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daemonad's review
2.0
I wavered between two and three stars, in the end the clunky and convoluted prose that made me skim paragraphs turned this into an OK book. However, this is the first time (since the Reckoning) that I loved the heroine. There was none of that feisty, willful bullshit personality. Lea was a kind human being. I felt sad for her and wanted her to persevere. The hero was also a breath of fresh air. Compared to all those Gary Stews and super villains, he was interesting human and if Gilles prose was better he would be fascinating. There were even times when he made me cringe. He was passionate and loyal but above all prone to hysteria, neurotic, violent and self-conscious because he was born crippled and abused as a child.
The book was rife with historical inaccuracies, but in the 60s when it was written, perhaps R. Gellis didn't have access to as much information as we do today. The lack of education and utter ignorance is only reflective of the readers who use book like this to judge medieval era harshly.
The book was rife with historical inaccuracies, but in the 60s when it was written, perhaps R. Gellis didn't have access to as much information as we do today. The lack of education and utter ignorance is only reflective of the readers who use book like this to judge medieval era harshly.
yulannu's review
2.0
I wavered between two and three stars, in the end the clunky and convoluted prose that made me skim paragraphs turned this into an OK book. However, this is the first time (since the Reckoning) that I loved the heroine. There was none of that feisty, willful bullshit personality. Lea was a kind human being. I felt sad for her and wanted her to persevere. The hero was also a breath of fresh air. Compared to all those Gary Stews and super villains, he was interesting human and if Gilles prose was better he would be fascinating. There were even times when he made me cringe. He was passionate and loyal but above all prone to hysteria, neurotic, violent and self-conscious because he was born crippled and abused as a child.
The book was rife with historical inaccuracies, but in the 60s when it was written, perhaps R. Gellis didn't have access to as much information as we do today. The lack of education and utter ignorance is only reflective of the readers who use book like this to judge medieval era harshly.
The book was rife with historical inaccuracies, but in the 60s when it was written, perhaps R. Gellis didn't have access to as much information as we do today. The lack of education and utter ignorance is only reflective of the readers who use book like this to judge medieval era harshly.
jkh107's review
3.0
Set in England during the reign of King Stephen. A noble fifteen-year-old girl is married off--for political reasons--to a neighboring lord. He's a hardened soldier with a foot deformity. She's sweet and innocent. And her father is secretly plotting at very high levels to kill his son-in-law, recoup his own lands as well as his son-in-law's, and consolidate a power base in Wales. A lot of the plot of the book revolves around this scheme and its resolution, as well as related conspiracies involving Henry Plantagenet (later Henry II).
The hero of this book is the first romance hero I've read in a long time who is actually horrible in bed! And he's--let's say less abusive to the heroine than her father is. This book is probably historically accurate when it comes to relationships but still sounds horrible to modern people--the husband is possessive, jealous, unfaithful, and inconsiderate, and beats the heroine on a few occasions. The heroine is submissive and uses her tears to manipulate her husband; on the other hand, her own behavior at court shows that she is smart as a whip. I would have liked to see them working together as a team in the court-intrigue-political part of the plot, that would have been more compelling but their lack of trust--for good plot reasons--precluded this.
And they call this a romance! or they did in 1975.
The hero of this book is the first romance hero I've read in a long time who is actually horrible in bed! And he's--let's say less abusive to the heroine than her father is. This book is probably historically accurate when it comes to relationships but still sounds horrible to modern people--the husband is possessive, jealous, unfaithful, and inconsiderate, and beats the heroine on a few occasions. The heroine is submissive and uses her tears to manipulate her husband; on the other hand, her own behavior at court shows that she is smart as a whip. I would have liked to see them working together as a team in the court-intrigue-political part of the plot, that would have been more compelling but their lack of trust--for good plot reasons--precluded this.
And they call this a romance! or they did in 1975.
katiev's review
4.0
This one is hard to rate. I am convinced that 12th century England sucked for pretty much everybody and I'm glad I didn't live there.
I went in thinking I was reading an old-school bodice ripper and got something more serious. It does have elements of the bodice ripper, but is more gritty than the over-the-top camp I expect from that genre. There are disturbing elements, no doubt. Much of the rating comes from the fact that the author was able to make me see the hero as a man and a sympathetic character. That was no mean feat, considering the things he does (cheating, hitting, past rape of unwilling serf girls). Amazingly, I didn't find the hero to be a deliberately cruel person. Somehow Gellis manages to balance all the bad with a picture of a guy who is doing the best he can in a time very different from ours. She also does a good job of showing that he suffered from mental health issues due to all the violence, without using modern jargon or making him a navel-gazer.
The heroine is only 15, but given the setting that didn't bother me. She is not a bodice ripper heroine. She is also a woman of her time raised to be subservient and sees nothing wrong with that. However, she is clever and saves the day with her innate grasp of court politics.
In the end, I believed that the two MCs loved one another and wished them the best. I wanted an epilogue, but thought the HEA suited the tone and uncertainty of the times.The heroine is pregnant in the end and both are privately struggling with the fear that she will not survive the pregnancy. So many women did not, yet it was their duty. I'm going to choose to believe she did make it through and they would get to enjoy their dirty, smelly, imperfect HEA.
If I wish to revisit medieval times, I'll be honest and admit I'll probably go with the more standard OTT bodice ripper or campy and fun Julie Garwood novel. I have to be in a certain mood to read a romance this heavy, but give kudos to the author.
I went in thinking I was reading an old-school bodice ripper and got something more serious. It does have elements of the bodice ripper, but is more gritty than the over-the-top camp I expect from that genre. There are disturbing elements, no doubt. Much of the rating comes from the fact that the author was able to make me see the hero as a man and a sympathetic character. That was no mean feat, considering the things he does (cheating, hitting, past rape of unwilling serf girls). Amazingly, I didn't find the hero to be a deliberately cruel person. Somehow Gellis manages to balance all the bad with a picture of a guy who is doing the best he can in a time very different from ours. She also does a good job of showing that he suffered from mental health issues due to all the violence, without using modern jargon or making him a navel-gazer.
The heroine is only 15, but given the setting that didn't bother me. She is not a bodice ripper heroine. She is also a woman of her time raised to be subservient and sees nothing wrong with that. However, she is clever and saves the day with her innate grasp of court politics.
In the end, I believed that the two MCs loved one another and wished them the best. I wanted an epilogue, but thought the HEA suited the tone and uncertainty of the times.
If I wish to revisit medieval times, I'll be honest and admit I'll probably go with the more standard OTT bodice ripper or campy and fun Julie Garwood novel. I have to be in a certain mood to read a romance this heavy, but give kudos to the author.
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