The Outlaw Hearts by Rebecca Brandewynne

1870. Jenny Carter has been through hell  – left for dead with the rest of her family brutally murdered and their Georgia plantation burned to the ground. Crippled for life, tortured by nightmares and virtually penniless and with no prospects for a husband on the horizon, Jenny takes a position as teacher in the remote Missouri town of Tumbling Creek. Along the way to her new home, her train is stopped and robbed by the notorious Morgan Brothers gang and Jenny accidentally gets a look at the face of one of the robbers and she’s in for quite a surprise when she arrives in Tumbling Creek and comes face to face with that robber – Luke Morgan. Luke tells her she’s wasting her time turning him in, with his huge family he’s got alibis a-plenty, but he’s still a bit worried and wonders if it wouldn’t hurt getting her to marry him as a wife can’t testify against her husband (yes, my eyes were rolling at this one).

Neither here nor there, this is a romance so you know there’s this undeniable attraction between the two, and Luke can’t help lusting after Jenny despite her plain appearance and unattractive limp from her injury as he sees the *beautiful* woman on the inside. Luke has his own emotional baggage from the past and Jenny turns out to be just the woman to heal it and set him back on the straight path in life. The plot takes many twists and turns as our pair battle the town gossips, the baddies (and they are sooooo bad indeed) and Jenny’s suppressed memories of what really happened to her family.

Is this not the most awful cover ever?

Yes, I know it sounds like the usual romance stuff, but there’s a few twists in this that bring it up a notch or two. I really liked having a plainer heroine, as well as a hero who cares more about what’s on the inside. I liked the interactions with Luke’s large family and most especially the way Jenny was able to heal the emotional wounds of Luke’s two children and in the process perhaps heal her own as well. There’s quite a nail-biting finish topped off with a very enigmatic HEA that will leave you wondering what really happened. Despite the appearance of the covers (thank gawd I didn’t get cover #2), the sex scenes are rather few and far between, although when you do get them the purple prose is plentiful and fairly standard for 80’s romances.  All in all a quick, enjoyable read and the only quibbles I had was how the entire town (minister, sheriff et al) could look the other way and accept a notorious band of robbers into the bosom of the community and for that I’m knocking off a half star – 3.5/5 stars.

The Passionate Brood by Margaret Campbell Barnes

Tags

crusades, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Lionheart, Richard I, Sharon Kay Penman

Originally published in 1945, The Passionate Brood is Margaret Campbell Barnes’ somewhat fanciful take on Richard the Lionheart, son of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine. As the book opens Eleanor is out of her Salisbury prison (not much mention of any rebellion with her sons, just that Eleanor had too much control over the boys). Geoffrey is dead, and Henry the younger is uncrowned and whining for lands. Richard has a foster-brother of peasant stock called Robin (son of his nursemaid Hodeirna), who has been well-educated and he and Richard’s sister Johanna share a love they know can never be. Johanna’s marriage has just been settled, Rosamund Clifford (old Henry’s mistress) is dead of poison and he’s now lusting after Richard’s intended, French Princess Alys (called Ann in this book). Richard and young Henry spot the pair in a clutch and the king bans Richard to Navarre, where he meets the Princess Berengaria and the two fall in love. Just for fun I looked up some dates (all of them according to Wik):

• Eleanor’s Years of imprisonment 1173–1189.
• Rosamund Clifford died 1176.
• Joanna betrothed in 1176.
• Geoffrey died in 1186.
• Henry the younger crowned 1170, died 1183.

Just not adding up, is it? I know, I know, Eleanor was let out of Salisbury on occasion but in this book she was out for good and never went back.

Fast forward ten years or so, both Henrys are dead and Richard is King, but he’s hot to go a-crusading with Phillip of France and leaves England in what he believes are capable hands. Eleanor brings Berengaria to Richard en route to the Holy Land and the two marry and continue on their merry way with a side trip to Sicily to pick up a now widowed Johanna (who still pines after Robin) and then Cyprus for a little battle action before landing in Acre and hitting the major leagues. Meanwhile, back in England the always dastardly John stirs up mischief aplenty as he desires England’s crown for himself and tries everything in his power to stop Richard from returning and reclaiming it – but will our dear Robin (outlawed by an angry Richard) save the day? Will he and Johanna ever find true love and happiness? Will that awful Ida Comnenos come between Richard and his beloved Berengaria?

Well you know I’m not telling but if you know your history you know the rest of the story, and if not I’m not going to spoil. While I am willing to overlook minor historical errors in an older book, as yesterday’s authors didn’t have the immediate access we have today, I have to say this one was so far off base it was virtually impossible to take seriously. The timelines (as I’ve briefly detailed above) just don’t all fit. The rebellion of his sons against Henry II is a mere mention of some familial difficulty, and Eleanor’s long imprisonment gets the same shrift.  As for Richard and Berengaria being in true love with a grand passion? I’m not buying it one bit, but the worst sin of all that completely threw me out of the story and never let me back in was Richard’s constant longing for the green grass of England. I do believe he rarely spent anytime there at all and was more interested in bleeding it dry to fund his crusade. We got a good chuckle at Goodreads over this quote from Eleanor to Richard,

But the citizens of London will probably build a splendid statue of you so that when John has turned them into a nation of shopkeepers they may still see the inextinguishable spirit of their breed in your uplifted sword.

There was one interesting tid bit that I did pick up on whilst discussing the book over at Goodreads (thanks to you know who for your valuable input), was that Richard did have a “milk brother” Alexander de Neckham, who was a renowned scholar. While the writing itself is not bad, the story itself and her characters just doesn’t come off well, and seems based on the myths we’ve heard over the years. Barnes’ Richard is a pale comparison to the one Sharon Penman wrote in her fabulous Devil’s Brood, and I suspect Sharon’s fans will be sorely disappointed in this one. I obtained my copy from the library, but there is a brand new edition coming out soon from Sourcebooks and as much as I appreciate them republishing these oldies, this is one that IMHO should have stayed dead and buried.

Flint by Margaret Redfern

Tags

edward I

 Brothers Will and Ned and other men from their village are conscripted into Edward I’s army, marched to Wales and set to digging ditches to prepare for the building of his new castle Flint. Will is the younger brother, but in many ways the elder as Ned is mute, although he has unique talents of his own, from horse whispering, to his musical talents (which he gained from Welsh barb Ieuan ap y Gof) and knowledge of herbs.

Their time in Wales has some unusual ups and downs and I really don’t want to give much away as this is a very short novel. The book is narrated in four POV’s, three are first person from Will at different points in his life and one in third person and the switches are marked by icons indicating who the narrator is. Probably my only complaint about the book is that I found the switches in POV’s rather distracting and I never could get a handle on who narrator #4 was (or perhaps *he* was no one and it went over my head again :)). Other than that, a quick, enjoyable read, and gives the reader a different look at Wales, its music and ole’ Longshank’s efforts to subjugate the Welsh people. The writing is just lovely and I do recommend it but still, the be-all to end-all on Llywelyn ap Gruffydd is always going to be Penman’s fabulous The Reckoning.

FTC, don’t you worry your pretty heads at all. I got it from the library.

Marianne and the Privateer by Juliette Benzoni

Tags

juliette benzoni

What fun! This begins where Marianne and The Masked Prince left off with Marianne returning from her mysterious wedding to the Prince Sant’Anna of Tuscany and she’s now the toast of Paris society. Whilst attending a grand ball given by the Austrian ambassador, Marianne meets old friend Jason Beaufort and this time the light bulbs go off (finally) and she realizes he is the one man for her until death do they part – but you know there’s going to be complication or two, don’t you?  The ball quickly turns to disaster from a poorly placed candle and Marianne, along with the rest of Parisian high society, are scrambling for their lives and she’s definitely in need of rescuing. Will it be Jason or Napoleon? Or perhaps the handsome Russian?

With Jason currently unavailable (can’t tell you why) Marianne moves on with her life and accepts the attention of Russian Count Chernychev – although she may have bit off more than she can chew with this flirtation. After quite a busy night with comings and goings in and out of her bedroom window (another return from the past, an assault and a duel!), Marianne is tricked into believing Jason is in dire danger and only she can save him, but is it all just a trick? Are there greater forces at work than merely the need for revenge against Marianne?

No, I’m not giving it all away, all of the above takes place in the very beginning. Marianne might be a bit too headstrong and stubborn for some reader’s tastes (I’m guessing she’s eighteen by now), and I have to admit wanting to slap her on occasion, but her scrapes and pitfalls are so much fun I don’t care. My favorite scene and picture a very stern, much annoyed Napoleon giving Marianne a dressing down for her latest escapade,

“You are a perfect menace Madame, and if I did not take good care you would disrupt the whole of my Grand Army altogether. If they’re not fighting duels over you, they’re killing people for you.”

Hehe. Benzoni does a great job setting her scenes and details, as well as placing her fictional characters in with real historical characters. A deadly fire, a kidnapping, wrongful imprisonment, rape, duels, a nail-biting escape from an impenetrable prison, you name it the book has it – and she still has to deal with that mysterious husband in Tuscany, as well as the ticked-off Emperor himself. The action starts from the get-go and never stops and frankly I wish I had the next one (Marianne and the Rebels) sitting on the pile waiting for me. Don’t let those racy covers fool you (I just love them), any sex you’ll find in this one is very very tame by today’s standards. The series order of those I have read so far,

1. Marianne (and may also have been published in two volumes as The Bride of Selton Hall and The Eagle and the Nightingale).
2. Marianne and the Masked Prince
3. Marianne and the Privateer.

Too good not to share

Spotted over at the Daily Squee (do put that in your reader).

This is one patient mama 🙂

Captivity by Deborah Noyes

Tags

Fox sisters, Spiritualism

Nothing here is as it seems.

 Captivity begins in Rochester New York in 1848 and tells the story of sisters Leah, Maggie and Kate Fox, who helped give rise to the Spiritualist movement. Younger sisters Maggie and Kate seem to have a gift of communicating with the spirit world via “rapping” (don’t ask me to explain it), and managed by older sister Leah they capitalize on their *skills* by giving séances and summoning the dead for grieving loved ones. Their story is intertwined with the fictional one of Clara Gill, who befriends Maggie, and we gradually learn about her back-story with her father and aunts in London and how she came to be such a recluse.

And that’s all I’m really going to tell you. Despite a rocky start that could have been helped by having a bit of knowledge on the sisters and their history (or better yet taking the time to read the publisher’s handout prior to starting :D), once I did get a handle on it I enjoyed it a lot. The writing is lovely and very sparse – no words wasted here – and you’ll be hard pressed not to mark the book up with your favorite quotes.

Real death is not a parlor game but a flat heaviness that weights the limbs, that makes every step a struggle, every breath reproach and violation. It is mold on the morning firewood and a chill that won’t go even when the hearth is banked to roaring, even when the familiar quilt is wound full round weighted legs and feet on a stool like a winding sheet. It is the bitterness of herbs in an undertaker’s parlor and damp shoes by a hole in the ground and the absence of sunlight and emptiness beyond reckoning.

As for whether it was real or all a hoax? Well you’ll just have to read it for yourself and decide, won’t you? This isn’t an action packed page turner and might not appeal to all readers, but I would definitely recommend it for those interested in the topic as well as savoring the beautiful prose.

FTC – why yes I did get it from the publisher. I put in a purchase request to the library first and they declined to buy it (not professionally reviewed they said), and then I got a tip from a fellow blogger (thank you) that there were still review copies available and I asked for one. Shoot me.

A little change, and for the better I hope

I’ve never been one for a whole lot of bells, whistles, widgets and gidgets (outside of the fact that WP doesn’t support many of them :)) but I still wanted a background that said *me*. I’ve been experimenting with the WordPress themes (they are awesome) trying to find the one that suited me best, and I think I’ve finally found it. Nice and clean and I hope the font is easy on the eyes to read. It does have a black background option but I prefer the white and I’m calling this is a keeper (crosses fingers).  Opinions?

The photo at the top is one of my own and I thought I’d let you see what’s in the rest of the picture since I was forced to crop it for the header.

This was taken a few years ago from the very top of Mauna Kea on the Big Island of Hawaii. 13,000′ and there are tour companies that take you to the top to watch the sun set and then back down to 9,000′, bundle you up in fur parkas and gloves (trust me, you’ll need it) and gaze at the stars. My, oh my, you will not believe what you can see at those altitudes with no light pollution (which is why there are so many observatories at the top).  Here’s the tour company I chose and if you are on the island don’t pass it up – where else in the world can you go and play in the snow in the winter and drive back to 80 degrees and sun yourself at the beach? Not being able to look directly into the sun myself, I just hoped for the best when I pointed my camera at the setting sun since I wasn’t able to look at it and frame it myself. Lucky shot, no? Another favorite is the one below which is really the shadow of Mauna Kea reflected on the clouds below us.

Awesome stuff. An interesting bit of trivia from Wik on Mauna Kea’s height and one that set the boss-who-has-summited-Everest through the roof,

Mauna Kea stands 4,205 m (13,796 ft) above sea level, just 35 m (115 ft) higher than the nearby Mauna Loa. As such it is the highest point in Hawaii state. However, a significant part of the mountain is underwater, and if Mauna Kea is measured from its oceanic base, it is over 10,000 m (33,000 ft), significantly more than Mount Everest, the highest peak above sea level.

One parting shot from another tour I took while on the island and this one is from behind the waterfall,

So who’s ready to go? And just for fun, who can name me all of Hawaii’s Islands without cheating and looking them up?

Joan Wolf’s Dark Ages of Britain trilogy

Joan Wolf is an author that’s been around for a year or two (or thirty) and she’s penned historical novels, regency romances and according to her website she’s now writing Christian romances (not my cuppa). I’ve read a few of her regency romances (fair, but not great) but she has a trio of books set in England’s Dark Ages that IMHO is superb and not to be missed. While these are referred to as a trilogy, they can be read in any order and are independent of one another.

The Road to Avalon

The pageantry and passionate intrigues of King Arthur’s court are expertly recreated in this historical novel–the only Arthurian novel in which all of the central characters are portrayed as intrinsically good people. This realistic retelling of the legend shows Arthur severing the bonds of bastardy, vanquishing the Saxons and loving one woman. As the daring teenage warrior prepares for the throne, he discovers true love with Morgan of Avalon, the youngest of Merlin’s daughters, but fate cruelly thwarts their hopes for a future together. Never before has a telling of the Arthur story made the breathtaking drama of this charismatic king more real or moving.

Wolf gives The Road to Avalon a bit of a different spin on the Arthurian legends as Arthur and Morgan are not blood-related so she’s able to develop a sympathetic love story – and a darn good one at that. Keep your tissue box handy for the ending.

Born of the Sun

In this beautifully executed continuation of The Road to Avalon, her earlier depiction of sixth-century Britain, Wolf tells the story of Niniane, a Celtic princess, and Ceawlin, bastard son of the King of the West Saxons. Eighty years after the death of Arthur, the Celts are disorganized, drifting away from the cities built by the Romans. The vigorous Saxons, on the other hand, have settled down and become civilized, creating in many ways a more viable culture.

I loved loved loved this book and I credit this as the book that got me into reading historical fiction a few years ago. A perfect blend of historical and romance, and I always love it when I can follow a pair on through the years and not just the first blush of youth and HEA. I wasn’t much into writing reviews when I read this, but you can see Daphne’s excellent thoughts on this book here.

The Edge of Light

The beautiful Elswyth, Princess of Mercia, is a woman-child already promised to a lord of the realm. Young Prince Alfred, fifth son of King Ethelwulf of Wessex, never dreamed he would don the crown of Britain, though he was destined to become its greatest king. Two headstrong lovers vow to fight to change the world rather than forfeit their passion–in a grand and glorious saga that explodes with the passions of love and war.

This was just as unputdownable as the first two, and a different look at Alfred than you get in Cornwell’s books – at least that’s what the ladies at Paperbackswap tell me. I also read this one well before I was reviewing much so I’ll refer you to Tanzanite’s review here.  These are all OOP, but last I checked fairly reasonably priced used.

Marianne and the Masked Prince by Juliette Benzoni

  There are times when you come across a cover that leaves you shaking your head wondering WTF was the publisher thinking anyway and this is definitely one of them. I promise you, there is nothing like that scene in the book anywhere.

The Masked Prince picks up right where book #1 left off (review here) with Marianne recovering from the shock of the oh-so-surprising return of someone long thought dead from her past – but he’s disappeared and not even Napoleon’s secret police can find him. And if that’s not enough, Marianne has to face the fact that her beloved Napoleon is going ahead with his plans to marry Marie Louise of Austria and get himself an heir.  I’m thinking you can guess that this doesn’t go down very well at all, especially when Napoleon is too busy sparking his new bride to give her much attention at all – and  eventually does a few things in retribution that really set off the imperial temper. 

Never fear though, our intrepid heroine will soon find other things to keep herself busy, including but not limited to being blackmailed (I can’t tell you without giving away the ending from book #1) and a marriage of necessity to a very mysterious Italian prince – what disfigurement could be so horrible that he’ll let no one see him, not even his new bride?

I found this one just a wee bit slower than the first, but still darn near unputdownable, and I have to tell you her new husband and his home in Tuscany is one spooky place and there’s plenty of things that go bump in the night. I think some readers might find Marianne’s actions regarding Napoleon at bit self-centered (she is still only seventeen), but you’ll see how in the end she gets a rude awakening in the path to true love that brings a new maturity to her character. 4/5 stars and I’ve already placed my hold on book #3 Marianne and the Privateer. From the jacket description I think we’ll be seeing more of the American Jason Beaufort. Woo hoo! These books are out of print but don’t forget to check your library and/or Interlibrary Loan.

Library Loot

I do believe my library holds are now officially out of control. Library loot is a weekly event hosted by Marg and new co-host Claire, and encourages bloggers to share books checked out from the library. My loot for this week,

    

Marianne and the Masked Prince by Juliette Benzoni

This is the second book in Benzoni’s Marianne series and I can’t wait to dig into it. I found a jacket description but it spoils the surprise ending of the first book so I am not posting it here but I will give you this much of it;

So Marianne must once more venture into the unknown: to Italy and the magnificent villa of the Tuscan prince whose face no one has ever seen; a villa haunted by some strange,nameless evil…

The Passionate Brood by Margaret Campbell Barnes

The private lives of the Plantagenets, that ‘passionate brood’ who were the children of Henry the Second and Eleanor of Acquitaine, Richard and Johanna, Henry and John.

Flint by Margaret Redfern

Will and his brother Ned are commandeered into the army of ditch-diggers whose task it is to build the foundations for Edward I new castle at Flint. But the lads are nervous – and not just because they’re far from home. Ned is a mute whose affinity with horses and skills as a herbalist make him suspicious in the eyes of their English overseers. In addition, Ned has been tutored by the exiled Welsh bard Ieuan ap y Gof. An atmospheric and unusually affecting first novel rich in historical and cultural detail.

What books did you ‘loot’ this week?