Here's yet another updated review! My very brief original review of this book can be found HERE. I read this years and years ago on my very first Teresa Medeiros kick and I clearly enjoyed it very much. I hadn't read anything of hers in a long time, so I thought I'd give this one another go -- especially because it's one of her earliest published works (it seemed like a good place to start). The first thing I wanted to mention is that I didn't realize that this was part of a two book series, Brides of Legend. Even though I've read both books in the series, I don't think I ever realized they were intended as a pairing. This is why the original posts for these books don't list them as part of the Brides of Legend series.
The first thing I want to mention is this book spends a great deal more time focusing on Rowena's point of view than Gareth's. Now, this could be because the author wanted to keep an air of mystery about this dark, dangerous, possibly murderous male lead, but I got the sense that it was more so because it was more comfortable or familiar to write from Rowena's perspective. I can appreciate the mystery and intrigue this left swirling around Gareth, but it did make me sympathize less with him than, perhaps, I should have. Part of the charm of this genre is that readers get to fall in love with the male leads; part of this is to show is what's in his heart and his mind. We get glimpses of it in this book, but substantial chunks of it don't appear until much further in the book than I think they should have. This presented some challenges for me because I didn't care about Gareth or his feelings until quite a ways into the story. Rowena also presented a bit of a challenge for me. I don't know if it was the way I read this or if it was intentionally very vague, but we don't get a good sense of her age until almost the last few chapters. At first, I assumed she was in her early twenties or late teens. Then, she's treated so much like and child (and even behaves like one) and described in almost childlike terms (she's described as a "girl" rather than a woman on numerous occasions) that I got the sense that she was likely closer to fifteen-years-old, or thereabouts. Knowing Gareth was in his thirties, this rubbed me the wrong way. The only thing that made my mind accept this was my knowledge of history -- it wouldn't have been that odd were their ages really that far apart. Not until the very late chapters do we realize that Rowena is, indeed, in her early twenties. The number is, after all, just a number. My comment has more to do with the fact that she was more nebulous a character than I am used to (or, than I prefer). She was also, at times, a bit hollow. I began reading this book thinking she'd be a little hellcat, full of spunk and spitfire. She was, in a way, but she also went about certain things with very little resistance or personality. That's the right word -- her personality wasn't very unique. She allowed herself to be pushed around quite a bit. Those times she really did show off her spunk were great. (One comment I feel I must make is that Rowena likes to fall asleep...on horseback...a lot... If it happens once, okay. But I'm pretty sure it happened at least three times in this story; it started to feel a little bit silly). I found a lot of the exchanges between Rowena and Gareth to be very entertaining. They did have a lot of chemistry and tension. Since the story takes place over the period of a year, it's a great deal longer than the normal timespan for a book of this genre. This means there's plenty of time for delicious tension and for emotions to grow and blossom at a more believable rate. I will admit that there were moments where the story seemed to drag a bit (and I will mention that there was a remarkably consistent pattern of Rowena running away and then Gareth riding out to go and find her), though this didn't wreck the story for me.
The secondary characters (Blaine and Marlys) really made this book special. I'm a sucker for great supporting characters and Medeiros did a great job in this book. I am a firm believer that secondary characters such as these can really make a book and breathe life into the main characters. They show readers other sides to their personalities that they may not immediately show to the other lead. Blain was a great golden lighthearted foil to Gareth's dark and brooding nature. Marlys was a truly wild, untamed little hellion and, boy!, does she know how to create chaos! The dynamics between Blaine, Marlys, and Gareth really made it feel like there was extensive backstory, as if there really had been years of complex happenings before the first page of this book was written. This, I found, rather impressive. All of it was clearly well thought out and planned.
For the most part, I found the writing captivating and well-paced. I particularly like the vivid descriptions of the settings and seasons; they felt real and alive. There were some awkward parts regarding basic physics (for example: How can Rowena back up and strike her shin on something? The shin is the front of one's leg. When backing up, wouldn't she have hit her calf on something instead?) and I found those a bit jarring. I had to stop a couple of times and wonder how those things happened, but I let them be. The language -- especially from Rowena -- sometimes felt very stilted and overly formal, whereas Gareth's was remarkably smooth and well-crafted. I realize that Rowena was sometimes mocking Gareth when she spoke thusly, but certainly not all of the time. Rowena had spent so much of her childhood in an informal setting, yet she seemed to be way too well-spoken at times.
As far as the "romance" goes, I enjoyed the tension between Rowena and Gareth. They seemed to be a good match. I was frustrated with how much conflict their relationship had and how many times they seemed to stumble into an irreparable situation (though, I suppose some would find this a good thing in a book of this genre). It was a bit tamer than some of the other authors I normally read, which, I suppose, isn't necessarily a bad thing. It's less explicit and relies more on your imagination. This is good for those readers who prefer things a little bit more toned down. This is, of course, not to say that there isn't some explicit language and situations -- this is still very much an adult book.
I did enjoy this book, though probably not as much as I did the first time around. The tension is by far the best selling point of this story. Medeiros crafted it well and wrote a memorable character in Gareth. Now I'm going to have to get the second book in the series! (Side note: I really like the newer cover much better than the original one. It's definitely much more how I pictured Rowena and Gareth (even if I don't quite feel as if the new "Rowena's" costume is less authentic. The original cover is extremely 90's with "Rowena's" overdone makeup. The third cover shown above is another version I found (the one where you only see "Gareth's" arm). I thought it was another decent version of the book, though I'm unsure if it really conveyed "Rowena" well, as she is written -- personally, I don't see her this confident and in charge. I realize these are all personal preference and all the artwork is very much just a sign of the times in which they were published; I just thought I would share.)
No comments:
Post a Comment