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Star Quartet #3
Wild Star
The third title in New York Times bestselling author Catherine Coulter's Star series.
Brent Hammond is as handsome as sin and wilder than an unbroken stallion. When he meets Byrony by chance, he's charmed. But when he sees her again, as the petted wife of an older rich man, he's chagrined. Until her life is threatened—and he discovers that only he can protect her...
Brent Hammond is as handsome as sin and wilder than an unbroken stallion. When he meets Byrony by chance, he's charmed. But when he sees her again, as the petted wife of an older rich man, he's chagrined. Until her life is threatened—and he discovers that only he can protect her...
400 pages, Mass Market Paperback
Published March 1, 2002
184 people are currently reading
684 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 37 reviews
July 31, 2010
It's like a repeat of my review for "The Coming Home Place." How much pain should one heroine have to endure? She deserved a freaking parade and a lifetime supply of chocolate!!!
June 28, 2010
Wild Star is a bodice ripper in the best sense of the word. The hero, Brent, is banished from his plantation home after his father catches him with his stepmother.
Jump ahead ten years and we meet our heroine, Byrony, has returned from 19 years in Boston where she lived with her aunt, who has just passed away. Byrony's father is an abusive lout who beats her and accuses her of being a slut. She ends up married off to an older distant cousin, who wants her to claim his half-sister's baby as her own.
(If you're following along, we have: the plantation, the abusive father, the returning daughter, the marriage of convenience and fake pregnancy.)
She bumps into Brent (literally) He gets the wrong impression of her and treats her badly. We soon dive into incest, annulled marriage, sudden second marriage, and return trip to the plantation where Byrony undertakes to end slavery in the South and save Brent from the clutches of his now widowed stepmother.
This book was great till the last quarter. While misunderstandings fuel this kind of novel, as you approach the end and the couple had fought and made up several hundred times, it gets wearing to read of them still getting it wrong. After a while, when one of the characters has turned out to do something nice for the other,you would like to see a little trust developing.
It was still a great read and one of Coulter's first books. She has always been a top notch story teller that makes you want to keep reading to see what happens next.
Riccarla
Jump ahead ten years and we meet our heroine, Byrony, has returned from 19 years in Boston where she lived with her aunt, who has just passed away. Byrony's father is an abusive lout who beats her and accuses her of being a slut. She ends up married off to an older distant cousin, who wants her to claim his half-sister's baby as her own.
(If you're following along, we have: the plantation, the abusive father, the returning daughter, the marriage of convenience and fake pregnancy.)
She bumps into Brent (literally) He gets the wrong impression of her and treats her badly. We soon dive into incest, annulled marriage, sudden second marriage, and return trip to the plantation where Byrony undertakes to end slavery in the South and save Brent from the clutches of his now widowed stepmother.
This book was great till the last quarter. While misunderstandings fuel this kind of novel, as you approach the end and the couple had fought and made up several hundred times, it gets wearing to read of them still getting it wrong. After a while, when one of the characters has turned out to do something nice for the other,you would like to see a little trust developing.
It was still a great read and one of Coulter's first books. She has always been a top notch story teller that makes you want to keep reading to see what happens next.
Riccarla
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July 6, 2019Smutty!!
August 9, 2019
Love how she connects her books together in her trilogies.
February 22, 2020
Brent Hammond is one of the badasses, the most arrogant bad boy in this series. I suppose this book is not for readers who loves Prince Charming or other men who are perfect, without lacks - they are so sweet and gently. No. I can say, this book closer to the dark romance genre. So if you do not like suspense romance, you need to read Pride and Prejudice.
This story includes some triggers like incest love, abuse in the family, kidnapping. If you are not okay with it, better not to read.
Well, what can I say? I enjoyed! I really loved this book, maybe because I love badasses men, who are bad, dark, dangerous and intrigued. I cannot say Brent is so dangerous, because I read lots of Dark Romance where some men are really dangerous. But Byrony thinks he is because he loves to get what he wants all time and doesn't want to subdue to her and doesn't open his soul for her. He doesn't trust any woman since many of them used him, including his stepmom, but soon he understands how wrong he was towards Byrony, insulting her and not believing in her love.
How many people understand their mistakes? Not so much. However, Brent understands how badly he treated his wife Byrony, and plans to get her back.
Actually, the scene when Byrony revenged for her mom and herself when she whipped her father, hitting him badly. Did he deserve it? I think yes, since he had beaten her in the worst way as her mom. He insulted her and was the worst father, as bad as his own son. Some people can say that why does it happen if mom and daughter are good people and her husband and son are bad? Because as they say, Amor caecus (LOVE IS BLIND!)
I hope everyone who loves Suspense and Dark Romance will love this book!
This story includes some triggers like incest love, abuse in the family, kidnapping. If you are not okay with it, better not to read.
Well, what can I say? I enjoyed! I really loved this book, maybe because I love badasses men, who are bad, dark, dangerous and intrigued. I cannot say Brent is so dangerous, because I read lots of Dark Romance where some men are really dangerous. But Byrony thinks he is because he loves to get what he wants all time and doesn't want to subdue to her and doesn't open his soul for her. He doesn't trust any woman since many of them used him, including his stepmom, but soon he understands how wrong he was towards Byrony, insulting her and not believing in her love.
How many people understand their mistakes? Not so much. However, Brent understands how badly he treated his wife Byrony, and plans to get her back.
Actually, the scene when Byrony revenged for her mom and herself when she whipped her father, hitting him badly. Did he deserve it? I think yes, since he had beaten her in the worst way as her mom. He insulted her and was the worst father, as bad as his own son. Some people can say that why does it happen if mom and daughter are good people and her husband and son are bad? Because as they say, Amor caecus (LOVE IS BLIND!)
I hope everyone who loves Suspense and Dark Romance will love this book!
December 21, 2017
I found the heroine quite frustrating. She stands up to her father's abuse, but sits down and takes it from both husbands and her mother in law? And the happily ever after is with a verbally abusive and emotionally unstable man? I enjoyed parts of the book, but I kept waiting for the hero and heroine to grow up. And the ending was rather like the author got tired of her own story and was ready for it to be over.
March 18, 2020
Love it
August 10, 2011
Amazing book, Just amazing. It has a great story line through out the whole thing. It just keeps getting better and better with the whole baby cover up story and then the Lusty, hussy stepmother. It's wonderful the hero and the heroine, I couldn't put the book down most of the time. It kept you on edge somewhat. This book has it all action, drama, TONS of romance, sad and happy times and love-able and also hate-able characters and my favorite a happy ending (not to sound corny) that true love conqures all.
January 4, 2016
Another great locale, and good story. Too bad the storyline ended with do many loose ends. This narrator gets better with each story!
June 16, 2021
3.5 - 4 stars. Read this for Regan Walker’s monthly theme/blog, June is Western\ American set month. This story takes place in California in the early 1850s then moves to Mississippi. I really enjoyed the book from the start, but the ending was a little bit disappointing that’s why maybe not the full four stars. I liked both the hero and heroine, but once in a while the hero’s cynicism got a little bit much. All in all still a good book by Catherine C. however I don’t think I’ll read any of the others in the series. If I did it would probably be book 1. The couple in book 2 (Midnight Star) are mentioned quite a bit in this one so you might want to read them in order. Although I certainly wasn’t lost having not read book 2 it just might be more enjoyable…There was a scene on the boat with the other couple from book 2 that we have no idea why it happened or how it was resolved so in that sense you would need to read book 2 to know.
July 24, 2022
Another one of my all time favourites. Again you ask me why, when the hero is an ass and the heroine something of a ditz. But I really love this novel. I read one other in this quartet and always come back to Wild star. Such cool novel. So angsty and surprising... Although not so much after the 10th read. But i think the fact that all the emotions are evoked anew each time I read this makes it awesome for me.
January 10, 2026
I chose this book to complete a series I began many years ago. I know now why I stopped reading it. The story includes tropes of abusive parents, a disparaged reputation, insta-love, enemies to lovers, incest, and on and on. It is too much in one story, and it did not land well. None of the characters are likable, and the ones that are, I wondered why everybody liked them. Including the main characters. Not a great experience.
August 12, 2019
This was a good book, but could have been such a great one if it didn’t have parts in it that dragged on and on and lots of parts that were exactly the same just taking place in a different day or place. The over all story is a great one and did keep my interest.
June 25, 2017
The only thing keeping me from giving this 5 stars is the use of the "n" word. I know that it was widely used back when this story took place but still not a fan of it.
June 16, 2018
Prefer her FBI novels. I think this was her early stuff before she hit her stride
August 27, 2018
The story was well written and interesting but the back and forth between Byron’s and Brent got annoying very quickly.
August 18, 2020
Light reading, kept me interested - I enjoyed it.
March 26, 2022
it was basically a soap opera, and it got a little rapey at times, but unfortunately I did gobble it up in one sitting… so what does that say about me? nothing good x
February 21, 2023
What joy
This was an incredible tale. Such twists and turns. I enjoyed every page! I really love the historical fiction aspect of this series it is really interesting.
This was an incredible tale. Such twists and turns. I enjoyed every page! I really love the historical fiction aspect of this series it is really interesting.
February 22, 2025
This was such a lovely story.
November 20, 2025
No is No
September 21, 2018
The only reason I finished this book is that I was on a road trip and my friend brought it to listen to. I was too polite to toss it out the window.
January 15, 2012
Brent Hammond meets Byrony, the new wife of a rich man, and immediately makes unfavorable assumptions about her.
Oh goodness, what to say about this one. The whole book is a soap opera (secret babies! incest! slaves!) and it races from one plotline to another. But the real issue I had was what a jerk Brent was throughout the entire book. He is constantly insulting, degrading, and humiliating Byrony, who is asinine to fall in love with it. Even after the "I love you's" he STILL behaves abysmally, which really makes me doubt whether there could ever be a 'happily ever after' for this couple.
Oh goodness, what to say about this one. The whole book is a soap opera (secret babies! incest! slaves!) and it races from one plotline to another. But the real issue I had was what a jerk Brent was throughout the entire book. He is constantly insulting, degrading, and humiliating Byrony, who is asinine to fall in love with it. Even after the "I love you's" he STILL behaves abysmally, which really makes me doubt whether there could ever be a 'happily ever after' for this couple.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 21, 2016
The writing distracted me from this story:
On every page of this book one or more of these actions seemed to be repeated: eyes were narrowed, brows were raised or arched, fingers ran through hair, heads were pillowed on arms, hands were fisted, people burst into laughter, characters threw back their heads and laughed, someone wanted to kill someone else, women were called sluts, men were called bastards (didn't realize 21st century profanity was in such common use back then) etc.
If repetitive writing like that doesn't bother you, you may enjoy this novel.
On every page of this book one or more of these actions seemed to be repeated: eyes were narrowed, brows were raised or arched, fingers ran through hair, heads were pillowed on arms, hands were fisted, people burst into laughter, characters threw back their heads and laughed, someone wanted to kill someone else, women were called sluts, men were called bastards (didn't realize 21st century profanity was in such common use back then) etc.
If repetitive writing like that doesn't bother you, you may enjoy this novel.
January 8, 2011
Is this supposed to be one of those Greek Comedies? W.T.H?
1. Abusive father
2. Forced marriage to relative
3. Baby mama's baby forced on our heroine
It goes on. Maybe it's an episode of Jerry Springer? Perhaps...Brent and Byrony are bumbling boobs at times. Still it's a Ms. Coulter story with some wacky fun and amusement.
1. Abusive father
2. Forced marriage to relative
3. Baby mama's baby forced on our heroine
It goes on. Maybe it's an episode of Jerry Springer? Perhaps...Brent and Byrony are bumbling boobs at times. Still it's a Ms. Coulter story with some wacky fun and amusement.
March 15, 2012
Brett: Tough saloon owner from the south. Kinda mean to the h but redeems himself at the end.
Byronny: Good h but was in awe of the H until the end when she decided to fight for him. She was married to a cousin who got his sister pregnant(incest) and was used to protect the baby. Sister poisons h and h ends up going to H who has sex with her not knowing she was a virgin.
Byronny: Good h but was in awe of the H until the end when she decided to fight for him. She was married to a cousin who got his sister pregnant(incest) and was used to protect the baby. Sister poisons h and h ends up going to H who has sex with her not knowing she was a virgin.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 28, 2010
loved it!
March 5, 2010
I liked this one a lot more than the last one, although I think I'm missing a volume, since some recurring characters seem to have gotten married in the interim.
September 23, 2010
Read all the star series. Very entertaining even if I do sometimes skip the "hot" parts.
August 3, 2012
The book is good, that much is true.
There are some parts that make me go "Um, eww".
Brother/sister incest
Sex with step-mom.
Etc.
The story is good, but blech, could have done without that.
There are some parts that make me go "Um, eww".
Brother/sister incest
Sex with step-mom.
Etc.
The story is good, but blech, could have done without that.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 37 reviews