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Paradise #1
Enchanted Paradise
PARADISE LOST
Aurora knew that she didn't belong with the elves who raised her, but was happy to live among the gentle creatures of the glade. It was not until she met Frayne that she understood her destiny was in his embrace. Frayne - magnificent warrior, reckless lover - the only man Aurora ever needed. The sight of his strong, muscular chest made her weak with longing, for once he awakened her to the joys of passion, she wanted to spend the rest of her nights with him alone!
PARADISE FOUND
Frayne's quest left him with little time for anything other than his search for the unicorn, yet he could not believe his good fortune when he first set eyes on the ravishingly beautiful Aurora. She was an innocent child on the brink of womanhood, and his desire for her pulsed through his body with burning fury. Her long raven hair was like silk to his touch; her ruby lips beckoned for his kiss. He knew he must possess her totally and have her by his side, so together they could share love's Enchanted Paradise
Aurora knew that she didn't belong with the elves who raised her, but was happy to live among the gentle creatures of the glade. It was not until she met Frayne that she understood her destiny was in his embrace. Frayne - magnificent warrior, reckless lover - the only man Aurora ever needed. The sight of his strong, muscular chest made her weak with longing, for once he awakened her to the joys of passion, she wanted to spend the rest of her nights with him alone!
PARADISE FOUND
Frayne's quest left him with little time for anything other than his search for the unicorn, yet he could not believe his good fortune when he first set eyes on the ravishingly beautiful Aurora. She was an innocent child on the brink of womanhood, and his desire for her pulsed through his body with burning fury. Her long raven hair was like silk to his touch; her ruby lips beckoned for his kiss. He knew he must possess her totally and have her by his side, so together they could share love's Enchanted Paradise
- GenresRomanceFantasy Romance
525 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 1985
5 people are currently reading
253 people want to read
About the author
Johanna Hailey
4 books8 followersThe writing team of Marcia Yvonne Howl & Sharon Jarvis.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
March 17, 2018
Look at this magnificent pastel cover. This, along with the elves and unicorns, is what drew me to the book. Slap a unicorn on a paperback from the 80s and I want to read it. I had to interlibrary loan this book from New Mexico due to the exorbitant cost of a used paperback copy.
The concept of a character raised in the wild, among animals, is one of my favorites. I enjoyed reading about Anduan/Aurora's life after she was orphaned in infancy. I would have liked more of it. I was pleasantly surprised by the appearance of a lesbian couple - the dryads Anduan calls her "mother-pair." It's rare to find positive depictions of same-sex couples in old romance novels.
Within 50 pages, Anduan/Aurora had already met and bedded the hero, Frayne, a knight on a quest for a unicorn horn. As is often the case with romance novels from the 80s, I didn't care for him. He was too elusive, too mercurial, and frankly an asshole. He didn't bring out the best in her. I grew tired of their bickering. She got along much better with the other characters she met along her journey, but was powerfully attracted to Frayne. For the life of me I could not see his appeal. He seemed to have zero respect for her, and he definitely didn't treat her as an equal. But again, this was written in the 80s, so I'm not especially surprised by that.
I would classify this as fantasy over romance, despite the clinching cover. There were elves, gnomes, unicorns, dryads, shapeshifters, sorcerers, giants, gods, moon cults, invented languages and more, and the romance itself was lackluster. I'm not sure yet if I'll continue the series.
One last thing: Anduan/Aurora's "gurgling" laughter. The phrase was used at least six times and it reminded me of infant giggles, which is the last thing I want in a heroine.
The concept of a character raised in the wild, among animals, is one of my favorites. I enjoyed reading about Anduan/Aurora's life after she was orphaned in infancy. I would have liked more of it. I was pleasantly surprised by the appearance of a lesbian couple - the dryads Anduan calls her "mother-pair." It's rare to find positive depictions of same-sex couples in old romance novels.
Within 50 pages, Anduan/Aurora had already met and bedded the hero, Frayne, a knight on a quest for a unicorn horn. As is often the case with romance novels from the 80s, I didn't care for him. He was too elusive, too mercurial, and frankly an asshole. He didn't bring out the best in her. I grew tired of their bickering. She got along much better with the other characters she met along her journey, but was powerfully attracted to Frayne. For the life of me I could not see his appeal. He seemed to have zero respect for her, and he definitely didn't treat her as an equal. But again, this was written in the 80s, so I'm not especially surprised by that.
I would classify this as fantasy over romance, despite the clinching cover. There were elves, gnomes, unicorns, dryads, shapeshifters, sorcerers, giants, gods, moon cults, invented languages and more, and the romance itself was lackluster. I'm not sure yet if I'll continue the series.
One last thing: Anduan/Aurora's "gurgling" laughter. The phrase was used at least six times and it reminded me of infant giggles, which is the last thing I want in a heroine.
January 26, 2022
This book sold itself to me because it had a gorgeous Pino Daeni cover with a unicorn. A fantasy romance! Written in the ‘80s! With a unicorn!! What could be better?
Well, I could tell you what could be better. This book.
This book could be summed up as a cross between a lackluster Dungeons & Dragons campaign and a third-tier Marvel movie. It is 100% set-up for the sequels (it’s a trilogy). There’s not even a happy ending for the main couple. It’s frustrating.
The heroine is named Aurora and she’s raised by elves in some enchanted forest (they’re not cool Tolkien elves, they’re more like… Keebler elves). She meets this hunky blond knight, described to look exactly like Rutger Hauer, falls in lust with him, and has sex with him on page 40. This guy, named Frayne, is looking for a unicorn horn on behalf of some evil sorceress (but we don’t meet her—I guess she’s saved for the sequels). He’s an asshole. He smirks, he drawls, he is constantly belittling her. I don’t think he even likes her. But we are treated to page after page of description of how hot he is. I guess he’s supposed to be tortured and have a dark side, but he just comes across as a chad and a douchebag.
Aurora and Frayne go off looking for the unicorn horn, but the plot moves very… slowly. They wander in the woods for half the book, and a lot of the plotting feels like it was generated from Random Encounter Tables. They’re abducted by gnomes! They run into a moon incest cult!
At one point Aurora befriends a young magician who falls in love with her, even after she helps kill his evil wizard grandpa (who has the ridiculous name of Grim). This guy—who is named Crane, which rhymes with Frayne, which isn’t confusing AT ALL—makes a much more interesting hero than Frayne, because Crane and Aurora actually have what passes for normal conversations in this world, they have stuff in common—they’re interested in magic—and he actually seems to like her. But no, he’s less good-looking than the god-like Frayne, she sees him as only a friend, and he has red hair. Horrors!
It’s just the most clichéd bullshit, straight out of an incel subReddit. The girl runs after the asshole chad guy, leaving behind the virgin who’s too nice for her. It’s insulting. Anyway, Frayne even comes across as a dick even after the encounter with the incest king, which is quite a trick.
Blah blah blah, there’s more wandering, more random encounters, more infodumps in what passes for worldbuilding in this book. (It’s not very good fantasy worldbuilding either. It’s boringly Manichaean, with a good god called THE ONE and an evil god called Dred.) In the most annoying plotting move ever, the unicorn doesn’t even show up! The unicorn horn is a giant McGuffin. After Frayne has ditched her, Aurora discovers her She-Ra powers by finding another magical McGuffin, zapping the bad guys who are attacking her friends. At the end of the book—SPOILERS— she and Crane end up together in the cottage of his mentor, but she’s still mooning over Frayne (who deserted her) and she’s making plans to find him again and impress him with all the magic she’s going to learn!
I’m like… why. Why. Girl, he doesn’t even like you.
This book was ambitious, and looong—almost 150,000 words!— but it does not work on any level. ENCHANTED PARADISE tries to be an epic fantasy and a romance, but it doesn’t succeed at being either. It also has a weirdly juvenile tone which clashes with its attempts to be dark and epic, and often comes across as kind of puerile and gross (the moon-cult incest king and his various interfamilial love affairs, or the elven curses that involve bestiality and rape, which are treated like some kind of joke). The whole thing is a trainwreck, but at least… at least?... it’s amusingly bad, like one of the movies MST3k would riff on, rather than something genuinely offensive and racist, like some other books I’ve reviewed. This is just inane, and there are some good ideas buried in it (I like the relationship between Aurora and Crane), but they are sorely underdeveloped.
Out of curiosity, I’ll see what happens in the sequels, but I don’t have high expectations for them. Well, at least the cover artwork will be pretty!
Well, I could tell you what could be better. This book.
This book could be summed up as a cross between a lackluster Dungeons & Dragons campaign and a third-tier Marvel movie. It is 100% set-up for the sequels (it’s a trilogy). There’s not even a happy ending for the main couple. It’s frustrating.
The heroine is named Aurora and she’s raised by elves in some enchanted forest (they’re not cool Tolkien elves, they’re more like… Keebler elves). She meets this hunky blond knight, described to look exactly like Rutger Hauer, falls in lust with him, and has sex with him on page 40. This guy, named Frayne, is looking for a unicorn horn on behalf of some evil sorceress (but we don’t meet her—I guess she’s saved for the sequels). He’s an asshole. He smirks, he drawls, he is constantly belittling her. I don’t think he even likes her. But we are treated to page after page of description of how hot he is. I guess he’s supposed to be tortured and have a dark side, but he just comes across as a chad and a douchebag.
Aurora and Frayne go off looking for the unicorn horn, but the plot moves very… slowly. They wander in the woods for half the book, and a lot of the plotting feels like it was generated from Random Encounter Tables. They’re abducted by gnomes! They run into a moon incest cult!
At one point Aurora befriends a young magician who falls in love with her, even after she helps kill his evil wizard grandpa (who has the ridiculous name of Grim). This guy—who is named Crane, which rhymes with Frayne, which isn’t confusing AT ALL—makes a much more interesting hero than Frayne, because Crane and Aurora actually have what passes for normal conversations in this world, they have stuff in common—they’re interested in magic—and he actually seems to like her. But no, he’s less good-looking than the god-like Frayne, she sees him as only a friend, and he has red hair. Horrors!
It’s just the most clichéd bullshit, straight out of an incel subReddit. The girl runs after the asshole chad guy, leaving behind the virgin who’s too nice for her. It’s insulting. Anyway, Frayne even comes across as a dick even after the encounter with the incest king, which is quite a trick.
Blah blah blah, there’s more wandering, more random encounters, more infodumps in what passes for worldbuilding in this book. (It’s not very good fantasy worldbuilding either. It’s boringly Manichaean, with a good god called THE ONE and an evil god called Dred.) In the most annoying plotting move ever, the unicorn doesn’t even show up! The unicorn horn is a giant McGuffin. After Frayne has ditched her, Aurora discovers her She-Ra powers by finding another magical McGuffin, zapping the bad guys who are attacking her friends. At the end of the book—SPOILERS— she and Crane end up together in the cottage of his mentor, but she’s still mooning over Frayne (who deserted her) and she’s making plans to find him again and impress him with all the magic she’s going to learn!
I’m like… why. Why. Girl, he doesn’t even like you.
This book was ambitious, and looong—almost 150,000 words!— but it does not work on any level. ENCHANTED PARADISE tries to be an epic fantasy and a romance, but it doesn’t succeed at being either. It also has a weirdly juvenile tone which clashes with its attempts to be dark and epic, and often comes across as kind of puerile and gross (the moon-cult incest king and his various interfamilial love affairs, or the elven curses that involve bestiality and rape, which are treated like some kind of joke). The whole thing is a trainwreck, but at least… at least?... it’s amusingly bad, like one of the movies MST3k would riff on, rather than something genuinely offensive and racist, like some other books I’ve reviewed. This is just inane, and there are some good ideas buried in it (I like the relationship between Aurora and Crane), but they are sorely underdeveloped.
Out of curiosity, I’ll see what happens in the sequels, but I don’t have high expectations for them. Well, at least the cover artwork will be pretty!
Read
June 26, 2024I am not nearly high enough to read this book.
June 18, 2025
ENCHANTED PARADISE has been on my to-read list for a while ever since I saw it featured on a blog celebrating beautiful covers. It was like something out of a Lisa Frank-themed porno shoot and I knew I had to have it. But at the time, copies of it were prohibitively expensive and I despaired of every getting a copy of it, just like the other two books on my wishlist: STORMFIRE and THE SILVER DEVIL.
Then, I ended up getting a copy of it in a lot of books I had purchased in bulk! But tragedy of tragedies: my copy was badly water-damaged and infected with spots of blue mold. The beautiful Pino Daeni cover was also scratched and creased. I wanted to cry. Since I don't keep moldy books in the house, I stored it outside, where I've been reading it ever since. Because even though my copy wasn't safe to keep (*sob* *sniff* *sob*), I really did want to find out what happened.
This book-- it's so bad it's good. Some books are bad-bad, but reading this book made me nostalgic for all the trashy fantasy books I read as a kid. Books about faeries and unicorns and gnomes, where the good people are always good and the bad people are always bad. The book starts out with two elves witnessing the murder of a beautiful woman with a newborn at the hands of dark knights. The baby is rescued by the elves and raised at their own, and they name her Anduan, which means foundling.
Anduan, now eighteen, meets a hot dude in the woods in a naked bathing meet-cute. They bang before page fifty, and spend a couple weeks fucking, enough time to learn his language. That's when she finds out that he's in the employ of an evil sorceress and comes from a land named Tor. His name is Frayne and he's a knight (an evil knight? HMMMM) searching for a unicorn horn. The elves don't want him tramping around and ruining their shit, so Anduan-- who renames herself Aurora-- tasks herself with leading him to the unicorn, since being raised by elves means that she knows the old tongue.
It's worth noting that this is book one in a trilogy and it's mostly all set-up. There's no real satisfying conclusion or HEA. Imagine picking this up in the '80s and finding out that you don't even get a solid ending. I'd be so pissed lmao. This book is also purple-prosey as fuck. Similar authors are Rebecca Brandewyne and Bertrice Small, except, you know, this is way less WTFy. Actually, it's surprisingly woke for the time. Anduan/Aurora is raised by these elves that seem to be coded as lesbians. So she literally has two moms. Also the elves are funny. There's these things called Droonish curses, and when the sorceress's baddies track Frayne to the glade, one of the elves, Gleb, curses one of them to have a mare's backside and the other, a stallion's tool. Also they're horny. OHHHHH SHIT.
The rest of the adventure is a little slow-going with Frayne and Aurora bickering back and forth, but Aurora takes care of herself and does a lot of the rescuing. It was actually pretty refreshing to read a book where the hero is the one who repeatedly gets his ass hauled out of danger. My favorite part of the book was when they go to a place called "Krim's Keep," which is a sinister castle lorded over by an evil wizard who wants to bang the heroine. He sends his grandson, Crane, to try to fuck her while wearing the face of the hero, Frayne, but she only just barely sees through his disguise. It's a castle filled with illusions, and a monster that's part jaguar called the Asgeroth haunts the halls. Holy shit did this part ever feel gothic as fuck, and you can bet I loved every second of it.
After they escape, they encounter a mostly tribe of naked would-be-total-racist-stereotypes-if-they-weren't-blonde-and-white warrior people called the Shintari. Where, YOU GUESSED IT, the king wants to bang the heroine. But his jealous incest wife wants to bang the king, and she calls blasphemy, so it requires judgment from a god to determine whether she gets to live. And THEN they have a run-in with a vampire who YOU GUESSED IT, wants to fuck the heroine. And drink her blood. After that, they run into a bunch of asshole gnomes who lead them to a bunch of flesh-eating giants. And then...
THE NOT-ENDING.
So overall, I have to say that I did a lot of skimming. The purple prose is about a 9/10. I also didn't really feel the chemistry between the hero and heroine. He's one of those cold and icy dudes who says things like "little fool" and constantly treats her mean to keep her keen. But I also felt like there was something else going on beneath the surface. It almost made me think of The Snow Queen, which makes me wonder if maybe his sorceress has put a spell on his heart to keep him loyal. That's my theory, anyway. Aurora was also a pretty strong heroine. Was she a Mary Sue? Yes. But she was a Mary Sue who didn't take any shit and owned her sexuality, and the talking with animals thing was cool. I also liked that she was illiterate and that learning to read became her goal at the end of the book, so she could learn more spells and knowledge and stuff.
I made fun of this book for all 525 pages, but I already ordered books two and three so I guess that makes me a clown. If there were more dark and creepy moments like the evil castle and the vampire of the hot spring, I probably would have given this a four. Especially if there were some decent sexual tension.
3 stars
Then, I ended up getting a copy of it in a lot of books I had purchased in bulk! But tragedy of tragedies: my copy was badly water-damaged and infected with spots of blue mold. The beautiful Pino Daeni cover was also scratched and creased. I wanted to cry. Since I don't keep moldy books in the house, I stored it outside, where I've been reading it ever since. Because even though my copy wasn't safe to keep (*sob* *sniff* *sob*), I really did want to find out what happened.
This book-- it's so bad it's good. Some books are bad-bad, but reading this book made me nostalgic for all the trashy fantasy books I read as a kid. Books about faeries and unicorns and gnomes, where the good people are always good and the bad people are always bad. The book starts out with two elves witnessing the murder of a beautiful woman with a newborn at the hands of dark knights. The baby is rescued by the elves and raised at their own, and they name her Anduan, which means foundling.
Anduan, now eighteen, meets a hot dude in the woods in a naked bathing meet-cute. They bang before page fifty, and spend a couple weeks fucking, enough time to learn his language. That's when she finds out that he's in the employ of an evil sorceress and comes from a land named Tor. His name is Frayne and he's a knight (an evil knight? HMMMM) searching for a unicorn horn. The elves don't want him tramping around and ruining their shit, so Anduan-- who renames herself Aurora-- tasks herself with leading him to the unicorn, since being raised by elves means that she knows the old tongue.
It's worth noting that this is book one in a trilogy and it's mostly all set-up. There's no real satisfying conclusion or HEA. Imagine picking this up in the '80s and finding out that you don't even get a solid ending. I'd be so pissed lmao. This book is also purple-prosey as fuck. Similar authors are Rebecca Brandewyne and Bertrice Small, except, you know, this is way less WTFy. Actually, it's surprisingly woke for the time. Anduan/Aurora is raised by these elves that seem to be coded as lesbians. So she literally has two moms. Also the elves are funny. There's these things called Droonish curses, and when the sorceress's baddies track Frayne to the glade, one of the elves, Gleb, curses one of them to have a mare's backside and the other, a stallion's tool. Also they're horny. OHHHHH SHIT.
The rest of the adventure is a little slow-going with Frayne and Aurora bickering back and forth, but Aurora takes care of herself and does a lot of the rescuing. It was actually pretty refreshing to read a book where the hero is the one who repeatedly gets his ass hauled out of danger. My favorite part of the book was when they go to a place called "Krim's Keep," which is a sinister castle lorded over by an evil wizard who wants to bang the heroine. He sends his grandson, Crane, to try to fuck her while wearing the face of the hero, Frayne, but she only just barely sees through his disguise. It's a castle filled with illusions, and a monster that's part jaguar called the Asgeroth haunts the halls. Holy shit did this part ever feel gothic as fuck, and you can bet I loved every second of it.
After they escape, they encounter a mostly tribe of naked would-be-total-racist-stereotypes-if-they-weren't-blonde-and-white warrior people called the Shintari. Where, YOU GUESSED IT, the king wants to bang the heroine. But his jealous incest wife wants to bang the king, and she calls blasphemy, so it requires judgment from a god to determine whether she gets to live. And THEN they have a run-in with a vampire who YOU GUESSED IT, wants to fuck the heroine. And drink her blood. After that, they run into a bunch of asshole gnomes who lead them to a bunch of flesh-eating giants. And then...
THE NOT-ENDING.
So overall, I have to say that I did a lot of skimming. The purple prose is about a 9/10. I also didn't really feel the chemistry between the hero and heroine. He's one of those cold and icy dudes who says things like "little fool" and constantly treats her mean to keep her keen. But I also felt like there was something else going on beneath the surface. It almost made me think of The Snow Queen, which makes me wonder if maybe his sorceress has put a spell on his heart to keep him loyal. That's my theory, anyway. Aurora was also a pretty strong heroine. Was she a Mary Sue? Yes. But she was a Mary Sue who didn't take any shit and owned her sexuality, and the talking with animals thing was cool. I also liked that she was illiterate and that learning to read became her goal at the end of the book, so she could learn more spells and knowledge and stuff.
I made fun of this book for all 525 pages, but I already ordered books two and three so I guess that makes me a clown. If there were more dark and creepy moments like the evil castle and the vampire of the hot spring, I probably would have given this a four. Especially if there were some decent sexual tension.
3 stars
Want to read
July 22, 2020I will probably never read this especially since it is a fantasy romance from the 80s and is out of circulation. I had to mark it to remember because the cover is fabulous with the bodice ripping, pastel, and the unicorn. I am getting naughty Lisa Frank vibes.
July 31, 2010
I loved her books! Now she'd be considered paranormal, with her blend of fantasy and romance. The fantasy elements were well done and original.
December 16, 2022
Horrible. You know that 10–13-year-old girl who loves fairies, princesses, unicorns, etc. It's like an adult wrote from that point of view, but with adult scenes. This is definitely not a slow burn romance. The heroine is a stupid twit. The hero is this gorgeous man who treats her like if she's a silly girl whose sole purpose is to show him where the unicorn horn is and to give him bedroom relief.
Read
August 22, 2021I tried. I really did. But around chapter 5 I looked at the remaining 90% or so (its effing long) and the idea of slogging through hundreds of pages of bickering and the main characters being mean to one another and ridiculous "passionate embraces" I just couldn't. And the next two books are the same characters!! How is that even possible?!?
DNF for now because I own it.
DNF for now because I own it.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews