage proposal (Ummm... she's only been there like a couple weeks, right? Maybe not, but that's what it seemed like)... and she cries some more... this time out of supposed happiness. And they figure out about the stolen painting, which I completely thought was a statue for the whole book, for some reason. But apparently not.

So yeah. #notimpressed

I'm going to stick to Nora Roberts's new stuff from now on. The 1994 book was lovely, so clearly in the 12 years between this one and that one, she improved drastically.

2 stars because it turned out alright in the end, and I don't feel like Serenity is going to be in an abusive marriage. So that's good.

[Diana Ştefania · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mi-am propus sa citesc cartea pentru ca era una scurtuta, însă surprinzător, chiar mi-a plăcut. Relația dintre personajele principale mi s-a părut drăguță și un pic cliseica, însă mi-am dorit sa citesc cum se dezvolta relatia dintre ei, un pic cam grăbită totusi, dar simpatică. Serenity mi-a placut de la inceput pana la sfarsit, un personaj feminin destul de puternic.

[*Dawn · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of Nora's first books. Her writing was already showing her skill, but these particular characters were not developed at all. The hero was kind of rapey and the heroine was a dipstick. The story itself was good. Nora could tweak this now and make it brilliant, but it's kind of cool to see her growth as a writer. She really had "it" from the beginning.

[Erin **Coffee and Book Addict** · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Nora book! *Sigh...all of the wanting, all of the needing, all of the romance! And set in a beautiful place that feels so magical. Another excellently written book by Nora Roberts. How does she come up with all these different characters? I fall in love with every single one of them. Brilliant!

[Mónica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Apaixomei-me pelas paisagens da Bretanha e gostei muito da Serenity. Já do Conde de Kergallen não posso dizer o mesmo. Mas ainda assim gostei bastante do livro.

[Angela Austin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nice easy read. Love conquers all romance novel...well done

[Diane · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another Nora classic but a little too short for me. The traditional story of independent woman meets arrogant, aristocratic man unfolds with a flimsy side story going on about a stolen painting. Not much depth to characters and the story was a little weak. Not the best I am afraid.

[Tania Herbert · Rating 1 out of 5]

I hadn't realised this was one of her early works re printed. Far too 'Mills and Boon' for my liking

[Alexis Villery · Rating 3 out of 5]

On the story...
Serenity has lost her parents and has traveled to France after receiving a letter from the grandmother she didn't even know she had. Hurting and lonely, she rushes to France to find her long lost family but she doesn't get the welcome that she expects. Christophe is cold and uncaring, thinking Serenity has returned in hopes of gaining some of the family wealth. This is a nice sweet romance that captures the attention and brings a smile to the face. While the characters don't blow you away, they aren't boring or tepid. Everything seems to flow quite well. This isn't Ms. Nora Robert's best by any means; in fact, it is unlike her typical writing style. Maybe this is due to the fact that this 1992 story is pretty early in her career.

On the narrator...
I really enjoyed Ms. Hendrix and I think she added to the story rather than taking anything away. I found the voices used for each character to be distinctive.

Overall...
I found the whole cousins but not cousins thing to be kind of weird. I couldn't figure out the relationship. I loved that the romance wasn't sudden and while the reader/listener could see it coming, it was understandable that the characters didn't. I enjoyed this audio and found it to be quite enjoyable and short :) Christophe isn't my favorite leading man by any means but he successfully made me smile at times. Overall this is a nice read.

[Mary · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hay que tener en cuenta que la historia fue publicada originalmente en 1982, la novela romántica en ese entonces no era lo que es hoy, ni siquiera las de Nora Roberts, es sumamente light, tan light que casi flota de lo irreal que la situación puede llegar a ser. Serenity Smith,luego de la muerte repentina de sus padres, viaja a Francia a conocer a una abuela que no sabía que existía. Allí conoce secretos familiares, hermosos paisajes, majestuosos castillos y al salvaje, recto y exasperante Christophe, Count de Kergallen.
Si es insta-love, siendo 10 capítulos no hay mucho lugar para una gran novela épica pero es buena para pasar el rato, es corta, nos da una muestra de como eran las novelas de antes (y si digo antes porque yo todavía no nacía cuando se publicó esta novela) y además apreciar la evolución de una autora que adoro.

[Katherine 黄爱芬 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Serenity mengunjungi chateau nenek dari pihak ibunya, yg tidak pernah dia dengar ataupin diketahui. Sesampainya disana, Serenity menghadapi sarkasme dan sindiran dari neneknya mengenai orangtuanya. Serenity defensif dan mengancam akan segera hengkang dari chateau tsb.

Ternyata neneknya punya rencana menjodohkan dirinya pada Christophe, sang Comte. Mulailah mereka saling jual mahal dan jinak2 merpati. Main tarik ulur, lain di bibir lain di hati. Mulut bilang benci tapi bahasa tubuh bilang ya ya ya.

Diwarnai dgn kesalahpahaman dan kecemburuan dgn masing2 pihak dgn orang ketiga, mengakibatkan eksekusi cerita terlihat sangat dipaksakan. Semua pihak dan salah paham langsung otomatis selesai dan jadi bersih tidak ternoda. Sangat khas HQ jadul. Yasudahlah. Paling tidak gambaran pedesaan Perancis cukup memikat dari si author.

[Seadaz · Rating 1 out of 5]

Nup.

Not a good book.

It was released in the 80’s, but I can’t work out what it was set - it wasn’t set in the 80’s, at least not the 80’s I grew up in.

The mind set of both the female and male lead characters was positively Victorian, with their mannerisms, behaviour and references to certain things, i.e US being uncivilised.

The male lead liked to ‘punish’ the lead female with kisses, touching and then sexual assault, if not full on rape, all because she took a horse for a ride.

Two or three weeks of knowing each other, they are in love with each other.

Sorry ridiculous story, why on earth did they re-release it? My second Nora Roberts read, I only bought this book as I really enjoyed the previous book and thought I’d stock up on some of hers.

[Gramedia Pustaka Utama · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bukan salah satu buku favorit saya,Dan saya cenderung melupakan apa yg sudah saya baca dalam buku ini karena memang ceritanya kurang menggigit dan terlalu simple, walaupun seperti biasa NR selalu mengambarkan situasi dan lokasi dengan sangat cermat. Hanya sayang, konflik yang terjadi diselesaikan dengan sangat mudah.
Jika anda bukan pengemar romance yg muluk2, buku ini lumayan juga, tapi jika anda mencari sebuah cerita dengan sisi romantis yg banyak, anda akan kecewa.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it, an easy read on a nice Summer day,

[A · Rating 1 out of 5]

Read for the Every Nora Roberts Book in Publishing Order book club. Notes pasted below exactly as written during reading.

Search for love

- man I’m so fuckin bored
- another frail, hyper-thin heroine. At least this one is tall?
- Oh my god no I can’t
- This is too much I’m like not even one chapter in and I want to quit
- This is… so boring
- Qu’est-ce que la fuck is creamed salmon
- This is everything I hate about period romances (of which I have read, and mostly enjoyed, hundreds) shoehorned into everything I hate about modern romances (of which I read Nora and no one else)
- You can’t just drop random French monosyllables into sentences like that Nora
- Alors, all of my further comments will contain inappropriately-used and unnecessary French vocabulary
- Man grabs woman in annoyance, quelle surprise
- “You’re so delicate but you have such a temper” - Some Douche, 1982 (douche is a French word so it counts)
- she stomped her foot because she is both une enfant et une femme, clearly
- he’s a fucking cowboy?! There’s a bingo square I wasn’t expecting to cross off today. Uh…. …. ….. Croissant.
- I read BEAUCOUP des regency romance novels, and I’m getting weird whiplash from this book, like, we’re reading banns now?
- mdr (it’s French for lol) this guy is just as gross as his novel predecessors
- pauvre petite virgin lady has man get mad at her for being seduced unwillingly by him and then he says something like “next time I won’t let you stop me” or some other rapey bullshit
- Ok so fill disclosure I skipped from about 40% done to 73% done because je peux meme pas LITERALEMENT
- Ok Tony is tres sympa, what a gentleman
- L’enfant is back
- Reading the phrase “why must you always hurt me” is a terrible prelude (French word it counts) to the big I love you at the end
- How do you say “barf” in French
- The only reason I made it through this one is because my friend gave me a spoiler to keep going. I wasn’t even done with the first chapter and she was like “you know who the surprise hero is? TONY!” And I had to keep reading to find out why. C’est fini, pas d’etoiles.

[Jolayne · Rating 3 out of 5]

“This was published in 1982… This was published in 1982… This was published in 1982…”

I have to keep reminding myself of this. And let me tell you, this book was published in 1982. And I mean that in every sense. After just getting off of Roberts 2017 “Come Sundown” this book is just a titch (A WHOLE LOT) different. This book offers what all of N.R.’s books offer; compelling characters, painted scenery, and an intriguing plot. What this book didn’t offer that most of her works do was likable characters. ***This was published in 1982… *** Let me tell you- Christophe is NOT likeable. Serenity is pleasant enough (though smart is not a word I would use to describe her), thank heavens, but Christophe…well honestly I hated him. He was everything Serenity described him as throughout, basically, the entire book. Cold. Demeaning. Volatile. Arrogant. Domineering. Brash. Controlling. Pompous. There was no character devolvement, which wouldn’t have been a problem for a shorter novel except for the fact that Christophe GREATLY NEEDED development AND multiple crash courses on consent. ***This was published in 1982… ***

Truthfully I should be giving this book 2 stars…but I just can’t. I’ve got too much appreciation for Roberts as an author, and the book really did suck me into its vacuum cleaner of “what did he just say????” and “he can’t just do that to her!!!!”. Even if I despised him…

Tony’s character was Meh, which was probably the point. The grandmother was enough to add an element of interest to the book, but was neither likeable or dislikable enough to really make an impression, and the backstory involving Serenity’s parents and the fake/stolen painting rang in my ears like unmemorable background noise.

I have no regrets reading this book. However, unlike literally every other book of hers I’ve read, I can’t see myself reading this one again.

I still have unending faith in you, Nora Roberts. It’ll take a lot more than this one book to change that.

[Ay Oh Be · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay so here is what I have learned so far on this chronological adventure through the works of Nora Roberts:

1. She likes horses.
2. All heroines are delicate with feisty tempers that everyone regards first as annoying, then as endearing and finally strong.
3. All heroines fall in love suddenly and reject it(usually because the object of their affections is a dominating ass).
4. All good heroes are dominating asses with striking looks.
5. Kisses start as rough claims without exception (so far).
6. There is always a set of intervening "love interests" to insight jealousy and bring the characters closer together.
7. The heroine always has a best friend who states that she is in love and gives her a pep talk.

All this being said, Search for Love is my favourite so far on this weird excursion into Nora Roberts. It was set in Brittany which was beautifully and enchantingly described. I half fell in love with it myself. The addition of the missing painting and the mending of an estranged family relationship were nice touches that gave the story a little more depth ("little" is key) but I appreciated those touches.
I also liked the little bits of French thrown in. It made me happy because I like the language.
Anyway Serenity Smith was likable she seemed more centered and confident than the previous characters and that appealed to me. Christophe was cut from the same "manly man" clothe but was more suave than previous heroes, plus Roberts described more of his outward reactions which allowed more insight into him (much appreciated).
Definitely best so far.

[anna · Rating 2 out of 5]

wellll… glorifying cheating at its finest i guess.

so she had a bf who she hadn’t broken up with before the trip and who she forgot the moment she saw christophe.

ew, i hated when they referred to each other as “cousin” after doing something romantic/sexual.

i didn’t understand the timeframe of the book. was it 19th century or late 20th? the language they used was so stuffy.

i didn’t like how fast she fell in love with him. or thought that she did.

mmmm it wasn’t sure about mmc.

“You cause me to think again about the wisdom of beating a woman.” His mouth took hers swiftly, hard and more punishing than a fist, and Serenity felt a quick surge of pain, tasting only anger on his lips, and no desire.”

i looked forward to the meeting of toni and christophe. i hoped for more drama. christophe was passive aggressive with his politeness.

mmc kissed and groped her couple times and called it romance. he was never gentle or loving with her. he then took her for the first time on the ground in the forest. so romantic, wasn’t it?😀😀😀😀