“Wielding a sword called Vengeance, Gelina O Monaghan has
sworn to defeat the man she holds responsible for her family’s ruin. She never dreamed she’d be bested by him in
combat…and lose her heart in the bargain.
Their forbidden passion will become a private war fought with swords and
kisses, promises and betrayal—and surrender will be only the beginning….”
In addition to this being yet another book I finished on my
vacation (believe it or not, it was only a week long), this is another re-read
of a book I read quite some time ago; the original review can be found
HERE. Everyone here knows I’m a fan of
Teresa Medeiros, but reading this book again only solidified my belief that I
absolutely lean toward her newer works than her older ones. Much like the first book in this duo, Shadows and Lace (the original review
for which can be found HERE and the updated review can be found HERE), I didn’t
end up a huge fan. In hindsight, I think
this was due in large part to the era in which these books were penned (thank
you 1990s). These books both had
volatile, controlling relationships between the male and female leads. There is a great deal of violence in this book -- yes, that includes violence Conn directs toward Gelina; yes, that includes physical violence. I don't condone this in anyway, but I can see why it was a part of this story. It, essentially, stayed true to the role Conn would have played during this time period, as well as the social mores of this era. He was expected to be physically powerful and probably wouldn't have thought too much about demonstrating that power in a physical way. That being said, here's a bit of a SPOILER: There is a rape scene. As a matter of fact, nearly all of the physical encounters between Conn and Gelina are rape-ish. It feels so much less romantic. There's a fine line between a male lead being powerful and breathtakingly masculine and being a brute to caves to his baser, more violent desires. He ends up using sex as a weapon, and I found this a bit off-putting. I noted it in my original review ten years ago (wow...I can't believe it's been that long), but this time around it made the story a bit of a struggle at times. I chose not to re-read my original review prior to picking up this book again and I'm glad I didn't because it probably would have made me hesitant to read it. END SPOILER
I liked Conn in the beginning; he seemed to be a good man and a good king. He was powerful when he needed to be and merciful when necessary. I would, however, have liked to see his perspective a bit more -- especially near the beginning of the story after we meet Gelina. As soon as we start seeing Gelina's perspective, she seems to sort of overtake the narrative. (This happened in Shadows and Lace, as well.) I think it would have helped me to understand his motivations and appreciate his mercy a little bit better. We discover that Gelina knew Conn when she was a child and how she admired him, but we don't really get to see those memories from Conn. As the story progresses, I liked Conn less and less. His desire for Gelina (a young woman who was supposed to be his ward) was powerful and consuming, but it takes him a painfully long time to accept his feelings. When I say painful, I mean it. I think this was because I didn't quite understand his hesitation. She wasn't related to him in anyway and she was certainly putting out vibes that she was attracted to him and loved him. He mentions the difference in age between them, but I don't think that should have been as big a deal as it was made out to be. Then again, we're not given any good clues as to Conn's age (we find out pretty early on that Gelina is about sixteen) until nearly the end of the book. By this time, a few years have passed and she's somewhere around eighteen or nineteen and I guess that he's about thirty-six. There's such a big fuss over their ages, but in Ninth Century Ireland, I don't think it would have been as big a deterrent as Conn made it out to be. Perhaps he was just making excuses and being stubborn? (Again, a similar thing happened in Shadows and Lace. Are we seeing some trends here?)
Gelina is as feisty as I remember. She's brave -- if a bit rash -- and strong-willed enough to survive the had she's been dealt and to live in Conn's court beneath his oft-wavering moods and loyalties. This was probably one of the most frustrating things because (since we see so much of her perspective, we know just how much she cares for Conn. To see his lack of faith and trust in her is difficult to witness. There was a cyclical pattern to her relationship with Conn (again, see Shadows and Lace). Because the story is dragged out across several years instead of a snippet in the characters' lives, there is ample opportunity for them to fight/have a falling out/Gelina runs away or is sent away/Conn goes and retrieves her. This happens more than a couple of times. This certainly ups the dramatic tension, but it left me
wanting more development of Conn and Gelina’s relationship. All that time apart (for various reasons) can
create bittersweet longing, but you also lose all of the closeness the
characters could have been developing in the meantime. Not to mention it hurt my opinion of Conn
that he would have such little faith in Gelina.
I totally get that the circumstances of their meeting were less than
ideal and he would have been well within his rights to kill her, but years have
passed without her betraying him. Cut
the girl some slack!
As usual, there were some colorful secondary characters who
really served to develop the plot and show us a side of Conn and Gelina that
would have otherwise remained hidden.
The best example of this is Nimbus.
He was funny, witty, and irreverent.
While he got s little bit goofy at times, I enjoyed him
nonetheless. He provided a good outlet
for Gelina’s childlike wonder and allowed Conn to have a sense of humor. He also happens to become the source of one
of the greatest conflicts between Gelina and Conn, though I won’t give this
plot twist away.
Having a tangible villain in Eagon was a wise choice because
it gave the story an outside source of conflict other than just what existed
between Conn and Gelina. It helped to
place their story within a much larger framework of history, which is something
I really appreciate. Medeiros does this
in some of her other books and, being the British history nerd that I am, I
appreciate this touch.
In all, this was a well-written book (I always appreciate
her writing style) and her descriptions of the scenery and characters are vivid
and really help me escape into her books.
There were, of course, aspects of this particular story that I didn’t
care for and this book will not be for everyone. It’s a long read (though it only took me a
few days) due to the timespan over which it takes place, though it’s
interesting to see Gelina grow and change over the years. Parts of it are frustrating (why can’t Conn
just give into his feelings already?!) but other parts are tender. There are moments of violence which literally
made me cringe, but I persevered. As
part of a body of work, I recommend reading this book – even if you’re only
curious to see how Medeiros has changed and developed her style over the
years. The comparison is a very interesting
one. This book was not really my
favorite, but I am glad that I re-read it.
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