Fire Song: Catherine Archer

"The Wrong Bride

"To the dashing Roland St. Sebastian, a king-decreed marriage to the biddable daughter of his enemy was bad enough...but when the blushing bride turned out to be her spitfire sister, Meredyth, Roland's wrath was boundless.  And though the redheaded vixen's kisses drove him nearly mad with yearning, he wondered if he would ever learn to tryst her--or if he was destined to live a life of loneliness with the woman he loved."

Hello and Happy New Year!  I'm starting off 2021 with a period romance novel review.  Catherine Archer was a new author for me (another book pulled from my overflowing collection of unread books), so I was looking forward to trying something new after working my way through several Amanda Quick novels.  I have often struggled with period romances set so far back in time (1200s, to be exact), probably because I know for a fact how damn hard life was for them.  Knights in shining armor and castles and Crusades all sound glamorous, but life was horrible for most; even many of the better-off lived in questionable conditions (to say nothing of the hygiene).  I know I'm reading far too much into this time period, but I can't help it.  Coupled with all of this, the mentalities were so vastly different from what we know.  The men in these types of books are often rough and a bit too domineering for my tastes.  They lack a sense of respect for the female leads and, in turn, the female leads have to be overwhelmingly headstrong and outspoken in order to make dent in the mentalities of the times.  This can sometimes be a bit too much for me.  Archer managed to dance along this line fairly well and better than some other authors I've read with books set in this time and place.  Roland was intriguing and attractive.  I found his personality to be strong, but not abusive toward Meredyth, despite his distaste for women after what his mother had put his family through.  He knew his role in the world and his marriage; he wasn't afraid to exercise his power, but he stopped just short of becoming and overbearing brute a time or two.  Had he stepped over that line, however, I probably wouldn't have cared for him.  Meredyth went back and forth from being the selfless, soft woman born to help others, to a sharp-tongued shrew who was far too headstrong for her own good.  She had quite a few redeeming qualities and I found a great amount of sympathy for her because of her backstory, but she frustrated me on many occasions.  I found her to be a tad too strong willed for a woman of her position.  She had been raised to care for her family's household and to put her sister first, caring for her above all others because Celeste was seen as more "delicate" by their father.  A woman who was so used to being in her sister's shadow and working (unappreciated) on things behind the scenes would surely not have been so forward with Roland.  Of course, this is all personal opinion and many may not agree with my assessment.  I just found the duality of her personality to be a bit too contrary.

Overall, I really enjoyed the premise of the plot.  Celeste is ordered by the king to wed Roland in an effort to stop the feuding of their families once and for all.  In a desperate move, Meredyth disguises herself and is wed to Roland in Celeste's place.  Upon realizing that he has ben tricked, of course, Roland is incensed and believes it to be a final trick played upon him by his old enemy, Meredyth and Celeste's father.  He finds out that the women were the masterminds and he decides he has no choice to honor his marriage to Meredyth and they must begin their lives as man and wife.  Poor Meredyth realizes she's gotten in far over her head with this latest attempt to help Celeste.  No sooner does she realize the gravity of the situation then she's swept away from the only home she has ever known and thrust into Roland's own unruly household filled with staff and villagers who have nothing but animosity for her family.  Not only this, but she must grapple with a new husband who did not choose her, who has a mighty distrust for women, and who butts heads with her attitude.  I did like the chemistry between Roland and Meredyth.  They had a nice spark and the tension between them seemed palpable.  However.  I found the "romance" to be a bit lacking in variation.  I don't know if it's because this book is "older" (as in, I read the 10th Anniversary print and the copyright date is 1998...) or if it's a style choice, but it was all a bit more tame and each scene felt like a rewrite of the same thing over and over again.  (Probably WAY too much TMI, but does Roland not know any other way to pleasure a woman than to touch her breasts and use his "member"?!?  I feel like I need to refer him to Monica from "Friends" -- my apologies if you don't get the reference, but I promise it's a good one.)

I will say another area in which I struggled a bit was the inner dialogue.  Almost the entire book seemed to take place in Roland's and Meredyth's minds!  There was a remarkable lack of actual dialogue.  I think this made it feel like the story dragged on far longer than it needed to.  Since so much took place within their minds, there was very little action for a majority of the story.  I think this is part of the reason that the last few chapters felt a bit rushed.  There was so much build up with their respective inner musings and indecision that everything moved so very quickly once actual action occurred.  The conclusion of the book was a bit too "Brady Bunch" for me.  I like a satisfying ending; and this doesn't mean it has to be all happiness and rainbows.  It was tied up a bit too neatly for my tastes and it felt a bit sudden.  There wasn't even an epilogue where we were given a taste of what life was like after the conflict resolution.  I think the addition of an epilogue might have made me a bit happier in this particular instance just because it all ended up feeling so rushed.

I will say that this was an easy, quick read.  I liked reading a new author and I liked this one better than others set in 1200s England.  There were some imperfections and some things fell a bit short, but I didn't dislike the book.  I'm tempted to read more by Catherine Archer in the future.

Mystique: Amanda Quick

 

"A tantalizing tale of a legendary knight and a headstrong lady whose daring quest for a mysterious crystal will draw them into a whirlwind of treachery--and desire.

"When the fearsome knight called Hugh the Relentless swept into Lingwood Manor like a storm, everyone cowered--except Lady Alice.  Sharp-tongued and unrepentant, the flame-haired beauty believed Sir Hug was not someone to dread but the answer to her dreams.  She knew he had come for the dazzling green crystal, knew he would be displeased to find that it was no longer in her possession.  Yet Alice had a proposition for the dark and forbidding knight:  In return for a dowry that would free Alice and her brother from their uncle's grasp, she would lend her powers of detection to his warrior's skills and together they would receive his treasured stone.  But even as High accepted her terms, he added a condition of his own: Lady Alice must agree to a temporary betrothal--one that would soon draw her deep into Hugh's great stone fortress, and into a battle that could threaten their lives...and their only chance at love."

This is yet another Amanda Quick novel which has sat upon my shelves unread for many years.  I really enjoyed another of her novels just prior to this one and enjoyed it so much that I thought I'd grab another of her stories from my shelf (or, rather, the floor of my office because my husband has yet to finish hanging shelves for me...).

I finished reading this book rather quickly.  The pacing was good and it kept me interested.  I wouldn't call it quite the page-turner "Dangerous" was, but it was enjoyable nonetheless.  I enjoyed the premise of a bastard knight seeking to bring honor to his family's history and finally have his own place in the world, yet he drags along with him an intelligent, whip-tongued young woman on a mission of her own.  Hugh brought a new facet to the knightly archetype.  He was neither entirely "black knight," but nor was he a straightforward "white knight."  He was known for his ruthless, relentless drive and skills on the battlefield; his dark coloring and penchant for wearing only black; and everyone knew of the venomous feud between Hugh and his father's family.  However, he was also intelligent (not just braun over brains), unfailingly true to his word, and honorable.  Alice was also a play on the typical headstrong, outspoken woman.  If anything, she was almost more outspoken than a great many of the other "headstrong" female leads I've encountered.  She seemed to suffer from a severe lack of manners or filter.  I can see how her struggles in life could have created this attitude, but it even made me cringe on several occasions.  I think this may be the reason why I didn't enjoy her as much as I could have.  By all accounts, Alice was extremely intelligent, capable, strong, and brave...but she also sometimes came across as crass or even petty -- especially once Hugh frees her from her uncle's care.

I did also notice a very definite trend in Quick's writing (maybe because I just so happened to read this one immediately after "Dangerous").  Both female leads were considered "odd," they were older sisters to younger brothers, orphans who felt they were in charge of finding their brothers better lots in life, and they fall in love with their male leads rather easily despite being so strong and seemingly content to be without a romantic relationship.  The male leads are both dark in coloring of their hair and clothing, as well as their attitudes and reputations, they're both bastards (or, at least, they're presumed to be) after their fathers become attracted to seemingly-unsuitable women who put them at odds with their families and their plans, their fathers have scorned fiancees, they each have a male first-cousin with whom they have a great amount of enmity, and they both have amber-colored eyes.  As you can see, there were a great many similarities in these plots and the development of these characters -- almost too many where it felt a bit "recycled."  To be fair, I think Quick found a formula which worked; I cannot really blame her for reusing it.  The different layers of history and current conflict create an interesting plot.  The strong personalities and opinions of her characters make for amusing and entertaining action.  What might have helped some differentiation between these stories (besides the very different eras in which they're set) would probably have been some better identifying characteristics of the male leads.  The female leads are fairly well-described; I felt like I could picture them.  The male leads...not so much.  Other than the color of his eyes, hair, and clothing, I got almost no sense of what Hugh looked like.  Did he have bold, stormy brows?  Was his nose slightly crooked from having been broken so many times in battle?  I longed to know more about Hugh's appearance and I think we missed out a lot on his characterization because of this.

I do feel like, overall, the plot was interesting.  Alice sometimes came off a bit unlikable, but I think she was a brave female lead.  I loved how she stuck up for her brother and for women in general (you'll have to read to find out what I mean -- I promise it's worth it).  I liked Hugh's multifaceted personality; however, I wanted a bit more of a description of him.  That left a bit of an unfortunate gap in a novel of this genre.  I liked the blend of realism and legend in this story.  I don't often read books set so far back in history (and I haven't often enjoyed all of them) mainly because I sometimes struggle with the living conditions and mentalities of these ages (even just a few centuries make a world of difference, believe it or not), but I did find this one enjoyable.  It was a quick read with pleasant pacing that kept the story moving along.  I liked the conflict and found the dialogue to be very in-character.  I do recommend this book, though not as much as I did my other recent Amanda Quick read.

Shadows and Lace (Brides of Legend: Book One): Teresa Medeiros (UPDATED)

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.)