FIRST READ IN NOVEMBER 2008, now as audio book. Below is my first review and at the end I made some notes about the audio book.
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Isn't it funny how the very end of a book can change your mind about your rating? I was truly liking it all the way through, and then the ending grabbed me and left that afterglow I require for a true save-it-from-a-fire keeper.
This is one of Garwood's medieval romances, set in England in 1099. Lady Madelyne is at the home of her brother Louddon when Duncan, Baron of Wexton, comes to kidnap her in retribution for Louddon's rape of his sister Adela. The baron is captured and is left to freeze to death, tied to a post, when Madelyne frees him. She takes him into a building to help him warm up and holds his freezing feet to her body - a pivotal moment early in the book, when she shows her generosity of spirit and begins unwittingly to win him over. She intends to let him go and escape from Louddon herself, but Duncan takes her with him, telling her she belongs to him.
Over the next several days, Madelyne travels with Duncan and his men back to his home, and he keeps her close and under his protection but vows not to seduce her, a vow he keeps although he sleeps next to her every night. At one point, Madelyne is wounded in battle, right near Duncan's home, and she spends several days in a fever, not knowing what she is doing or saying, and Duncan stays nearby the entire time.
On a forum, there is a current thread about besotted heroes - although Duncan doesn't recognize and acknowledge his love for Madelyne until much later in the book, his actions are those of a besotted hero. His alpha-ness does not extend to forcing seduction in any way, and he's protective of her in all ways. Madelyne recovers and goes on to win the hearts of Duncan's brothers and sister as well, and she also makes a lot of changes in their home and their way of living, so that soon all the servants and vassals are also under her spell. Duncan arranges for a priest to come and wed them, so that Madelyne will not have to go back to her abusive brother.
There are still many obstacles in the way of their eventual HEA - Louddon the brother is the cause of most of them. They have to travel to London to meet with King William II and Louddon is apparently quite thick with the king. He tries to convince the king he was ambushed by Duncan who then kidnapped his sister as revenge, and that he did not do anything to Duncan's sister Adela. Well, if I were to list all the obstacles, I will meander into spoiler territory - suffice it to say, none of the obstacles involves any misunderstandings between Duncan and Madelyne, and that in itself is refreshing.
It's an AAR Top 100 for 2007, and now that I'm done, I know why! 5 stars
====July 2010 ====audio book====
I finished the audio book today. The narrator is Anne Flosnick - I loved her reading of The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox, and have looked for her other readings. However, somehow her reading of this one was just a little odd to my ears. Maybe she was trying to capture the essence of a medieval romance which is different from Esme Lennox - after all, that was more a contemporary mystery, no romance at all. Something about the way she said "her" - huhhhhhhhh - dragging it out for long seconds - really seemed overly dramatic. Of course, not just that one word, but using that style of being overly dramatic and really enunciating and holding out syllables in that very high-British style - I dunno, it wasn't as pleasing as her Esme Lennox reading, I'm afraid.
But I did still love the ending.
Showing posts with label medieval. Show all posts
Showing posts with label medieval. Show all posts
Saturday, July 31, 2010
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Gentle Warrior by Julie Garwood ****
This was a good book, especially the ending! I think this was her first (published) book - and I can see traces of her trademark writing style and conceits in it. I especially noticed how the heroine tried to manipulate (for want of a better word) the hero, in the way that many of her heroines do, not by telling him how to do things but by showing him, for instance in her trying to get him to accept her shows of affection as being something she saw her parents doing. In some of her later books, the heroines became somewhat overwhelming with this conceit, but it was more subtle in this book.
The book takes place in medieval England.
The "gentle warrior" describes both the hero and the heroine - Elizabeth is also warrior-like, with her ability to shoot arrows and her courage and determination to get revenge for the massacre of her parents and siblings. She and her youngest brother witnessed the slaughter and she managed to hide them in the woods until the hero, Geoffrey, came to claim the property. The brother, about age 7, is so traumatized that he does not remember her or what happened.
Geoffrey hears her story, where she claims that her uncle is behind the massacre, and vows to find the actual culprit and bring justice. Elizabeth and Geoffrey get married (ok, it has been a few days since I finished it, and it took me several days to read it, what with driving back and forth to Houston and all, so I can't recall how they got to the point of marrying) - Geoffrey believes his marrying her will not only protect her and the property, but that he will also be able to control her. He doesn't know much about marriage and relationships, something Elizabeth tries to teach him. So they spend a lot of time at odds with each other, him trying to control her and her trying to train him.
The ending was really funny and touching, and once again brought a good book up to a great read! So I went with 4 stars - really liked it. Sorry, not much of a review but maybe this is enough to remind me of the plot...
The book takes place in medieval England.
The "gentle warrior" describes both the hero and the heroine - Elizabeth is also warrior-like, with her ability to shoot arrows and her courage and determination to get revenge for the massacre of her parents and siblings. She and her youngest brother witnessed the slaughter and she managed to hide them in the woods until the hero, Geoffrey, came to claim the property. The brother, about age 7, is so traumatized that he does not remember her or what happened.
Geoffrey hears her story, where she claims that her uncle is behind the massacre, and vows to find the actual culprit and bring justice. Elizabeth and Geoffrey get married (ok, it has been a few days since I finished it, and it took me several days to read it, what with driving back and forth to Houston and all, so I can't recall how they got to the point of marrying) - Geoffrey believes his marrying her will not only protect her and the property, but that he will also be able to control her. He doesn't know much about marriage and relationships, something Elizabeth tries to teach him. So they spend a lot of time at odds with each other, him trying to control her and her trying to train him.
The ending was really funny and touching, and once again brought a good book up to a great read! So I went with 4 stars - really liked it. Sorry, not much of a review but maybe this is enough to remind me of the plot...
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
For My Lady's Heart by Laura Kinsale ****
This was a hard book to read and digest, with much of the dialogue written in a sort of pseudo-Middle-English-speak to give it the flavor of medieval thought and speech. In addition, the author used different forms of English to convey speech in Italian and French. I felt like my brain was being taxed the entire time.
Also, it was so hard to feel anything positive for the heroine. Melanthe was English by birth, but married into an Italian family at age 12, to a man many years older, and then a widow. There were 3 Italian families represented - I think - as being enemies each of the other, and many of the characters were aligned with one of the 3, Riata, Monteverde (Melanthe's husband) and Navona.
Allegreto Navona is a youth of 16 traveling with Melanthe to England so that she could claim her father's lands and then return to Gian, his father, to be his wife. Allegreto is an assassin and is also portrayed as a eunuch so that he can stay close to Melanthe at all times, even in bed. (How she never knew the truth, I'm not sure...)
The hero is Ruck, an English knight - the Green Knight - who swore his loyalty to Melanthe when he and she were just 17. He was accompanying his wife Isabelle to become a nun, when Melanthe - already a princess - saved his life by telling the religious leaders he wasn't chaste, that he was staring at her and having lustful thoughts about her. Although he had loved Isabelle, he didn't understand her - she was portrayed as either having a gift or being insane, having visions and prophecies. By not being chaste enough for the religious leaders, he wasn't allowed to join his wife - which eventually saved his life.
It was all pretty confusing, to be honest. 13 years go by, and Ruck has managed to become an anonymous knight - something about not having proof of his birth/ownership of his father's property since everyone in his family died in the plague. He was concerned if he said where he was from and what his name was, it would come to the attention of the king that his family's lands were without owner and they would be taken. He meets Melanthe again, and again swears his loyalty to her - only this time he announces it so everyone knows (whereas before this, it was just in his own heart and mind).
Melanthe, in truth, is scared to death of everyone, and mostly for good reason. Her husband taught her not to trust anyone, and from him she learned to be aloof and disdainful in manner, as a way to save herself. She pits her servants one against the other as a way to keep them from harming her, and for them to be ever afraid of her and each other. When Ruck leads a small party of her servants and her into England, she pretends to be struck with the plague - and she and Ruck are abandoned by the entire party. At this point, when it's just the 2 of them, she is alternately in his debt and falling for him, and playing him for a fool. It was very hard to feel sympathy for her, even though you were meant to believe she was constantly in fear of her life even from Ruck.
They make their way not to her lands, but to his, where for a time they live as husband and wife, an idyllic life where she is loved by his people and seems to have relaxed and started to enjoy life. Unfortunately, Ruck is now never sure when she is telling the truth, and when she is acting (aka Lying). He keeps thinking that she will want to leave and go to her own lands and people - and therein lies his mistake. When he sends a youth to her property to see if it's safe, the youth is caught up in the web of intrigue to find her and bind her to Gian Navona again.
So not only was it hard to read because of the language issues, it was hard to be sympathetic for this lying, wheeling-and-dealing heroine who pretty much shot herself in the foot everytime she opened her dang mouth! Poor naive Ruck was truly led on a not-so-merry chase to save her from everyone including herself.
I think I would classify Ruck as a Besotted Hero - after all, he was able to remain celibate for 13 years in his pursuit of her! And even not knowing her, not understanding her, he never gave up on her, and followed her into the snake pit that was her home, where Gian and Allegreto and Cara and nameless others meant her harm - and from where she did everything she could to push Ruck away, meaning to save him again. He was more faithful, more patient than any hero I've read about so far. For that, and for the artistry of the prose (as hard as it was to digest) I give the story 4 stars. It's the first in a 2-book series (Serial Reader's Challenge) and it's an AAR Top 100 of 2007 which also puts it in the Spring 2009 Challenge under that category!
Also, it was so hard to feel anything positive for the heroine. Melanthe was English by birth, but married into an Italian family at age 12, to a man many years older, and then a widow. There were 3 Italian families represented - I think - as being enemies each of the other, and many of the characters were aligned with one of the 3, Riata, Monteverde (Melanthe's husband) and Navona.
Allegreto Navona is a youth of 16 traveling with Melanthe to England so that she could claim her father's lands and then return to Gian, his father, to be his wife. Allegreto is an assassin and is also portrayed as a eunuch so that he can stay close to Melanthe at all times, even in bed. (How she never knew the truth, I'm not sure...)
The hero is Ruck, an English knight - the Green Knight - who swore his loyalty to Melanthe when he and she were just 17. He was accompanying his wife Isabelle to become a nun, when Melanthe - already a princess - saved his life by telling the religious leaders he wasn't chaste, that he was staring at her and having lustful thoughts about her. Although he had loved Isabelle, he didn't understand her - she was portrayed as either having a gift or being insane, having visions and prophecies. By not being chaste enough for the religious leaders, he wasn't allowed to join his wife - which eventually saved his life.
It was all pretty confusing, to be honest. 13 years go by, and Ruck has managed to become an anonymous knight - something about not having proof of his birth/ownership of his father's property since everyone in his family died in the plague. He was concerned if he said where he was from and what his name was, it would come to the attention of the king that his family's lands were without owner and they would be taken. He meets Melanthe again, and again swears his loyalty to her - only this time he announces it so everyone knows (whereas before this, it was just in his own heart and mind).
Melanthe, in truth, is scared to death of everyone, and mostly for good reason. Her husband taught her not to trust anyone, and from him she learned to be aloof and disdainful in manner, as a way to save herself. She pits her servants one against the other as a way to keep them from harming her, and for them to be ever afraid of her and each other. When Ruck leads a small party of her servants and her into England, she pretends to be struck with the plague - and she and Ruck are abandoned by the entire party. At this point, when it's just the 2 of them, she is alternately in his debt and falling for him, and playing him for a fool. It was very hard to feel sympathy for her, even though you were meant to believe she was constantly in fear of her life even from Ruck.
They make their way not to her lands, but to his, where for a time they live as husband and wife, an idyllic life where she is loved by his people and seems to have relaxed and started to enjoy life. Unfortunately, Ruck is now never sure when she is telling the truth, and when she is acting (aka Lying). He keeps thinking that she will want to leave and go to her own lands and people - and therein lies his mistake. When he sends a youth to her property to see if it's safe, the youth is caught up in the web of intrigue to find her and bind her to Gian Navona again.
So not only was it hard to read because of the language issues, it was hard to be sympathetic for this lying, wheeling-and-dealing heroine who pretty much shot herself in the foot everytime she opened her dang mouth! Poor naive Ruck was truly led on a not-so-merry chase to save her from everyone including herself.
I think I would classify Ruck as a Besotted Hero - after all, he was able to remain celibate for 13 years in his pursuit of her! And even not knowing her, not understanding her, he never gave up on her, and followed her into the snake pit that was her home, where Gian and Allegreto and Cara and nameless others meant her harm - and from where she did everything she could to push Ruck away, meaning to save him again. He was more faithful, more patient than any hero I've read about so far. For that, and for the artistry of the prose (as hard as it was to digest) I give the story 4 stars. It's the first in a 2-book series (Serial Reader's Challenge) and it's an AAR Top 100 of 2007 which also puts it in the Spring 2009 Challenge under that category!
Monday, March 9, 2009
Shadow Music by Julie Garwood ***
This is really less than 3 stars, maybe 2.5 stars. It's not that I disliked it so much as it wasn't exactly a great story - just mediocre at best. I have to say, I'm back to where I was when I read The Bride: I just don't like her style in some of her books.
In the cover blurb, some kind soul writes: "A gripping novel that delves into the heart of emotions - unyielding passions of love, hate, revenge, and raw desire"...
Man, that person read a completely different book. When she writes medievals (as this was), she has this odd, stilted prose, both in the narrative and in the dialogue, that is the opposite of emotional. It's cold, and unnatural. She didn't do what I have disliked about other books - the Keystone Cop thing where everyone talks (nonsense) at once. Good - 1 check in the positive column. But "gripping"? Passionate? Raw desire? I did not feel any of that.
It was ok - the story was another medieval, another English virgin being married to a Scot as decreed by King John to help bind the 2 countries together. In this case, the Scot in question is murdered before the wedding, and the bride is accused of being a harlot and is banished from England. It has something to do with a treasure, and 2 English barons wanting both her and the treasure. However, she didn't even believe the rumored treasure existed, so she couldn't help them with that anyway.
A different Scot, Laird MacHugh, takes the half-English/half St. Bielish (??) Gabrielle under his protection, promising his buddy he'll marry her to restore her reputation. I sorta got confused about this part, but it wasn't worth going back to solve the riddle of why he agreed to do it. His buddy was Brodick of an earlier novel in the series, also married to an English lassie.
Of course, she is good with bow and arrow and managed to save MacHugh's brother from death by shooting the fellow trying to kill him, so that should have been why MacHugh took her in, except at that point he didn't even know she was involved. Over time he and she decide they're attracted to one another and maybe even falling in love, and they do marry and it's all wonderful and then she's kidnapped by one of the bad barons... and then she's saved and everyone else lives happily ever after.
See? It was just another story. I never felt gripped. Really. 3 stars - Serial Reader's Challenge, and Spring 09 Challenge for book set in Scotland.
In the cover blurb, some kind soul writes: "A gripping novel that delves into the heart of emotions - unyielding passions of love, hate, revenge, and raw desire"...
Man, that person read a completely different book. When she writes medievals (as this was), she has this odd, stilted prose, both in the narrative and in the dialogue, that is the opposite of emotional. It's cold, and unnatural. She didn't do what I have disliked about other books - the Keystone Cop thing where everyone talks (nonsense) at once. Good - 1 check in the positive column. But "gripping"? Passionate? Raw desire? I did not feel any of that.
It was ok - the story was another medieval, another English virgin being married to a Scot as decreed by King John to help bind the 2 countries together. In this case, the Scot in question is murdered before the wedding, and the bride is accused of being a harlot and is banished from England. It has something to do with a treasure, and 2 English barons wanting both her and the treasure. However, she didn't even believe the rumored treasure existed, so she couldn't help them with that anyway.
A different Scot, Laird MacHugh, takes the half-English/half St. Bielish (??) Gabrielle under his protection, promising his buddy he'll marry her to restore her reputation. I sorta got confused about this part, but it wasn't worth going back to solve the riddle of why he agreed to do it. His buddy was Brodick of an earlier novel in the series, also married to an English lassie.
Of course, she is good with bow and arrow and managed to save MacHugh's brother from death by shooting the fellow trying to kill him, so that should have been why MacHugh took her in, except at that point he didn't even know she was involved. Over time he and she decide they're attracted to one another and maybe even falling in love, and they do marry and it's all wonderful and then she's kidnapped by one of the bad barons... and then she's saved and everyone else lives happily ever after.
See? It was just another story. I never felt gripped. Really. 3 stars - Serial Reader's Challenge, and Spring 09 Challenge for book set in Scotland.
Saturday, September 6, 2008
Remembrance by Jude Deveraux ****
Another day, another book. Actually, I'm feeling a little flustered - somehow, I'm a day behind!!
Ok - Remembrance - it's a paranormal, I think - not really time travel, but a past life regression, except...
Romance writer Hayden Lane is obsessed with a hero she's created. She loses a real-life fiancé, time, friends - all while holed up creating this fellow. She isn't even really writing the book - she just accumulates hundreds and hundreds of pages of descriptions of Jamie, her medieval Scottish hero, who then becomes English, and then changes times...
Hayden consults therapists, friends, others trying to get over her obsession. Finally she finds herself in the office of Nora - a woman passing as an astrologist who is really a psychic. Nora is the real deal - and she knows things, reads Hayden's thoughts. Hayden decides that she'll listen to Nora's ideas only for the research value, so she can maybe write a book using the information. Truth is - she's fascinated by Nora's assertion that Hayden has a soul-mate that she has kept through the ages, but that she is destined not to meet again for 3 more lifetimes.
Given some details and ideas, Hayden is off on another tangent - researching about the woman who might have been her in a past life. Next thing she knows, and against Nora's advice, she undergoes hypnosis with a past-life regressionist - and finds herself in her past life's body in 1901. Her persona, Catherine, lets her in - and Hayden overpowers her. Catherine's husband, Adam Tavistock, is getting ready to divorce her and marry Fiona - as it turns out, Catherine's and Adam's marriage was never consummated because he is suffering from ED, but only with her. With other women, he's as virile as any romance novel hero, but the only one he loves is Catherine. Why are Catherine and Adam doomed even though they are in love and are true soul-mates? Why can they not realize their love? Hayden is desperate to find out the truth.
Once again a hypnotist comes into play - and Hayden is suddenly inside an infant as she is being born - in the mid 16th century.
Here is where the story of the soul-mates begins. Callasandra and Talis are born on the same day, at almost the same time, to 2 women. Talis' mother dies in birth after issuing a proclamation about them that joins the babies' fates; Callasandra's mother gives birth to yet another girl, and claims the boy as hers instead. In a tragic turn of events, she decides to have both children die in a fire - but their wet nurse and her husband run away with the children, and raise them together for 16 years as their own. Everyone at the castle believe the children are dead, until one day...
Their story is the key to Hayden's search for her soul-mate. Hayden's 20th century self doesn't emerge in Callie's life, but when the story of Talis and Callie ends, Hayden was witness to the fate and the curse that led to her current situation. When she returns to consciousness, it's to Catherine's body, not her own, and she still needs to solve the problem between Adam and Catherine before she can wake up as Hayden in 1994.
Truthfully, it was a good story but oh sooo frustrating. The continuing miscommunication between Talis and Callie about drove me nutz, which after reading this book was a very, very short trip. If I had to read one more scene where Talis did something to make Callie jealous, or where Talis had to remain true to Alida because of honor - sheeeeesh!!! I wanted to scream!
But I was touched by the end of the stories - for Talis and Callie, for Catherine and Adam - and then for Hayden and her soul-mate. 4 stars.
Ok - Remembrance - it's a paranormal, I think - not really time travel, but a past life regression, except...
Romance writer Hayden Lane is obsessed with a hero she's created. She loses a real-life fiancé, time, friends - all while holed up creating this fellow. She isn't even really writing the book - she just accumulates hundreds and hundreds of pages of descriptions of Jamie, her medieval Scottish hero, who then becomes English, and then changes times...
Hayden consults therapists, friends, others trying to get over her obsession. Finally she finds herself in the office of Nora - a woman passing as an astrologist who is really a psychic. Nora is the real deal - and she knows things, reads Hayden's thoughts. Hayden decides that she'll listen to Nora's ideas only for the research value, so she can maybe write a book using the information. Truth is - she's fascinated by Nora's assertion that Hayden has a soul-mate that she has kept through the ages, but that she is destined not to meet again for 3 more lifetimes.
Given some details and ideas, Hayden is off on another tangent - researching about the woman who might have been her in a past life. Next thing she knows, and against Nora's advice, she undergoes hypnosis with a past-life regressionist - and finds herself in her past life's body in 1901. Her persona, Catherine, lets her in - and Hayden overpowers her. Catherine's husband, Adam Tavistock, is getting ready to divorce her and marry Fiona - as it turns out, Catherine's and Adam's marriage was never consummated because he is suffering from ED, but only with her. With other women, he's as virile as any romance novel hero, but the only one he loves is Catherine. Why are Catherine and Adam doomed even though they are in love and are true soul-mates? Why can they not realize their love? Hayden is desperate to find out the truth.
Once again a hypnotist comes into play - and Hayden is suddenly inside an infant as she is being born - in the mid 16th century.
Here is where the story of the soul-mates begins. Callasandra and Talis are born on the same day, at almost the same time, to 2 women. Talis' mother dies in birth after issuing a proclamation about them that joins the babies' fates; Callasandra's mother gives birth to yet another girl, and claims the boy as hers instead. In a tragic turn of events, she decides to have both children die in a fire - but their wet nurse and her husband run away with the children, and raise them together for 16 years as their own. Everyone at the castle believe the children are dead, until one day...
Their story is the key to Hayden's search for her soul-mate. Hayden's 20th century self doesn't emerge in Callie's life, but when the story of Talis and Callie ends, Hayden was witness to the fate and the curse that led to her current situation. When she returns to consciousness, it's to Catherine's body, not her own, and she still needs to solve the problem between Adam and Catherine before she can wake up as Hayden in 1994.
Truthfully, it was a good story but oh sooo frustrating. The continuing miscommunication between Talis and Callie about drove me nutz, which after reading this book was a very, very short trip. If I had to read one more scene where Talis did something to make Callie jealous, or where Talis had to remain true to Alida because of honor - sheeeeesh!!! I wanted to scream!
But I was touched by the end of the stories - for Talis and Callie, for Catherine and Adam - and then for Hayden and her soul-mate. 4 stars.
Friday, September 5, 2008
The Velvet Promise by Jude Deveraux ****
This is the first in the Velvet Series, about the 4 Montgomery brothers. This story is about Gavin, the eldest, and his marriage to Judith Revedoune.
Here's a shorty-type review. 4 stars - the story was good, but frankly Gavin will never make my "favorite hero" list. Maybe it's because it was published in 1981, maybe it's because Deveraux thinks 16 century men rape and beat women as a matter of course, but I was pretty much disgusted with his behavior towards Judith about 98% of the time. In spite of that, Deveraux tells such a good story that I stuck with it for Judith's sake, and liked the story. I hope his brothers will be more honorable in their own stories - already I like them much better than their brutish and disloyal adulterer/batterer brother. (hmmm, how could I like this book?? This is why I have this blog, to write my thoughts directly after reading so I'll remember why I felt the way I did - now I have another book in my head.)
Here's a shorty-type review. 4 stars - the story was good, but frankly Gavin will never make my "favorite hero" list. Maybe it's because it was published in 1981, maybe it's because Deveraux thinks 16 century men rape and beat women as a matter of course, but I was pretty much disgusted with his behavior towards Judith about 98% of the time. In spite of that, Deveraux tells such a good story that I stuck with it for Judith's sake, and liked the story. I hope his brothers will be more honorable in their own stories - already I like them much better than their brutish and disloyal adulterer/batterer brother. (hmmm, how could I like this book?? This is why I have this blog, to write my thoughts directly after reading so I'll remember why I felt the way I did - now I have another book in my head.)
Friday, August 29, 2008
A Kingdom of Dreams by Judith McNaught *****
ahhhhh - another personal favorite added to my list! What a wonderful story this was - with knights in shining armor, feisty but not too foolhardy heroines, a touch of suspense and a tear-worthy ending and epilogue! It's got laugh-out-loud funny moments, witty dialogue and lots of tender moments as well - everything I love in a good story.
A Kingdom of Dreams is the "prequel" to the beloved Whitney, My Love - a long-standing title on the Top 100 lists. I liked Whitney enough to rate it 4 stars, but liked its sequel Until You more and Kingdom even more than that.
Royce Westmoreland, first Duke of Claymore, is a wonderful hero - he's the much-feared Black Wolf whose reputation keeps children away from the woods where legend has him lurking and waiting to eat them. He's a fearsome warrior, fighting to keep King Henry and England safe from marauding armies, and he's on a mission to conquer Merrick Keep in Scotland.
Jennifer Merrick is the only daughter of Laird Merrick, who also has 3 stepsons and a stepdaughter Brenna. Jennifer, by rights, is a countess on her mother's side and should inherit the laird-ship, but her father decides to grant it to the eldest stepson instead. Jennifer is a bit of a hoyden, facing down the stepbrother in a jousting tournament (by lifting the face mask at the very last minute and sticking out her tongue at him, causing him to fall off the horse in surprise). At the ripe old age of 17, she's already refused two offers of marriage to older men and is almost a spinster for the time. To keep her safe and prevent her from any more mischief, her father sends her to live as a novice/nun in a nearby abbey, and later sends the stepsister as well.
The sisters are wandering home from the village when Jenny decides she would like to take the long way - think The Hills Are Alive with the Sound of Music here. Brenna is the goody-two-shoes of the pair, but stays with Jenny as they take a different, and less safe way. Royce's brother Stefan kidnaps them as hostages and takes them to Royce.
Brenna is ever the good girl, but Jenny looks for ways to make mischief and escape - the scenes where she "mends" Royce's clothing had me laughing out loud. She manages to come up with a good plan - she steals some of the clothing so she and Brenna can dress as boys, steals 2 horses and leaves the men looking in the wrong places. Her courage and daring impress Royce as much as make him mad - of course, it doesn't help his reputation much to have 2 girls outwit the Black Wolf!
When he gets them back, and takes them to one of his homes, Brenna becomes ill, and Royce strikes a bargain - he will let Brenna go if Jenny will sleep with him. Because she will do anything for her sister, for her family, for her people, she agrees. She even admits to him that she has a built a "kingdom of dreams" - a place where everyone will see her as heroic and good. It's the opposite of how her family and clan feel, because her no-good stepbrothers have spread lies about her, turning them against her. Royce is truly touched by this side of Jenny, and is already falling in love with her.
The story is told in a way that makes it suspenseful - we start on the day of their marriage, with Jenny trying to strike a bargain with God - anything to keep from having to marry this Barbarian! Then we learn their journey to this point as a flashbackk, 7 weeks earlier, when the girls are first kidnapped. When Jenny reveals her "kingdom of dreams", Royce reveals to her his own dream - good food, a life with no more fighting, a family. Their dreams aren't so far apart - except for Jenny's youth and inexperience, which make her take risks to keep her family and clan thinking well of her, even when they are not the least bit deserving.
The emotions she feels, the feeling of being betrayed, the desire to be loved and accepted - I felt each of these while I read the story. She makes choices which have consequences she didn't foresee, based on the falsehood that her father will love her and show her the respect she deserves. That was so sad and made the ending so much more a triumph, when her true kingdom is revealed.
Well, I don't know if I've conveyed how touching, and funny, and wonderful, and fastastic this story is, but I'm putting it in my Favorites lists and it's a 5-star-keeper for me.
A Kingdom of Dreams is the "prequel" to the beloved Whitney, My Love - a long-standing title on the Top 100 lists. I liked Whitney enough to rate it 4 stars, but liked its sequel Until You more and Kingdom even more than that.
Royce Westmoreland, first Duke of Claymore, is a wonderful hero - he's the much-feared Black Wolf whose reputation keeps children away from the woods where legend has him lurking and waiting to eat them. He's a fearsome warrior, fighting to keep King Henry and England safe from marauding armies, and he's on a mission to conquer Merrick Keep in Scotland.
Jennifer Merrick is the only daughter of Laird Merrick, who also has 3 stepsons and a stepdaughter Brenna. Jennifer, by rights, is a countess on her mother's side and should inherit the laird-ship, but her father decides to grant it to the eldest stepson instead. Jennifer is a bit of a hoyden, facing down the stepbrother in a jousting tournament (by lifting the face mask at the very last minute and sticking out her tongue at him, causing him to fall off the horse in surprise). At the ripe old age of 17, she's already refused two offers of marriage to older men and is almost a spinster for the time. To keep her safe and prevent her from any more mischief, her father sends her to live as a novice/nun in a nearby abbey, and later sends the stepsister as well.
The sisters are wandering home from the village when Jenny decides she would like to take the long way - think The Hills Are Alive with the Sound of Music here. Brenna is the goody-two-shoes of the pair, but stays with Jenny as they take a different, and less safe way. Royce's brother Stefan kidnaps them as hostages and takes them to Royce.
Brenna is ever the good girl, but Jenny looks for ways to make mischief and escape - the scenes where she "mends" Royce's clothing had me laughing out loud. She manages to come up with a good plan - she steals some of the clothing so she and Brenna can dress as boys, steals 2 horses and leaves the men looking in the wrong places. Her courage and daring impress Royce as much as make him mad - of course, it doesn't help his reputation much to have 2 girls outwit the Black Wolf!
When he gets them back, and takes them to one of his homes, Brenna becomes ill, and Royce strikes a bargain - he will let Brenna go if Jenny will sleep with him. Because she will do anything for her sister, for her family, for her people, she agrees. She even admits to him that she has a built a "kingdom of dreams" - a place where everyone will see her as heroic and good. It's the opposite of how her family and clan feel, because her no-good stepbrothers have spread lies about her, turning them against her. Royce is truly touched by this side of Jenny, and is already falling in love with her.
The story is told in a way that makes it suspenseful - we start on the day of their marriage, with Jenny trying to strike a bargain with God - anything to keep from having to marry this Barbarian! Then we learn their journey to this point as a flashbackk, 7 weeks earlier, when the girls are first kidnapped. When Jenny reveals her "kingdom of dreams", Royce reveals to her his own dream - good food, a life with no more fighting, a family. Their dreams aren't so far apart - except for Jenny's youth and inexperience, which make her take risks to keep her family and clan thinking well of her, even when they are not the least bit deserving.
The emotions she feels, the feeling of being betrayed, the desire to be loved and accepted - I felt each of these while I read the story. She makes choices which have consequences she didn't foresee, based on the falsehood that her father will love her and show her the respect she deserves. That was so sad and made the ending so much more a triumph, when her true kingdom is revealed.
Well, I don't know if I've conveyed how touching, and funny, and wonderful, and fastastic this story is, but I'm putting it in my Favorites lists and it's a 5-star-keeper for me.
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
The Prize by Julie Garwood ****
This is #99 on the AAR Top 100 - and another book by Julie Garwood, an author with 6 titles in the list. After reading 2 or 3 of her books (not all in the Top 100 because I'm a stickler for reading entire series in order), I had decided I didn't like her writing style. Then I read Saving Grace and changed my mind. After all, I don't rate all of the Nora Roberts or LaVyrle Spencer books 4 or 5 either, and they are 2 of my favorite authors!
Now that I've read The Prize, though, I'm shaking my head. She has a familiar theme she seems to employ that I'm tired of. No, not the Keystone Cops thing this time - it's the misunderstanding thing. Not the "Big Misunderstanding" but the characters misinterpreting things each other say and do. Yes, this is realistic. In general, people don't always say what they are thinking, and often they misinterpret actions or things said by others. I'm sure this is multiplied 100x between men and women in general, and add to that the fact that the heroes and heroines in her books tend to be from (slightly) different cultures, you can say that misinterpretations and misunderstandings must abound.
However - what I am finding a tedious repetition is how we go through the mental process with the heroine. Her brute of a husband just doesn't understand how things work, how they should be, what his reaction should have been, and instead of her saying it, she thinks about how she will bring him around and usually it seems to be some off-beat logic on her part. Maybe if I had read The Prize before the others, I would have enjoyed it more. But seeing the use of this conceit again just wasn't that interesting.
I'm quoting Ms Garwood here from an interview in 2007 with AAR:
The era is medieval - 1066 during William the Conqueror's reign. The hero is Norman (Royce) the heroine Saxon (Nicholaa). He's come to conquer her lands and take her, The Prize, back to William. She's the prize because she has led her people in victory over 3 different attacking armies sent by William. Royce is the 4th, and instead of force, he uses cunning to finally capture her - after she has used cunning to avoid capture.
They get back to William, through some cute dialog and actions they end up married, and then we watch them struggle to learn how to get along with each other, mainly through a lot of that misinterpreting thing I described. I marveled at Royce's control of his libido, sleeping with her for days before consummating the marriage... I also marveled at Nicholaa's ability to use a slingshot so accurately without ever practicing. She never showed any other similar skills, although you woulda thought she had them, since her aim was so incredible. Ah, I'm such a cynic. (and at the tournament, she had 3 rocks, used 1 and had only 1 left... where did the 3rd rock go?)
4 stars, go ahead and read it so you can finish the Top 100 challenge...
Now that I've read The Prize, though, I'm shaking my head. She has a familiar theme she seems to employ that I'm tired of. No, not the Keystone Cops thing this time - it's the misunderstanding thing. Not the "Big Misunderstanding" but the characters misinterpreting things each other say and do. Yes, this is realistic. In general, people don't always say what they are thinking, and often they misinterpret actions or things said by others. I'm sure this is multiplied 100x between men and women in general, and add to that the fact that the heroes and heroines in her books tend to be from (slightly) different cultures, you can say that misinterpretations and misunderstandings must abound.
However - what I am finding a tedious repetition is how we go through the mental process with the heroine. Her brute of a husband just doesn't understand how things work, how they should be, what his reaction should have been, and instead of her saying it, she thinks about how she will bring him around and usually it seems to be some off-beat logic on her part. Maybe if I had read The Prize before the others, I would have enjoyed it more. But seeing the use of this conceit again just wasn't that interesting.
I'm quoting Ms Garwood here from an interview in 2007 with AAR:
At the core of any great romance is emotion. I think the reader has to identify with the characters – to root for them. My goal is to make the reader feel what the character is feeling—to fall in love, to be afraid, to be angry, to laugh.She is absolutely right, and I did not feel what the characters were feeling in this. I'm not sure whether she failed me or I failed her. I liked this book, in fact I'll give it 4 stars because it was a good enough read, but not great. Slightly better than average, where the definition of average is "lacking exceptional quality" and to which I give 3 stars.
The era is medieval - 1066 during William the Conqueror's reign. The hero is Norman (Royce) the heroine Saxon (Nicholaa). He's come to conquer her lands and take her, The Prize, back to William. She's the prize because she has led her people in victory over 3 different attacking armies sent by William. Royce is the 4th, and instead of force, he uses cunning to finally capture her - after she has used cunning to avoid capture.
They get back to William, through some cute dialog and actions they end up married, and then we watch them struggle to learn how to get along with each other, mainly through a lot of that misinterpreting thing I described. I marveled at Royce's control of his libido, sleeping with her for days before consummating the marriage... I also marveled at Nicholaa's ability to use a slingshot so accurately without ever practicing. She never showed any other similar skills, although you woulda thought she had them, since her aim was so incredible. Ah, I'm such a cynic. (and at the tournament, she had 3 rocks, used 1 and had only 1 left... where did the 3rd rock go?)
4 stars, go ahead and read it so you can finish the Top 100 challenge...
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Saving Grace by Julie Garwood *****
Hallelujah! Yes indeedy, faithful romance readers, I have seen the light, and I'm here to tell you - every author's work is different, and at last, praise the lawd, I have seen Julie Garwood's light and it is Saving Grace, my first 5 start read for this author!
I knew there were a ton of romance readers out there who just love love love this author, and I'm always disappointed when I read a well-loved book or author and wonder what the fuss is about. After reading the AAR Top 100 books by this author Ransom, The Secret and The Bride, I was just not feeling the love.
But I'm here to tell you today, Saving Grace has made me a believer.
OK, enough ranting and raving. I shouldn't in all fairness overstate my case. This is no To Die For (Linda Howard) or True Confessions (Rachel Gibson) or A Season To Be Sinful (Jo Goodman) which are 3 of my very favorite books ever. But, hey, I had almost given up on my ever liking Julie Garwood's writing and lo and behold, I have found one I love.
Saving Grace is another medieval - for all I know, all she's written is medieval romance (actually, I just read her interviews on AAR and she even writes contemporaries). It takes place around 1200, when England is being ruled by King John, the one who (probably) killed his nephew Arthur who should have been king after Richard the Lion Hearted. It involves an Englishwoman Johanna who is the widow of the alledgedly dead Baron Raulf, one of King John's cohorts. After his death, John wants to have her wed again for various political reasons, and her brother Nicholas makes a deal with John for her to wed a Scottish laird, Gabriel MacBain.
Gabriel weds Johanna only to get her lands, but also finds he is attracted to her as well. What he doesn't know about her is that Raulf was a batterer - he just figures she's timid and probably doesn't have the constitution needed to survive in the Highlands. She also thinks she's barren since she didn't conceive while wed to Raulf for 3 years, but he has an illegitimate son already and figures he's covered on the heir issue anyway - her lands are sufficient reason to wed.
OK - what we have here is a story of a truly courageous and very young girl, really - she was wed at age 14 to Raulf, so she is perhaps only just 18 or so at the beginning of the story. While she had a good family life, she is sequestered away in the Baron's castle where he truly is the typical batterer, keeping her distanced from family, not allowing her to even have the same servants for more than a month so that she has no confidants - and beating her mainly where the bruises are hidden under clothing.
This book, while having some humor in it, does not have the traits that drove me to distraction in the other 3 Garwoods I read, that Keystone Cop thing of people racing about and talking over each other and interrupting to create misunderstandings and plot contrivances. Well, there is a teensy touch of it, but it isn't distracting. Instead we get a more realistic picture of people living according to their traditions but being forced to open their eyes and their minds to other ways of living through necessity. Macbain is laird of 2 clans trying to live together but staying separate - forcing Johanna to switch her plaid from one to the other every day, for instance, to avoid insulting one or the other. We have the Scots clans ways and we have her English ways to consider as well. She is prejudiced against them but outnumbered, so she tries to make it work, but the Scots aren't as open minded to her or to each other.
The growth of Johanna as a character and her love for Gabriel were developed slowly and realistically, and it was fun and touching and heartwarming and all things I like in a romance novel. She was determined and somewhat headstrong, she did things that were uncommon for women of the time, but she wasn't an unrealistic major aberration that made you think, "oh as if..." every 20 pages.
And lo and behold it's another AAR Top 100 under my belt, and I liked it too. 5 stars.
However, I did visit AAR to see what their reviewers had to say - one of them needed to consult her book before writing (it's MacBain not McBain) and the other gushed somewhat too much for my tastes, even though I agreed with many of her sentiments. Well, everyone's different and that is what makes the world interesting, if somewhat frustrating and often annoying. I'm sure they would hate my Garwood opinions, so maybe we're even.
I knew there were a ton of romance readers out there who just love love love this author, and I'm always disappointed when I read a well-loved book or author and wonder what the fuss is about. After reading the AAR Top 100 books by this author Ransom, The Secret and The Bride, I was just not feeling the love.
But I'm here to tell you today, Saving Grace has made me a believer.
OK, enough ranting and raving. I shouldn't in all fairness overstate my case. This is no To Die For (Linda Howard) or True Confessions (Rachel Gibson) or A Season To Be Sinful (Jo Goodman) which are 3 of my very favorite books ever. But, hey, I had almost given up on my ever liking Julie Garwood's writing and lo and behold, I have found one I love.
Saving Grace is another medieval - for all I know, all she's written is medieval romance (actually, I just read her interviews on AAR and she even writes contemporaries). It takes place around 1200, when England is being ruled by King John, the one who (probably) killed his nephew Arthur who should have been king after Richard the Lion Hearted. It involves an Englishwoman Johanna who is the widow of the alledgedly dead Baron Raulf, one of King John's cohorts. After his death, John wants to have her wed again for various political reasons, and her brother Nicholas makes a deal with John for her to wed a Scottish laird, Gabriel MacBain.
Gabriel weds Johanna only to get her lands, but also finds he is attracted to her as well. What he doesn't know about her is that Raulf was a batterer - he just figures she's timid and probably doesn't have the constitution needed to survive in the Highlands. She also thinks she's barren since she didn't conceive while wed to Raulf for 3 years, but he has an illegitimate son already and figures he's covered on the heir issue anyway - her lands are sufficient reason to wed.
OK - what we have here is a story of a truly courageous and very young girl, really - she was wed at age 14 to Raulf, so she is perhaps only just 18 or so at the beginning of the story. While she had a good family life, she is sequestered away in the Baron's castle where he truly is the typical batterer, keeping her distanced from family, not allowing her to even have the same servants for more than a month so that she has no confidants - and beating her mainly where the bruises are hidden under clothing.
This book, while having some humor in it, does not have the traits that drove me to distraction in the other 3 Garwoods I read, that Keystone Cop thing of people racing about and talking over each other and interrupting to create misunderstandings and plot contrivances. Well, there is a teensy touch of it, but it isn't distracting. Instead we get a more realistic picture of people living according to their traditions but being forced to open their eyes and their minds to other ways of living through necessity. Macbain is laird of 2 clans trying to live together but staying separate - forcing Johanna to switch her plaid from one to the other every day, for instance, to avoid insulting one or the other. We have the Scots clans ways and we have her English ways to consider as well. She is prejudiced against them but outnumbered, so she tries to make it work, but the Scots aren't as open minded to her or to each other.
The growth of Johanna as a character and her love for Gabriel were developed slowly and realistically, and it was fun and touching and heartwarming and all things I like in a romance novel. She was determined and somewhat headstrong, she did things that were uncommon for women of the time, but she wasn't an unrealistic major aberration that made you think, "oh as if..." every 20 pages.
And lo and behold it's another AAR Top 100 under my belt, and I liked it too. 5 stars.
However, I did visit AAR to see what their reviewers had to say - one of them needed to consult her book before writing (it's MacBain not McBain) and the other gushed somewhat too much for my tastes, even though I agreed with many of her sentiments. Well, everyone's different and that is what makes the world interesting, if somewhat frustrating and often annoying. I'm sure they would hate my Garwood opinions, so maybe we're even.
Thursday, August 7, 2008
The Bride by Julie Garwood ***
Maybe it's just me. This is an AAR Top 100 book. I mean, I went back and re-read the AAR DIK review for this book, and that reviewer makes a passionate argument for how everyone, everywhere should love this book.
But I did not love this book. In fact, now that I've read 3 Garwood books, I think I can say without hesitation that I do not love her writing style. I don't even particularly like it. But I will read the others in the AAR Top 100 just to be sure, since I already have them.
Plot: Jamie, English lass, is chosen by Alec Kincaid, Scottish Laird, to be his bride as arranged by the current English king Henry as part of some political something or other. In other words, he has to marry an Englishwoman, and his choice is limited to the daughters of an English baron. She's feisty and independent and doesn't want to go along with this edict but does. She and he grow to love one another. As backstory, he's a widower whose first wife was thought to have committed suicide but as it turns out she was murdered, and the murderer has it out for Jamie too.
There's something - stilted? - I'm not sure what the word is, or the words are, that I need to describe her writing. The heroine's moods shift hither thither and yon without warning. It's almost - cartoony? - like Keystone Cops, the way people rush about, change direction both literally and in mood and thought. I found myself going back paragraphs, pages, to figure out exactly how we got where we were.
Yes, they develop a passion for each other, and yes, sometimes I found myself being affected - smiling, laughing, feeling things. But more often than not, I felt myself confused. Furrowing my brows and frowning, thinking WTF??
First of all, all that crying and moaning by her sisters. Was that - funny? Disturbing? I mean, 3 adult women moaning and wailing. WTF? Second of all, was Jamie Cinderella or not? We're told over and over at the beginning how she's the favorite, and she has all these skills, then later we're led to believe she'd been ill used, practically abused by her father (who was not really her father at all). WTF? And she's a skillful horsewoman with no sense of direction? WTF?? That direction thing was apparently a joke throughout the book.
Was it a comedy? A thriller? A murder mystery? Either way, Garwood is no Linda Howard, no Nora Roberts, no Elizabeth Lowell, in spinning a tale that contains all of these features.
Was the stilted writing meant to bring to mind how one would speak in Medieval English/Scots? Did people say "spit" then like we say "dang"? Does it matter? Well, maybe not. Would the residents of the Scottish Highlands in 1100 have been speaking both English and Gaelic? I really do not know the history of the 2 languages well enough to know. Maybe that isn't really important to the story.
And yet, in spite of the trouble I had reading it - I didn't hate it. I didn't find her characters Too Stupid To Live, or too annoying to keep reading. I didn't dislike the storyline of an arranged marriage between and English subject and a Scottish laird. I didn't dislike the way they came to love one another, or the mystery of someone unknown trying to kill the Laird's wives. I just did not like the writing style. The Keystone Cop-ishness. The weird switches back and forth of moods.
OK I just don't like Garwood's writing style. That's all I can figure. So, I'll give it 3 stars and try 2 more times to see what it is that makes her books so popular. And if those 2 books don't do it, I'm done with her books - there are just too many Nora Roberts books to read, plus I haven't finished Lowell or Howard's backlists, and there's more Jo Goodman, and jeez, I just got started on Jennifer Crusie, and... No point in wasting time, is there?
But I did not love this book. In fact, now that I've read 3 Garwood books, I think I can say without hesitation that I do not love her writing style. I don't even particularly like it. But I will read the others in the AAR Top 100 just to be sure, since I already have them.
Plot: Jamie, English lass, is chosen by Alec Kincaid, Scottish Laird, to be his bride as arranged by the current English king Henry as part of some political something or other. In other words, he has to marry an Englishwoman, and his choice is limited to the daughters of an English baron. She's feisty and independent and doesn't want to go along with this edict but does. She and he grow to love one another. As backstory, he's a widower whose first wife was thought to have committed suicide but as it turns out she was murdered, and the murderer has it out for Jamie too.
There's something - stilted? - I'm not sure what the word is, or the words are, that I need to describe her writing. The heroine's moods shift hither thither and yon without warning. It's almost - cartoony? - like Keystone Cops, the way people rush about, change direction both literally and in mood and thought. I found myself going back paragraphs, pages, to figure out exactly how we got where we were.
Yes, they develop a passion for each other, and yes, sometimes I found myself being affected - smiling, laughing, feeling things. But more often than not, I felt myself confused. Furrowing my brows and frowning, thinking WTF??
First of all, all that crying and moaning by her sisters. Was that - funny? Disturbing? I mean, 3 adult women moaning and wailing. WTF? Second of all, was Jamie Cinderella or not? We're told over and over at the beginning how she's the favorite, and she has all these skills, then later we're led to believe she'd been ill used, practically abused by her father (who was not really her father at all). WTF? And she's a skillful horsewoman with no sense of direction? WTF?? That direction thing was apparently a joke throughout the book.
Was it a comedy? A thriller? A murder mystery? Either way, Garwood is no Linda Howard, no Nora Roberts, no Elizabeth Lowell, in spinning a tale that contains all of these features.
Was the stilted writing meant to bring to mind how one would speak in Medieval English/Scots? Did people say "spit" then like we say "dang"? Does it matter? Well, maybe not. Would the residents of the Scottish Highlands in 1100 have been speaking both English and Gaelic? I really do not know the history of the 2 languages well enough to know. Maybe that isn't really important to the story.
And yet, in spite of the trouble I had reading it - I didn't hate it. I didn't find her characters Too Stupid To Live, or too annoying to keep reading. I didn't dislike the storyline of an arranged marriage between and English subject and a Scottish laird. I didn't dislike the way they came to love one another, or the mystery of someone unknown trying to kill the Laird's wives. I just did not like the writing style. The Keystone Cop-ishness. The weird switches back and forth of moods.
OK I just don't like Garwood's writing style. That's all I can figure. So, I'll give it 3 stars and try 2 more times to see what it is that makes her books so popular. And if those 2 books don't do it, I'm done with her books - there are just too many Nora Roberts books to read, plus I haven't finished Lowell or Howard's backlists, and there's more Jo Goodman, and jeez, I just got started on Jennifer Crusie, and... No point in wasting time, is there?
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
The Last Arrow by Marsha Canham
This is the final book in the Robin Hood trilogy, where the Robin Hood character(s) finally come to light, along with the Sheriff of Nottingham, and Littlejohn and all of them.
I didn't mention the character of Sparrow in the first 2 books - he's a dwarf who has ape-like abilities to swing through trees and shoot arrows. He's a funny little fellow who appears in all three books. Littlejohn, or Petit Jean, Jean de Brevant is only in books 2 and 3. I expected the hero of this book to be Robert de Wardieu, the oldest son of the hero and heroine of book 1. He is the younger half brother of Eduard, the hero of book 2. He has pledged his love and his life to the maid Marienne (get it? Maid Marian??), who has stayed with the blind Princess Eleanor, who should have been queen but preferred to be a nun anyway.
However, as prominent a character as Robert aka Robin is in the book, he is not the hero. The hero is his now-arch nemesis, former friend, Griffyn Renaud who develops a tendre for Robin's younger sister, Brenna, our beloved heroine.
Brenna's a hoyden - she prefers to dress in boys clothing because it's easier to ride a horse and shoot arrows that way. Of course, she's a master archer, taking after the family friend Gil Golden of books 1 and 2 (Gillian, female, now dearly departed). However, she isn't quite as annoying as Lady Ariel was, and she's a lot more fun too.
She's torn because she discovers that Griffyn, passing as Robin's friend, is actually the Prince of Darkness who is hired to kill Robin at a tournament - and she's fallen in love with him. It's just a job to him, until he meets Brenna - and until he meets our second female villain of the series, another torturing woman who gets off on blood and gore and learns what she and the man who hired him are really after (which includes his own grisly death).
While I didn't like Ms Torturer again for the same reasons as the female villain in the first book (not a shred of decency there, not even 1), I will say the villains in the book were cleverer than usual and almost outwitted our merry band in Nottingham Forest. Even when I thought I had figured out who the mole was, I couldn't believe it - and I was right. It seemed like an error on Griffyn's part, but indeed it was more the patience of the villain, to plant the mole and wait for years for the plan to play out. The final battle was truly heart-stopping and -wrenching.
4 stars - I like Canham's work, but this wasn't a keeper series for me even though I did enjoy it quite a lot.
I didn't mention the character of Sparrow in the first 2 books - he's a dwarf who has ape-like abilities to swing through trees and shoot arrows. He's a funny little fellow who appears in all three books. Littlejohn, or Petit Jean, Jean de Brevant is only in books 2 and 3. I expected the hero of this book to be Robert de Wardieu, the oldest son of the hero and heroine of book 1. He is the younger half brother of Eduard, the hero of book 2. He has pledged his love and his life to the maid Marienne (get it? Maid Marian??), who has stayed with the blind Princess Eleanor, who should have been queen but preferred to be a nun anyway.
However, as prominent a character as Robert aka Robin is in the book, he is not the hero. The hero is his now-arch nemesis, former friend, Griffyn Renaud who develops a tendre for Robin's younger sister, Brenna, our beloved heroine.
Brenna's a hoyden - she prefers to dress in boys clothing because it's easier to ride a horse and shoot arrows that way. Of course, she's a master archer, taking after the family friend Gil Golden of books 1 and 2 (Gillian, female, now dearly departed). However, she isn't quite as annoying as Lady Ariel was, and she's a lot more fun too.
She's torn because she discovers that Griffyn, passing as Robin's friend, is actually the Prince of Darkness who is hired to kill Robin at a tournament - and she's fallen in love with him. It's just a job to him, until he meets Brenna - and until he meets our second female villain of the series, another torturing woman who gets off on blood and gore and learns what she and the man who hired him are really after (which includes his own grisly death).
While I didn't like Ms Torturer again for the same reasons as the female villain in the first book (not a shred of decency there, not even 1), I will say the villains in the book were cleverer than usual and almost outwitted our merry band in Nottingham Forest. Even when I thought I had figured out who the mole was, I couldn't believe it - and I was right. It seemed like an error on Griffyn's part, but indeed it was more the patience of the villain, to plant the mole and wait for years for the plan to play out. The final battle was truly heart-stopping and -wrenching.
4 stars - I like Canham's work, but this wasn't a keeper series for me even though I did enjoy it quite a lot.
In the Shadow of Midnight
This is book 2 in Ms Canham's Robin Hood trilogy. As I said about Through A Dark Mist, book 1, it isn't about Robin Hood as much as it encompasses the time, the place and some of the characters in a big, over the top, swash buckling adventure.
The heroine is Ariel de Clare. To be honest, she was my least favorite of the heroines in the series. She was spoiled, too outspoken for her own good, and danced dangerously close to TSTL - Too Stupid To Live - in her actions. Ok, ok, we get it, she's as good as the boys in shooting arrows and wearing boys clothing and all that. Sure, sure, all the men who've been paraded past her as potential husbands haven't lived up to her expectations for one reason or another. And she has a brother who would move heaven and earth to keep her satisfied, as well as an uncle she's got wrapped around her cute little finger. I found her annoying as hell and would have had her spanked a time or 2 before she got as old as she was in the book.
Meanwhile, that poor little Princess Eleanor has gotten herself abducted by her uncle again. Will she never learn? Speaking of learning, she could have taken a lesson or 2 from Ariel in getting her way. But Eduard, the bastard son of the Black Wolf, aka Lucien Wardieu, aka a couple of other names and titles, has vowed to save her.
Of course, we all know he only thinks of her as a sister, but what's poor Ariel to think when she discovers he carries Eleanor's ring next to his heart, and hears that he has vowed to save her at any cost? Not that a lowly Bastard is good enough for her royal blood, mind you! (see the dilemma here? yeah, she was annoying)
Eduard accompanies Ariel, her loving brother, her intended groom's brother and someone else... (?) back from Brittany, or Normandy - well, ok, modern France - to Wales, where along the way they will save Eleanor before dropping Ariel with her groom-to-be. Oh, assuming he manages to get rid of his, er, WIFE.
OK, I really did like the story except when Ariel was being obnoxious - plus it's best to read the whole trilogy so you get all the characters placed and in place for the final book where we figure out about the whole Robin Hood thing.
4 stars
The heroine is Ariel de Clare. To be honest, she was my least favorite of the heroines in the series. She was spoiled, too outspoken for her own good, and danced dangerously close to TSTL - Too Stupid To Live - in her actions. Ok, ok, we get it, she's as good as the boys in shooting arrows and wearing boys clothing and all that. Sure, sure, all the men who've been paraded past her as potential husbands haven't lived up to her expectations for one reason or another. And she has a brother who would move heaven and earth to keep her satisfied, as well as an uncle she's got wrapped around her cute little finger. I found her annoying as hell and would have had her spanked a time or 2 before she got as old as she was in the book.
Meanwhile, that poor little Princess Eleanor has gotten herself abducted by her uncle again. Will she never learn? Speaking of learning, she could have taken a lesson or 2 from Ariel in getting her way. But Eduard, the bastard son of the Black Wolf, aka Lucien Wardieu, aka a couple of other names and titles, has vowed to save her.
Of course, we all know he only thinks of her as a sister, but what's poor Ariel to think when she discovers he carries Eleanor's ring next to his heart, and hears that he has vowed to save her at any cost? Not that a lowly Bastard is good enough for her royal blood, mind you! (see the dilemma here? yeah, she was annoying)
Eduard accompanies Ariel, her loving brother, her intended groom's brother and someone else... (?) back from Brittany, or Normandy - well, ok, modern France - to Wales, where along the way they will save Eleanor before dropping Ariel with her groom-to-be. Oh, assuming he manages to get rid of his, er, WIFE.
OK, I really did like the story except when Ariel was being obnoxious - plus it's best to read the whole trilogy so you get all the characters placed and in place for the final book where we figure out about the whole Robin Hood thing.
4 stars
Through a Dark Mist by Marsha Canham
This is the first of the Robin Hood trilogy - not that the book is about Robin Hood, but takes place loosely in the same timeframe as the myth and is loosely concerning people of the myth. Of the 3, this one is my favorite, and earned 5 stars from me. I left it with Vicky's niece in Mount Shasta, California, because she said she likes medieval romance. I hope she enjoys it as much as I did!
The heroine is Lady Servanne de Briscourt, a widow at the tender age of 18, being married off to another lord, Lucien Wardieu. She is waylaid in the forest on her way to Wardieu's castle by a man claiming to be Lucien Wardieu, also known as the Black Wolf. He says the man using his name is his bastard half-brother Etienne, who tried to kill him while they were on a Crusade. He managed to live, although horribly scarred for life, and is coming back to avenge his name.
Lady Servanne is a feisty, independent heroine, but she's no hoyden - in my opinion, she earns her reputation as a lady. She stands up for herself and for her people, but she is also intrigued by the Black Wolf. He has in mind having his way with her first, then sending her on to his brother, as part of the revenge. She wasn't a virgin anyway, although her first husband was elderly, so she wasn't exactly learned in the ways of love. But she also owns, as the Briscourt widow, a lot of valuable land, which is what Etienne seeks first and foremost.
There is another villain in the mix - a woman who was lover to both Lucien and Etienne, and bore Lucien's child 13 years ago. She is truly painted as completely without morals, bad bad bad in every way. She enjoys torture. She never had 1 moment of maternal instincts for her son. It was meant to be a swashbuckling adventure in which every character is over-the-top, but she managed to chew the scenery all the way through - personally, I like to see even villains have some measure of humanity.
Servanne does end up being a pawn in the power play between the 2 brothers, with some kingly things going on as well. Richard the Lion Hearted is away on crusade while his brother John plays regent, and also plays fast and loose with the local royal laws. However, the Black Wolf, after having ravished Servanne beyond thought, finds himself in love with her as well, which makes his adventure to save princes and princesses that much more complicated.
It's such a fun ride - you do need to be in a swash-buckling, bigger than life story mood, but if you are, then Ms Canham will take you up and down and around until your head spins.
5 stars
The heroine is Lady Servanne de Briscourt, a widow at the tender age of 18, being married off to another lord, Lucien Wardieu. She is waylaid in the forest on her way to Wardieu's castle by a man claiming to be Lucien Wardieu, also known as the Black Wolf. He says the man using his name is his bastard half-brother Etienne, who tried to kill him while they were on a Crusade. He managed to live, although horribly scarred for life, and is coming back to avenge his name.
Lady Servanne is a feisty, independent heroine, but she's no hoyden - in my opinion, she earns her reputation as a lady. She stands up for herself and for her people, but she is also intrigued by the Black Wolf. He has in mind having his way with her first, then sending her on to his brother, as part of the revenge. She wasn't a virgin anyway, although her first husband was elderly, so she wasn't exactly learned in the ways of love. But she also owns, as the Briscourt widow, a lot of valuable land, which is what Etienne seeks first and foremost.
There is another villain in the mix - a woman who was lover to both Lucien and Etienne, and bore Lucien's child 13 years ago. She is truly painted as completely without morals, bad bad bad in every way. She enjoys torture. She never had 1 moment of maternal instincts for her son. It was meant to be a swashbuckling adventure in which every character is over-the-top, but she managed to chew the scenery all the way through - personally, I like to see even villains have some measure of humanity.
Servanne does end up being a pawn in the power play between the 2 brothers, with some kingly things going on as well. Richard the Lion Hearted is away on crusade while his brother John plays regent, and also plays fast and loose with the local royal laws. However, the Black Wolf, after having ravished Servanne beyond thought, finds himself in love with her as well, which makes his adventure to save princes and princesses that much more complicated.
It's such a fun ride - you do need to be in a swash-buckling, bigger than life story mood, but if you are, then Ms Canham will take you up and down and around until your head spins.
5 stars
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Ransom by Julie Garwood ***
This is another of the AAR Top 100 books I've read to meet my self-imposed "challenge" - to be honest, I'm also reading lots of other stuff and haven't even made it half way through this list, I don't think. But I'm doing it to find new authors and stories to love.
What is my opinion of Ransom? I'm conflicted. Truly, I feel a little inadequate as well as disappointed when I don't love a book that so many other people love. I mean, several of this author's books have made it to AAR Top 100 status, and I just Don't Get It. Is it me? I tell myself everyone is a little different, but I still wonder - why don't I like this more?
This is the second in her medieval series, and the first was The Secret, which I finished yesterday. The writing wasn't exactly the same - I didn't have quite the same issue (wondering if it was a comedy or not) but there was a touch of the Keystone-cops, everyone-talking-at-once thing going on here that befuddled me in the first book. And there was a conflict-obstacle trick I really hate, when the character intends to say something, but doesn't - or it doesn't come out right - or the other person misunderstands in a way that makes me want to shout at them. I'm talking specifically about the heroine not realizing she was married, not betrothed, in the ceremony she participated in - when it was so obvious to me, the reader - and when several characters sort of told her. Well, that's just it, they didn't tell her - they just kept saying, "no, you are not betrothed" instead of "YOU GOT MARRIED", leading her to believe nothing happened at all. But I found it irritating and annoying and wanted to shout JUST F**KING TELL HER THE TRUTH.
I liked this story - I did. But I didn't love it. It's not a keeper. I have no desire to read it again.
The plot involves an Englishwoman, Gillian, who helps the son of Scots laird Iain Maitland (The Secret) escape his captors. In order to take him back to Scotland, she calls on his Protector (Brodick, also now a laird) by sending a message saying his bride is waiting for him. The son was mistaken for the young brother of a different laird (Ramsey), so now we have 3 lairds involved in getting the son home and seeking revenge on both the English who sought the brother and the Scots who betrayed him. Of course, being a romance, we also have the growing relationship between Gillian and Brodick.
I kept wondering how historically accurate (or inaccurate?) the plot was - does the author mean to stray from the times? Is it meant to just be fiction, without regard to what the lives of people during this era - c. 1210 I guess - would actually be? I don't really know history well enough to call out any particular issues, but I'm pretty sure they didn't bathe as much as these characters did. And they surely didn't talk anything like these characters did, but maybe that was her "translation" as it were - from whatever they would have said that we couldn't understand to the modern version of what they said.
So - ok, another one to check off the list and put back in my PBS bookshelf. And I'm disappointed I didn't love it. 3 stars.
What is my opinion of Ransom? I'm conflicted. Truly, I feel a little inadequate as well as disappointed when I don't love a book that so many other people love. I mean, several of this author's books have made it to AAR Top 100 status, and I just Don't Get It. Is it me? I tell myself everyone is a little different, but I still wonder - why don't I like this more?
This is the second in her medieval series, and the first was The Secret, which I finished yesterday. The writing wasn't exactly the same - I didn't have quite the same issue (wondering if it was a comedy or not) but there was a touch of the Keystone-cops, everyone-talking-at-once thing going on here that befuddled me in the first book. And there was a conflict-obstacle trick I really hate, when the character intends to say something, but doesn't - or it doesn't come out right - or the other person misunderstands in a way that makes me want to shout at them. I'm talking specifically about the heroine not realizing she was married, not betrothed, in the ceremony she participated in - when it was so obvious to me, the reader - and when several characters sort of told her. Well, that's just it, they didn't tell her - they just kept saying, "no, you are not betrothed" instead of "YOU GOT MARRIED", leading her to believe nothing happened at all. But I found it irritating and annoying and wanted to shout JUST F**KING TELL HER THE TRUTH.
I liked this story - I did. But I didn't love it. It's not a keeper. I have no desire to read it again.
The plot involves an Englishwoman, Gillian, who helps the son of Scots laird Iain Maitland (The Secret) escape his captors. In order to take him back to Scotland, she calls on his Protector (Brodick, also now a laird) by sending a message saying his bride is waiting for him. The son was mistaken for the young brother of a different laird (Ramsey), so now we have 3 lairds involved in getting the son home and seeking revenge on both the English who sought the brother and the Scots who betrayed him. Of course, being a romance, we also have the growing relationship between Gillian and Brodick.
I kept wondering how historically accurate (or inaccurate?) the plot was - does the author mean to stray from the times? Is it meant to just be fiction, without regard to what the lives of people during this era - c. 1210 I guess - would actually be? I don't really know history well enough to call out any particular issues, but I'm pretty sure they didn't bathe as much as these characters did. And they surely didn't talk anything like these characters did, but maybe that was her "translation" as it were - from whatever they would have said that we couldn't understand to the modern version of what they said.
So - ok, another one to check off the list and put back in my PBS bookshelf. And I'm disappointed I didn't love it. 3 stars.
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
The Secret by Julie Garwood ****
I read Garwood's The Secret because it's first in a series which contains an AAR Top 100 (Ransom) and I prefer to read books in order. This was my first Garwood book, and I guess I need a little guidance to understand her writing style.
Is it meant to be historically accurate? Funny? I wasn't sure - she has the characters say things like "Wait up" and... well, I don't have other examples, but it seemed odd. Other times she uses Nay and Aye not in character lines but just in her prose - is that to give us the feeling of Scots speech (from 1200 AD?). She doesn't use "verra", "canny", or "lass" to infer Scots speech, which I guess is good. I can only surmise that she used modern expressions that modern readers would understand and that modern readers are to assume that the characters actually used whatever would have been the vernacular and we are reading a translation, as it were. (does that even make sense?)
There's an almost Keystone-cops feel to all the discussions involving the elders - I finally figured out it must have been meant to be humorous. They all speak at once, they eavesdrop like mad, and they contradict and misunderstand each other a lot. The heroine often thinks they speak backwards, but I didn't find her speech or thinking to be exactly linear or sensible about 90% of the time either.
This is not to say I didn't like it - I did. I wasn't offended by her writing style (like I was by Stephanie Laurens') but I felt like I was missing something - something maybe obvious. I'm not sure exactly what I was expecting, but it wasn't this.
The heroine Judith is English, raised near the Scotland border (of course, in 1200, that might have still been changing, if I recall) where she had a Scottish friend she grew up seeing once a year at the, uh, Highland games or ren faire - you know, something like that. When the Scottish woman got pregnant, she requested Judith attend the birth to fulfill a childhood promise. The woman's brother-in-law is Laird of the clan, so he fetches Judith for her. He is our beloved if surly and stubborn hero, Iain. (wonder how that is pronounced?)
Once again I'm going with the excuse that writing this from my work PC is stifling my ability to express myself. What we do get from this story is that Judith brought to the clan a lot of new-fangled and modern ideas from England - you know how modern those English could be in 1200 - and slowly won the clan over to some of her thinking. She also learned about herself, and her character development was realistic. Once I decided the book was meant to be humorous, I relaxed a little and enjoyed the ride.
OK, enough trying to figure out what I'm trying to say. I'm going with 4 stars for this read.
Is it meant to be historically accurate? Funny? I wasn't sure - she has the characters say things like "Wait up" and... well, I don't have other examples, but it seemed odd. Other times she uses Nay and Aye not in character lines but just in her prose - is that to give us the feeling of Scots speech (from 1200 AD?). She doesn't use "verra", "canny", or "lass" to infer Scots speech, which I guess is good. I can only surmise that she used modern expressions that modern readers would understand and that modern readers are to assume that the characters actually used whatever would have been the vernacular and we are reading a translation, as it were. (does that even make sense?)
There's an almost Keystone-cops feel to all the discussions involving the elders - I finally figured out it must have been meant to be humorous. They all speak at once, they eavesdrop like mad, and they contradict and misunderstand each other a lot. The heroine often thinks they speak backwards, but I didn't find her speech or thinking to be exactly linear or sensible about 90% of the time either.
This is not to say I didn't like it - I did. I wasn't offended by her writing style (like I was by Stephanie Laurens') but I felt like I was missing something - something maybe obvious. I'm not sure exactly what I was expecting, but it wasn't this.
The heroine Judith is English, raised near the Scotland border (of course, in 1200, that might have still been changing, if I recall) where she had a Scottish friend she grew up seeing once a year at the, uh, Highland games or ren faire - you know, something like that. When the Scottish woman got pregnant, she requested Judith attend the birth to fulfill a childhood promise. The woman's brother-in-law is Laird of the clan, so he fetches Judith for her. He is our beloved if surly and stubborn hero, Iain. (wonder how that is pronounced?)
Once again I'm going with the excuse that writing this from my work PC is stifling my ability to express myself. What we do get from this story is that Judith brought to the clan a lot of new-fangled and modern ideas from England - you know how modern those English could be in 1200 - and slowly won the clan over to some of her thinking. She also learned about herself, and her character development was realistic. Once I decided the book was meant to be humorous, I relaxed a little and enjoyed the ride.
OK, enough trying to figure out what I'm trying to say. I'm going with 4 stars for this read.
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