Book Anxiety, Part 1: A Spear of Summer Grass by Deanna Raybourn

• Title: A Spear of Summer Grass
• Author: Deanna Raybourn
• Genre(s): Historical
• Publisher: Harlequin (MIRA), April 2013
• Source: NetGalley
• Length: 384 pages
• Trope(s): Bad Girl with a Heart of Gold and Hidden Depths, Enigmatic Loner Hero, Colorful Cast of Supporting Characters, Very Convenient Coincidences
• Quick blurb: Disgraced socialite exiled to stepfather’s crumbling estate in 1920s colonial Kenya
• Quick review: After much pre-reading anxiety and post-reading obsessing, it didn’t work for me — but for more reasons than I expected.
• Grade: D+

“For Christ’s sake, woman. Don’t stand there mooning about. This is Africa. Go inside before something eats you.”

I’m a huge fan of Raybourn’s Julia Grey mystery series (countless re-reads, book trance every single time), so when I saw the cover and blurb for A Spear of Summer Grass, I sighed happily and thought, “Ohhhhh, she wrote a new one just for me.”

So why the Book Anxiety? It started with the usual “She’s one of my favorite authors, what if I don’t like it???” I sucked it up and made it through the two chapters with an initial dislike for the heroine, but no major red flags – so far, so good.

But then a quick glance at a few reviews – “horrible” and “DNF” from The Book Smugglers and the enlightening discussion at Dear Author – sent me flailing into the worst-case scenario of “What if I like it – but I shouldn’t???” So I moved it from currently-reading back to the to-read shelf and let the anxiety fester. For weeks.

I started reading again last night, and finished this morning around 3 a.m. It was a one-sitting read, but not a full-on blissful book trance. Instead of wallowing in the language and characters, I could not stop myself from focusing on all the elements that were so problematic for other reviewers.

Yes, this book does romanticize colonial Kenya – I don’t think there’s really any room for debate about it. Raybourn makes a valiant effort at providing context and addressing those concerns through dialogue with secondary characters, but those exchanges were forced and awkward, with a distinct “pay attention, this is important” vibe. I cringe to think of this story told in third person, because the first-person POV was the only thing that saved this story from a DNF. I couldn’t overlook bits like “his slender chest swelled with pride,” but experiencing them through Delilah’s privileged self-centeredness made them more palatable. Until, that is, the cringe-worthy and completely unnecessary Return of the Conquering Heroine scene. Ugh.

I’m not going to focus on the romance, because there wasn’t much of it. There’s very little relationship-building, and the Love at First Lion Killing moment arrived exactly as expected. Without his prequel novella, J. Ryder White would be a throw-away love interest.

This book is all about Delilah, and she’s a compelling and memorable character. She’s also too perfectly surprisingly suited for her unwanted role as Mistress of the Manor. Before even arriving in Africa, she’s already acquainted with or familiar with nearly all of her new white neighbors — including a former lover. The locals show up on her porch for her White Lady Magical Healing Powers, and we learn she was a volunteer surgical nurse during the Great War. She confronts the Evil Overseer, and we learn she spent her childhood summers on a Louisiana sugar plantation under the tutelage of her invincible great-grandmother. Her encounters with the obligatory “witch doctor” character reveal her innate Creole mysticism. And her ex-husband (one of several) just happens to be a high-powered attorney who’s willing to abandon his new family to travel for weeks to rescue her once again. The Very Convenient Coincidences just kept piling up.

Also…

• I hated the way Delilah treated her poor-relation cousin/lady’s maid.
• “Circle of Life” played on repeat in my head during Ryder’s impassioned “everything back into balance” speech.
• Helen is the colonial version of Lindsey Duncan’s deluded aging beauty character from Under the Tuscan Sun.

Therefore, the Book Anxiety wins this round.

However… Raybourn took a huge risk in writing this book. She deliberately chose a no-win historical setting and gave us an unapologetically sexually active heroine – nearly an anti-heroine – who shoots straight (literally and figuratively). This is no Romance-O-Matic Regency, and despite my disappointment, I want more like this.

The Rake’s Redemption by Regina Scott

• Title: The Rake’s Redemption
• Author: Regina Scott
• Series/Category: Everard Legacy, Book 3 (Love Inspired Historical)
• Genre(s): Historical (Regency), Inspirational, Suspense
• Publisher: Harlequin, November 2012
• Source: NetGalley ($3.82 ebook)
• Length: 288 pages
• Trope(s): Annoyingly Perky Heroine, Angsty Emo Hero, Insta-Love, Mistorical, Purple Prose
• Quick blurb: Marquess’s daughter decides a dueling poet is the perfect man to acquire her father’s title.
• Quick review: This wasn’t working for me as a historical, as a suspense, as an inspirational OR as a romance.
• Grade: DNF

It started with the Regency heroine asking an uknown man to dance at a ball. Then we get this:

…she’d wondered whether she’d finally found the suitor she’d been praying for — someone who could help her protect the family name, as her father’s only living child.

And then, during an actual prayer, it got worse.

“Show me the man You mean to help me gain approval to carry on the title of Marquess of Widmore!”

So, yeah. It was like that.

Theme Night: Richard III (The Fictional Version)

So. All of us history nerds GEEKED OUT over the whole Richard III thing today.

I don’t know who this is, but I prefer this version of Richard III.

Did I mentioned that I geeked out? It’s true. I really did.

Anyway, in poor maligned Richard III’s honor, and to halt my month-long blog drought, here are a few quick reviews of some recommended Wars of the Roses stories from my vast stores of historical fiction.

Not familiar with the Wars of the Roses? Stay tuned for some non-fiction reviews coming up next!

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The Reluctant Queen by Jean Plaidy

Synopsis from Goodreads:

In 1470, a reluctant Lady Anne Neville is betrothed by her father, the politically ambitious Earl of Warwick, to Edward, Prince of Wales. A gentle yet fiercely intelligent woman, Anne has already given her heart to the prince’s younger brother, Richard, Duke of Gloucester. Unable to oppose her father’s will, she finds herself in line for the throne of England—an obligation that she does not want. Yet fate intervenes when Edward is killed at the Battle of Tewkesbury. Anne suddenly finds herself free to marry the man she loves—and who loves her in return. The ceremony is held at Westminster Abbey, and the duke and duchess make a happy home at Middleham Castle, where both spent much of their childhood.

Their life is idyllic, until the reigning king dies and a whirlwind of dynastic maneuvering leads to his children being declared illegitimate. Richard inherits the throne as King Richard III, and Anne is crowned queen consort, a destiny she thought she had successfully avoided. Her husband’s reign lasts two years, two months, and two days—and in that short time Anne witnesses the true toll that wearing the crown takes on Richard, the last king from the House of York.

This is my favorite Anne and Richard book, and one of my many favorites by Plaidy. Her duchesses, princesses and queens stay in their appointed roles, but Plaidy somehow manages to really get into their heads and hearts to make her royal heroines quietly strong and even subversively influential.

Plaidy’s Anne of York is essentially passive, rarely taking an active role in any of the plotting and scheming that surrounds her. However, this background role allows her to be a very savvy observer, and Plaidy — with her effortless voice and flawless historical worldbuilding — makes the most of Anne’s omniscient narration.

Grade: A-

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The Kingmaker’s Daughter by Philippa Gregory

Synopsis from Goodreads:

The Kingmaker’s Daughter is the gripping story of the daughters of the man known as the “Kingmaker,” Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick: the most powerful magnate in fifteenth-century England. Without a son and heir, he uses his daughters, Anne and Isabel as pawns in his political games, and they grow up to be influential players in their own right….

At the court of Edward IV and his beautiful queen, Elizabeth Woodville, Anne grows from a delightful child to become ever more fearful and desperate when her father makes war on his former friends. Married at age fourteen, she is soon left widowed and fatherless, her mother in sanctuary and her sister married to the enemy. Anne manages her own escape by marrying Richard, Duke of Gloucester, but her choice will set her on a collision course with the overwhelming power of the royal family and will cost the lives of those she loves most in the world, including her precious only son, Prince Edward. Ultimately, the kingmaker’s daughter will achieve her father’s greatest ambition.

I love Gregory’s “voice,” and she’s brilliant at using first-person POV (and even present tense in this one) to create a compelling and intensely personal atmosphere and a wholly unique perspective on true events.

But I think I’ve read way too many Tudor and Wars of the Roses books, because I found the narrative and especially the dialogue to be very repetitive in the second half.

The theme of “Elizabeth Woodville is a scheming, grasping witch” is used again and again and again as convenient filler whenever there’s downtime in the chronology of intrigue and poisonings and beheadings. So much emphasis is given to a virtually unseen character that the enigmatic Richard III is reduced to banal and emotionless cameo appearances.

Beyond that irritation, I think no author is better at depicting the constant uncertainty and fear and, ultimately, powerlessness that noble and royal women faced from the moment they moved from the nursery to the schoolroom. Like Mary and Anne Boleyn, the Neville sisters were born, trained and doomed to be nothing more than props and pawns in their father’s quest for power and glory.

Grade: B-

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Figures in Silk by Vanora Bennett

Synopsis from Goodreads:

When silk merchant John Lambert marries off his two beautiful daughters, their fortunes are forever changed. Elder daughter Jane Shore begins a notorious liaison with the king while industrious and clever Isabel finds herself married into the house of Claver, a wealthy silk dynasty. Fate delivers Isabel a challenge when her new husband is killed and she is forced into apprenticeship to her mother-in-law, Alice Claver.

It is from Alice Claver that Isabel learns to love silk and the exotic and passionate fabrics from Italy, Persia, Spain, Tunisia, and beyond. Isabel learns to make her way in this new world of silk—to find friends and enemies—and she strikes an alliance with her sister’s lover, King Edward IV, that will bring the secrets of silk-making to London. As Isabel grows in power and her plan for a silk industry run by Englishwomen is set into motion, the political landscape shifts in dangerous ways. One sister will fall as the other rises and choices must be made that will change their lives forever.

The first half of the book, which focuses on the silk industry, is fascinating. Isabel is a memorable heroine, and her contentious relationships with her father, sister and mother-in-law set up several great conflicts.

However…the shark is jumped when R3 comes on the scene. The focus slides away from the strong female characters and gets bogged down in some ill-executed political intrigue.

The “kick-ass first half, disappointing second half” seems to be an ongoing issue with Bennett — she always manages to wrap up the storylines successfully, but I’d love to see her sustain the momentum from start to finish.

Grade: B-

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To the Tower Born by Robin Maxwell

Synopsis from Goodreads:

In 1483, Edward and Richard of York — Edward, by law, already King of England–were placed, for their protection before Edward’s coronation, in the Tower of London by their uncle Richard. Within months the boys disappeared without a trace, and for the next five hundred years the despised Richard III was suspected of their heartless murders.

In To the Tower Born, Robin Maxwell ingeniously imagines what might have happened to the missing princes. The great and terrible events that shaped a kingdom are viewed through the eyes of quick-witted Nell Caxton, only daughter of the first English printer, and her dearest friend, “Bessie,” sister to the lost boys and ultimate founder of the Tudor dynasty. It is a thrilling story brimming with mystery, color, and historical lore. With great bravery and heart, two friends navigate a dark and treacherous medieval landscape rendered more perilous by the era’s scheming, ambitious, even murderous men and women who will stop at nothing to possess the throne.

Another shark-jumper, but in a good way.

Maxwell has a few, um, well, wacky revisionist history plots, but they’re nearly always entertaining, and she even (*gasp*) has fun with her historical characters.

I love, love, love Nell Caxton as the heroine, and the author gets buckets of extra special credit bonus points for making Anthony Woodville the love interest — I always wonder what he could have accomplished as a scholar and as a diplomat.  Word has it he was kinda cute too.

But, of course, Woodville (aka Earl Rivers) loses his head about a third of the way in, and Nell turns into a secret agent (or maybe a double-super-secret agent, it’s hard to tell) in an uber-suspenseful (and kinda wacky) conspiracy administered by Margaret Beaufort, the (probably literally) kick-ass  mother of Henry VII. It’s a wild ride, but it’s worth it.

Grade: B

One-Quote Review: The Lady Most Willing by Julia Quinn, Eloisa James and Connie Brockway

• Title: The Lady Most Willing…: A Novel in Three Parts
• Authors: Julia Quinn, Eloisa James and Connie Brockway
• Series: Lady Most, Book 2
• Genre(s): Historical
• Publisher: Avon, December 2012
• Source: Edelweiss ($5.69 ebook)
• Length: 385 pages
• Trope(s): Insta-Love, Amusing Abuction, Impoverished Rake, Stuffy Duke/Earl (one of each), Red-Headed Smart-Mouthed Scottish Lasses, Surprise Virgin, Loud Laird
• Quick blurb: Drunken laird and his kilted kin kidnap fair maidens as potential brides for his nephews, and accidentally abduct a duke at the same time.
• Quick review: Banal and predictable.
• Grade: D+

Hell was obviously freezing, decrepit and located in the Scottish Highlands.

I loved 2010′s The Lady Most Likely — the balance of stories was great, with one insta-love, one childhood-friends-to-lovers, and one sibling’s-best-friend-from-afar. And more importantly, each couple and their courtship was unique and memorable.

The Lady Most Willing, however…. Blech. Blah. Boring. Four — count ‘em FOUR (4) — insta-love quickies with only the barest hint of characterization. The only exception was foul temptress Marilla the Maneater and her Cleavage of Doom, who was so ridiculously vamped up it was almost embarrassing to read.

I considered going with a C- grade, but these are authors who have given us much, much better in the past.

One-Quote Review(s): The Wild Quartet by Miranda Neville

• Title: The Second Seduction of a Lady
• Author:  Miranda Neville
• Series: The Wild Quartet, Book 0.5
• Genre(s): Historical
• Publisher: Avon, October 2012
• Source: Edelweiss ($1.99 ebook)
• Length: 100 pages
• Trope(s): Ruined by a Rake, Big Misunderstanding, Wicked Wager
• Quick blurb: Five years after a torrid encounter, a repentant gentleman gets a second chance with the stubborn woman he still loves.
• Quick review: Nothing heart-stopping, but everything a prequel novella should be.
• Grade: B

It wasn’t a deep kiss but a slow investigation of taste and texture, a scouting trip with the promise of a full exploration.

This novella wasn’t  an all-out swoon, but I loved how the quiet moments between Max and Eleanor showed a more mature and hard-earned romance in contrast to the ill-fated insta-love of their impulsive wards.

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• Title: The Importance of Being Wicked
• Author:  Miranda Neville
• Series: The Wild Quartet, Book 1
• Genre(s): Historical
• Publisher: Avon, November 2012
• Source: Edelweiss ($7.99 ebook)
• Length: 384 pages
• Trope(s): Gambling Fever, Widow, Beta Hero, Big Misunderstandings
• Quick blurb: Staid duke in need of an heiress is enthralled by his intended’s impetuous but impoverished chaperone.
• Quick review: A bit iffy in the middle, but a full-swoon ending makes it worth the read.
• Grade: B

The Duke of Castleton had been delightfully stuffy and teasable, and she’d managed not to make a fool of herself by leaping on him and ripping off his clothes.

Loved the relationship-building in the first half (especially the slug-fest at the masked ball), then got really annoyed with both of them, but they finally got their heads out of their asses and I got all swoony at the end.

The ‘Oh Crap It’s Only A Week Until Christmas’ Holiday Book Binge, Part 2

I did a LOT of reading last weekend. My house is a complete disaster and I DON’T CARE. Santa and his stupid Naughty List can just bite my big ol’ you-know-what.

Unless he’s bringing me stuff from my wish list. I might even actually fold all the laundry on the couch AND put it away for one of those books.

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Naughty and Nice: Three Holiday Treats (Anthology)

• Title: Naughty and Nice: Three Holiday Treats
• Authors: Ruthie Knox, Molly O’Keefe and Stefanie Sloane
• Series: Crooked Creek Ranch, Book 2.5 (O’Keeffe)
• Genre(s): Contemporary, Historical
• Publisher: Loveswept/Random House, November 2012
• Source: NetGalley ($1.99 ebook)
• Length: 210 pages
• Trope(s): Grand Gesture, Family Drama, Small Town Guilt, Recalcitrant Farm Animals (thankfully not a goat this time)
• Quick blurb: An homage to It’s a Wonderful Life, an HFN contemporary prequel, and a boring and silly historical.
• Quick review: It’s all about Room at the Inn.
• Grade: B

Room at the Inn by Ruthie Knox

Mother of God, he had great hands.

Carson Vance can put those hands on me anytime. I have a major Author Crush on Ruthie Knox because she knows exactly how to Push My Buttons. Including the Gloriously Groveling Grand Gesture. She makes me use Initial Caps.

All I Want for Christmas Is You by Molly O’Keeffe

“Any promise you make…half of the promise is commitment and the other half is faith. Faith that your commitment is enough.”

This was my first by O’Keefe — I was disappointed in the story as an happy-for-now prequel, but there was enough honest emotion and realistic angst to keep her Crooked Creek Ranch series in my TBR queue.

One Perfect Christmas by Stephanie Sloane

Blast that word, “if.” Two letters, without which there was no hope.

Also a first for Sloane — unfortunately, nothing about this impressed me. I’m a sucker for the friends-to-lovers trope and the MCs were likeable, but the story was oh-so-predictable and I found some of the smexing to be awkward instead of sexy.

Any Regency has to be very, very different to stand out among the hundreds of others out there, and this one was just too cookie-cutter to be memorable.

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Twelve Days by Ros Clarke

• Title: Twelve Days
• Author: Ros Clarke
• Series: N/A
• Genre(s): Contemporary
• Publisher: Self-Published, December 2012
• Source: Provided by the author (99¢ ebook)
• Length: 35 pages
• Trope(s): Big Misunderstanding (Big. HUGE.), Family Drama, Reunited, Flash Mob
• Quick blurb: A public marriage proposal doesn’t go quite as planned.
• Quick review: Sad-cry + happy-cry = *happysigh* (all in only 35 pages!)
• Grade: B+

The singers had already reached the three French hens verse, and on cue a chicken ran across the road.

For anyone who cringed at the grand gesture in Room at the Inn, read this. Trust me.

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Wish List by Sylvia Day

• Title: Wish List
• Author: Sylvia Day
• Series: White Hot Holidays
• Genre(s): Contemporary
• Publisher: Self-Published, December 2005 (originally published January 2005 by Ellora’s Cave)
• Source: Amazon, $2.51 ebook
• Length: 40 pages
• Trope(s): Lawyers, Secret Santa, Secret [NO SPOILERS!]
• Quick blurb: Law firm Secret Santa gift exchange gives attorney the opportunity to fulfill his colleague’s no-longer-secret wish list.
• Quick review: Hero goes from Alpha to Beta in only 40 pages. I love it when that happens.
• Grade: B+

“This isn’t about getting laid,” he insisted hoarsely.

“I know.” Her hands clung to his straining, sweating back.

“This isn’t temporary.”

“I – I…”

This is another author first (I know, I know), but I shall remedy that soon.

One-Quote Review: A Question of Time by Joanne Renaud

• Title: A Question of Time
• Author: Joanne Renaud
• Series: N/A
• Genre(s): Contemporary, Fantasy/PNR
• Publisher: Champagne Books, November 2012
• Source: Provided by the author ($3.99 ebook)
• Length: 112 pages
• Trope(s): Time Travel (god help me), Teacher Crush, Reunited, Beta Hero
• Quick blurb: Fantasy author finds herself transported to her high school days, where she realizes she has a chance to save a favorite teacher from death.
• Quick review: An alternately angsty and lighthearted 1980s’s flashback — but I found myself thinking about it for DAYS after I finished reading it.
• Grade: B

Why, she could take her salad fork and jam it into her wrist right now, and it would probably really hurt.

It’s a good thing this story was a “stable time loop,” or I would probably never forgive Ms. Renaud for suckering me into reading another time travel book. However, the 1980s setting was a welcome reminder of why I skipped a certain milestone (mumblety-fifth) high school reunion this year.

But I still don’t understand what “stable time loop” means, because a loop could get all twisty like a Möbius strip and that’s all ABTRACT MATH and ABSTRACTION seems inherently UNSTABLE *shudder*. That makes the OCD part of my brain work really hard to kick its way past the “woohoo, party like it’s 1989!” part. And that’s why I kept thinking and thinking about the story arc and resolution of this book.

In retrospect, I’m glad I didn’t have any spectacled swoon-worthy teachers like Alan Forrest, because the opportunities for public embarrassment would have been exponentially higher.

This is probably one of the most blathering and unhelpful reviews I’ve written so far. I blame the sinister influence of time travel on my fragile cranial ecosystem. Also, I was so caught up in reminiscing about KITT and teal shadow and bitch flips that I forgot to eat lunch.

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NOTE: I did manage to resist the nearly overwhelming urge to use a “Rickrolled by God” quote. You’re welcome.

Medieval Mania: By Royal Command by Laura Navarre

• Title: By Royal Command
• Author: Laura Navarre
• Series: N/A
• Genre(s): Historical
• Publisher: Carina Press, July 2012
• Source: NetGalley ($4.16 ebook)
• Length: 274 pages
• Trope(s): Widow, Alpha Male(s), Beta Hero, Big Misunderstanding, Simile Sex, Hair Fetish, Evil Royal Relation
• Quick blurb: Newly widowed niece of King Ethelred (he of the Unreadiness) is forced into a betrothal with a Norman nobleman – but she’s distracted by the large and tawny Viking assigned as her escort.
• Quick review: The author has a thesaurus, and she knows how to use it.
• Grade: D

Grappling with savage urgency in a riot of tumbled cushions, she plunged headlong into rapture in the arms of her wrathful angel.

Status Updates: Read With Me Vicariously

You can tell by the dates that I avoided writing this review.

• 09/12 – 40%: “…the curving shell of secrets nestled between her thighs” o.0
• 09/13 – 42%: This book is much more Bodice Ripper than I anticipated….
• 09/13 – 58%: The metaphors. EVERYTHING is a water, fire, weather or war metaphor. And the interjections. By Odin’s smelly underpants, the INTERJECTIONS! Lots of references to Odin and Thor, but no Loki yet. Heroine prefers to invoke St. Cuthbert and St. Wilfrid.
• 09/14 – 65%: The book that will never end. I made it this far, but this is taking WAY too long to finish.
• 09/15 – 78%: Still not done… *whimper*
• 09/17 – 100%: Finally finished, and I still haven’t quite distilled why this didn’t work for me.

When I finally started the distillation process, I had to put the crankypants on.

The writing style….

I can’t really call it the author’s “voice,” because I never really heard one. Instead, I felt bombarded with every literary device we learned in junior high language arts class. Action verbs. Adjectives. Metaphors. Interjections. Euphemisms. Rinse. Repeat.

As he fitted himself against her, an epiphany burst within….

She opened herself to the storm of sensation, reached for him with both arms as he surged inside to fill her. Their joining brought him toppling down on her, in the blazing splendor of the archbishop’s bed. He gripped her in the same desperate clutch, held her moored against his rapid thrusts. Her tight channel stretched to accept him, ripples of pleasure pulsing through her. Blindly, she struggled toward the conflagration.

Without warning, it ignited her. She dug her nails into his sinewed back and clung with all her strength. The cataclysm flung her high, outside herself, as he went rigid in her arms.

The hundreds (literally) of other examples can be grouped into thematic categories, including:

Medieval Mania: More Barbara Samuel

I just HAD to use the original bodice-ripper covers for these….

• Title: A Winter Ballad
• Author: Barbara Samuel
• Series: N/A
• Genre(s): Historical
• Publisher: HarperCollins, October 1994; self-published, October 2010
• Source: Amazon, 99¢ promo ($2.99 ebook)
• Length: 352 pages
• Trope(s): Knight, Damsel in Distress, Revenge, Evil Sibling, Angst, Tragic Past,
• Quick blurb: Knight on revenge mission tempted to forego his royal mandate to stay with the woman who saved his life.
• Quick review: Basically a stripped-down, but oh-so-romantic, version of Pillars of Earth
• Grade: B+

When he made to draw away, Anya caught his hand below the table. “You did not find me whole,” she said, “and could not leave me less.”

Dying knight, spiritually broken heroine, godless priests, evil and/or missing siblings, curses, plagues, assassination plots…. And smooching. Some really, really good smooching.

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• Title: Heart of a Knight
• Author: Barbara Samuel
• Series: N/A
• Genre(s): Historical
• Publisher: HarperCollins, August 1997; self-published, October 2010
• Source: Amazon, 99¢
• Length: 368 pages
• Trope(s): Gentle Giant, Damsel in Distress, In Disguise
• Quick blurb: An errant knight mysteriously appears to help a beleaguered noblewoman save her castle
• Quick review: More of a predictable fairy tale than Bed of Spices, but definitely worth reading
• Grade: B

Better, she said, to remember it was with women that true power lay. A power quiet and subtle, to be sure, but never to be ignored.

The enigmatic hero is the main focus of the story, but Elizabeth is a really strong and compelling character. No TSTL or doormat heroines in Barbara Samuel’s medieval world, THANK GOD.

Medieval Mania: A Bed of Spices by Barbara Samuel

Way back in September/October, before the World Series of Romance, I was immersed in a period-specific historical binge and never got around to reviewing any of them. To remedy that appalling lapse in blogging etiquette….

Let the Medieval Mania begin!

We’ll embark upon our odyssey through the Middle Ages with the book I’m using as The Gold Standard for medieval romances. No, I haven’t read Roberta Gellis yet; I have about 17 of hers in my TBR and once I start one, I’ll have to read them all.

ANYWAY. This book was one of my first Kindle impulse purchases, and I’m pretty sure it was my gateway drug to the evil realm of Romancelandia. (The “mania” in the theme wasn’t chosen on a whim, trust me.)

• Title: A Bed of Spices
• Author: Barbara Samuel
• Series: N/A
• Genre(s): Historical
• Publisher: Harper Monogram, September 1993; self-published, October 2010
• Source: Amazon, 99¢ promo ($2.99 ebook, free through Kindle Lending)
• Length: 352 pages
• Trope(s): Star-Crossed Lovers, Angst, Reunited
• Quick blurb: Nobleman’s daughter and Jewish student fight for love in medieval Germany
• Quick review: Practically perfect in every way.
• Grade: A+

He did not kiss her, but his eyes held hers as if he had cast some spell, and in his face, she saw the fever of his need. “For this, I have been waiting,” he said in a low, raw voice. “For this, I would die.”

This is one of those books that I feel I could never do justice in a review, other than to say it was BOOK TRANCE from beginning to end. And it was even better the second time when I was reading it more critically with a reviewer’s eye.

A Bed of Spices is a perfectly balanced mix of history, humor, passion, romance, angst, atmosphere, characterization and story-telling. I’m sure I left out other good stuff, but it’s all in there.

For me, this is the epitome of a Star-Crossed Lovers story — and it’s anything but typical. Instead of the usual noble/peasant or bad boy/good girl pairing, we get a couple equally matched in wealth and intelligence, held apart only the yellow star on his tunic.

Samuel brings Frederica and Solomon together unexpectedly:

He was beautiful, as beautiful as a fallen angel or a pagan god. And he stared back at her as if he could not believe she stood there, as if he knew her, as if he were as dazzled as she.

…and lets their relationship grow with some innocent flirting:

“You did not tell me where you came by your ideas,” he prompted.

“I came by mine as you did yours—by thinking.”

He grinned. “Such a strange pastime for a girl.”

…and some not-so-innocent temptation:

In the silent gray fog, they were alone. The knowledge rippled between them as they stood face-to-face, a fearsome and dangerous thing…. For a moment, he held her eyes and she felt the heated pulse of his maleness through the cold mist; sensed once again that she was not alone in her wish to be less polite and more tangled.

Our almost-happy couple fights it as best they can:

He would not stray from within the walls of Strassburg itself. Surely, if he had no glimpse of her, this lunacy would burn itself clean. For, dear God, it must….

…until they both find the courage to admit what they have is more than physical attraction:

Original 1993 cover
(historical accuracy?
what’s that?)

Her free hand lit in his hair. For a moment, she said nothing, only stroked his head silently as he knelt before her. At last she said quietly, “The priest brought me the Bible last night, as instruction.”

She sank down to her knees, to look at him face-to-face. “I made a confession to him that I had spent many hours thinking of a certain man in ways that were not chaste.”

Solomon lifted his fingers, seared by this admission, but she caught his hand before he could touch her. “Father Goddard said there was more to God’s word than prayers,” she said, “and he brought me the Bible to read, with a place specially marked.”

Her eyes softened. “It was,” she said with an ironic smile, “the Song of Solomon.”

“Ahhh.” He closed his eyes and leaned forward to press his forehead against hers, feeling as if he might weep. “And yet, this is impossible, Rica. We cannot love each other.”

“I know.”

For a long moment, they simply remained as they were, their fingers tangled, foreheads pressed together, all else forgotten.

Ohhhh, that forehead-to-forehead thing gets me EVERY TIME. *~*happysigh*~*

With the help of a mutual friend, they make their own vows:

She felt dizzy, as if she were standing in the center of the world and all else would slip into harmony as long as Solomon held her.

He rocked her silently, holding her almost painfully close. “It does not seem an evil thing,” he said with quiet wonder. “It seems as if I have held you thus for all of time, that I should go on doing so forever.”

But alas, we know it can’t go on forever. The author quietly lets the internal angst and conflict seep in….

“Do not speak it, Rica, I beg you.” His eyes were bleak. “There is so little joy in any life, I will take this time with you until I must go.” He smoothed a lock of hair from her face. “In our old age, we’ll remember and be glad.”

…and then it grows:

Two months ago, he’d never seen the woman who now obsessed him. All the years of discipline, all the prudence and resistance he had practiced had come to naught in the face of his longing for Rica. He was ready to storm the castle to carry her away, ready to make a fool of himself to gain a glimpse of her in the bailey. For what? The most he could hope for was a month or two of stolen afternoons, a kiss here and there, and a laugh in a glade. He could never lie with her, sleep next to her, walk in a public square. He could never sit with her over a meal and talk of the day’s work, or take her hand in old age.

…and it festers:

From the beginning, Solomon had known there was no future for them. From the beginning, he had fought against loving her. Now he found he could not bear the thought of another man touching her, when he — who loved her — had barely tasted the edges of her desire.

…until the inevitable external conflicts tear them violently apart:

There were no more tears left in her, only a wild, searing grief. Every corner of her was filled with it, an emotion black and sticky as tar. She could taste it against her tongue and smelled it thick in her nostrils. It held her, immobile, slumped against the wall in the darkness.

But then we finally get the HEA, and it’s WORTHY EVERY MINUTE of all that glorious angst.

“All is well, my love,” he whispered. “All is well.”

In summary: I think everyone should read this book because it is a very good book. And if all those excerpts didn’t convince you, I have no hope for you. I’ll just let you wander back to your pathetic alpha heroes and doormat heroines. Good luck with that.

Next up: One-Quote Reviews for a few more by Barbara Samuel (guess what? I LOVE THEM ALL)