What do you think?
Rate this book
Night #5
Shadows of the Night
Fern and Colin Radcliffe had a conventional courtship and expected a conventional marriage. But Fern's wedding night leaves her shaken --- and reborn. Driven by a desire to control her own destiny, she strikes out at her new husband in a passionate fir of independence. In doing so, she awakens a secret craving in the recently bound couple --- an exquisite erotic delight that ignites their love and creates an insatiable hunger for more.
To encourage this new, forbidden love, they spend their honeymoon alone at Colin's isolated estate --- the perfect setting to explore a world of pain, pleasure, and power. But their exploration is interrupted by a devastating secret from Colin's past --- a secret that threatens their future together ... and their very lives.
To encourage this new, forbidden love, they spend their honeymoon alone at Colin's isolated estate --- the perfect setting to explore a world of pain, pleasure, and power. But their exploration is interrupted by a devastating secret from Colin's past --- a secret that threatens their future together ... and their very lives.
296 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published March 4, 2008
103 people want to read
About the author
Lydia Joyce
10 books32 followersLydia Joyce holds degrees in English and Spanish language from Purdue University, where she started in engineering before realizing there was a difference between being good at something and liking it. She lives in the mountains of New Mexico with her husband and son.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
February 21, 2011
I loved this book, and I'm having a difficult time articulating why I loved it, especially since, on paper, it sounds like the kind of romance novel I hate. In general I find that Lydia Joyce is one of those authors who can get me to go along with things that I don't normally enjoy in romance, but I also don't usually love her books nearly as much as I loved Shadows of the Night.
Simply put, there is a lot of unpleasantness to get through at the beginning of the book. I can't see myself ever trying to personally recommend it to someone because there's no way I could explain it that wouldn't be off-putting. At the beginning, the hero views his new wife rather like an appliance that he's purchased to add to his household: he's married her because she can perform certain functions for him, like producing heirs and hosting dinner parties, and he is upset when she turns out to have a will of her own and desires that clash with his. The heroine is sheltered enough that she has no idea what to expect on her wedding night and she is upset by the experience, feeling that something has been stolen from her. The hero does not respect her sexual boundaries and upon discovering that he likes it when she hurts him*, he reacts by pressing her into sexual activities that he knows she doesn't want in hopes of provoking her to hurt him again.
Normally, a hero who doesn't really view the heroine as a person and does not respect her sexual boundaries will get me to stop reading a book immediately. I guess I feel like if we're already taking a trip to what Sarah Wendell calls Romancelandia, where everyone smells of roses regardless of the hygiene standards of the time period, every other eligible bachelor is a duke who's totally into bluestockings and independent women, and rakish heroes never have syphilis even though they've done it with half of London, the author can also gloss over the parts about treating women like shit. But Colin and Fern don't read like they came out of Romancelandia. Their situation is one that feels very true to the Victorian setting: they're two people who are very much shaped by the expectations of society, who married without actually knowing much of anything about each other and have now discovered that they're not content and are perhaps in over their heads. I can forgive Colin for being an asshole because it feels like he's an asshole for reasons of historical accuracy, not because the author thinks it's romantic.
Once Colin and Fern are removed from the constraints of their society, at spooky Wrexmere Manor, they are able to get to know their true selves as well as one another. The relationship that develops is lovely and feels very real, with Fern learning how to find power instead of fear in their marriage, and Colin learning to have respect and consideration for someone else. It's not the kind of high melodrama that often makes for entertaining romance. The melodrama in this book is provided by the Gothic mystery of Wrexmere, so Colin and Fern's interactions can be more subtle without making the book dull.
All in all, I was remarkably satisfied by this unconventional romance, but I'm not sure who I'd recommend it to. People willing to take a chance? Romance readers who are feeling a bit bored with the genre? I suspect I'll be rereading it myself before long.
* I confess this is what drew me to read this book. I was disappointed in that aspect, because it's barely touched on. I guess if I'm in the mood for that sort of thing I'll have to reread Shadowheart.
Simply put, there is a lot of unpleasantness to get through at the beginning of the book. I can't see myself ever trying to personally recommend it to someone because there's no way I could explain it that wouldn't be off-putting. At the beginning, the hero views his new wife rather like an appliance that he's purchased to add to his household: he's married her because she can perform certain functions for him, like producing heirs and hosting dinner parties, and he is upset when she turns out to have a will of her own and desires that clash with his. The heroine is sheltered enough that she has no idea what to expect on her wedding night and she is upset by the experience, feeling that something has been stolen from her. The hero does not respect her sexual boundaries and upon discovering that he likes it when she hurts him*, he reacts by pressing her into sexual activities that he knows she doesn't want in hopes of provoking her to hurt him again.
Normally, a hero who doesn't really view the heroine as a person and does not respect her sexual boundaries will get me to stop reading a book immediately. I guess I feel like if we're already taking a trip to what Sarah Wendell calls Romancelandia, where everyone smells of roses regardless of the hygiene standards of the time period, every other eligible bachelor is a duke who's totally into bluestockings and independent women, and rakish heroes never have syphilis even though they've done it with half of London, the author can also gloss over the parts about treating women like shit. But Colin and Fern don't read like they came out of Romancelandia. Their situation is one that feels very true to the Victorian setting: they're two people who are very much shaped by the expectations of society, who married without actually knowing much of anything about each other and have now discovered that they're not content and are perhaps in over their heads. I can forgive Colin for being an asshole because it feels like he's an asshole for reasons of historical accuracy, not because the author thinks it's romantic.
Once Colin and Fern are removed from the constraints of their society, at spooky Wrexmere Manor, they are able to get to know their true selves as well as one another. The relationship that develops is lovely and feels very real, with Fern learning how to find power instead of fear in their marriage, and Colin learning to have respect and consideration for someone else. It's not the kind of high melodrama that often makes for entertaining romance. The melodrama in this book is provided by the Gothic mystery of Wrexmere, so Colin and Fern's interactions can be more subtle without making the book dull.
All in all, I was remarkably satisfied by this unconventional romance, but I'm not sure who I'd recommend it to. People willing to take a chance? Romance readers who are feeling a bit bored with the genre? I suspect I'll be rereading it myself before long.
* I confess this is what drew me to read this book. I was disappointed in that aspect, because it's barely touched on. I guess if I'm in the mood for that sort of thing I'll have to reread Shadowheart.
January 26, 2011
Victorian historical with Gothic subplot. Colin and Fern marry as a proper young couple should, which is to say they don't know each other very well: Colin plans to return to his mistress shortly after the marriage, and Fern--well, Fern isn't sure what she plans, beyond perfection; surely marrying the perfect man will make her perfect, too. On their honeymoon, they both discover they're human: Fern already knew this about herself, but Colin didn't, and he didn't know it about her. She requires him to actually think about her motivations, and his own: she is more disturbed than pleased by sex, feeling as if even the pleasure takes control from her. In an argument, she slaps him -- and Colin finds, to his surprise, that it wakes him up and makes him feel alive for the first time in his life. There's some mild SM here; Joyce is very good at combining Colin's interest in masochism with his unquestioning assumption of social domination and Fern's interest in control with her own frustration at powerlessness. Fern, especially, as someone waking up to her own half-buried resentment of social norms, is remarkable.
The ending goes off into a nonsensical Gothic mystery about Colin's Elizabethean antecedents, about which I could care less. I would much rather have had more of Colin and Fern talking to each other. The doubtful but determined hopefulness of the ending is worth its weight in gold.
The ending goes off into a nonsensical Gothic mystery about Colin's Elizabethean antecedents, about which I could care less. I would much rather have had more of Colin and Fern talking to each other. The doubtful but determined hopefulness of the ending is worth its weight in gold.
Read
March 5, 2009The one I dithered over longest, rereading the crushing reviews for glimpses of what it might really be like - and the start of ugly covers (I don't prefer women on covers, except the men are even uglier).
It's not SM, not in the least. And it's not Joyce trying out SM because she ran out of steam either, except in the sense that she always tries to explore new angles, and once again is an antidote to Beverley's crushing of the woman under the Viscount or the usual genre novels. I understand the criticism in that she's in-between: SM fen won't find anything titillating in here, and mainstream readers might object to the tiny amounts of scratching and biting she inflicts on him.
Personally, I have my usual disappointements to contend with. For some reason there universally seems less her-enjoying-him and more of that old poetic-images-of-how-orgasm-makes-her-feel, both of which means that I didn't find a single satisfying sex scene in here. Sadly I also found no satisfying love scene but I did very much like the premise that he's not an abused little boy but simply an empty shell. If Joyce seems to attempt to subvert my favourite Chase novel here she does it badly because Lord Scoundrel's bastard is the only adoption ever I could have stomached. But Colin's empty shell isn't suddenly filled, the ending is one of questions rather than answers or assurances - perhaps a cop-out, I don't know, I wish there had been more time.
It wasn't as disjointed as other readers claimed, driving to that forsaken house, half mideaval keep, half Tudor mansion, seemed very much a journey for Colin into himself. For that reason I understand criticism, in that it then isn't about him, but it gives him and her something to talk about, realise they like each other. The mystery was therefor for once not immediately obvious to me, although it then quickly and literally crashed down on us.
Ethically, I'm still shocked she has the half-mad Renton locked up, when by rights the property never belonged to Colin's family. Not wanting to take away his title is one thing - and considering he said he never was anything but his title, I wonder if Lydia had meant this to go in a different direction - but robbing the right heirs so they can keep the fake titles and the lands AND prosecuting those idjits was too much. I'm so tempted to mail the author! :/
I think I see very clearly her intentions, how it never could be rape because she'd never let a heroine then love the rapist, but how the penetration was a theft, which once the word rape also meant. For a while I also wondered if Colin wouldn't have been better off with another man - I agree he's not into SM but if he wants to strongly feel something done too him, women might not be ideal.
In the end the author surprisingly enough did not go far enough for SM-loathing me. While Colin does the obligatory tit sucking, Fern doesn't even lick his nipples! There's no oral sex at all this time, but with her biting and scratching being the thing, that would have been the least she could do. Knees, elbows! *mopes*
I will keep reading her (and hope fervently she doesn't go the way of her covers) because despite Kleypas name on the cover, Lydia Joyce is quite singular, in a line with early Dodd and Chase when it comes to equality and a striving for genuine love and partnership, always shows the negotation between the owned wife and her master husband and never ends it sickenlingly in her happy submission like Beverly or Hunt, but going further, looking at details in the physical and emtional intercourse.
Best of all the small details I liked the blunt and tortured statement of Fern's that "Because sticking your thing in me is more exciting than sticking it between someone else's legs?" She lacks the words to be cruder, but this sums up every genre novel, be they talented virgins or widows: the "passion" of the heroine makes the hero forget any other woman. Never does she actually do anything a good whore wouldn't have done just as well, so Joyce is the only writer who once again tries to actually show something plausible - not kinky whips, just a genuine lashing out resulting in a startling revelation (although with not even his school chums ever having hit him, I once again wish I knew more about why Colin is a shell).
It's not SM, not in the least. And it's not Joyce trying out SM because she ran out of steam either, except in the sense that she always tries to explore new angles, and once again is an antidote to Beverley's crushing of the woman under the Viscount or the usual genre novels. I understand the criticism in that she's in-between: SM fen won't find anything titillating in here, and mainstream readers might object to the tiny amounts of scratching and biting she inflicts on him.
Personally, I have my usual disappointements to contend with. For some reason there universally seems less her-enjoying-him and more of that old poetic-images-of-how-orgasm-makes-her-feel, both of which means that I didn't find a single satisfying sex scene in here. Sadly I also found no satisfying love scene but I did very much like the premise that he's not an abused little boy but simply an empty shell. If Joyce seems to attempt to subvert my favourite Chase novel here she does it badly because Lord Scoundrel's bastard is the only adoption ever I could have stomached. But Colin's empty shell isn't suddenly filled, the ending is one of questions rather than answers or assurances - perhaps a cop-out, I don't know, I wish there had been more time.
It wasn't as disjointed as other readers claimed, driving to that forsaken house, half mideaval keep, half Tudor mansion, seemed very much a journey for Colin into himself. For that reason I understand criticism, in that it then isn't about him, but it gives him and her something to talk about, realise they like each other. The mystery was therefor for once not immediately obvious to me, although it then quickly and literally crashed down on us.
Ethically, I'm still shocked she has the half-mad Renton locked up, when by rights the property never belonged to Colin's family. Not wanting to take away his title is one thing - and considering he said he never was anything but his title, I wonder if Lydia had meant this to go in a different direction - but robbing the right heirs so they can keep the fake titles and the lands AND prosecuting those idjits was too much. I'm so tempted to mail the author! :/
I think I see very clearly her intentions, how it never could be rape because she'd never let a heroine then love the rapist, but how the penetration was a theft, which once the word rape also meant. For a while I also wondered if Colin wouldn't have been better off with another man - I agree he's not into SM but if he wants to strongly feel something done too him, women might not be ideal.
In the end the author surprisingly enough did not go far enough for SM-loathing me. While Colin does the obligatory tit sucking, Fern doesn't even lick his nipples! There's no oral sex at all this time, but with her biting and scratching being the thing, that would have been the least she could do. Knees, elbows! *mopes*
I will keep reading her (and hope fervently she doesn't go the way of her covers) because despite Kleypas name on the cover, Lydia Joyce is quite singular, in a line with early Dodd and Chase when it comes to equality and a striving for genuine love and partnership, always shows the negotation between the owned wife and her master husband and never ends it sickenlingly in her happy submission like Beverly or Hunt, but going further, looking at details in the physical and emtional intercourse.
Best of all the small details I liked the blunt and tortured statement of Fern's that "Because sticking your thing in me is more exciting than sticking it between someone else's legs?" She lacks the words to be cruder, but this sums up every genre novel, be they talented virgins or widows: the "passion" of the heroine makes the hero forget any other woman. Never does she actually do anything a good whore wouldn't have done just as well, so Joyce is the only writer who once again tries to actually show something plausible - not kinky whips, just a genuine lashing out resulting in a startling revelation (although with not even his school chums ever having hit him, I once again wish I knew more about why Colin is a shell).
September 25, 2021
Belatedly rounding this up from 3.5 to 4 stars. When I think back on it, I categorize the overall experience as a 4-star; it’s not quite as good as others by this author, but even lesser LJ is heaps better than most modern genre HR. It’s odd, & gloomy, & weirdly sexy, & beautifully written (as always from LJ), so…yeah. Works for me. 😬
NB: Awful cover is awful, but that’s nobody’s fault but the art dept. 😶
NB: Awful cover is awful, but that’s nobody’s fault but the art dept. 😶
June 17, 2022
I loved the concept - points to the "gothic" and "femdom" shelf tags - more than the execution. Another way to put it is, I wish Joyce had depicted everything with the powerful realness with which Fern's initial response to sex was depicted: gut-churning lines it almost felt like you wouldn't be allowed to write in romance, about the heroine's experiences with her designated hero. (Indeed, a content warning may be in order for very bad sex and ... I'm hedging with my phrasing, but I'll say "a degree of unfreedom," certainly in that the sex Fern's actually having in those first scenes is very different from the sex she wants to be having, and she doesn't feel like she has many options.) And then she and Colin talk it out and find a solution, which, hurray! But I found their renewed sex life, while steamy enough (and worlds better than how it started), not nearly as exquisite, insatiable, passionate, or extensively depicted as I'd expected from the book blurb.
A Gothic element also happens in the book. With "also happens in" being the key phrase: the story shifts gears from dom-discovering-herself to what's-up-at-this-creepy-old-manor without a strong feeling of cohesiveness; and I have to say, I don't even recall what was up at the cold creepy manor anymore, some time after reading this book.
Romances depicting female dominance are still thin on the ground (though happily less thin than they used to be), historical romances depicting female dominance even more so, and stories depicting the inner lives of dominant women with both their desires and their vulnerabilities are perhaps rarest of all*. And this book does fall into those categories, even if it's not the best I've ever read. And so it has its place in the treasure chest in my mind where I remember books I'm glad I read.
*Actually, hold that thought: rarest of all may be the historical romance featuring a dominant woman who doesn't have to suffer bad and even unwanted sex before finding her passion. I'm looking at Laura Kinsale's Shadowheart too, as a book that blew me away, swept me up in raptures, gave me so much of My Thing that I actually teared up at a few pages, but also includes a nonconsensual scene that makes it impossible to recommend without caveats. Colin is a much nicer guy than Allegreto from Shadowheart, but he's also less dramatic, which is to say less interesting. Picturing Fern and Lady Elena meeting each other makes me dizzy with delight, though.
A Gothic element also happens in the book. With "also happens in" being the key phrase: the story shifts gears from dom-discovering-herself to what's-up-at-this-creepy-old-manor without a strong feeling of cohesiveness; and I have to say, I don't even recall what was up at the cold creepy manor anymore, some time after reading this book.
Romances depicting female dominance are still thin on the ground (though happily less thin than they used to be), historical romances depicting female dominance even more so, and stories depicting the inner lives of dominant women with both their desires and their vulnerabilities are perhaps rarest of all*. And this book does fall into those categories, even if it's not the best I've ever read. And so it has its place in the treasure chest in my mind where I remember books I'm glad I read.
*Actually, hold that thought: rarest of all may be the historical romance featuring a dominant woman who doesn't have to suffer bad and even unwanted sex before finding her passion. I'm looking at Laura Kinsale's Shadowheart too, as a book that blew me away, swept me up in raptures, gave me so much of My Thing that I actually teared up at a few pages, but also includes a nonconsensual scene that makes it impossible to recommend without caveats. Colin is a much nicer guy than Allegreto from Shadowheart, but he's also less dramatic, which is to say less interesting. Picturing Fern and Lady Elena meeting each other makes me dizzy with delight, though.
January 22, 2025
ขอบอกเลยว่าหนังสือเล่มนี้อ่านยาก ไม่ใช่ว่าภาษายากหรอกนะ แต่เป็นการตีความที่ยาก บอกตามตรงว่า ขนาดอ่านไปจบเล่มแล้ว แม็กซ์ยังไม่ค่อยแน่ใจเลยว่าตัวเองเข้าใจความหมายนัยที่คนแต่งต้องการสื่อ ได้ครบถ้วน
เริ่มเรื่องคนแต่งโชว์ให้เห็นคอลิน ทายาทไวส์เคาท์ผู้ร่ำรวยและใช้ชีวิตสุขสบายในเช้าวันแต่งงานของเขา คอลินกำลังอยู่กับเมียเก็บคนล่าสุด ขณะที่เขาแต่งตัวเพื่อไปงานแต่งงานของตัวเอง เขานึกถึงพิธีที่กำลังจะเกิดขึ้น และเจ้าสาวของเขา
เฟิร์นเป็นหญิงสาวผู้เหมาะสม เพียบพร้อมตามแบบฉบับหญิงสาวในยุควิคตอเรียน เธอเป็นสุภาพสตรีทุกกระเบียดนิ้ว เหมาะสมและน่าเบื่อ การเกี้ยวพาของคอลินเป็นไปอย่างถูกต้องและเหมาะสม ไม่มีความรัก ความเสน่หา ความใกล้ชิดเข้ามาเกี่ยวข้อง
มีแต่คำว่าเหมาะสม
แต่แล้วในคืนวันแต่งงาน ประสบการทางเพศในครั้งแรกสำหรับสาวน้อยในยุควิคตอเรียนอย่างเฟิร์นกลับเป็น สิ่งที่มากเกินไป ชั่วแว่บเดียวเฟิร์นเหมือนตื่นจากฝัน ความรู้สึกที่ถาโถมเข้ามามันมากเกินกว่าที่เธอจะรับได้ไหว
หญิงสาวที่ถูกเลี้ยงดูอย่างเหมาะสม เฟิร์นไม่เคยสูญเสียความควบคุมในตัวเอง เธอสามารถเป็นแม่งานจัดงานเลี้ยงแขกนักร้อย เป็นภรรยาคู่เกียรติของสามี เป็นไวส์เคาท์เตสที่สมบูรณ์แบบ แต่สิ่งที่เธอรู้สึกในคืนวันแต่งงานมันกลับทำให้เธอรู้สึกว่า คอลินขโมยบางสิ่งไปจากเธอ
และเป็นครั้งแรกที่เฟิร์นทำตัว "ไม่เหมาะสม"
ซึ่งนั่นนำไปสู่การปะทะกันครั้งแรกระหว่างคู่แต่งงานใหม่ การปะทะที่จบลงด้วยการที่เฟิร์นกัดริมฝีปากของคอลิน และแทนที่เขาจะโกรธ มันกลับเป็นการปลุกคอลินขึ้นจากฝันเช่นกัน
แต่สำหรับคอลิน มันเป็นความเจ็บปวด เขาพบว่าตัวเองต้องการความเจ็บปวด (ใช่แล้ว S&M นั่นเอง แต่อย่าหวังว่าจะเจออะไรฮือฮามากนัก แค่ข่วนเลือดซิบ ๆ เท่านั้นแหละ) เพราะมันทำให้เขารู้สึก
ตลอดชีวิตคอลิน เขาเหมือนไร้วิญญาณ เขาใช้ชีวิตอย่างไร้จุดหมาย คนที่มีเพียงเปลือกนอก แต่กับเฟิร์น (ในรูปแบบใหม่) เขาเริ่มตื่น เขาเริ่มเป็นคนที่เขาควรจะเป็น
การเดินทางของสองสามีภรรยาเพื่อค้นพบตัวเอง เพื่อเปลี่ยนแปลงไปสู่การเป็นคนที่ดีกว่า คอลินพาเฟิร์นไปสู่บ้านพักในชนบท แต่ในขณะที่ทั้งคู่ค้นหากันและกันเพื่อทำความเข้าใจถึงความเป็นคนใหม่ของพวก เขา คอลินก็ต้องเผชิญหน้ากับอดีตที่ตามหลอกหลอนครอบครัวเขามานับร้อยปี
แม็กซ์รีวิวตามความเข้าใจของตัวเองค่ะ ไม่กล้าบอกว่ามันถูกหรือผิด เพราะอย่างที่เกริ่นแหละ เล่มนี้อ่านแล้วตีความยาก
คะแนนที่ 60
เริ่มเรื่องคนแต่งโชว์ให้เห็นคอลิน ทายาทไวส์เคาท์ผู้ร่ำรวยและใช้ชีวิตสุขสบายในเช้าวันแต่งงานของเขา คอลินกำลังอยู่กับเมียเก็บคนล่าสุด ขณะที่เขาแต่งตัวเพื่อไปงานแต่งงานของตัวเอง เขานึกถึงพิธีที่กำลังจะเกิดขึ้น และเจ้าสาวของเขา
เฟิร์นเป็นหญิงสาวผู้เหมาะสม เพียบพร้อมตามแบบฉบับหญิงสาวในยุควิคตอเรียน เธอเป็นสุภาพสตรีทุกกระเบียดนิ้ว เหมาะสมและน่าเบื่อ การเกี้ยวพาของคอลินเป็นไปอย่างถูกต้องและเหมาะสม ไม่มีความรัก ความเสน่หา ความใกล้ชิดเข้ามาเกี่ยวข้อง
มีแต่คำว่าเหมาะสม
แต่แล้วในคืนวันแต่งงาน ประสบการทางเพศในครั้งแรกสำหรับสาวน้อยในยุควิคตอเรียนอย่างเฟิร์นกลับเป็น สิ่งที่มากเกินไป ชั่วแว่บเดียวเฟิร์นเหมือนตื่นจากฝัน ความรู้สึกที่ถาโถมเข้ามามันมากเกินกว่าที่เธอจะรับได้ไหว
หญิงสาวที่ถูกเลี้ยงดูอย่างเหมาะสม เฟิร์นไม่เคยสูญเสียความควบคุมในตัวเอง เธอสามารถเป็นแม่งานจัดงานเลี้ยงแขกนักร้อย เป็นภรรยาคู่เกียรติของสามี เป็นไวส์เคาท์เตสที่สมบูรณ์แบบ แต่สิ่งที่เธอรู้สึกในคืนวันแต่งงานมันกลับทำให้เธอรู้สึกว่า คอลินขโมยบางสิ่งไปจากเธอ
และเป็นครั้งแรกที่เฟิร์นทำตัว "ไม่เหมาะสม"
ซึ่งนั่นนำไปสู่การปะทะกันครั้งแรกระหว่างคู่แต่งงานใหม่ การปะทะที่จบลงด้วยการที่เฟิร์นกัดริมฝีปากของคอลิน และแทนที่เขาจะโกรธ มันกลับเป็นการปลุกคอลินขึ้นจากฝันเช่นกัน
แต่สำหรับคอลิน มันเป็นความเจ็บปวด เขาพบว่าตัวเองต้องการความเจ็บปวด (ใช่แล้ว S&M นั่นเอง แต่อย่าหวังว่าจะเจออะไรฮือฮามากนัก แค่ข่วนเลือดซิบ ๆ เท่านั้นแหละ) เพราะมันทำให้เขารู้สึก
ตลอดชีวิตคอลิน เขาเหมือนไร้วิญญาณ เขาใช้ชีวิตอย่างไร้จุดหมาย คนที่มีเพียงเปลือกนอก แต่กับเฟิร์น (ในรูปแบบใหม่) เขาเริ่มตื่น เขาเริ่มเป็นคนที่เขาควรจะเป็น
การเดินทางของสองสามีภรรยาเพื่อค้นพบตัวเอง เพื่อเปลี่ยนแปลงไปสู่การเป็นคนที่ดีกว่า คอลินพาเฟิร์นไปสู่บ้านพักในชนบท แต่ในขณะที่ทั้งคู่ค้นหากันและกันเพื่อทำความเข้าใจถึงความเป็นคนใหม่ของพวก เขา คอลินก็ต้องเผชิญหน้ากับอดีตที่ตามหลอกหลอนครอบครัวเขามานับร้อยปี
แม็กซ์รีวิวตามความเข้าใจของตัวเองค่ะ ไม่กล้าบอกว่ามันถูกหรือผิด เพราะอย่างที่เกริ่นแหละ เล่มนี้อ่านแล้วตีความยาก
คะแนนที่ 60
July 20, 2024
Not read --- reviews make book sound depressing. storyline not interesting at all.
September 17, 2024
interesting book, wish I were able to read others in the series. Also want to know what happened with the information in the letter......
January 3, 2011
Not the typical genre romance. In fact, quite a few instances of turning-genre-tropes-upside-down: hero/heroine only beginning to find out that they LIKE each other, rather than earth-shattering love-at-first-sight connection; their uncertain future ("how can you change in only a week? what if you stray in the future?" btw, I hate that word "stray"... from WHAT? the journey of marriage and monogamous devotion? the straight-edge path of faith and virtue? not to mention its use here is anachronistic); the intrusion of real world consequences in the final chapter. The writing is smooth, occasionally lyrical. Their time spent in the creepy dilapidated mansion is certainly atmospheric. I understood why, at one point, Fern ran panicking into the wilds.
On the downside: there is very little romance to this novel, as Joyce seems to be almost aiming for an anti-genre romance in a novel that nevertheless is written via genre romance structure, i.e. not particularly detailed background or secondary characters, certainly no exploration of contemporary social issues a la NORTH AND SOUTH. Take away the basic elements of the protagonists' connection, the certainty of their love and HEA -- elements which pushes the reader's happy buttons and obscure plot holes and historical inaccuracies -- what's left is a fairly flimsy story of two people, newly married yet virtual strangers to each other, suffering a week or so in a dank mansion with a mildly Gothic secret occasionally intruding into the foreground, then easily stuffed back into a dank basement somewhere, thus preserving the hero and heroine's good fortune and leisurely lifestyle forever. Further, although these two are set-up as meaning to grow throughout the book, their "growth" is constantly narrated, rather than shown. The hero suddenly thought this, and realized that, and thought of the future as thus, and then that... Hmf.
Finally, WHAT SM? A little scratchin and bitin here and there sounds pretty vanilla to me...
Overall, an interesting -- and possibly cerebral (though this may be going too far in praise) -- exercise, but not particularly SATISFYING in terms of emotional or plot-related thrills.
On the downside: there is very little romance to this novel, as Joyce seems to be almost aiming for an anti-genre romance in a novel that nevertheless is written via genre romance structure, i.e. not particularly detailed background or secondary characters, certainly no exploration of contemporary social issues a la NORTH AND SOUTH. Take away the basic elements of the protagonists' connection, the certainty of their love and HEA -- elements which pushes the reader's happy buttons and obscure plot holes and historical inaccuracies -- what's left is a fairly flimsy story of two people, newly married yet virtual strangers to each other, suffering a week or so in a dank mansion with a mildly Gothic secret occasionally intruding into the foreground, then easily stuffed back into a dank basement somewhere, thus preserving the hero and heroine's good fortune and leisurely lifestyle forever. Further, although these two are set-up as meaning to grow throughout the book, their "growth" is constantly narrated, rather than shown. The hero suddenly thought this, and realized that, and thought of the future as thus, and then that... Hmf.
Finally, WHAT SM? A little scratchin and bitin here and there sounds pretty vanilla to me...
Overall, an interesting -- and possibly cerebral (though this may be going too far in praise) -- exercise, but not particularly SATISFYING in terms of emotional or plot-related thrills.
May 30, 2008
This book opens at a ton wedding. The heroine is on the verge of panic, wondering why in the world she agreed to marry this man she barely knows. The hero's feeling very self-satisfied and planning an ordinary ton marriage. She starts feeling more and more dissatisfied, unhappy over the hero's power over her, and he's more and more irritated by her little acts of rebellion. Then something happens and things change wildly. I think Joyce motivates the change well--your mileage may vary. The newlyweds head off to one of the hero's estates, one that's been causing problems, in order to obtain more privacy to work out this left-turn their marriage seems to have taken, but that doesn't turn out like expected either. It's a bit of a "road-trip" "being stripped down to essentials" sort of story, and there's a mystery tossed in for them to solve that in some ways seems a bit extraneous, but Joyce weaves it into the main romance pretty well. What I like best about Joyce, and about this book, is that she can infuse so much emotional tension into the story, and at the same time, allow her characters to have intelligent discussions about difficult subjects.
December 13, 2008
Strangely enough, I liked the story of this romance novel. As they all do, this ends with a happily ever after, but along the way we get to see the hero and heroine come to grips with thinking for themselves for the first time in their lives-- and how their marriage, begun as two strangers merging their lives along society's expectations, moves them along their own paths as unconventional people. Lots of spice in the book, and it does falter towards the end, but for the most part it stays true to the characters. In fact, it would have been a great novel were it not for the romance!
July 26, 2010
This book was alright. I like the author's writing style, and while the characters didn't get into my heart like other books I've read, they were likable enough. I liked the mystery of Wrexmere, and it would've been great if the book had been just a bit longer, more of the history could've been expanded on. As it was, I found myself most vividly imagining the manor and keep, wanting to be there exploring it myself, rooting for the couple to fix the place up to great condition. That's how good the author's description of time and place is.
January 10, 2012
Hmm.... Well, not really my cup of tea. While it was a quick read and the time period is one I ususally enjoy, it was difficult to actually get through this one. Which is unfortunate, because I thought the ending conflict and twist was very good by itself, but the rather long and sometimes tiresome build up to that did not do much more me, and that very much outweighed the good bits towards the end.
June 14, 2008
didn't really like it. Almost not worth the bother to read. The back looked a lot more promising that it turned out to be. Very wishy washy SM, not a whole lot else. Could care less about the characters even at the end.
September 12, 2008
Story is different from most historicals. First, the newlywedyoung couple has sexual intercourse, then the story develops like a gothic thriller and the two of them find intimacy and love as they learn to work as a team to meet challenges.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews