Besieged

Skye's Legacy #3

by Bertrice Small

Nearly a spinster at twenty, Fortune Lindley is leaving Scotland to return to her birthplace at Maguire's Ford, a vast Ulster estate that she will inherit only if she marries an Irish Protestant. To that end, Fortune has agreed to consider a match with the Protestant aristocrat William Devers, a man suited to her wealth and status.

But it is the rebellious and disinherited Catholic elder brother, Kiernan Devers, who steals her heart, driving William to a black and murderous fury. While Fortune and Kiernan's forbidden ecstasy explodes, jealousy and intolerance lead to an unthinkable tragedy--and a destiny that will test Fortune's will to survive in a struggle to claim a land, a legacy, and the only love she'll have. . .

Genres: Historical Romance, Romance, Historical, Historical Fiction, Fiction, M F Romance, Smut

380 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1983

About the author

Bertrice Williams was born on December 9, 1937 in Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA, the daughter of Doris S. and David R. Williams, both broadcasters. She studied at Attended Western College for Women and Katharine Gibbs Secretarial School. On October 5, 1963, she married George Sumner Small, a photographer and designer with a History Major at Princeton. They had a son Thomas David. She lived on eastern Long Island for over 30 years. Her greatest passions were her family; Finnegan and Sylvester, the family cats; Nicki, the elderly cockatiel who whistles the NY Mets charge call; her garden; her work, and just life in general.

Published since 1947, Bertrice Small was the author of over 50 romance novels. A New York Times bestselling author, she had also appeared on other best-seller lists including Publishers Weekly, USA Today, and the L.A. Times. She was the recipient of numerous awards including Career Achievement for Historical Romance; Best Historical Romance; Outstanding Historical Romance Series; Career Achievement for Historical Fantasy; a Golden Leaf from the New Jersey Romance Writers chapter of Romance Writers of America; an Author of the Year (2006) and Big Apple Award from the New York City Romance Writers chapter of RWA, and several Reviewers Choice awards from Romantic Times. She had a "Silver Pen" from Affair De Coeur, and an Honorable Mention from The West Coast Review of Books. In 2004 she was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award by ROMANTIC TIMES magazine for her contributions to the Historical Romance genre. And in 2008 she was named by ROMANTIC TIMES along with her friends Jennifer Blake, Roberta Gellis and Janelle Taylor, a Pioneer of Romance.

Bertrice Small was a member of The Authors Guild, Romance Writers of America, PAN, and PASIC. She was also a member of RWA's Long Island chapter, L.I.R.W., and is its easternmost member on the North Fork of Eastern Long Island.

Reviews

[Sonia N. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book awhile ago and listened to this masterpiece of historical romance! Bertrice Small is my Favorite historical romance author.
Today I finished listening to it and narrated by the perfect narrator Justine Eyre.
This is Fortune’s story with the handsome Kiernan an Irishman. They fall in love and marry, but face many obstacles. He is Catholic at a time when they were being persecuted by the Protestants. This is an action filled and passionate romance.
I recommend all of Bertrice Small’s books! Her attention to details are perfect!
I plan on listening to all of her books on Audible!

[Tammy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Historical Romance that shows the sad intolerance of different religions. Fortune finds her love with many obstacles with an ending to leave you happy.

[Trixie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to give this book a two stars. But my husband said I re-read them so frequently I couldn't possibly dislike them that much, and implied that I was somewhat two-faced, liking it privately but dissing it publicly. So all right. Three stars it is.

Fortune is the heroine, and despite her fiery hair, her personality seems quite mild, even milksoppy. This is described as "practical" by everyone in her family, but she has so much bland acceptance about things that should matter more to her that it's hard to care about her, from the start. She's set to marry the richest landowner near her mother's horse farm in Ireland, and she's fine with it.

Good, hope they're happy, no problem. So then I assume there will be more of a story with Fortune finding out the truth about her paternity and the very weird and contrived reason she was conceived (her mother needed dick or she'd die, and was too delirious to realize whose dick it was). (And that's not a spoiler, because Fortune's conception actually happened in her mother's first book, Wild Jasmine, which you will have read before this book, presumably.)

Fortune's true biological father, Rory Maguire, does figure it out, only after he is browsing through some old "miniatures" which are all the photo album one has in the 17th century. He realizes that the 20-year-old Fortune looks almost precisely like his younger sister! But how could this be!...Oh, right, when he saved her mother's life by giving her the necessary semen transfusion. Bloke finally figures it out--not when the baby is born nine months later, not when meeting Fortune at age 20, but only after looking through the pictures. He could easily show the picture to Fortune and explain how it came to be, but this is a secret that others want to keep buried, so Rory, predictably, knuckles under to their pressure.

But don't worry, there's more to the story! Fortune finds she's not so "practical" after all, because she finds the proffered husband, William, unacceptable. He's narrow-minded and not at all up to being a liberated, sensitive dude from the 1970s. It seems his views are probably pretty typical for the 1620s, but that's not good enough for her. I agree that his sexist views are off-putting, but if she dislikes him (on any pretext)then isn't it "practical" that she not try to create a marriage with someone she dislikes? She's much more attracted to the disowned brother, and it is with him that she marries and eventually moves to America to avoid religious persecution for their mixed marriage (Catholic and Protestant).

It drones on from there--there's not much drive to find out what will happen next, though certain desperate, casting-around-for-what-to-do-with-these-characters things do happen. Violence in a small Irish village, Christian-on-Christian rape and murder, including an incestuous rape and murder--very gross and disturbing. While Fortune's husband is off establishing a home and crops in America, she's left behind because she is pregnant. While still in England, her baby is kidnapped by a religious weirdo, but soon found. In America, a young nymphomaniac servant makes life difficult for Fortune, but not for long.

So, things that were good: Highly readable, as Dear Hubby points out. It's not Doestoevsky. It's Bertrice Small; you know what you're getting--sex, food, and clothing descriptions, with a lot of royal name-dropping. But I wanted to read all the books in this series, and now I have.

Could have done without: Constant reminders of Fortune's "practicality" as opposed to her "headstrong" and "impulsive" female family members. The multiple sociopaths thrown in Fortune's way (three, by my count). And the damn bloody sheet that has to "fly" after a wedding night, as a flag proclaiming their girl wasn't a slut. The color, size, and shape of a hymeneal bloodstain is SO no one's business.

[Orion · Rating 4 out of 5]

Besieged, set in 1630's Ulster area of Ireland, is the first of Small's Skye O'Malley series I have read which is a matrilineal historical romance series. It tells the romantic story of Skye's granddaughter Fortune Lindley and Kieran Devers, she a Protestant and he a Catholic, in a very intolerant world. They are faced with the classic “A fish could marry a bird, but where would they live?"

While Small does a fairly good job of portraying the conflict between the local Irish Catholics and their new Protestant landlords, Fortune's family is painted as the only tolerant Protestants in the book. The noble Irish under the cruel Protestant yoke makes the story a bit one sided. Kieran's brother William is a nasty, obsessive villain as is his stepmother, Lady Jane Devers, who marries a poor Irish lord for his land and covets Fortune's large estate.

It is in romance where Small excels and Fortune and Kieran are inspiring lovers. Their passion and devotion are well-portrayed. Her sex scenes are excellent examples of women's erotica, although they are less prominent in this book than they are in works like Love Slave.

[Judy · Rating 3 out of 5]

God, I still can't believe I have this heaving-bosom book. Another time, another life. Pure sexual fantasy. HA!

[Monica Autry · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this a while back. Liked it enough I will re read. :c)

[Mysty Patell · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am a huge Bertrice Small fan, but this one wasn't her best. The story could have been great. Small knows his history and she tries to show it through her writing. Unfortunately I feel it took away from the story. It also jumped around a lot, and some side stories and characters didn't seem to really mean much to the plot. The story could have continued one without some of the minor characters and their stories and it wouldn't have affected the main story at all. Good read, but not her best.

[Greyland Reviews · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 stars
When you answer a Jeopardy question right because you read a certain part of the book. Whoop!!!
But I'm kinda seeing how all books are connecting now (Leslie, Wyndham, O'Malley) Mind Blown!

[Sharon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have read this book before but it has been a long time and I wanted to read it again and it was just as good as the first time I read it. This author has become my new favorite and I can't wait to read more books by her.

[Carol Franklin · Rating 3 out of 5]

An enjoyable historical romance that takes you back to 16th century Ireland. Great characters & the story is set around the conflict between the local Irish Catholics & their new Protestant landlords.

[Dione Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tired

This installment was ok, however, it's almost as if The Author got tired & just rushed this ending. I expected just a little bit more.

[Helen L Goodman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good read.

Enjoyed the book! Would recommend it to others, especially fans of Beatrice Small and/or her O'Malley saga. Look forward to reading more.

[thismomlovesromancebooks · Rating 5 out of 5]

So far my favorite of Beatrice small, I just started reading her books. The story is about Jasime daughter fortune and how she finds love and then moves to the new world.

[Onixcia Perley · Rating 1 out of 5]

Dnf

[Kristina Deluise · Rating 3 out of 5]

NOT as good as the earlier books, but still a good book, check out my review on my deluise book series youtube channel in june.

[Naksed · Rating 3 out of 5]

Coming from a native country that has been and continues to be ravaged by religious fanaticism, I can say without a doubt that Bertrice Small did an outstanding job of illustrating the depths of depravity, insanity and bloodlust that ordinary people can resort to given the motivation and enabling circumstances. Though Small writes about centuries old feuds between Catholics and Protestants in England and Ireland, she could just as well be writing about hotspots today that still put neighbours, friends and family against each other, all in the name of this or that deity. It was definitely hard for me to read some of the scenes of senseless slaughter, grief and evil in Besieged. Small definitely does not hold back when she is trying to make her point.

Besieged was also interesting to me as it gave quite a bit of historical background into how the British Colony of Maryland was conceived and the utopian vision of its mastermind George Calvert, who believed that all religions could peacefully co-exist, an attitude that was certainly light years ahead of his contemporaries and which even today has not come to realization in most of the world.

As a historical fiction, I found Besieged moving and interesting. As a romance, less so. The story is part of an immense saga started in the late seventies by the author, about two intertwined great families of Scotland, Ireland and England, and spans the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. In this particular volume, we learn the fate of Fortune Lindley, daughter and granddaughter of characters who had their own namesake book in the series,Sky O'Malley, the Kadin, Wild Jasmine and Darling Jasmine, to name but a few books in which Fortune and her ancestors had already made an appearance.

Fortune's romance with the Irish Catholic Kieran seems forced, used more as a tool for the author to illustrate the problems of a marriage between a Protestant and a Catholic in that era. Points are repeated ad nauseam, to the point that it became tiresome. On an emotional level, the romance was a bit too instant for my taste. I like a slower burn. I did not really warm up to the couple the way I have for characters in Small's other books. I am still happy I read it because I am completely addicted to this series and hope to read every single one however this will definitely not be a re-read.

[Donna · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is about yet another of the infamous Skye O'Malley's great granddaughters. Fortune goes to Ireland to see if she can find a husband. She meets William, whom she finds quite dull. William is upset when she refuses to marry him. Fortune, however, does not find his half brother, Kieran, dull at all. William, his new wife and his mother do not take kindly at all to Fortune and Kieran's newfound love. They decide that they must move to the New World in order to live in peace. Kieran's family and the Protestants will not let them live in peace due to Kiernan being Catholic. The New World brings them a different danger in the form of a murderous indentured servant. Will they survive in this harsh new world? Can their love survive all these outside forces?

Bertrice Small has nailed it again. I love this book as much as the rest of the O'Malley saga and Skye's Legacy books. I would find it hard to pick my favorite of these series as I love them all. The women are all strong, independent and fiercely passionate. They survive thru all kinds of trials. I would recommend these series to any romance lovers out there.

[Tanya (Girl Plus Books) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having read all 6 books in the Skye O'Malley series, I was thrilled to learn the story continued in the Skye's Lagacy series. Another 6 books... hooray! Besieged was Book 3 in the Legacy series so I am now halfway through. While it was not my favorite (Fortune was not among my favorite of Small's heroines) it was still a great read and fun to extend my visit with the characters I have come to know and love. I will be sad to finish this series.

[Jackie Winters · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beseiged

Bertrice Small is an expert in creating characters. So far I've had trouble putting down anything that she has written. She includes some history that supplements the stories.

[Joanna Ferrin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm finally reading all of this author's books about skye O'Malley and her family. I've read them in order and have not been disappointed! Take out all the sex and they're good stories! Can't wait to start the next one!

[Robin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Eh. Similar to, but not as good as her Friarsgate Inheritance series. Really pointless subplot tacked on at the end, which made me wish she had ended the book about 100 pages sooner.

[**Sognatrice di libri** · Rating 5 out of 5]

Una storia davvero molto emozionante e appassionante.

[Cynthia B · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a good read.

[Nancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was ok, but sort of predictable. I started enjoying more as they prepared to go to the New World and enjoyed all the historical events.