Дива илюзия

Savage #1

by Cassie Edwards

ВИДЕНИЯ НА СЪДБАТА

Джолена Едмъндс, индианка, отгледана от бели заселници, никога не е живяла сред своите хора. Но в сънищата й се явява един здрав и силен смелчага, който я изпълва с копнежи и страст. При едно пътуване през Монтана фантазиите на младата жена внезапно се превръщат в сладка реалност, когато среща смел воин на име Петнист орел. Изкушавана от желание, Джолена се отдава на страстта в силните прегръдки на Петнистия орел. Но един враг заплашва да ги раздели завинаги и да превърне тяхната любов в дива илюзия.

Genres: Romance, Historical Romance, Historical, Native American, Historical Fiction, Westerns

Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

Edwards began writing romances in 1982 and released her 100th novel, Savage Skies, on August 28, 2007. Although her earlier books were classic historical romances, the vast majority of her novels involve Native American tribes. Edwards's grandmother was a full-blooded Cheyenne. Her first 99 books sold a combined 10 million copies as of August 2007, with her more recent novels averaging sales of 250,000–350,000 copies.

Edwards has won the Romantic Times Lifetime Achievement Award and the Romantic Times Reviewer's Choice Award, as well as being named one of Affaire de Coeur's top ten favorite romance writers. Edwards has a reputation for meticulously researching the proper anthropological backgrounds of each tribe she writes about.

Edwards and her husband Charles, a retired high school biology teacher, have been married for over 50 years. They have two sons, Charles and Brian, and three grandchildren. The family lived in St. Louis, Missouri for over thirty years, but now reside in Mattoon, Illinois.

Reviews

[Lady Tea · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rating: 3.2 / 5

When a book feels like it's long, that's a pretty good indication that maybe I don't like it that much. In the case of Savage Illusion, such turns out to be the case, but not for the reasons I anticipated.
________

So, my preference for this genre is to have a white woman + Native American man pairing, as having that difference in races and cultures just makes for more interesting conflicts to overcome in getting the hero and heroine together. This is more interesting to me than the Native American woman + white man counterpart, perhaps because the former is not as common in history as the latter.

But anyway, that being said, I wasn't opposed to having both the hero and heroine be Native American, especially since the heroine was raised in a white community regardless. No, that was fine; but then, what wasn't fine about Jolena was how readily and easily she was willing to abandon her white upbringing, and with nary a glance back. Sure, she kept feeling "guilty" about it, but in reality she had pretty much no scruples about it. I mean, don't get me wrong, I thought that it was realistic for her to be curious about her own culture and to maybe even want to be a part of it, but it didn't make sense for her to go the whole hog for it right away.

Realistically speaking, there are two things that worked against Jolena's willingness to abandon everything:

1) the fact that it's not like her white family abused her or made her feel unwelcome or anything. No, they really didn't. Sure, they can be a bit overprotective of her, but that's a GOOD thing, and even if they have occasional squabbles, that's just what siblings do or what happens when personalities are different. It's not like Jolena was discriminated against, other than by some of her playmates when she was a kid; but then so, she grew up to literally be educated in her father's footsteps, so it's not like this discrimination made a Cinderella or her or anything. And,

3) the fact that she WAS raised a certain way pretty much her entire life (18 years) makes me think that, even if it's not her culture by skin colour or whatever, she wouldn't want to just cut ties with it and abandon it altogether to anything. She's used to having things a certain way, regardless of what her background is, and therefore there must be SOMETHING that she'd miss having! Like...if not her family--which, okay, let's pretend she'd be fine abandoning them even though they've done nothing wrong and never been mean to her or anything--then what about her education in studying butterflies, or any other desires or interests she may've cultivated while living in that world? Just saying: it would've and SHOULD'VE been harder to leave.
_________________

And that, more or less, is the biggest reason for why this book just didn't do it for me. I mean, sure, there are the usual things from Cassie Edwards--i.e. rushed writing, things progressing from one thing to another in a "tell-not-show" manner, but I'm kind of already used to that from this author, and it's not exactly a gamechanger. Therefore, the only reason I feel compelled to point out is the one that I've just done and...yeah, we'll leave it at that.

[Simona · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved that h left every part of her upbringing and scholarly passion in the "white men's world" to fully accept her role as a chief's wife of her people. Too many pages wasted on traditions and custom detailing as romance was resolved quite early. h's total dedication for H was the best part.

[Lover of Romance · Rating 5 out of 5]

This review may contain spoilers, so fair warning, upon reading the review. Also my tags may have spoilers in them so be forewarned before checking out full review.

Book Evaluation:
Plot: 🎞️🎞️🎞️🎞️🎞️
World Building:🌎🌎🌎🌎🌎
Cover:📔📔📔📔📔
Hero: 🦸🏻🦸🏻🦸🏻🦸🏻🦸🏻‍♂️
Heroine:🦸🏻‍♀️🦸🏻‍♀️🦸🏻‍♀️🦸🏻‍♀️🦸🏻‍♀️
Intimacy Level: 🔥🔥🔥
Relationship Building: 💒💒💒💒.5
Heart & Feels:💞💞💞💞💞
Witty/Banter/Reaction of Laughter: 😂😂😂😂
Page Turner Level:📖📖📖📖📖
Ending:🧧🧧🧧🧧🧧
Overall View: ✨✨✨✨✨



This book can be digitally found at Open Library

First Impressions
Savage Illusion is the first book in the Savage series by this author. I am not sure that these books are connected as from her authors note each book features a different tribe. I really fell so hard for this one. So quickly I was pulled into the story and I knew that this would be what I was looking for especially in a historical romance and its books like this that makes me fall hard for Native American romances. There is a rich tone of culture, resonating characters, a vibrant world aesthetic created and such deep emotion to curl your toes.

First Line
The bull train, consisting of four eigh-yoke teams, rawing twelve covered wagons, moved slowly throgh the wind blow tall buffalo grass, following the Yellowstone River that ran snake-like through the Montana Territory.

The Main Protagonists
The Hero: Spotted Eagle
The Heroine: Jolena (Fawn)

Summary
Jolena was taken in by a white family when her birth mother died giving birth to her and with no others of her tribe around, the Edmond family took her in and raised her as one of their own. But living in St. Louis, she always knew that she was different and she longed for something more that called to her heart and to her dreams....of a man she had been seeing for years and knew that he was her destiny. With her mother dead, and her father facing a difficult illness, she wants to go to the Montana Territory to find the illusive butterfly he has dreamed of.....,.but also to find her family and her people and connect with her heritage. While on the journey, their escorts through the territory....is where she meets Spotted Eagle and he is the man she has been dreaming of. Their love is bright and beautiful but it could be all destroyed by a twisted infatuation from another brave .....one that could tear them apart forever

What I Loved
This was such a powerful story and I didn't want to put it down. I had forgotten how much Cassie Edwards works for me. Unlilke many other authors who write such heartbreak involving these type of characters, its such romantic and easy going, its just a sweet romantic story with outer conflicts at times which I find refreshing. I love the way in which we see this story begin and flow together. It has a theme of a couple against the world in many ways. I loved how it was about a full Native American pairing, although the heroine was raised by a White family. The romance that develops between Jolena and Spotted Eagle was so sensual and deep. You can feel their connection so wonderfully. They don't fight the feelings that they have for each other. We do have two conflicts to their relationship. The betrayal of a fellow brave which also has family ties and the fact that Jolena's brother doesn't approve of their relationship even though he had to have known that this what the true goal of this trip. There is some great plot developments within this story that keeps you at the edge of your seat. I also adored the relationship that we see form between Jolena and her birth father especially as he is the first one she sees after being kidnapped and escaping. I was for the most part satisfied with the ending, I was a bit disheartened by some of the actions the brother took, but also considering that time I also am not shocked by it either. But I was hoping there would have been more closeness between the siblings. But this was just a personal preference here and I can see why the author put in the twist.

What I Struggled With
Nothing really. I just was hoping the brother would have made a better decision in the end there. But those that love this author, historical romance or want to delve into some Native American love ....this is a great one to choose from.

Overall View
Savage Illusion was a vibrant, heart stopping swoony romance that melted my heart and made me want to soar into the romantic clouds...... A TRUE KEEPER

Book Details (also in my shelves)
Sub Genre: Historical Romance
Time Era: American-Frontier
Character Types: Native American Hero (Future Chief), Scientist Heroine
Themes: Heart/Touching, Western
Tropes: Instant Love, Fated Love, Forced Proximity, Protector

Book Perspective
3rd POV

Relationship Conflict vs Plot Conflict
Plot

If you like these authors, I recommend This Book
Genell Dellin
Rosanne Bittner
Amy Sandas

Song This Book Inspires
Peace by Taylor Swift

Recommendation For Reading Order
You can read these as standalones

Steam/Spice Explanations

Simmering cup of tea---soft warm touches and light intimacy
Warmin' by the fire- a medium level of sexual tension, a balance of sexual and emotional intimacy, lighter on the details in the sexual moments.
Steamin' up the room -the sexual content is more explicit in the language and tone, heavier amount of sexual scenes.
Blazing fire to the building-The prime focus is the sex scenes, scorching hot, and could burn one. Less focus on the emotional intimacy to the relationship.

[Tamika · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Cassie Edwards books, but she seems to rotate around the same theme. White woman falls for Indian man. It was good to read a book with two Indians who fell in love. Even though the woman was raised it the white world, it was a refreshing change :)

[Andrea · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book and the other in the savage series, I recommend it for a great read!

[Austin Hogan · Rating 2 out of 5]

The premise is very unorthodox. Overall, a very strange, and mostly unbelievable steamy pile.

Maybe I am too logical to expect something sensible from a romance novel.

Some kind of scientific inquiry for a rare butterfly specimen seems absurd to those who do not obsess over the minuscule details of all god's creatures, so to speak.

So two groups who hate(d) each other, go catch butterflies and have sexual intercourse? Like what?

Seems to spawn from a very creative, albeit, only plausible, feminine imagination.

The plot is cute and almost believable.

It is a steamy drama with some action, pretty much every Hollywood Block-Buster ever.

I would not put it at the top of the book pile. However, it is a nice, quaint, and fictional storytelling of the cross-section between two cultures. It is more lovable than some action-roms, yet not by much.

It is a playful interpretation of history, with plenty of creative liberty.

I suppose it is a happy bridge between two historically adverse groups.

The writing was good enough, and the plot was silly, creative and dreamy, even if unusual or far-fetched.

It's a 1-read, although admissible.

If you enjoy steamy romance, and a western-american/native theme, this tragedy/feel-good rom-com is for you.

I could complain about the culture fetish, although it is better than the other thing as usual.

[Allison Ripley-Duggan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a riveting tale. I couldn’t put it down. I got so engrossed in the story that I actually felt like I was apart of the story. Cassie Edward’s has always been in my top 5 favourite authors. Her books never disappoint.

[Mari Jack · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favourite book by Cassie Edwards (so far). I loved that the characters were both Native American this time.

[Ami E. Bowen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this during my teen years when I was really into historical romance/bodice rippers. I remember really liking the main female character's name; Jolena. Five stars because I really liked it way back when. ^__^

Ms. Edwards was kind enough to answer my fan-mail, (back before everything was done with computers), with a nice Kodak snapshot signed for me and everything. I got this as a 'tween and saved it all these years.

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[J.W. Ellis]

I forgot how 90s romance novels were. but I still enjoyed it.

[Denise Koopman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Book 1 of 35 in the Savage series. Great book