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Court of the Veils – Vintage Romance Violet Winspear

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Plot Synopsis – Click to Skip Spoilers

Violet Winspear set her 1968 romance Court of the Veils in an oasis plantation in the Sahara. The main character, Roslyn Brant, is suffering amnesia after a plane crash. She had been traveling with her fiancé, Armand, to meet his family, his French grandmother Nanette, brother Trevor who writes operas and cousin Duane who manages the family date and fruit plantation. Armand died in the crash and so did her best friend, Juliet Grey, who was a stewardess on the plane. Nanette invites Roslyn for a visit to recover and give Armand’s family time.

Nanette and Trevor are hospitable, kind and welcome Roslyn. Trevor’s guest, beautiful singer Isobela, has her sights on Duane and does not welcome Roslyn. Duane does not welcome Roslyn, implies several times that Roslyn is not actually who she is and warns her not to deceive Nanette or to claim amnesia and a fake identity. Since Roslyn has no memory she cannot say who she is; people identified her by her blonde hair and the fact she was clutching Armand’s engagement ring when they found her.

Roslyn slowly gets better but her memory is still not there. She develops close friendship with Trevor; Trevor likes her very much but they are just friends, not lovers. Nanette warns Roslyn not to confuse Trevor with Armand, they are very different.

The four young people, Isobela, Roslyn, Trevor and Duane, go to the city for the weekend. Trevor takes Roslyn around the souk and to lunch, they have a lot of fun while Isobela gets Duane to take her for lunch. Trevor and Roslyn see Isobela leaving Duane’s room wearing only a lacy robe; Roslyn is pretty sure they are lovers, at least they are if Isobela has her way. Later the four go out. Duane insists Roslyn dances with him but she’s not much of a dancer. Isobela is a bit nasty about it, elbows Roslyn out of the way and shows off her dancing skills.

She had memory flashes of to going in a lake with her friend Juliet and there is a lake near the hotel. After everyone is in bed she walks there, down the cliff staircase to the shore. Sadly she gains no more memories. Duane is there too. It starts to rain violently while they talk and wash away the cliff stairs. Duane insists they take shelter in the boathouse and the two go to sleep in the punt. They manage to get up the hill at dawn and into the hotel without anyone seeing them.

By this time Roslyn is fully recovered physically and still has little memory but wonders whether she did love Armand; she cannot be sure, she just doesn’t think she would have forgotten love that easily. She decides it’s time to go home to England and hope she recovers her memory there.

A few days later Nanette suffers a heart problem. Roslyn takes care of her, decides to stay until Nanette recovers. Isobela realizes Duane has a connection with Roslyn and that is not in her plans at all. Isobela is determined that Duane should leave the plantation and get a management job in Europe where she can sing. She’s not interested in Nanette, Trevor is only a cog in the wheel of her operatic career and Roslyn is a threat.

Duane talks to Roslyn in the courtyard, mentions the night they were together at Lake Temcina. Isobela overhears and decides it’s time to do something about Roslyn. She invites Roslyn to go for a drive with her out on the desert highway, accuses her of loose behavior, insults her, then loses her scarf out the window and asks Roslyn to get out and pick it up. Isobela drives off, leaving Roslyn stranded at least 30 miles from the plantation in the desert, with no water and a sandstorm on the way. No one knows they went out.

Fortunately for Roslyn Duane drives that way and takes her back. They get caught in the sandstorm, the car heaves around and Roslyn bangs her head. Afterwards she remembers. She is not Roslyn Brant, she was not engaged to Armand, she is Juliet Grant, Roslyn’s friend. She grabbed Roslyn’s hand in the crash and the ring must have come off in her clutch. Duane figured this out weeks before and is not surprised.

Nor is Duane surprised that Isobela left Roslyn to die in the desert. He calls her a neurotic, charming, selfish to the bone and with no knowledge or care for others. He says his mother, Nanette’s daughter, was the same. It was his mother who betrayed him and his father, leaving him not able to trust his heart to women.

Juliet says she had envied the real Roslyn not for Armand, but for gaining Armand’s family. Both girls were orphans, spent years together in an orphanage and Juliet wanted to be part of a family. Duane tells her that she still can be part of theirs, what about Trevor? Juliet says no, she and Trevor are very good friends but that’s all. Duane gets riled up, exclaims he has nothing to lose since Juliet doesn’t like him or want him to touch her, grabs her and kisses her. They he tells her that she can slap his face, but that he loves her. Juliet loves him back.

Happy Ever After

What Doesn’t Work

Mistaken Identity. It’s nearly incompressible today that someone could get misidentified after an airplane crash. Juliet and Roslyn both worked as stewardesses although Roslyn was a passenger on that flight, they resembled each other only slightly. Apparently no one took fingerprints or worried about the fact the girls would have been dressed differently (assuming their clothes were recognizable after the crash). Even in 1969 we’d expect the airline, which employed both girls, would have made an attempt to confirm identity.

Dislike to Love. Every time Juliet/Roslyn interacts with Duane she found him distrustful, almost insulting. She stays wary throughout the story, shows no indication that she loved him. We readers can see Duane is interested in her, but without knowing much about her it’s not completely believable.

Roslyn/Juliet Driving with Isobela Juliet knows the sandstorm was coming and Duane and the servant had warned her to stay home. She has no real reason to go for a drive with Isobela. She would have died had Duane not found her and Isobela likely would have claimed no knowledge how she got lost in the blowing sands.

What Does Work

Low Key Romance The feelings here build slowly. Juliet slowly gains memories and we get glimpses that Duane finds her intriguing even as he insinuates she lies about her amnesia and identity. Keeping her feelings out of display other than a general discomfort with Duane and his insulting hints keeps the tension low.

Point of View We have only Roslyn/Juliet’s point of view. Winspear comments only one time on something that happened in front of Roslyn/Juliet, but that she did not see, and that was when Isobela saw that Duane was interested in her. Limiting the point of view keeps the focus squarely on Roslyn/Juliet and her growing frustration with her memory and her discomfort around Duane.

Characters Despite the quiet plot and lack of strong emotions, Winspear makes the five characters alive to us. We feel we would recognize them.

Nanette is the most cardboard-cutout of them, a former Parisian singer who fell in love with the French planter and went with him to make her life in the Sahara.

Isobela is not complex; she is completely self-centered. Somehow she believes she has enough charisma to entice Duane away from his family home and the plantation he loves. She’s well aware of her sexual appeal and uses it without compunction and she belittles Roslyn/Juliet for her looks, lack of memory, lack of dancing skill, dependence on Nanette’s generosity. Isobela is too full of herself to care a bit about someone else. If we hadn’t known that before we certainly learned it when she inveigled Roslyn/Juliet to get out of the car a long way from home in the desert. That is attempted murder.

Trevor has little page time but enough that we see he’s dedicated to his music, not the plantation and intends to move to Brittany. He’s kind, undemanding. Initially he chases Isobela before he sees through her charm to the ruthless selfishness beneath.

Roslyn/Juliet sees Duane as enigmatic when he is not threatening. She’s not sure why he’s so negative towards her, she’s intrigued by him but stays away because he insinuates she’s lying and a fraud. The basic conflict is that Duane is pretty sure Roslyn is actually Juliet; he cousin told him that his fiancée was full of gaiety and chic and he knows Armand was not likely to fall for the girl who calls herself Roslyn. Juliet knows Duane doesn’t trust her; she herself does not know enough to know whether his suspicions are correct and in fact she never claims to be Roslyn. It bothers her to wear the clothes that Nanette provides, even though many were purchased specifically for Armand’s fiancée. She does not feel engaged and she feels like a fraud, which Duane’s attitude exacerbates.

Roslyn/Juliet herself is quiet. Duane calls her quiet and deep and we see her as essentially kind, friendly in a reserved manner, grateful for Nanette’s kindness, wary of Duane. We end up knowing Duane better than we do Roslyn/Juliet.

Setting Winspear describes the locations in the Sahara vividly and with liking. I could not find a real Lake Temcina or the other locations described. The Gebel d’Oro is a real place in the south of Egypt but I couldn’t find Ajina or the other locations.

Language and Style. I really appreciate the way older writers – way back in the 1960s and 70s – assumed we readers were literate and willing to see unfamiliar words. It’s a treat to see a word that was new to me, chatoyant, meaning like a cat’s eye. Some recent Harlequins write to middle school reading levels.

Overall

Court of the Veils is an early romance that Harlequin reprinted because it was popular. I can see why it was popular; the story is interesting, the characters are well done, setting unusual, plot makes sense. It’s dated in the sense that today such a misidentification would be unlikely and of course, no cell phones and the hotel lacks running water. The story itself is not dated.

3 Stars

Court of the Veils is not on Archive.org as of October 2023 nor is in Ebook format. I got my paperback copy from Thriftbooks. You can find copies on Amazon and likely on eBay and used book sites online.

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The Bedroom Barter Harlequin Presents Romance by Sara Craven

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The Bedroom Barter combines an unusual plot that offers many opportunities for a great story with a leaden pace burdened by too much thinking. We spend over half the book inside the heroine’s head. We get to listen while Chellie alternates between being mad at herself for getting into a stupid, very dangerous situation and for falling in love with Ash who can’t possibly love her back, with worrying about how she will live with no money, no job, and virtually no skills.

The Bedroom Barter from Amazon

Plot Synopsis – Click to Skip Spoilers

Chellie is young, barely 20, and works in brothel/girlie joint in a Latin American seaside town. She isn’t a prostitute or dancer, she is a singer. She got stuck in the girlie joint when she ran away from home with her Latin American pseudo-fiancé who promised her all sorts of things until he got her to his country, discovered she didn’t get her trust fund for 15 years, raped and dumped her after stealing all her money, credit cards and valuables.

Her hotel kicked her out and she was quite ill. She asked a policeman for help who sent her to Mama Rita’s house. Mama offered Chellie a singer job, reassured her she wouldn’t have to pole dance, and kept her passport. Naturally the wages barely covered room and board and Mama needs Chellie to pay an inflated bill before she’ll hand over the passport.

Chellie sees Ash across the room when she sings and both are attracted. Ash asks for her to do a “private dance”. Chellie is terrified, starts to dance, then realizes she cannot strip and collapses. Ash offers to get her passport and get her out of the country on the yacht he is boat-sitting in exchange for her cooking during the trip.

Chellie falls in love with Ash on the trip but she sees a photo of a lovely young blond, the boat owner’s daughter, by his bed and assumes the girl is his fiancée. Both are attracted, but separately decide they aren’t going to complicate things by sleeping together. Ash doesn’t feel he can give into his attraction because he hasn’t told Chellie the truth; Chellie resists because she fears to trust her judgement now and believes Ash is serious about the girl in the photo.

Once they reach the island Ash takes Chellie to a home owned by Mister Howard, the same man who owns the boat Ash captained. She is increasingly frantic, wants her passport, wants Ash, wants to decide what she should do back in England.

When Ash arrives they do sleep together, but Ash removes all evidence before Chellie wakes up, leaving her to believe he fears his girlfriend finding out. She decides to borrow money from Ash and leave, but then her father’s right hand man, Charles, arrives and makes it clear he resents having to waste his time fetching her and that her father resents it even more.

Chellie is heartbroken. Ash rescued her for money, at her father’s behest. She goes home to London, manages to get a receptionist job and shares a flat, gets singing lessons and some small singing gigs. She sees Ash while singing at her latest engagement, drops everything and runs after him. Ash confesses he loves her but doesn’t feel that he can get in the way of her singing career. Chellie tells him she loves him and doesn’t care about singing compared to being with him. Happiness ensues.

Why Doesn’t The Bedroom Barter Work?

The Bedroom Barter should be an excellent book with a tight, intense plot, plenty of attraction, interaction, fear, embarrassment. Instead it’s a dreary slog through Chellie’s head. She naturally worries about her future, feels guilty and ashamed of running away with the creep who abandoned her, and is afraid to trust her judgment about Ash, especially since Ash is running hot and cold and she doesn’t know why he helped her.

Chellie knows Ash is physically attracted but she wants more and she doesn’t think he is offering anything except a short affair. Chellie is wise enough to know that sleeping with someone under those conditions is not a recipe for peace and probably a bad step into another disaster.

We get very little of Ash’s point of view, only a couple conversations with Laurent, his boat crew. It’s obvious that there is more going on, that he didn’t simply help Chellie out of kindness, and author Craven doles out little tidbits to tell us it is a paid rescue fairly early in the novel. Chellie doesn’t know this but is astute and picks up that there is more going on. We readers can surmise it’s her father but it never occurs to Chellie that her dad would care enough to track her down or that someone would be able to find her.

The mental head journeys take up over half the word count in The Bedroom Barter. The scenes between Ash and Chellie, or Chellie and Charles or her father, or Ash and Laurent, are excellent, tightly written and move the story. I wish Sara Craven had more of these and less of the endless moaning, self pity, worry and fear. Anyone with a dollop of empathy would know that Chellie is afraid and worried without having pages of the internal monologues. Plus the introspection uses many extra words, “But he… And he… So it…” so on and on and on and on some more. It drags the pace and ruins what could have been a good story by a favorite author.

Sara Craven includes a LOT of internal monologue in her novels but usually offsets it enough that the story moves and we can continue to invest in the characters. Over half the book happened inside Chellie’s head, far too much to keep my attention on the romance and story.

Overall

Chellie is an appealing character, still optimistic, hopeful, loving, despite terrible experiences, being betrayed, confined, exploited. The story almost works because she is a character worth writing about. Her romance with Ash initially is a combination of physical attraction and gratitude until she is able to step back and look at him as a person. Chellie and Ash never spend enough time to get to know each other but their time together is so intense I can understand why both feel they are in love and love the other.

However, it’s a good question how long the love will last under the pressure of day to day living. I would doubt the Happy Ever After for that reason, except strong-willed Chellie and Ash will somehow make their marriage work and be happy together.

Overall I rate this

3 Stars,

middle of the road, good but not good enough that I want to reread. I have a mental list of the books I would pack if we should decide to move again – and it’s a much smaller list than the number we moved here – and The Bedroom Barter wouldn’t make the cut.

I bought my paperback copy from Thriftbooks and you likely will find this on most used book sites, eBay and Amazon. Amazon has the Kindle version here.

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Bride at Whangatapu – Romance by Robyn Donald

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Bride at Whangatapu marks Robyn Donald’s foray into Harlequin Presents Romance, published in 1977. Since then Ms. Donald has become a very successful and popular author, serving us intensely emotional romances usually set in New Zealand. I enjoy her work.

Plot Synopsis – Click to Avoid Spoilers

Fiona interviews for a job on a rural station in New Zealand. She is a skilled, well-paid secretary with a 4 year old son who is not recovering from bronchitis as he should, and she wants a position in the country so her son can recover in fresh air. Surprise! Her interviewer is Logan, the man she had a brief affair with 5 years ago, the father of her son.

Fiona has not seen Logan since the morning after they slept together. He was so shocked that she was a virgin that he verbally ripped her to shreds, called her every name possible and that she was nothing but a cheap tarty whore. (Which was obviously not the case but let’s go with it.) Fiona was shocked and went home. She was so hurt after Logan attacked her that she refused to tell her parents his name and did not tell him about their son. Her parents died and she lives alone with son Jonathan, wears a wedding ring and pretends to be a widow.

Logan recognizes her and he knows from her application that she has a small boy. He’s suspicious and interrogates Fiona about the boy’s dad. Sure enough, Fiona has a dated birthday picture of her son in her purse and Logan grabs the purse from her and snoops. He coerces Fiona to marry him by claiming he will do everything possible to wrest custody from her and since he’s rich, he can tie her up endlessly in court if nothing else. They agree to tell everyone that they had married 5 years ago and reconciled now for the son’s sake.

Logan takes her to Whangatapu where she meets his mother, his housekeeper and his steady girl friend. The mother and housekeeper are hostile and unpleasant and the girl friend acts superficially friendly but is jealous, possessive, unkind underneath. Fiona refuses to sleep with Logan until they love each other and Logan feels guilty enough that he goes along with this. Of course this adds to the unpleasant atmosphere.

The son, Jonathan, is very happy and recovers from his endless cough. He likes the housekeeper, his grandmother, his father and he also likes Denise, the girl friend. Denise likes him too.

Fiona doesn’t do much to endear herself to the others at first, but eventually she becomes friends with the mother and housekeeper, but she still distrusts Logan and avoids him, acts as his secretary but otherwise avoids him as much as possible. Denise suspects they married only recently and she plays up to Logan and when he’s not around, she makes no pretense of friendship for Fiona. She instead acts as though she and Logan had been engaged, that they are having an affair, and that Fiona should waft away on the breeze, leaving Jonathan behind.

Logan makes several passes at Fiona. They both know that he could seduce her into bed and they don’t sleep together only because he’s honoring her request. Logan’s feelings for Fiona are not at all clear. He doesn’t act lovingly towards her, he encourages Denise and plays up to her, he makes it clear that he married Fiona for Jonathan’s sake, not her own. (Of course Logan imagines that he is completely transparent and that of course Fiona knows he doesn’t love Denise. Clueless.)

Eventually Fiona faces the situation. She has three choices. She can continue, give Logan nothing of herself, distrust him, make a life with his mother and housekeeper and Jonathan. She can leave, leaving Jonathan for Logan and eventually, Denise, once Logan divorces Fiona and remarries. She can trust Logan, give him something of herself. Logan clearly states she is not to leave, there will be no divorce. Fiona chooses the option 3. First she gets rid of Denise. Fiona tells Denise she loves Logan, that she’s staying his wife, that Denise has no leverage, that it will do her no good whatsoever to tell people that Fiona and Logan married recently, that Jonathan had been illegitimate.

Fiona is no coward and once she decides on option 3 she sleeps with Logan but it is not lovemaking. Logan is not cruel but his also not at all tender, somewhat hurtful in fact. Fiona feels she was seduced, not made love to, and she fears this will the rest of her life.

Logan brings her back to bed and they talk. He thinks it was clear that he did not love Denise, did not have an affair, that he loves Fiona. She has to tell him that nothing has been clear. She doesn’t know him at all. He apologizes for being rough with her, she explains why she decided to “allow him his legal rights to her person”. Happy ever after.

Does This Work?

I do believe the happy ever after ending. Logan has been overbearing and he is angry with Fiona for not telling him about Jonathan, even though he recognizes that his verbal cruelty after their night together 5 years earlier gave her plenty of reason to keep their son a secret.

Logan is never had a big problem with anything. Men like him, he’s dynamic and super attractive to women, he’s rich, successful, good looking. He eventually realizes he is super lucky, won the jackpot when he got Fiona as his wife. She’s smart, strong, an excellent secretary, organized, kind and helpful, attractive, very good with people and knows what to say and when to keep still. She does an excellent job raising Jonathan. Unfortunately for Logan, Fiona is still wary of him, she doesn’t know him, doesn’t trust him. She doesn’t completely buy Denise’s persona of jilted almost-bride or lover, but sees Logan play up to Denise and thinks he might still prefer her to herself.

By about the middle of the story Logan is going quietly nuts. The man who never had a problem attracting women can’t get his own wife to sleep with him. His son loves him now too, but fiercely defends his mom when anyone says or implies anything negative. His own mother and housekeeper have brought Fiona into their family and he’s feeling left out. Poor baby.

I love how Fiona treats Denise. She doesn’t let Denise rule the roost or crow over her and she is politely skeptical about the whole almost-fiancée thing. She is never rude but never a doormat. This is one of the best heroine/Other Woman interactions in all of the Harlequin universe. The scene where Fiona tells Denise to take a hike is classic.

Fiona seems to see herself as more wishy washy around Logan than she is. She tells him what she thinks and what she wants quite clearly except for the few days where she seriously considers leaving and letting him have Jonathan and Denise. She eventually tells Logan she loves him at the end after she decides to give up her pride. She tells him she had no idea what he thought or felt, that she had not known him at all. Right there we have a peek into the problems with any marriage of convenience, no matter why the couple marries; if they don’t know each other, trust each other, marriage with its continual intimacy of living together regardless of sexual situation, is difficult.

Summary

I like Bride at Whangatapu for the character development, New Zealand glimpse, Fiona. It lacks some of the emotional intensity that Robyn Donald builds into her later books. Ms. Donald shows us how Fiona grows and develops her relationships with her mother in law, housekeepers, putative other man, family guests, Denise, but she more tells us than shows us how Fiona sees her relationship with Logan. I think that is the missing element that keeps Bride at Whangatapu from being a 5 star read for me.

3 Stars

I got my copy on eBay. You can likely find copies on Thriftbooks or other used book site and Amazon has new and used copies and an audio version.

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Act of Betrayal by Sara Craven 2nd Chance Romance

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Laura divorced Jason a year after marriage when her uncle showed her proof that Jason had raided their joint savings account to pay rent for and support another woman – a woman with a small boy who looked just like Jason. Uncle told Laura that Jason had asked for money, that he was a sponger and might have confused Laura with her cousin Celia who is Uncle’s heiress. Laura confronted Jason, who admitted that yes, he gave Laura’s money, the allowance she received from the business her father had cofounded with Uncle, to Clare Marshall. Laura never asked whether Jason had slept with Clare or whether the two children were his. She left, emotionally devastated, and returned to live with her uncle, uncle’s unpleasant housekeeper and beautiful, malicious Celia.

Plot Synopsis – Click to Skip Spoilers

Act of Betrayal opens when Laura, orphaned she was small, and a trained cook, is called on to make a special lunch for her uncle’s company board members and a prospective customer who could make or break the firm. Jason is now the managing director of Tristan’s construction, the important customer, and he seeks her out after lunch. Laura knows she still loves and misses Jason but she cannot face marriage with a man who has a relationship with a mistress and hides her feelings to protect herself.

Jason comes by Uncle’s house where Celia co-opts him into a spur of the moment cocktail party that evening. Celia makes it clear to Laura that she intends to catch Jason. Laura had planned to go out that evening but her date, Alan, a food critic, stays for the cocktail party then invites Celia and Jason along with him and Laura to the new restaurant. Alan drinks too much and Jason sends Celia home in a taxi and helps Laura get Alan home. Jason pushes Laura aside when she kisses him, and later Laura sees Jason’s car outside Uncle’s home all night, and assumes he spent the night with Celia.

After about a month, when Laura avoids Jason and Celia as much as possible, she learns that Jason has bought Mill Cottage nearby, and that Clare Marshall – whom he calls his housekeeper – will live there too. Laura realizes she needs to leave the area, that she can’t face the ongoing hurt and heartbreak seeing Jason and knowing he is either with Celia or with Clare, and that if she were to come back to him she would be only one of his harem. Laura starts to look for a live in cook/housekeeper job, but her looks and youth are against her.

Laura drives by Mill Cottage and Clare flags her down, wants to talk and be friends. Clare doesn’t explain anything about her relationship with Jason, but makes it clear that she has separate quarters for herself and her children. Laura assumes that Clare’s single bed simply means she will spend most nights with Jason. Laura is going out when Jason comes in, confronts Laura, drags her upstairs and easily seduces her. Laura wakes up, starts to leave. Jason tells her that “I have you now, Laura, and you are not running out on me again.” Too bad, Laura leaves and spends the night at friends’ house.

The next morning her friend, Bethany, tells her she happened to hear about a job. Laura makes an interview appointment for that afternoon, goes back to Uncle’s house to pack and learns that Uncle is anxious for her to come to the office. Yes, her kindly uncle has some news for her. Laura had always thought her father was the junior partner, that her small allowance was a gift, not anything she was owed. In fact Uncle had diverted her trust fund income back into the business, had not increased the income when Laura married Jason, as he should have, and when Jason asked him for money he was not sponging, it was in fact the funds that were Laura’s by right. Uncle says that Jason is holding the contract up for ransom, that Uncle had to tell Laura the truth or Jason would walk away and Uncle’s company would fold.

Laura is dumbfounded at Uncle’s perfidy and when Jason asks her about it she pushes away and goes to her interview. The interview turns out to be with Jason’s mother who has an interesting confession. It was her husband, Jason’s father, who had the long term affair with Clare and fathered her children before he died. Mom used her health to blackmail Jason to keep quiet because she had the crazy idea that she had to pretend her marriage was perfect. She was willing to see anyone suffer, even her own son, in order to pretend that her husband loved her, not someone else.

Jason comes in then and he and Laura go off to remarry.

Characters and Emotions

I wanted to hit Laura and Jason and yes, Clare too, for keeping quiet about this cruel deception. I understand keeping promises and keeping secrets, but never at the expense of one’s marriage, at the cost of heartbreak.

Jason was angry at Laura, thought that she never really wanted to marry him, that she preferred being alone, and that was why she believed Uncle so fast without asking Jason to explain. Laura simply couldn’t. She should have asked Jason just why he was supporting Clare, gave him the opportunity to explain. Jason asked her to trust him, but he didn’t do much to present himself as trustworthy.

Clare too had the opportunity to explain when she showed Laura around Jason’s new home. She had to know that Laura assumed that Jason was the father but she didn’t bother to clear anything up.

Several times I wanted to yell at the characters to ask the question, to explain the problem. Jason could have voluntarily told Laura that he had to help Clare, that he wasn’t the father, hadn’t had an affair with her, but was morally obligated to help her on someone else’s behalf. He did not. He told Laura that she had never understood the obligation he had for Clare, but he never tried to clarify it for her either.

Act of Betrayal could have been improved if Sara Craven had spent time on the issue of trust. Laura did not trust Jason. She says several times that she never really felt she knew him, that he had always withheld something of himself from her. Of course Jason did not make it easy for her to trust him. He lied to her about going to his studio when in fact he went to Clare and he did not tell her he withdrew their savings. Uncle’s lies fell on ground that Jason himself had prepared and fertilized.

Jason did not trust Laura. He always felt she withheld something of herself, that she was glad to be alone again when she left him. In fact she was hurt and lonely, missed Jason whom she loved and regretted leaving him although she didn’t see how she could have stayed.

The author sketched these trust points but didn’t flesh them out. Instead she made it seem as though the physical attraction and need were the main drivers, when in fact they were sub points to loneliness and love.

Sara Craven is particularly gifted at showing strong emotions in her characters and connections between them. We see from the beginning how Jason’s return affects Laura. Craven shows this in party by sharing Laura’s thoughts, but it’s also obvious by how she avoids Jason, tries to hide behind Alan, how she decides to leave Uncle’s home and get a menial job.

It’s not as obvious how much Jason regrets losing Laura. He makes a lot of snide, sarcastic comments, hangs on Celia, makes it clear that although he might want Laura physically that he blames her for their breakup and intends to wreck revenge on her. That could be love or it could be dislike and basic jerk hood.

Overall Summary

I liked Act of Betrayal for the intense emotional connections and also because I wanted to see how Jason can square the circle of having supported a woman with children that look like him and even are named after him. The dialogue is good, the plot is interesting, the pacing is good.

On the other hand, I’m not fond of romances that hinge on not asking/answering questions or misunderstandings. Emotional cowardice keeps people quiet and it’s stupid. It causes immense hurt and harms marriages and friendships.

Using Jason’s mother as the deus ex machina left me unsatisfied. I felt that Jason could have done something before he and Laura divorced, that she should have asked more questions. Laura obviously still loves Jason, so either she or he should have taken the risk to connect beyond the physical. I loved Jason telling Laura that he has her now and she isn’t going to get away again, but then he lets her leave. Of course that’s the spur that has him forcing Uncle and Mother to confess all. I felt the confessions were the easy way out of the tangle, that Laura should have been able to trust Jason and Jason to trust her.

3 Stars

I got my used paperback copy from Thriftbooks. At this moment there is no E version; Archive.org does not have Act of Betrayal in PDF format nor is it available on Amazon.

On a side note, Jason in the cover picture is very good looking. Lots of times the hero looks like an arrogant jerk but this guy looks like he cares about the lady he is holding.

Return to Yesterday – Reunion Romance by Robyn Donald

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Return to Yesterday is an intense story about a husband who wants his young wife back while she is determined against further emotional devastation. Catlin married her husband when she was only 17 – he was 26 and widowed with a young daughter, Jennifer, – just before her father died. She was deeply in love with her husband Conal but far too young to be his wife and unable to cope with his high powered, upper echelon Auckland society life. She found him in bed with another woman. That night she called him every name she could and he got angry and assaulted her, raped/forcibly seduced her. She ran away to Australia.

The story opens 6 years later when she wants Conal, as her trustee, to release funds so she can buy a small bookshop, and he insists she return to Auckland before he will even consider it. Conal has her come to his home where he works to inveigle her into resuming their marriage.

Plot Synopsis – Click to Skip Spoilers

There is not a lot of plot here. Essentially the story is how Conal convinces Catlin to come back to him permanently as she struggles to understand her own emotions.

Robyn Donald tells us what happened 6 years prior via Catlin’s memories. She never understood why Conal married her in the first place. Catlin lived on a remote sheep station in New Zealand’s South Island and was not ready to be anyone’s wife, much less a successful, rich, handsome, brilliant and cold man’s. Conal initially treated her well, almost as a loved young sister, but over time got impatient with her inability to adapt, and his mother did everything she could to undermine the marriage and destroy Catlin’s confidence. He seemed to think she was stupid, gauche, unattractive. He didn’t sleep with her. Instead his friends made sly comments and his mistress acted proprietorial, effectively shutting Catlin out.

One afternoon she drove to Conal’s beach house to find out how she could improve. She walked in Conal and his girlfriend in bed, left before they could see her. That night she went into his room and yelled at him, furious and hurt. Conal sexually assaulted her, although it turned into passion for both of them. That frightened Catlin and she left the next morning, saw a lawyer, went to Australia and concentrated on turning herself into everything Conal thought she was not.

Six years later Catlin is educated, articulate, well-dressed, attractive, poised and confident. She believes she is well able to deal with Conal and comes back to Auckland to discuss the bookshop purchase.

Once Conal has her back in his home he turns on the charm. His mother has a mild heart attack and Conal asks Catlin to stay and help him with his daughter, now 9. Catlin and his daughter become friends and Catlin realizes she loves Conal more than ever but she doesn’t trust him.

Conal tries to seduce Catlin several times, then when she’s finally willing, says that he won’t make love until she agrees to come back to him. They have a near-miss car accident and Catlin decides she would rather live with Conal, even if he doesn’t love her, than without him. He takes her sailing up to his cottage and they make love and have the final resolution.

Characters and Emotions

The crux of the book depends on why Conal wants Catlin back. Catlin thinks it might be:

  1. Conal wants to pay her back for leaving him, embarrassing him and causing worry.
  2. He would like a wife and thinks it’s easier to keep the new improved Catlin than find someone else. His daughter Jennifer needs a mom and his mother isn’t up to caring for her.
  3. He wants to get rid of his ex and fend off the many women who chase him.
  4. Lust

Catlin believes it’s a combination of all 4 reasons, mostly #2 and #4, practicality and lust. She never suspects he loves her. Conal doesn’t help matters. He threatens physical retribution when she angers him. Catlin realizes Conal would never hurt her and forgives the cruel comment.

There are some clues though: He lets her get rid of his other women, past and wanna-be lovers. He lets her believe her father’s estate provided her income, before his mother informs Catlin that Conal provides the funds that she lives on. He tells Jennifer that he wants Catlin back. He encourages the growing liking and trust between Jennifer and Catlin. He tells Catlin several times he wants her back. He tries to buy her gifts, takes her out, ensures his friends see her now and realize how Catlin has grown. When Catlin confronts him about providing her income Conal tells her that he made the best investment possible by helping her grow into a confident, educated, beautiful woman.

Catlin of course is afraid to believe Conal. When they finally make love in the grass at his cottage she dares to believe he feels something, but she has to challenge Conal with his feelings before he tells her he loves her.

Catlin is an excellent character but it is Conal who carries the book. Catlin describes him as cold, brilliant, ruthless, charming, an intriguing combination! When she sees him first in her Auckland hotel Catlin wants to feel indifferent, tells herself for a couple weeks that she is over him, that it had been infatuation. Conal works to get her back, first, back in his bed and second, back in his life for all time. (Of course it’s a Harlequin Presents so we expect a happy ending, but how will they get there?)

There are several minor characters, the ex-Other Woman, the wanna-be OW, daughter Jennifer, Conal’s mother, Conal’s friends, Catlin’s old friend, her current roommate, the kinda-OM whose sister is the wanna-be OW. All of these have distinct characters, more than foils for dialogue.

Setting

Return to Yesterday begins in a Sydney apartment, moves to Auckland hotel, then to Conal’s warm and beautiful home in Auckland suburb, several friends’ homes, restaurants, last Conal’s yacht and beach cottage. Author Donald describes the settings and helps us see why Conal’s home is so beautiful and how Catlin could have felt overwhelmed 6 years past. Conal’s mother decorated Catlin’s room in a rather overpowering style that didn’t fit with the rest of the gracious combination of antiques and good contemporary furniture. The settings enhance the story.

Overall

I didn’t like Return to Yesterday when I first read it, but when I re-read it to write this review I realized how well Robyn Donald created her believable characters and plot, how she wrote emotional conflict and tension that crest right at the perfect point in the story. Pacing and language are good.

The bad points are very bad. He raped/forcibly seduced her 6 years ago, he threatens to do it again now. She was a very young, innocent 17 when they married; he says now he married her because he wanted to drag her off to bed every time saw her. Ick. He could have helped her find a place to live in Auckland and get an education, grow up, before he courted her, but he didn’t.

I still don’t enjoy reading Return to Yesterday and probably won’t re-read, but do admire how well Robyn Donald handled the back story and the emotional growth for both characters.

It’s hard to rate a book when I don’t much like it but realize is well-written and has a good story and character development. 3 Stars is a bit of cop out, but it’s either 1 for the ick factor or 4 for the story.

3 Stars

I got my paperback copy from Thriftbooks. Amazon has used copies and most likely you can find this on eBay or other used book site.

Moth to the Flame – Intense Romance by Sara Craven

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Sara Craven has a near-miss with Moth to the Flame. On the plus side this is intensely emotional with rich visual imagery and three vivid main characters. On the minus the romance does not satisfy because it is not believable. The hero, Santino, does not act as though he loves the heroine Juliet. At the end he claims he intends to marry her but he never says he loves her. And I do not think he does.

Plot Synopsis (Click here to skip spoilers)

Juliet’s younger sister Jan works as a model in Italy. She is beautiful, shallow, selfish and the apple of their mother’s eye. Jan hasn’t written for three weeks and mom worries and insists Juliet must go to Italy to find out what is wrong.

Jan tells Juliet she intends to marry Mario, but his older brother Santino adamantly disapproves and intends to stop the marriage. Jan is pregnant and claims Mario is the father although she doesn’t seem to love him. Brother Santino shows up unexpectedly while Juliet is alone in Jan’s apartment, believes Juliet is Jan and demands that she agree to take the buy off he offers her to leave Mario alone. Juliet doesn’t know what he’s talking about but she’s annoyed at Santino’s nasty comments, doesn’t believe Jan would take a payoff, and decides to play along to divert his attention while Jan and Mario supposedly are off getting married. He walks in on her while she’s dressing and makes lewd comments to embarrass her.

They have dinner together and Juliet fends off Santino’s insulting demands that she take his money and acting on Jan’s behalf, refuses to leave Mario, claims she loves him. Santino slips a sedative into her coffee and instead of driving her to Jan’s apartment, kidnaps her to his remote Castillo on the coast. He takes some of Jan’s glamour outfits along but misses Juliet’s more normal clothes and leaves her purse with her passport, return ticket and money behind.

At the Castillo he tells Juliet that he has notified the scandal media that he has brought Jan to his home, expecting this will cool his brother and turn him from marrying Jan. They have several near seduction scenes and Santino, all along believing Juliet is Jan, alternately calls her a prostitute and acts as though he’s attracted himself. Santino shocks Juliet, tells her about several Jan escapades, including one time where she did a striptease dance at an exclusive party.

Juliet found Santino attractive during that first dinner and over the next two days at the castillo she is horrified to realize she’s on the verge of falling in love with him. She knows they are from separate worlds and he’s not likely to fall for her, so she fights the attraction. It doesn’t help when Santino keeps trying to lure her into bed. Juliet believes he’s after her only because she’s there and he thinks she’s Jan, available, not because he’s interested in her.

Finally Juliet has enough, decides that Jan has had plenty of time to marry Mario if that is indeed what they were doing together, and reveals that she is not Jan, she is sister Juliet. She’s dumbfounded that Santino laughs this off as fairy tales. He’s in the middle of seducing her when his mother and stepfather arrive along with a nasty aunt by marriage whose goddaughter is engaged to Mario, and who collects gossip to sell to tabloids. Santino knows this aunt would like the goddaughter to marry her son instead of Mario, but he thinks the intended marriage will help Mario grow up and doesn’t want the engagement broken. He claims Juliet and he are engaged, that the story he planted about Jan was actually a misprint and was supposed to say he had Juliet with him.

Mother is there because Mario is in the hospital after crashing his car with Jan. Juliet goes with the family to the hospital and finds Jan is quite annoyed with the set up. Mario did not marry her, she’s two months pregnant, she has no job and will lose her apartment. And now her boring, stick in the mud, less pretty sister is engaged to the rich and gorgeous Santino. Santino wants her to go along with his story that Mario was bringing Jan to a family party to celebrate his engagement to Juliet, but if Jan spills the truth, it will cause a great deal of gossip and hurt Mario’s fiancée. Jan agrees to keep silent if Santino takes her along with Juliet to stay at his Castillo.

Once the three are together Jan mounts a relentless campaign to supplant Juliet as Santino’s fiancée. Juliet finds herself pushed to the side and Santino doesn’t seem to mind this at all. In fact when Juliet joins them on the beach and insists on talking to Santino in private about getting her passport and ticket to return to her job in England, he is cold, acts as if he was interrupted and sneers at her. He says he knows why she is going and Juliet thinks he means he knows she is in love with him; she does not know that Jan took magnified Juliet’s tepid friendship with another teacher into a huge love affair.

When Santino returns to Jan on the beach he runs his finger down Jan’s spine. That evening he takes Jan to Rome and comes back a day later after his mother has visited again. Juliet tells his mother that they never were engaged, that it was fake and that she’s going home. Mother is fed up with both her sons and cannot understand why Santino took Jan to Rome. Neither can Juliet, unless Santino wants an affair with Jan.

When Santino and Jan return Jan has “all the appearance of the cat who has had the cream and intends to make the saucer hers as well.” Jan tells Juliet that she’s wearing her heart on her sleeve, that Santino is bored with their engagement and Juliet was undignified when she dragged Santino away on the beach and he didn’t want to go. “Learn to be a good loser” she advises. Santino tries to talk to Juliet but she shrugs him off and goes upstairs to her room. She’s convinced that Jan got what she wanted from Santino, either marriage or an affair.

Back in England Juliet is miserable. She now knows she loves Santino, that it wasn’t just infatuation. Walking home after work Juliet sees Santino’s car parked by her home. Jan walks in wearing an enormous diamond. She’s married and brought her husband and wouldn’t Juliet like to come and greet him? No way. Juliet tells her that is a pleasure she must forgo and wishes them both every happiness. Juliet walks up the steps and Santino comes up behind her, picks her up and carries her to her room. He’s not going to watch her walk away up some stairs again. Jan is married to a former lover and Santino wants to marry Juliet. He tells her he wants her, he has always wanted her. He even agrees to wait to marry until she works out her notice at the end of term.

Why Is the Romance Flat?

Juliet’s Side. Juliet felt she knew Santino, as though she had always known him, had been waiting for him all her life. That could be love. That could be infatuation. Both feel wonderful at first but only love lasts. She did not spend much time with Santino, one dinner where he insulted Jan non stop, two days at his Castillo where he insults and tries to seduce her, a drive to Rome, a month at his Castillo when he leaves for days at a time on business and Jan is always there.

Love at first sight romances can be completely believable – Sara Craven’s The Unwilling Wife is a good example from the man’s side – so that is not why this doesn’t work for me. The main reason is Santino.

Santino’s Side. Why did Santino allow Jan to push Juliet aside? More damning, why did he continue to flirt with her and touch her as he did on the beach when she had her bikini top off? I thought of several reasons:

  1. He’s trying to make Juliet jealous.
  2. He knows he hurt and scared Juliet and wants to give her time to grow accustomed to him
  3. He doesn’t think Juliet cares for him and wants to pay her back for it.
  4. Jan is so blatant that Santino is laughing at her internally when he allows her to play up to him.
  5. He wants to keep Jan sweet so she doesn’t spill the beans to the gossipy godmother
  6. He is physically attracted to Jan.

Santino says reason #2 is why he devised the fake engagement and implies it is why he left Juliet alone so much. Frankly, I don’t buy it. True he wanted to give her space but that does not mean letting Jan have the space – all the cream and the saucer to boot – and it certainly does not mean stroking her back when she’s lying on the beach with her top off. I think it was a combination of #4, 5 and 6.

Santino thought Jan was little better than a prostitute, certainly she was promiscuous and accepted an apartment and fancy clothes from the man she eventually marries. All along Santino thought Juliet was Jan and tried his best to seduce her into bed which says it all. Santino was too proud to allow a sleep-around to marry his brother but he wasn’t too proud to take advantage of physical proximity. Santino acted revolted when Juliet revealed she believed he and Jan had an affair and had possibly even married. Santino would never marry someone like Jan, but he was all too willing to have an affair.

Writing Style

I like Sara Craven’s style. In Moth to the Flame she lets the action and dialogue show the emotions and drive the story. We see everything through Juliet’s eyes, and there is quite a bit of introspection when she worries about falling for Santino, when she’s sickened by Jan’s behavior, when she’s desperate to get back home. The author uses Juliet’s thoughts to help explain Juliet’s reasoning and her behavior and doesn’t rely on them to make the story real.

Moth to the Flame is set mostly in Italy, either in Rome at an apartment or restaurant, or at Santino’s old Castillo. The settings are part of the story and described well enough that we can visualize them. The Castillo is built from stone by a cliff so it has some atmosphere that Juliet notes but doesn’t obsess about.

Overall

Moth to the Flame is a decent read albeit not a great story and far from one of Sara Craven’s best. The romance between Juliet and Santino doesn’t work because he spends far too much time insulting her, trying to seduce her, or flirting with Jan, and far too little time developing any connection between them.

3 Stars

I got my used paperback copy of Moth to the Flame from Thriftbooks. Amazon has copies and most likely you can find it on eBay and other used book sites.

All Amazon links are paid ads.

Devon Interlude Vintage Romance by Kay Thorpe

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Kay Thorpe’s Harlequin Romances have bossy men and ladies who stand up for themselves most of the time. Devon Interlude is one of the earliest novels she wrote for Harlequin, published in 1968, and it is a pleasant, easy to read story which, yes, does have her usual bossy guy and non-doormat girl.

After her play folds actress Gail goes to her brother’s home, an inn he is trying to make a go of, in rural Devon. Her brother and his wife had helped her to get started as an actress and Gail is aware she owes them big time and feels guilty because she let the odd letter substitute for visits. In fact her brother has been very ill but didn’t want to worry Gail so she does not know.

In typical Harlequin fashion the first person Gail meets on her way home is her bother’s best friend Mark, who makes no bones about his contempt for her. He accuses her of coming only to get more money from brother Steve, tries to shame her for being uncaring and distant and offers a check, presumably so she won’t bother Steve and wife Carol. Gail is furious with Mark but is honest enough to admit she has been at fault not coming to visit or even to do much to keep in touch with Steve and Carol.

Steve and Carol’s inn is not doing well. They are “foreigners”, outsiders to the closed neighborhood and the locals don’t patronize the inn nor are they able to get tourist traffic. Gail takes responsibility to find them much increased custom when she makes a deal with a tour bus operator in a nearby town. He will bring people to see a local attraction, then stop at the inn for dinner or drinks. This works great and Steve and Carol are pleased and happy their financial situation might improve.

Gail works evenings at the inn and meets a couple younger men who suggest she get involved with the local drama club which they claim is significantly better than the average amateur group. She is a little reluctant but agrees to step in when the lady playing the lead in the play they are rehearsing has to quit. She is impressed with the script and quality of the acting but nearly quits when she realizes that Mark is directing the play.

Mark apologizes for offering her the check and Gail agrees to start fresh with him. They go to the beach and spend time together and Gail realizes she is nearly over the infatuation she had with Paul, an actor she worked with several years. She’s not quite ready to fall for Mark though.

Right about this time Sandra, a neighbor makes it clear she’s targeting Mark and Paul shows up to try and convince Gail to go with him and an acting company to tour Australia. Gail realizes she’s quite happy away from the theater but doesn’t want to stick around and see Sandra and Mark get married. The next thing that happens is that the man who plays the lead opposite Gail in the play gets ill and Mark steps in. Gail delivers a passionate and truthful love avowal in the opening night performance and Mark and she both admit their love and agree to marry.

The conflicts in Devon Interlude are understated. Gail isn’t terribly emotional nor does she brood about Mark or Paul or Sandra. She is slow to realize she is falling in love with Mark – she’s a little afraid since she has just realized she never really loved Paul and doesn’t want to make another mistake. As she’s facing up to her heart she sees Sandra and thinks she cannot compete. Sandra isn’t obviously nasty, unlike some Other Women in later romances, but she is clear that Mark is hers and that Gail is no competition. Neither girl seems to realize that Mark is going to decide Mark’s future!

The family relationships between Steve, Carol and Gail are well done with a light touch that shows how much each values the others without having Gail wallow in guilt. Mark too has some family issues (don’t we all?) and Gail is surprised to see the animosity between Mark and his father.

Overall Devon Interlude is a happy story without a lot of the usual nastiness we see in some Harlequins. Mark is a reasonable person who willingly admits he was too fast to judge Gail and Gail is willing to admit she neglected her family and that Mark, although he was rude and made vile comments, is willing to find a way to get along with Gail since her brother is his very good friend.

Kay Thorpe is a good writer and this is a good story with people who feel like they could be real.

3 Stars

I got my copy from Thriftbooks and other used book sites and eBay likely will have copies as does Amazon.

All Amazon links are paid ads.

Under Darkness by Jasper Scott – Alien Invasion and Mind Control in Tropical Paradise

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Under Darkness is short, easy reading, fast-paced, and offers fun twists on the ever-popular alien invasion theme.  Our novel stars Bill Steele, new owner of a not-quite profitable hotel in Hawaii, who sees the sun covered, the stars come out and meteors fall in the middle of the day.  Pretty soon the screams start.

Jasper Scott writes a plot that combines all our favorite thriller/horror/science fiction themes:  Under Darkness has aliens with mind control, aliens who kill and eat almost everyone, international intrigue and nuclear attack, plus a giant tsunami.  The characters are decent, with enough heroism offset with normal fear and deception, to make the story feel real.

Scott has written several series (20 books altogether) that are popular and successful.  He promotes Under Darkness as a stand-alone, meaning no sequels, a refreshing change from some of the endless narratives out there in alien invasion series.  He writes well, with a beginning, a middle and an end and the end neatly wraps the story up, leaving a few interpersonal loose strings but no plot heartburn.

3 Stars

The Artifact Enigma: An Urban Fantasy Action Adventure The Daniel Codex Book 1

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The Artifact Enigma: An Urban Fantasy Action Adventure by Judith Berens, Martha Carr and Michael Anderle is the first book in a (so far) three book series, The Daniel Codex.  The back story and plot elements are mouth-watering:  Magic is swarming over the earth because our magical sister planet Oricera now aligns fully to us and magical people now walk and live in our midst.  At the same time our CIA is trying to understand a separate group of aliens, people from other planets outside our solar system.

Daniel Winters is a CIA agent because he wants to serve and protect at the same time he helps his grandfather with his combination magical oddity and antiques business.  Daniel stumbles into a deep plot to do something with the aliens.  In fact the CIA already erased one entire town after messing up with an alien meet and greet.  Or something.  Daniel really doesn’t know anything about this other CIA group’s motives or goals, but he decides to throw in with a rogue group dedicated to keeping us and the aliens and Oricera safe from trigger-happy CIA folks.

This sounds like it should be a great story, but The Artifact Enigma is flat.  I feel no connection to any of the characters and it doesn’t appear that the authors tried to involve readers into the story.  The plot moves fast with plenty of action, but even the action is subdued, distant, doesn’t feel real and left me just not caring.

The final sequence is particularly telling as Daniel becomes judge, jury and executioner for a gang trying to take over his neighborhood.  After pages of high-minded yakking about duty and service and not wanting to kill people, our hero just walks into the gang house and kills everyone.

I doubt I’ll read any more of this series, although the plots sure sound tempting.

3 Stars

Sentinels: The Omega Superhero Book Three Series by Darius Brasher

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Sentinels, the third book about Theo Conley’s growth from out of shape country hick to high-powered super hero, takes a sharp bend from the first two novels.  Theo is a fully-licensed hero now, and finding his way in the big city and the wide world.  Things are different than he had expected with many more shades of gray and far less black and white.

Now he can discover just who killed his dad and why and bring them to justice yet Theo keeps hesitating.  He is slowly discovering that he can’t just jump in and blast the bad guys, that some bad guys take revenge against the wrong people, that judgement and wisdom are not the same things as strength and smarts.

The book has several unpleasant events, notably a very long and detailed evening in a strip club that I could have done without, an annoying “You are the Chosen One” sequence and a shocking end to a main character.  Further the ending is both shocking and unbelievable.  Theo found out who tried to kill him earlier but couldn’t go to the Hero’s Guild because he had no proof yet at the end he somehow has sufficient evidence.

Overall I did not like Sentinels nearly as much as I did Trials and Caped.  On the positive side Isaac remains a breath of fresh air and new character Taylor Lord is a great addition.  (Lord has has his own series too, what a coincidence, yes?)  On the negative side the story drags a bit due to uneven pacing and I do not care for The Chosen One theme nor the sexual content.

3 Stars