"After a brutal attack on his farmstead, Wulfric the Ruthless had sworn vengeance on the Danish raiders for killing his young wife. But when he laid eyes on Reyna the Dane, all he could see was a woman of extraordinary beauty, with flowing hair the color of moonlight and a body and Valkyrie would envy. She was his thrall, gifted to him by his brother to warm his bed. Could this beautiful healer also was the fire burning in his heart?
"She would never forget
"Stolen from her home by wild Norsemen, Reyna would always remember the face of the barbarian who'd destroyed her life. When she first caught sight of her new master, she thought he was the very man he'd vowed to hate forever. But Wolf's golden body and seductive kisses awoke very different feelings within her. As one deliciously long Northern night blended into another, she realized he was no longer her enemy but her beloved..."
I used to adore Connie Mason. My shelves are filled with her books since she's such a prolific writer. This is the first one of her books I've read in quite some time...and I hate to admit that I was not over-the-moon about this book...
To begin, I felt like we came into the book after a lot of things had already happened which would have helped further the characterization. Don't get me wrong; I fully understand that a great deal DID happen before this book began. What I mean is I always felt like something was missing -- as if we lacked some information or set up to fully comprehend motivations or personality quirks. I don't know how else to explain it other than I felt like something was not there and I felt like it should have been; like we were expected to understand certain things about the characters, but couldn't because the book had just begun. The characters did develop and we learned more as the story went on, of course, but they were more so developed on the surface rather than with deeply-individual personality traits. There wasn't all that much that was special about them. Wulf was a stereotypical viking. Reyna was a free woman-turned-slave at the hands of the man who had helped overrun her village in a blind act of rage and vengeance. Her one unique trait was her healing knowledge. We didn't learn much more about their characters: they had no likes or dislikes, no defining characteristics which would set them apart in my mind from any other characters in a romance novel set in this time and place. I longed for more! I wanted to love them. I wanted to be enthralled with their chemistry and their spark. I just wasn't. There was so little beyond their physical attraction (which felt extremely abrupt on Wulf's part, in my opinion) that it felt lacking. Sure, each character had some admirable characteristics, but nothing above and beyond what one would expect in order to make a character simply "likable." There was little to endear them to me.
I looked forward to a great deal of character development. How would Reyna overcome her fear of males after her abuse and her hatred of the man whom she viewed as the cause of all her pain? How would Wulf balance his attraction to Reyna as his thrall and the knowledge that she was still, above all, a Dane -- the breed he'd sworn to hate after the vicious attack and murder of his wife and unborn child? It would seem that physical attraction can override a lot of deep, terrible emotions... Granted, Wulf helped to clear up some misunderstandings with Reyna, but I didn't see why his sins should be absolved so cleanly. I think all of this goes back to the lack of character development. I believe it may have been sacrificed for sheer quantity of intimate scenes. There were so many that I started to lose interest ("Oh, there they go again..."). Not to mention, they all became rather repetitive -- so much so that I was practically begging Wulf to show of some different moves! (That last one is probably a really petty observation from my own personal tastes, but it is what it is.)
Perhaps one of the biggest issues I took wit this book was the language. The use of modern turns of phrase and slang were numerous and jarring. They truly ripped me out of losing myself in the book and caused me to struggle with suspending my belief. Using "'tis" over and over again is all fine and well until you try juxtapose it to something like "adding spice to your life," or some other such phrase.
The book had a great deal of potential and I went into it with such high hopes. All of my past reviews of Connie Mason were simply glowing (other than my observation that she seems to have found a good formula for a romance novel and tends to use it over and over again). I was so hoping this one would be counted amongst one of the better ones. Alas, it was not to be. I found the characters flat and the plot a bit drawn out. I thought some of the setting descriptions were well done and transported me into the scenes quite well. Other than that, I do not believe I will be rereading this one again and it has already been stacked on my "to be donated" pile.
No comments:
Post a Comment