Oh, what wicked smelly webs we weave....For all the complainers out there who hate it when historical romances, medievals in particular, gloss over the ripe aromas and body hygiene of the time, this is the book for you!I admit that I've griped on numerous occasions when a heroine's legs and armpits are amazingly smooth or a hero only smells "overpoweringly masculine." Whatever that is. Scrotal funk laced with sandalwood is my guess. But this book took medieval odiferous realism to a whole new level, described so often that it grabbed the plot in a hammerlock and broke its arm. I don't think I was supposed to wonder just how dirty the Peregrine brothers' taints were, but given just how much word count went into describing how filthy they were and the condition of the shithole they lived in, my fiendish brain went there, dragging me against my will.Liana Neville is a super-rich heiress who runs her dad's household like a dream. She's kicked aside her screechy stepmother, who would really like to run the castle herself TYVFM. So she pushes the fat and lazy Papa Neville into putting Liana up on the wedding auction block. Sadly for Liana, all her suitors praise her beauty while obviously mentally calculating her worth. She wants someone who only wants her because she's pretty!Enter Rogan of Crabbe Lyce.Which one is he? Take your pick. (Though I'd hit Michael Palin no matter what.)Liana, dressed as a peasant, finds him lolling about in the nude by a pond and they have a fight about his lice-infested clothes. Then later he shows up on her doorstep to court her. She's outraged one minute, then is head over heels in love the next. (Don't ask. There was a paragraph I must have missed, but logical progression isn't one of Liana's strong suits anyway.) Somewhere in there, she wants to back out of the marriage and he drags her upstairs and rapes her to make the contract impossible to break. Even though Rogan makes it obvious that all he wants is have her dowry to kill the Howards, the clan that stole his wife and castle, Liana's got a bee in her bonnet that He Is The One and This Marriage Can Succeed.So, all inexplicably starry-eyed and swoony over Lord Filth of Smellington, she arrives at milord's castle and meets the rest of the family.Dear readers, I have never read a romance where the hero (or anybody loosely labeled as "the good guys") was such a wallower. This is Hoarders: Extreme Medieval Edition. Turned my stummick. The hawks roost in the dining hall, their shit caked to the walls. Spiders and webs dangling everywhere. A foot-deep carpet of refuse and maggoty garbage on the floors. Sand in the bread. A moat only a match away from the Cuyahoga River, with floating cow heads and carcasses. A bridge isn't necessary. The enemy could stroll across it.After a bit of culture shock, Liana sets to work. While miffed at the willingness of Hubby and Fam to inhabit such a cesspool, she re-directs her rage.As she whistles while she works, she heeds her serving woman's advice to take all the abusive shit that comes her way and bow her head, because husbands like doormats for wives. She figures that if he has a clean house and good food, he'll see the light and love her and all will be well!But Rogan can't help but be a dickhead to all and sundry. Why he and his brothers haven't already been descended upon by the Torch & Pitchfork Brigade is anybody's guess, because Rogan's solution to unresolved thievery is to torture and kill random peasants until someone 'fesses up.Of course the peasants' only hope is Liana's plucky wager to find the thieves in exchange for Rogan being her slave for a day.You know what? I don't care. Like so many of Johanna Lindsey's early books, Deveraux has the hero and heroine ping pong between rage and love over the course of a couple sentences or paragraphs. Little things tick one of them off, and then they're all happy and snuggly again until one does something stupid like fart and fluff the blankets and they're off again. Liana is totally hung up on having Rogan think she's pretty, even if he kicks her self-esteem around in other things.I haven't had good luck with Lindsey, and I'm beginning to think that Deveraux's stuff is in the same vein. Hella popular, but pretty effin' mediocre, dumbed-down, and sloppy. (Probably why they're so popular.)There's also a dead granny in a tower room dispensing marital advice and Liana wanders into danger, requiring ass-rescuing and - of course! - that Hero Epiphany where he realizes he doesn't want to be without her.Rogan's brothers (and cross-dressing, rat-bludgeoning sister) and their hangers-on were equally gross. Absolutely everyone was a miserable specimen. Bleargh.Oh yeah, and Rogan is a cheater with a harem of slatterns named after the days of the week when he sleeps with them, and his and his daddy's bastards populate a whole village. That seems to have ticked some readers off. You know what? That was the least of my gripes.Dumb. Dumb dumb dumb. And yes, flaming retarded.
I have come to the conclusion that the Peregrines are far more stubborn, nasty, unfathomable, disgraceful -and every single disgusting words you can think of- than the Montgomerys; yet I think, when both families combine and conquer, they will make the strongest, undefeatable, and most beautiful kingdom -literally beautiful. The meeting of the hero, Rogan and Liana, was rather very interesting and unique. Who would have thought that the handsomeness of Rogan would lead to many tragedies but most especially, with the love inevitable with Liana. Of course, at first I loved the fact that I saw some good reputation from Rogan -what with his good looks -but then as the story goes on, I started to hate him. I was actually angered by Liana for not fighting back then, but when she set his bed on fire -well, literally on FIRE, I was triumphant myself. I almost stood up and danced around feeling that I won! The parody of Rogan, the play acted by Rogan's half brother, was one of what I loved in the whole story. I felt the truthfulness of it all. It was funny of course, but when you came to read it, you'll almost pity lord Rogan. But then the most beautiful thing happened. Love did change everything. Although tragedies were as inevitable as love, in the end, who would think that tears from the lord himself would be possible? Tears can also be a sign of love. Godspeed, book lovers!
What do You think about The Taming (1991)?
N'étant pas fan de Jude Deveraux je n'ai pas été surprise de ne pas accrocher ce livre...Décidemment je n'aime ni le style, ni les intrigues et encore moins les personnages féminins!Même en remettant les choses dans leur contexte, Liana m'a tapé sur les nerfs pendant tout le livre!! Complètement asservie, sans réel tempéremment ni caractère, elle m'a semblée complétement effacée.Par contre j'ai adoré le personnage de Rogan!!!! Il est parfait pour se genre d'histoire!! et tout ce qui a pu rebuter certaines lectrices - le manque d'hygiène du château et encore plus de ses habitants, la sysogynie de Rogan, etc... - moi m'ont bien fait rigoler tellement elles sont à l'opposé de ce que l'on s'attend d'un héros!!! Une histoire pour celles qui aiment les héros sans aucuns scrupules et que l'on pourrait qualifier de "pourritures"!! lol
—Lisa
Wow ..I just read 50 pages and had fel exciting. Liana who I think will be main character in this book, had lazy father. Her father as a nobble English man was a wealthy. But his estate run by her daughter, Liana herself completely.Liana had a stepmother, Helen, who want Liana away from the estates. Helen want to be a misstress in her own house. She want Liana getting marry and away with her husband. She insist his husband to force Liana to getting marry soon. First his father favor to one Lord, but on the same time Liana was married by Rogan, one of her suitor, who marry her only for her dowry that he would use for fight with his long enemy Howarg. Rogan had impress her father because of the interest of hawk.---
—Lukman Manggo
This story had me so caught up that I read the book within a day. Liana was a character that I could associate with--at least her feelings of insecurity, lack of self-confidence, and desire for love.I just wish that more men were able to be "tamed" as easily and were as willing to recognize the goodness in their woman. Once Liana came out of her "act", Rogan started to develop interest in her. He just gave in a little too easily to family pressures, and I cried when the author was describing Liana's hurt because I could truly empathize with her.It was very good to see that Rogan finally gave his heart to Liana. I just wish that he didn't have to think that he'd lost her to admit it, but what else can I say, but "MEN!"
—Diane
