Untie My Heart

Title: Untie My Heart (2002)
Author: Judith Ivory (Avon)
Period: European Historical-Victorian (1896 England)
Grade: D+

I'm too busy of late to recap any reading but that which is truly spectacular. Spectacularly good or bad does not matter. And Untie My Heart is a spectacular clusterfuck.

Judith Ivory is famous for adult romances about complex people. No secret babies or amnesia for her. Yet, sometimes Ivory lives so much in her own head that her writing is hard to connect with, at least for me. This book presumes that her reader is going to enjoy the minutiae of Stuart's family finances over a contested title (which I do not) and Emma's in-depth world of London confidence games (which I do). I've spent years looking for a romance that didn't talk down to me, but I don't want to open an Excel spreadsheet to folllow the financial plot contrivances.

The real meat of the story is the control that dominates the relationship between Emma and Stuart. This isn't just sexual control although Ivory includes that in a way I find disturbing. I've read my share of non-consent bodice rippers. Some I even liked. I'm well versed in the ideology behind BDSM. The pleasure is in willingly surrendering control. Not being tied to a chair, fucked by some dude who threatens to send you to jail, and afterward told that you enjoyed it so he is absolved of any guilt. In fact, he is especially proud of his prowess and flexibility on said chair. Emma spends the bulk of the book resisting Stuart's control in the con game and in their sex life while he suggests she is just an uptight prude who isn't as adventurous and worldly as himself. What the hell? She doesn't want to walk naked in a hotel or be bound during sex. She says she doesn't enjoy it. But that's okay, because even though she says no, she clearly means yes.

If Ivory wanted to write about BDSM sexual relationship I wish she had crafted a heroine who embraced surrender, not one who fought against it. That isn't hot or sexy. That just sucks.

The Mistress

Title: The Mistress (2000)
Author: Susan Wiggs (Mira)
Period: American-Victorian (1871-2 Chicago)
Grade: B

I always forget about Susan Wiggs. I feel like her contemporaries are better known, but her historicals are always consistently good. Yet, I never include her in my list of "must-read" authors. Maybe it is that her books are plot/storytelling driven rather than character driven. In a character-based genre like romance that can make it harder to personally connect with books, and by extension, the author.

The Mistress is one book in a trilogy set amid the Great Chicago Fire. Why she chose the title still confuses me. Kathleen O'Leary (the daughter of the famous Mrs. O'Leary) works as lady's maid for an elite Chicago family's daughter. She has accompanied her employer to her finishing school where Kathleen, obsessed with wealth and privilege, has learned to imitate the manners and diction of the students. The fateful night of the fire she, on a bet between two society misses, attend a ball ala Cinderella. Kathleen so convinces everyone of her place in society that she captures the eye of Dylan Kennedy, a much-desired wealthy bachelor. Does this charade make Kathleen The Mistress?

When the fire spreads across the city the young couples flees for their lives. They marry in a spur of the moment ceremony believing they are about to die. When Kathleen confesses she is only a lady's maid Dylan reveals that he is frequently married con man who was attempting to beguile a fortune from a wealthy family when he wed her. His plans thwarted he attempts to abandon her. Repeatedly. Is Kathleen the Mistress because Dylan tries to reject their marriage? Kathleen stubbornly refuses to accept that his feeling for her aren't real. Her relationship with Dylan, and her family, reflects her growth from a young girl interested in aping the elites to a woman who learns the importance of love.

She is a bit too relentless and cheerful in her insistence they are truly wed. But Dylan isn't presented as a straight villain, but rather as a man with no family or resources who doesn't want to tie a good and generous young woman like Kathleen to his rootless criminal life. The bulk of the book takes place over only a few days, but the reader can feel the metamorphosis in Dylan as he comes to care about someone more than his own survival. Scenes with Kathleen's family (and the cow) are well-done with out resulting in the saccharine schmaltz that most author use to write about happy families or children.

The HEA, a necessity for all romance novels, takes too long to develop both in text and timeline. Dylan fear of love and his refusal to accept his marriage to Kathleen is a central crisis of the book, yet it seems to resolve itself in an abrupt and lazy fashion. He almost comes around by accident. The Mistress doesn't feel complete even though it pushes 400 pages! A great historical novel, but only a good romantic one.

The Pleasure of Her Kiss

Title: The Pleasure of Her Kiss (2003)
Author: Linda Needham (Avon)
Period: European Historical-Victorian (1848 England)
Grade: D-

Gak! I usually complain about romances where the hero is required to save the heroine from her harebrained schemes ala "I Love Lucy," but in The Pleasure of Her Kiss the hero chose to enable and encourage the heroine's harebrained schemes. This book is about ten different kinds of awful. It is the kind of romance where the author thinks she's flipping romance convention but instead her book is just as dull and trite as anything else on the romance mass market shelf.

Jared, Earl of Hawksley, wed and abandoned Kathryn Trafford in Egypt moments after her father's death. The marriage was arranged to protect the heiress and her assets, but Kathryn was less than pleased about being sent to England and neglected by an absent husband. Jared, like all heroes in long-lost spouse romances, wants to settle into a life of domestic bliss with his wife and is shocked when she doesn't recognize him. There is a brief sub-plot of Jared posing as a visitor to the guest house she runs at his country estate rather than revealing his true identity. It is quite dopey and she soon figures him out which is pretty embarrassing when you consider Jared is a spy. Just not a good one.

The crux of the novel, as is the case with most Needham's, is adopted children. Kathryn has taken in a large band of abandoned children and work-house urchins. Jared is opposed to having a ready made family of 20+ children and instead wants to find the children good homes. This is presented as cruel and self-centered with Jared unable to appreciate Kathryn's Jolie-like benevolence. What is wrong with wanting each child to have a good home with families that could give them individual attention? Where they wouldn't be raised in a class that permanently regards them as less than by strict conventions and norms?

The Pleasure of Her Kiss is set against the Irish famine and the grain embargo. Jared's latest mission is to uncover who is robbing and exporting grain stores to aid the Irish after the post-February rebellion embargo. Of course, amoebas can figure out this plot twist. Jared, in love with his wife, offers to financially support her Irish soup kitchens but that isn't good enough. She insists that she must continue to steal grain from the lords who support the embargo to "punish them" for their actions. In response, Jared suggests that he'll become a double agent and aid her in perpetrating her crimes! What the fuck? Is that supposed to be romantic? "Darling, let's get ourselves hung together! It isn't as if we have the responsibility of raising a brood of adopted children with no one else to care for them!"

There isn't anything feminist or radical about the hero supporting the heroine's goals when her goals are asinine.

My Only Love

Title: My Only Love (1993)
Author: Katherine Sutcliffe (Jove)
Period: European Historical-Victorian (1863 England)
Grade: C+

I enjoyed Sutcliffe's A Fire in the Heart and the supporting role of Miles, the bastard brother, so that I immediately bought his book, My Only Love. It is an okay book. Slightly better than average, but lacks the depth of setting and plot of A Fire in the Heart.

The big problem is My Only Love is A Big Secret romance. If the author going to make that Big Secret the basis for the primary conflict between the hero and heroine it shouldn't be so transparent that the reader can decipher it on page one. Literally! On the first page of novel Sutcliffe provides the clue that reveals the truth. Thus, the reader knows the Big Secret and is preconditioned to perceive the hero as a moron who couldn't find his own ass with two hands and a road map.

I dig Miles so that kinda sucks. He is the (older) illegitimate brother of a Duke. He resents the social system that excludes him and denies him a title he believes should be his birthright. Perversely, he craves do be a respected member of the society that spurns him. He's profligate and a poor businessman. He's jealous and sensitive and cruel and charming. He is a fascinating hero with real flaws and human emotions. No cookie cutter alpha male here.

The Earl of Devonshire solves Miles financial woes by offering his unconventional eldest daughter, Olivia, in marriage. Olivia is the mother to an illegitimate son and the Earl hopes to remove the stain of scandal from his household to improve the marriage chances of his beloved younger daughter. Olivia has secretly loved Miles for years even after his affair with her sister. Miles reluctantly accepts the offer despite his dream of a marrying a respectable woman who will help him gain the Ton's favor. Olivia, meanwhile, goes to tremendous lengths to protect a selfish and manipulative sister, an ignorant father, and her husband from The Big Secret. Olivia and her son eventually worm their way into Miles' icy heart for the HEA, but I was hoping for something less rote from Sutcliffe after A Fire in the Heart.

Where Dreams Begin

Title: Where Dreams Begin (2000)
Author: Lisa Kleypas (Avon)
Period: European Historical-Victorian (1830 England)
Grade: C

I'm not fair to Lisa Kleypas. I expect so much from her, what would be a good book by another author is only average by Kleypas standards. These are determents of being the Jane Austen of your generation. Sorry!

In Where Dreams Begin she returns to her wheelhouse with a respectable (often noble) heroine and wealthy lower-class upstart hero. The widowed Lady Holly is ending her three years of morning for her beloved husband when she encounters Zachary Bronson. After a clandestined kiss, Zachary is smitten. He concocts a plan to hire Lady Holly to teach himself, and his marriageable sister, the minutiae of the ton. If you’ve read better Kleypas their romance feels predictable from start to finish.

He is a likeable enough hero, but Holly is an enigma. Kleypas suggests that she accepts Zachary's offer because she has a hidden wild streak and secretly hopes to challenge convention, but the reader never sees that in action. If an author has to repeatedly tell you the character is brave or smart or unconventional, it is usually because she hasn't shown you the character to be so in the context of the plot. Rose, Holly's daughter, like all romance novel children is delightful and perfect in every way. Also, the subplot romance between the sister and Holly's cousin wasn't given enough room to grow. Where Dreams Begin wasn't a bad book, but certainly isn't one of Kleypas' better works.

A Fire in the Heart

Title: A Fire in the Heart (1990)
Author: Katherine Sutcliffe (Avon)
Period: European Historical-Victorian (1861 England)
Grade: B

Another day, another positive English Victorian review. A Fire in the Heart isn't quite epic, but it is certainly grander in scope than most historical romance. Sutcliffe, who when I previously read I was not a fan, has crafted a dark novel that embodies the poverty and hardship of the period. It isn't a perfect novel. The hero is Alpha to the extreme, there are some weird age of consent issues, and some of the research/wording is lax but that will only bother a rabid history buff (i.e. me). In some respects it reminds me of Samantha James' Gabriel's Bride when a heroine from dire circumstances joins a noble family. It has many similar plot point but A Fire in the Heart has more texture of both character and setting.

Bonnie is an orphan fleeing horrid workhouse conditions. She finds refuge at Middleham Castle where she is sheltered and nursed back to health. Damien, the Earl of Warwick (also his last name, boo!), plans to return her to the workhouse once her health returns. The two bicker constantly as a front for their growing attraction. Bonnie loathes the upper class and isn't suitable grateful to the Earl. Her anger and distrust aren't artificial plot contrivances, but the result of her traumatic life experience. Damien, meanwhile, is conflict about embracing the family heritage or returning to America. He was burned in love before and refuses to acknowledge his feeling for Bonnie until it is too late. Also, he believes her to be younger than her age. After they make love he is stunned to learn she is eighteen because he had assumed she was fourteen. I know age of consent was different in the past, but gross!

She tells an enormous lie to preserve her safety that furthers his animosity. He is an Alphas-Alpha with much demanding and ordering and seducing abound. The novel then takes a Pygmalion twist when Damien becomes her guardian and attempts to marry her off. Misadventure turns tragic and the two are separated. There is also the mystery of Bonnie's past and her father's murder that neither predictable, nor an encumbrance to the plot.

Sutcliffe has done considerable research on the political entanglement of prosperous Englishmen and the American Confederacy. Damien isn't only a mill owner, but also a Mississippi plantation owner. Yet he isn’t a slave owner, Damien is morally opposed to the institution and only employs free blacks on his plantation. Southern history and African-American history are particular interests of mine so perhaps I'm the only one to notice how ridiculous this plot point. Mississippi has fewer free blacks than any Southern state, a mere 775 in the 1860 census. As the largest cotton plantations employed hundreds of slaves, that would mean almost every free black in the Magnolia State was in his employ! I know romance authors are terrified of making their characters slave owners because they fear it makes them unsympathetic, but abandoning historical accuracy to allow (the always white) hero and heroine to appear progressive just belittles the overall slave experience, IMO.

Tangents on slavery in romance novels aside, it was a good historical and I've now moved on to her sequel, My Only Love.

A Dangerous Man

Title: A Dangerous Man (1996)
Author: Connie Brockway (Dell)
Period: European Historical-Victorian (1878 England)
Grade: B+

I'm a sucker for a great cover. And by great I mean old-school bodice rippers cover. The trend of flowers and rainbow covers imply that we should be ashamed of reading romance novels. I wasn't wild about Connie Brockway the first time I read her but I couldn't resist this cover. Happily, I was not disappointed the second time around.

American Mercy Coltrane has come to England to find her missing younger brother. She hopes to enlist the help of an English gunslinger who once worked for her father's ranch & shot her. However, Hart Moreland was living a double-life in Texas because he is an earl attempting to hide from his unsavory past. Mercy appears at a house party where Hart is trying to arrange the marriage of his youngest sister to a duke. Desperate, Mercy blackmails him into assisting her locate her brother.

A Victorian, A Dangerous Man, highlights the seamy underside of London most Regencies ignore. The brother's opium addiction is painted in descriptive and grim detail. Most importantly, Mercy and Hart aren't perfect people. They make mistakes. They hurt each other. They say the wrong thing at the wrong time. But they don't behave like children. They are two adults who (slowly) fall in love with someone who is the exact opposite of who they imagined they'd love. It is a gradual feeling out process, but the tension never seem forced nor the characters stupid.

Good show, Connie! I'm now on the lookout for earlier Brockways.

Lady Hellfire

Title: Lady Hellfire (1992)
Author: Suzanne Robinson (Bantam)
Period: European Historical-Victorian (1854 England)
Grade: B+

Lady Hellfire is a very good fish out of water European Historical. I love stories about brash Americans finding love and adventure in the stuffy Ton. The Victorian historical elements are strong, particularly when Robinson explores restricting female fashion with the growing popularity of bustles and crinolette.

Kate is a true bluestocking. She is a fanatical reader, as well as being responsible for her maintaining her family's fortune after her father's death. She is outspoken and informal with little regard for the conventions and hierarchy of British society. I adore Kate. She has agreed to take her English mother on a trans-Atlantic visit to lift her spirits after her father's death. Her forthright manner and unconventional beauty made her open to ridicule from her cousin's neighbor the Marquees of Richfield on her previous trip to England. Alex, the Marquees, is complex hero. He was a war hero in the Crimea and he feels tremendous loyalty to the wounded veterans he cares for at his Estate. After his father's death, he was raised by his despicable mother and his sermonizing women-hating uncle. He suspects most unmarried women of trying to catch him in marriage for his wealth and title. Alex has issues.

When he and Kate are caught in a compromising position they announce a fake betrothal to save face. He attempts to educate Kate as how she can be more "ladylike" (i.e. boring) during their engagement. Kate, young and in love, goes along with the plan hoping to win his affections. She later realizes that Alex isn't worth losing herself. Happily, in reverse My Fair Lady fashion, he understands that he's rather have Kate as she is. The mysterious deaths around the castle (!) protract there HEA and the reader isn’t automatically certain of the murder.

Lady Hellfire isn't a perfect romance. Kate falls victim to a romance heroine's traits of crying and running away. She is conveniently in position to overhear just enough to create a Big Misunderstanding, but not long enough to understand what is really afoot. The villains are cut a bit too black. And one wonders when Alex will stand-up to his crazy family not just for Kate, but for himself. Very nice work with strong character development and excellent historical detail. I'll look for more Suzanne Robinson in the future.

The Perfect Lover

Title: The Perfect Lover (2003)
Author: Stephanie Laurens (Avon)
Period: European Historical-Victorian (1835 England)
Grade: C

My new historical romance pet peeve is author's who write suspense/mystery novels marketed as romance. To be fair, I'm sure the fault lies with Avon rather than Laurens.

The romance, minimal as it is, occurs between Simon (a Cynster) and his brother-in-law's sister, Portia Ashford. For Laurens, and one presumes her readers, being a Cynster is a personality trait in and of itself. The reader is to presume Simon is all things brave, virile, honorable, and wise. They both claim a long standing dislike. Laurens writes as if every reader has committed On a Wicked Dawn and its record of Simon and Portia's relationship to memory. One of the weaknesses with romance plot is the author continues to reference the conflict between the hero and heroine. Despite that as soon as we meet them in The Perfect Lover they are practically simpatico. They've conveniently both decided to embark on marriage hunts at the same time (and at the same house party) so one sees no real evidence they aren’t compatible.

The Perfect Lover is part of Laurens' Cynster series that like cockroaches and Rasputin just won't die. The success of this series in particular is, in my opinion, the cause of the explosion of familial romance series we see today. I'm not sure if that is an accolade or a rebuke. The book takes place at country house party with a lengthy and monotonous cast of Ton characters that would do the Illiad proud. The vast majority of these tertiarry characters are superfluous. Most have no role in the central plot whatsoever. There is a lot of tea drinking and escorting ladies to dinner, so only a handful of characters serve to advance the plot. Meanwhile, the eventual murder victim is so loathsome that one is left wishing all the guests conspired to do her in Murder on the Orient Express style. Laurens offer vagaries about the hero and heroine's shared sense of justice that leads them to solve the murder. I couldn't muster any interest in the victim, the investigation, or the romance.