Wild Cat

by Laura Black

Book is Like New. Bright clean dust jacket has light shelf and edge wear. Text is perfect. Same day shipping from AZ.

Genres: Romance, Gothic, Historical, Historical Romance, Suspense, Fiction, Romantic Suspense

384 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1979

About the author

Laura Black was a pseudonym used by Roger Erskine Longrigg, Domini Taylor. Other pseudonym's used were Frank Parrish and Ivor Drummond.

Born in Scotland in 1929, Roger Longrigg worked initially in advertising, which provided the inspiration for his first novel, A High Pitched Buzz first published in 1953. His love of writing saw him delve into many genre's using pen names of Laura Black, Rosalind Erskine, Megan Barker, Iver Drummond and Domini Taylor. The Black books show his prowess at historical fiction, with a dash of romance, set against striking Scottish backgrounds. Longrigg died on February 26th 2000, aged 70

Reviews

[Becky · Rating 3 out of 5]

Poor Catriona has a run of bad luck. Her father is whimsical, fluttering around from idea to idea inventing useless things, wasting their money, and reducing their once affluent and powerful family to rags. Her mother, who is ill and weak since giving birth to Cat, willingly and happily goes along for the ride. They are oblivious, but happy in their ignorance.

But Cat is not. She grew up spoiled and pampered and free, and living like a pauper doesn't suit her. She longs for her parents to be more responsible and mature, but they are set in their ways and are determined to do what makes them happy, oblivious to the world around them. Cat struggles to maintain the household, while all the while grudging her new status.

Enter Alexander, the handsome, fun, smart savior who rescues Cat after an accident, and then proceeds to woo her and her family by visiting, and showering them with gifts, paying off debts, investing in Dad's Next Big Idea, etc. Logically, things come around to love, and Cat agrees to marry Alex.

Enter Sir Richard, the pompous, rich tenant in her father's castle, who had once before offended Cat, to warn her away from her soon-to-be-groom, based on rumors that Alex can be quite vicious when drunk. Cat of course doesn't believe this for a second, and enlists the help of some nearby men to forcibly remove Richard from the area.

Unfortunately, Richard was correct, and after marrying Cat, Alex does a complete 180 and becomes a ruthless, cold-hearted sadist. Cat manages to escape her wedding night in one piece, and then embarks on a very harrowing journey to try to get away from him forever, because she knows that the punishment for her running away will be far worse than anything that she could imagine, and in the eyes of the law and the Church, she is his property and therefore is his to do with as he will. The law is on his side, and she has not a penny to her name.

This was an entertaining adventure, with a little hint of romance. The things that Cat endures are definitely not for the weak, and she is absolutely a survivor. Black does a good job writing the action, at times I was anxiously gnawing on my knuckles waiting to see what would happen, but she left the story a bit too predictable. At one point, there was reference to a certain thing three times in three paragraphs, which is pretty transparent as far as foreshadowing goes. One mention would be good: the reference is there, and we can promptly forget about it until the reveal comes, so then we're like "Ah ha! I see what you did there!". But three references makes me say, "I know where this is going."

I do have to say that a major issue I had with this book was the dialogue. Among the upper class and educated, there was no issue, but among the servants and the "common folk", the dialogue was barely understandable. I literally had to decipher what was being said word by word. Sometimes I could only get it by context or by Cat paraphrasing in her response, but others I was at a complete loss, and never did understand.
It interrupted the flow of the story, and while I get the impression that this was done for a number of reasons (as disguise for Cat, to show the distinction among the classes, and to give the reader an idea of how Scottish people sound) it was incredibly heavy handed and could have been toned down quite a lot and still have been effective.

Interestingly, there was a bit of commentary about homosexuality in the book, which I found odd, as it was likened to leprosy. This may or may not be true, but it baffles my modern sensibilities that people considered homosexuality an "evil disease" that could be spread, and the lengths that they would go through to avoid even seeing someone whom they thought was possibly gay. However, this is an oldish book, which is about a long ago time period. Experiencing intolerance like this in the pages of a book is a good way to remind ourselves how far we've come, and helps to prevent us from backsliding into ignorance and fear.

I would definitely recommend this book to anyone looking for a lighthearted adventure with a plucky heroine. I liked it quite a lot. :)

[bookjunkie · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. It was boring at the start. I confess I skimmed with glazed eyes over a good, I dunno, 15-20%. I thought I'd finish the whole book that way, another disappointing dud. It wasn't until the scene of the wedding night when Cat bashes her psychopath bridegroom over the head with a bottle and commences her escape that I started really reading. I was right there with her when she was hiding from the watchman in the dark, immense castle hall, edging around a suit of armor keeping it between them as he walked around searching. So tense!

I never returned to skimming after that. There was so much adventure! And believable pluck. She wasn't an amazing Mary Sue and she didn't do incredible things, but she did have guts and willpower. I did not like her at first, but after she became little stable-boy Jaikie Bogle instead of Lady Catriona, she was quite likable. Fact is, she was spoiled, haughty, blind, and way too proud for her own good at the start. I think that stubborn pride helped her make her escape once she found out what her new husband was really like, though, and once she crashed down from her stupid cloud she became a much better person, growing more aware of those around her and appreciating goodness in people.

Plot summary: Lady Cat's parents are loving but stupid and lose all their wealth. They have to sell their home to Sir Richard Grant and being impoverished grates on Cat's proud soul. Then she meets wealthy, gorgeous Lord Carnmore and accepts his proposal so she can be rich again. Sir Richard Grant tries to warn her that Carnmore's not as nice as he seems, but Cat's furious and resents Sir Richard anyway for owning her old home so she insults him terribly and has him thrown out onto his face in a mud puddle. She was a real bitch when he was so polite and trying to help her, I hated her at this point.

Then on their wedding night Carnmore shows he's a violent alcoholic sadist who despises her and loves hurting women, and he's making her kiss his feet and repeatedly kicking her, and getting a hot poker to brand her. She knocks him out cold with a bottle and then has a hell of a time trying to flee the castle, because he has all his servants posted around as if they all knew she would try to escape. She hacks off all her hair, makes a passable urchin disguise, and somehow manages to get away although it takes a whole night.

There are plenty of events in between, but eventually she ends up working in the stables for Sir Richard Grant's tenants. She gets a chance to revise her opinion of him and actually fall in love with him, and after an incident where he catches her when she falls, you can tell he's aware of her too, although he's horrified because he doesn't want to be gay for a little thief who's working in his stables as a punishment. After that he tries to avoid her and send her away.

The adventures culminate in a stormy, rainy castle-rooftop chase and Carnmore dies and Cat's identity is revealed and she marries Sir Richard. The ending was a bit quick (literally 4 pages), but sweet. I wish very much that there had been more romance, but this book was more adventure than romance. The scant bits of romance there were, though, were just to my liking. And, if you don't know by now, I'm a hardcore fan of girl-dressed-as-boy stories so I loved all the adventure.

One thing though: it took a frustrating amount of time to decipher the dialogue of the lower-class people in this book due to their heavy accents being written so damnably thick. Okay, I guess I did skim some of that, because no joke it was almost incomprehensible at times. There's a part that I liked that has a fair chunk of it:

Three hulking men in rough clothes were cooking a mess in a black iron pot over an open fire, on the open ground by the barrack. The smell might have made me hungry -I had not eaten for a day and a night- but I could not think of food without a heaving stomach.
I greeted the navvies with cautious respect. One of them made to cuff me. One offered me food. One swore and spat. Of course I was dirty and unkempt. I supposed I looked what I was- a runaway stable-lad.
"The auld folks," I said, "wha bided in yon house-"
"Awa'," said one of them shortly.
"Ay, an yon's an ill ploy, ye ken. The ault mon promissit's a siller shullin', when I ren tae bear a paircel frae the shop."
"Ye no' had the shullin', laddie?"
"No' a sicht o' ma shullin'! It's no' richt!"
The navvies believed me. They shook their heads. Life as they knew it was full of such betrayals. They sat me down, and gave me a mug of what they called tea, and gravely discussed my shilling.
Most girls of my age would have had hysterics, to hear the language they used.
They did not know where the old people had gone. They were not sure when they had gone- a week or two since, maybe a month. The navvies wanted to help me, but they could not. I was so moved by their goodwill, that I almost wept.
Worry and fright kept me near enough to tears. I did not want to weep. They would think I was crying over a lost shilling.
I did not want to weep, but into my head, for no reason that I knew, came the thought of Sir Richard Grant. My back tingled at the memory of his arms holding me, and my cheek tingled at the memory of his face pressed to mine. And I did weep.
And those rough workmen swore, and looked disgusted, and gave me pennies from their pockets -nine copper pence, to make up for the shilling I said I had been cheated of. I said I would not take their pennies, but with frightful and furious oaths they said that I would.
It came to me that the only people who had ever given me money were Sir Richard Grant and these three sullen navvies.

There's no problem understanding the dialogue of the upper-class, but after Cat goes fugitive there's so much of this thick brogue the reading goes way slower.

Overall I enjoyed this book very much. If there had been more romance and the beginning had been less dull, I might have even given it 5 stars; it really ticked a lot of my boxes.

*Edit: Whoaaa, I just saw that this was a male author using a female pseudonym. I dunno why it's blowing my mind, but it is. It felt like a female style, somehow... Well done, man, wow...

[Alex Ankarr · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun read - the way a ridiculously sugary birthday cake is fun to eat, 'til you start regretting it afterwards. Unwholesome, saccharine melodrama, slightly sickening, rather riveting.

[Mariah Wilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read this book a great many times and I love it just a little more each time.

[Daenerys Targaryen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am really surprised by the low ratings on this book. I guess this is one of those hidden gems. The book is slow going at first. I really loved the historical world building, the plight of a young wealthy girl - who fall on hard times and trying to meet ends meet. Her parents became her responsibility when she is still barely a teenager and she tries to pinch pennies to put food on the table.

The heroine is strong, resilient and I started rooting for her from the very beginning. Catriona is not your perfect heroine. She is angry, sad and upset with her lot in life. All of it makes her more realistic than the average heroine that you see in modern historical romances. She does the impossible and always tries to live by the principle - when life gives you a lemon make a lemonade with it. For those women out there who escaped domestic abuse this is a must read. You rarely find fictional books like this in modern times. I read somewhere that the author is a man who writes under a women's pseudonym. Not sure if that's what gave the no nonsense vibe in this book. May be we need more male authors in this genre. Down with the stereotypes!

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Suspenseful, romantic and elegantly written. Much more action, suspense and danger than in your average romance. I loved the heroine's wild spirit and mad skills for getting out of scrapes. She outdoes Spiderman on the climbing, sans superpowers.

[Allison Spurgeon · Rating 2 out of 5]

I enjoyed the general idea of the story but found it was really hard to get into. Longest 250 pages I've ever read.

[booklover · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF. Too dates.

[Jennivie]

I got this at either a garage sale or the thrift store. Hardcover. The art drew me in. It's sitting on my nightstand now after retrieving it from the box it has been in for half a decade. Hope to read it soon.

[Lisa Greer · Rating 2 out of 5]

Surprisingly good 80 pages in. :)

[Christine Ruste]

i found this book very romantic and full of adventure. the development of Catriona's character is very well done and the characters are delightful.

[Destiny · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have read this book so many times the spine and pages are falling apart. This book is like a delicious old friend that takes me on an adventure in which I know the ending but still hold my breath.