I had a hard time getting through this novel. Not only is Widow’s Peak very unbelievable, but the writing is not engaging. Both of these problems could have been ignored if the sexual interaction between the main characters was hot. It wasn't.

Here is what I had issues with:

Lady Amye de Barnard doesn’t act like a medieval lady. She acts like the lowest of chambermaids or servants, doing jobs and taking care of things that should have been delegated.

First, she washes Laine’s body, stitches him up, and tends to him herself during his recovery. As a lady this would never happen. When he’s awake and on the mend, she washes him like a baby and the blanket is the only nod towards modesty.

Amye is a very modern woman in a time when it’s just not possible. She rides astride. She pays the king a tax to stay unmarried.  Her late husband was way too forward thinking for the time period. He got the king to sign a contract to allow Amye to be the land holder and owner of their fiefdom. She too is overly forward thinking when it comes to the vassals, serfs, and servants. I have a hard time believing the men surrounding her would not try to advise her or take control away.

She also is still completely in love with her late husband. Thomas is mentioned way too often. There's no way. Besides that every mention shows how wonderful Thomas was to her, to their people, to the land, in bed, as a husband, as a lover, as a teacher, as a friend, and on and on.

As for the sex, here are a very few examples:

• Let her lips roam to his pouch sucked one of his round balls.
• I found it hard to believe she was "tight as the virgins he was given" after 7 childbirths. Come on - really? Really? REALLY?
• The anal sex with soap (I’m assuming its lye base considering the time period). Can we say, burning? Lye is corrosive and will degrade organic tissue.

Laine as a hero also had problems. He was a terrible troubadour. He was a prostitute turned assassin. As an assassin, I have my doubts. He becomes injured by fighting in the trees (of all places how did the fight happen in the trees—how did they both get up there?) then as the two are fighting and falling from the branches he manages to get on top and survive.

Rating: 1 Star

Buy: Widow's Peak

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My only complaint is that this novel isn’t longer! I feel like this was a good start and now the author should flush it out with more details, more scenes, more, more, more. The ending was much too rushed to wrap everything up to my satisfaction. I felt like I read half a book only to get about four paragraphs of the ending. I feel very deprived. Pout.

This story is very chaste, no sex and only a few passionate kisses. The build up was there and could have developed further. I did enjoy the line about her response to him making a mockery of her modesty.

Pollyanna (Polly) has devoted her energies into Shelton, the historic seat and castle of the ducal Missenden family. Polly’s mother, had been the family’s housekeeper for years and married into the Missendens, but Richard’s offspring do not approve. Anthony the heir puts up the most fight and subsequently Polly has never felt she belonged. She does not have any rights on the castle that has always been her home and Anthony would just as soon be rid of her and the castle. (He gambles and the money would help him pay his debts.)

It’s time for a change. Joining her friend Minty’s documentary production crew Polly is off to Amrah, the Arbian kingdom her great-grandmother fell in love with (at a price.) Polly is also instantly drawn to Amrah’s playboy sheik, Rashid.

For his part, Rashid wants to keep a close eye on Polly. He’s determined to find out if she knew and was behind her stepbrother’s plot to swindle him on a thoroughbred horse. Of course his intentions and attentions get muddled as his motivation changes from revenge to lust.

Rating: 3 Stars

Originally posted 2009-01-20 05:21:53. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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