I have but one thing to say about this book: Yay! While I don’t devour bodice rippers at the rate I once did, I still enjoy a good historical romance from time to time, and while I haven’t read all of Small’s work, I have liked everything I’ve read. When I saw that she was trying her hand at a fantasy series, I decided I wanted in, and was well rewarded for it.The story here is set in the land of Hetar, which is made up of four provinces and another area of unallied Outlands. The provinces are the Coastal Regions, the Midlands (home of the City), the Desert, and the Forest. Hetar lacks electricity and combustion engines, which gives it somewhat of an old world feel, but it abounds in magic and sensuality, making it a lot more fun than Elizabethan Earth. Lara, the star of the book, is a 15-year-old half-faerie girl living in a hovel in the City with her mercenary father, her stepmother Susannah, and her baby brother Mikhail. Lara’s faerie mother Ilona left them when Lara was only a few months old, and Lara has never met her. Her father has ambitions to become a Crusader Knight for Hetar, but he lacks the monies necessary to garb himself in fine clothes and obtain an attractive horse and weapons, so he has been unable to enter the contest to become one. His wife has a solution, however: sell Lara into slavery and use the money she will bring to purchase what he needs. As Lara is half faerie, she is devastatingly beautiful, and as she also sees this as the only workable solution to help the family, she readily agrees to her sale. Though she has never felt anything but human, her faerie nature seems to be coming alive as her life undergoes change, and she is oddly calm about the whole thing. Since Lara is so beautiful, it is assumed that she will be sold into one of the city’s Pleasure Houses, which is actually an attractive future in which she could one day obtain great wealth, as Hetarians praise sensuality and are not in the least prudish. Because she is too beautiful, however, that plan goes awry, and Lara’s real adventures begin. It’s hard to explain more of the story without giving all the goodies away, but suffice it to say that Lara winds up everywhere but the Coastal Province, and discovers not only how much of her nature really is faerie, but making a lot of powerful friends along the way who help her discover the magic she possesses and find her true destiny. She befriends a giant who wears magic boots, a Shadow Prince who introduces her to several faeries as well as numerous sensual delights, and the head of a clan of Outlanders before taking the first steps in fulfilling her destiny. Lara is an extremely likeable character who is devoid of arrogance or fear, accepting her lowly position in the world and making the best of it. She is level-headed and tough, but has a soft heart and helps others weaker than she is. She makes friends both with lowly slaves and with people of power, and treats them with the same respect. The other characters in this book are also well drawn, from the crude and foolish Foresters to the urbane Shadow Princes. The sex scenes are numerous and hot, but not long and drawn out for page after page; in other words, well done and just right.Bertrice Small is at her peak, using both the skills and knowledge that made her an outstanding historical romance writer, and her vivid imagination, creating a brand-new world full of interesting characters and laws. The two combine wonderfully for a page-turner of a fantasy romance. This book wins high marks, and I can’t wait to read the next in the series.
I have no idea what happened with this book. It is a train wreck of the first order...It starts off with promise, a girl sold into slavery to help her family since they are all facing starvation and she is the sole item of value they have to barter... a noble cause and a tragic fate! The story opens up with her parents discussion of selling her and they agree, so lets get this ball rolling right? Right??? No. like a third of the book later we are still waiting for something to happen amid repetitive repetitious repetitions of scenes where her overwhelming beauty and its value is discussed. Through this all the kid at 15 manages to remain utterly detached and bizarrely calm about the fact that she will shortly be sold to be used by countless men. She reassures all who need to hear it that its fine, this is great, don't worry about it. Being owned is no prob. Of course her unwavering pride and regal bearing are gonna be super conducive to slave life.But hey, we KNOW theres gonna be some grand escape that makes it all worth it right? I mean being sold is the crisis so its bound to be resolved in some super cool way!....NOT.... incoming SPOILER....SPOILERSo after all that, we wait like half the bloody book, and then she is NOT sold. Because hey thats not totally stupidly anti climactic at all. Why does her sale get canceled? Well 'cause she's just so utterly gorgeous people are ready to kill over her of course. Helena of Troy anyone? All the while she makes these bizarre statements like 'If I really have this beauty that everyone tells me I possess' .....Really??? Then we have prolonged tramping about and she is just SO self possessed no matter what its completely unrealistic. The author really should have made her older if she was going to be so amazingly contained and regal about everything. As it stands it comes off as cold and detached and utterly un-relatable. I didn't even like her anymore because she doesn't care about anything and its like watching her puppet-like movements through a frosted glass of emotionlessness. Then theres love. She don't believe in love. Gotcha. I can buy that, she had a bad time of it. But the whole never ending monologue of: Do I love him, is this love? I don't want him o die, how do I tell if thats love? That can't be love, I don't believe in love. I'm a fairy so I can't love. i have no heart. Fairies don't have hearts so we are incapable of love. I am half fairy so I don't have a heart either. Im cold and don't love. Maybe love is just......And she sleeps with anyone and everyone, going from not trusting men and being wary to an orgy in like one chapter. I have no idea what on earth this book was supposed to be. If its a journey, its a boring trek punctuated by relationships she doesn't care about and friends she leaves in pursuit of her vague and all important destiny. Once again the supporting characters were way more interesting than she was and she just walks off and leaves them to go be great and wonderful. I have no idea why I read as far as I did, I like the talking horse I guess. I am afraid I could not really promote it, unless i was being mean.
What do You think about Lara (2006)?
Why did I hate this book so much? One word sums it up: manroot. Possibly the worst euphemism that I have ever been unlucky enough to read. I swear the sex scenes are so unsexy, it almost ruined my actual sex life. A little plot summary: Lara's father and stepmother sell her into slavery so he can buy nice clothes and armor so he can try out to be a knight. Lara is cool with this, because they are poor and she is the only thing of value that her dad has. Lara's mother is a fairy, who seduced her dad and then abandoned them. Lara will probably become a "pleasure woman" (uh, prostitute) but things don't work out that way. She can't be sold, since she's so perfect that everyone will fight over her and she'll ruin business for everyone. (apparently, on this world everyone has exactly the same sexual taste, they all prefer blonds.) Lara ends up going on a journey to be sold somewhere else, and other stuff happens. Really, who cares? This book begins with some characterization, but then gets bored with that and describes what happens. No one is really sketched out with much detail, and the world building is haphazard, at best.Lara is also one of the worst Mary Sues I have seen in a while. She perfect in every way, beautiful, smart, wise (beyond her years), diplomatic, a shrewd bargainer and has perfect fashion sense. She masters every skill with ease: Innate fairy birth control? Check. Expert swordswoman? Check. Shape-shifting? Easy. Starting fires by pointing at wood? Child's play. I could go on...Don't read this book. If you want to read a fantasy with a strong female protagonist, try Jacqueline Carey's "Kushiel's Dart" or Lois Bujold's "Paladin of Souls" or P.C. Hodgell's "Godstalk." Just don't waste your time with this book.
—Cathy
Ugh. That's way too many hours of my life that I won't get back. I kept reading because the world the author created is incredibly interesting, as is the premise. The delivery, however, left SO, SO MUCH to be desired. There was no connection to any of the characters, all of whom were rather ham-fistedly depicted with zero nuance or substance (the bad guys were evil incarnate and the good guys were perfect and wise). And for all the hype about Lara's destiny, nothing happened! Also, I could quite happily go the rest of my life without seeing the word "manroot" again. Ugh.
—Sarah
I'm a long-time fan of Bertrice Small's and gave Lara a second chance after hearing of the famous author's passing. But as much as I respect and love other novels of Small's, this book is nowhere near her best. Lara is just over six hundred pages and I wonder if that number would have been greatly reduced if the massive amounts of repetition had been removed from the narrative. Lara and other characters are constantly recounting the "epic" journey of the heroine in full when a simple line of dialogue would have sufficed. Repetition is also a serious problem within the story: if I have to hear either the words "destiny" or "manroot" in a fantasy romance anytime soon, I just may scream. Small has never been so lax with her thesaurus before! Coming from the same writer who gave us Skye O'Malley, Lara is a great disappointment.
—Caitlin
