What do You think about Through A Dark Mist (1991)?
Historical Fiction/Romance I found this book hard to stomach, in fact, I set it aside often over the last few days, a rare thing for me. With the brilliant prologue and many accolades to Ms. Canham’s books by reviewers I respect, I was sorely disappointed.(view spoiler)[I realize this was written over twenty years past, but even in that context, I cannot drum up an ounce of respect for the hero and his minions. Not after they so callously discuss the political expediencies of rape. I have read older novels where the hero practically forces himself on the heroine, but that is usually done with the reader’s understanding that she’s already in love with him AND in the heat of the moment on the hero’s part. I cannot recall having a hero supposed hero so casually discuss the idea with his men.Equally off putting was the fact that we have to bear witness to the evil villains’ intimate scenes. The first one caught me off guard, and I managed to skipped the rest, but the POV switches gears so often in this novel that before you know it you are in the middle of one of their coarse imaginings. I will never understand why writers think readers care enough about villains to spend so many pages inside their heads. I prefer my POV from protagonists only.The trump card to my low review is the heroine herself, Servanne. She has absolutely no reason to fall in love with the hero, other than she slept with him. She is dead-set against him until one of his men informs her that she loves him, so, voile, she does. Then, he is dead-set against loving her until she informs him that he loves her, and, voile…well you know the rest. (hide spoiler)]
—puppitypup
I liked this book very much. I have yet to read a Marsha Canham book I haven't thoroughly enjoyed, but I did not find myself unable to put it down. She has a masterful writing style and creates such wonderfully rich places and characters, but I didn't feel the love grow between these two characters as strongly as I have in her other books. I do love her use of vocabulary. The jousting scenes were practically tangible, it read so crisply I could see it, the plot was compelling and once again she has the "bad-guys" done so well you absolutely hate them. I like how the story started at the end, and then jumped to the beginning because I was constantly using it for reference or prediction when a tense part had me questioning the story line. I will admit, toward the end I did do the "Okay, something bad is going to happen" and I would put the book down out of frustration. So it definitely evoked emotion from me, and that is always the way I judge a book. It just didn't leave the residue of the story lingering with me when I was finished. Which is not to say I will not be starting the second in the series tonight. I love this author and I feel it will be difficult to find a replacement to her once I have read her entire library. Would I recommend it? Yes, but not as adamantly as I would Pride of Lions, and it's sequels, or Wind and the Sea, a few others that knocked my socks off.
—Stevie
This book was for the medieval/western group read on Goodreads. A good read, but more about battles and revenge than romance. I did enjoy it, but I found myself skimming some of the details of the battle scenes to get to the dialog.The book had a lot of intrigue in the story line, not as much romance as I usually like, but it had a good plot with tons of unique characters which I thought were wonderful. I didn't like the hero at the beginning, but I did like him in the end. The villains were nasty and deserved a lot more harshness, death wasn't good enough for me. I didn't see how the H&h had a love connection in the book, it is sort of the style where they hate each other, he wasn't really nice to her- heck he kidnapped her-, and then they are in love. I guess I didn't buy it initially because she was excited and wanted to marry the one she was betrothed to- she didn't know what a scumbag he really was. In the end the H&h were beautiful together both very strong. There was lots of detail in the battle scenes, I did end up skimming some of the ending because it was so much detail, but it was a very vivid portrayal of the final climax. There was also a lot of brutal death and some friendly casualties in the book, which made me sad. Loved the epilogue, it caught you up on everyone. Looking forward to seeing others thoughts in the group.I have read another book by this author,The Pride of Lions, and from what I remember the style is definitely similar more detail of the plot and characters and not as heavily on the romance, always a good story though if you like that style.
—Splage
