Post American Civil War romance with sex. Originally published as "Risen Glory". This is a reread for me, but I've only read it one other time. I don't know. There's something I just don't like about a post Civil War romance. The heroine is always the Southern Belle. The hero is always the despised Yankee (Major, Captain, ect). There's always the angsty "I hate you Yankee" trope that gets so old so quickly. Now that I know better, I try to avoid these stories. Saying that, this is a well written first novel by SEP. Originally written in 1984, it was rereleased in 2001. There was a comparison on the front cover By Jill Barnett to "Gone With The Wind" which was a nice compliment on her part, but hardly true. As with all 70's & 80's romance novels there's a lot of angsty drama, general stupidity on the male & female leads part, & several "big misunderstandings". The female lead (not heroine) is Kit & she's a feisty minx! Neglected all her life, she finds herself in NYC to murder Major Baron Cain. She's discovered that her hated stepmother has willed her precious Risen Glory plantation to her own son, Baron. All through the story, it's Risen Glory this & Risen Glory that. It gets so damn old. She finds she doesn't have the guts to shoot a man in cold blood & finds herself at finishing school at the advanced age of 18. Another trope I have a problem with is that 3 years go by before we get to the "good part". I really hate that. Another of my personal pet peeves. Baron, who is referred to through the whole novel as Cain is another emotionally, physically abused child who grows up to not value anything. He knows that eventually it will be taken away, so why bother? He turns Risen Glory around & it thrives under his care. There's an extremely slow second romance with Kit's former maid Sophfronia & Magnus a former slave who fought for the Union. There is much stupidity, mostly on Kit's part. She becomes an arsonist & generally behaves like an idiot. The funny part is, I really liked the supposed villainess, Veronica. She would have made a MUCH more interesting heroine. She gives a perceptive soliloquy on what makes a girl into a woman(it's not sex!). All in all, I was easily able to finish this book. There's no rape of the female lead by the male lead. It's just that SEP's novels have evolved & so have I. This kind of story just isn't as interesting as it once might have been.
The War Between the States may be over for the rest of the country, but not for Kit Weston. Disguised as a boy, she's come to New York City to kill Baron Cain, the man who stands between her and Risen Glory, the South Carolina home she loves.Believing that Kit's a boy, Cain offers the grubby rapscallion a job in his stable. But he has no idea what he's in for, and it's not long before the hero of Missionary Ridge discovers the truth. His scamp of a stable boy is a strong-willed, violet-eyed beauty who's hell-bent on driving him crazy.Two hard-headed, passionate people.... Two stubborn opponents with tender souls.... Sometimes wars of the heart can only be won through the sweetest of surrenders.With the blurb alone I knew I was going to like this one. Two strong-willed people. Her hatred and dislike of him. Oh, my, it was sweet. Tortured hero. Stubborn heroine. I wasn't sure how it would work as she was quite young when they first met. But it worked. Yessir, it worked mighty fine. He'd learned as a child not to get attached to anything. She reminded him of a wild rose, growing tangled and unruly in the deepest part of the woods ...... "Flirting's in your nature, Kit. Sometimes I don't even think you know you're doing it. I've been told that Southern women acquire the knack in the womb, and you don't seem to be any exception." She'd had her revenge. Now it was his turn ...Nothing was going to be easy for these two. She was savagely beautiful, his wild rose of the deep wood, as untamed as the day he'd meant her ...I won't say too much more. I know a lot of friends do not read Historicals. Your loss, I say. But to my friends who do read them, I really think this is a great one. At the moment he hated her ...
What do You think about Just Imagine (2001)?
Las novelas de SEP, siempre me llaman para que sean leídas por mi, y yo, como buena lectora, voy, las leo y disfruto, porque eso hace que estás novelas sean leídas por mi.Pero lo más raro es que haya leído un libro de época -de los que no soy una lectora- y lo encuentre interesante y no pare de leerlo hasta el final, en un abrir y cerrar de ojos.Y por supuesto lo que más llama la atención es los personajes que utiliza SEP, y sean tan atrayentes, porque si que son complicados y muy diferentes, pero eso lo hace bueno.
—Amelie
I was a little wary of this one, knowing how much I love SEP's contemporaries, and this was her first book ever, and a historical to boot. I thought maybe she stayed away from historicals because she may not have been that good. Although this is the revised edition of the original edition, called Risen Glory, so I don't know how much she changed to make it better. Even still, I could tell this was a SEP novel. It had all the same characteristics of her contemporary romance books, just the setting and time period were different. The way she describes her characters, their surroundings, the struggles they face, the typical bull-headed hero who somehow I still manage to like, the heroine who's strong and determined, but still vulnerable. All SEP traits, and things that I love.I know this book got mixed reviews, but I guess I don't see how. If you like It Had to Be You or Natural Born Charmer, how could you not like this one? Unless it's the time period, which I can understand, it's not my favorite to read about. Actually, that's not true, I enjoy reading about history, it's just this time period in the south doesn't mesh well with romance for me. I tend to have a problem with the whole slavery thing, morals and all that. But this book handles it fairly well, even having the heroine, Kit change her tune when she realizes exactly what it meant to be a slave. It does gloss over it a bit, and really over everything of the time period. Without the ward/guardian relationship and Cain controlling Kit's fortunate, it'd have to be spun a little different, but you could almost pick up this story and drop it in a modern context.I did like Safronia (not sure how to spell it, as I listened to the audiobook) and her struggles as well, that part would not have translated to modern terms so easily. The animosity she has against white men is understandable and I love that Mangus knows her well enough to love her the way she needed. I wish we had learned a bit more about Mangus as well. I especially liked the part where (view spoiler)[he threatened Mr. Spence and his mine with dynamite! So cool and collected, this is when I fell in love with him too, just like Safronia (hide spoiler)]
—Shelly
This book was a refreshing change from my usual Historical romances. (Normally set in England) This book was set in the south a few years after the Civil War. It was not the main focus of the book but it did play some roll in the teetering romance between the Southern Belle/Tomboy of Kit and Northern Man Baron Cain. Two sides of the same coin they battle head to head. At night they set the sheets afire. I thoroughly enjoyed watching Kit grow up in this tale. SEP is a mater storyteller, I highly recommend this book to all!!
—Jennifer The Forgetful Fairy Queen
