Love, Honor and Betray

by Elizabeth Kary

During the tumultuous times of the War of 1812, Charlotte Beckwith, a fiesty American patriot, and Seth Porterfield, the bastard son of a British Duke, forge a new life together

Genres: Romance, Historical Romance, Historical

649 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1986

About the author

Elizabeth Kary (aka Elizabeth Grayson) has had a lifelong love affair with writing. She published her first poem in fourth grade, and finished an historical novel at fifteen. She wrote through college and graduate school, wrote through twelve years of teaching art in New York State, and nine years of supervising children's classes at the St. Louis Art Museum.

In 1986 Berkley Books released her first historical novel, LOVE, HONOR AND BETRAY, which went on to win the Waldenbook Award for "Best-selling Romance by a New Author".

Kary delights in telling rich, romantic stories set on the American frontier, for which she garnered a Romantic Times Career Achievement Award. Her most recently published book, MOON IN THE WATER, was a finalist for the Romance Writers of America 2005 Rita Award and was named to the honors list for the prestigious Willa Literary Award.

Her first contemporary novel, A SIMPLE GIFT, written under the name Karyn Witmer, is a Literary Guild Featured Alternate and will be in bookstores in September 2006.

When deadlines permit, Kary teaches writing classes at her local Community College. She divides her time between homes in St. Louis, Missouri and Monterey, California.

Reviews

[Keslie O'Rear]

Before I begin I have a quick disclaimer when I jump into a romance novel from the "bodice ripper" era I look at it like a movie that is so bad it's good. All these books need to do for me is be fun and entertaining. This book stopped being fun on page 426, so I dropped it. However, I still have some thoughts.

Elizabeth Kary's LOVE, HONOR, AND BETRAY opens just days before the start of The War of 1812. Our heroine is Charlotte Beckwith, aka Charl is the "feisty and independent" only child of a local General store owner. To be quite honest, she's the most sympathetic character in this whole book, and while she had a few too stupid to live moments I actually liked her enough to believe she deserved a lot better than our "hero", Seth Porterfield. From this point on I'll call him Alphahole cause that's what he is.

Now Alphahole is an American spy(although he's British, it barely makes sense in context) and he's coming back to America, specifically Youngtown, NY from Quebec to talk meet with some local soldiers about the upcoming war as his 100%, totally last mission before he retires into a quiet life in Canada. While he's in America he'll be staying with Charl's father and so he goes to a tavern to meet him.

Instead of meeting with her father though, he meets with Charl because our lovers need to meet within the first couple pages of the book. Naturally, pants feelings happen immediately and Alphahole tries to flirt with her, but because she's so independent she doesn't fall for his sweet talk and they argue instead. Brilliant start to a healthy relationship that will surely last for years, am I right?

Anyways, after his encounter with Charl, Alphahole goes to the meeting and tells everyone there, including Charl's father that they really need to tread carefully because the British have all the advantages. Well, that's not what the men wanted to hear. They're red-blooded Americans after all and they just whooped the British back in 1776 and so Charl's father accuses him of being a British spy, as you do. Somehow, Alphahole thinks the way they reacted is totally Charl's fault, so late that night while Charl's father is out he forcibly kisses her, cause that totally makes sense. I think his goal was to embarrass her, but she's so pure that she really doesn't get what he's doing and gets aroused by the kiss, which was pretty hilarious honestly. What's even funnier is that Alphahole then flees from the room after he kisses her because he also has no idea what's going on which just confuses Charl more, and she's like "Hmm that was weird, but since I don't understand it I may as well go to bed now" and the scene just ends. I was practically rolling.

The story then cuts to the next morning and Alphahole reports what happened to his boss, who then proceeds to blackmail him into yet another totally last mission involving getting some secret battle reports from Quebec to America. Alphahole's boss also says he should totally lean into the whole British spy thing so his mission remains extra super-secret (nevermind the fact that he'll eventually get back to America with the papers and you know not to get arrested for treason).

After that, the only things of note that happened in the beginning part of the novel is that the Hero and heroine bone for the first time, everything thing else in the hundred or so pages of set-up were just pointless subplots that didn't go anywhere(at least as far as I read). I honestly got a little bored and then the hero tries to leave Youngtown.

Charl of course catches him after the whole he's a British spy rumor spreads. She's also not a small girl, she's tall for a woman and isn't that easy to incapacitate. Eventually, she even stabs Alpahahole in the arm with a freaking pitchfork. Now, the logical things for Alphahole to do here just to tell her the truth and ask her to keep his mission a secret, but our hero is not logical. Instead, he knocks her out(with quite a bit of effort, I might add) and kidnaps her. Initially, he just plans to use her as a hostage to get a ferry to cross the river and then leave her in America, which was slightly more logical, but then he starts listening to his pants feelings and decides that he may as well drag Charl to Quebec, as you do.

This is the point where I really started to have a good time with this book and wanted to finish it. The leads exchanged fun banter, Charl made some clever escape attempts, hilarious melodrama ensued, some fun side characters were introduced and Alphahole even had some halfway redeemable moments. I even started to root for the two of them a little but then the book hit the midpoint.

At this point in the novel, a villain by the name of Felix St. James had been mentioned quite a few times, but not properly introduced. Basically, he killed Alphahole's uncle(who he looked at as a mentor) and all his uncles' heirs because he's evil basically and intends to kill Alphahole as well. He comes into the story after a misunderstanding(mostly based on the fact that despite their closeness, Alphahole refuses to tell Charl anything about his spying "for her safety", cause that always works) that led Charl to believe that Alphahole never intends to take her home. In a desperate attempt to get home while Alphahole is gone Charl approaches Felix for help on the advice of one of the side characters(the side character doesn't know Felix's true nature). Now, I didn't ragequit the book at this point, but after this point, the book went in a weirdly dark direction. You see Felix is instantly attracted to Charl in the way only a true mustache-twirling villain can want a romance novel heroine and immediately begins to plot how he can "possess her and get her in his bed" and his first attempt to do that is to take her back to Youngtown on his boat, by herself, so yeah.

It was at this point that I started to get uncomfortable and not in a fun way. Thankfully, his first evil plan fails because when Alphahole comes back The misunderstanding is cleared up and the two lovebirds finally understand that the strange emotions they've been feeling are totally true love and not just general lust. They have great sex, Alphahole proposes and Charl agrees to stay with him. As soon as Alpahhole finishes his one last mission they'll live happily ever after!

As you might expect, things don't go as planned mostly because Alphahole still won't tell Charl about his spying. Despite this, he still uses her to bribe his contact to give him the papers. You see, the contact is a woman who has a weakness for jewels, so he takes Charl to a ball wearing a necklace he intends to exchange for the papers. The woman accepts the bribe and gives him the papers. Later, Alphahole takes the papers back home with him. Charl sees him hide them, but instead of you know asking about them, she's like "I know he's a British spy already, but as his future wife I should just let him keep his secrets. It's not like they have anything to do with me or anything, heck if he puts my family in danger I'll just side with him anyways" (this is almost an exact quote) . This is Charl's first too stupid to live moment.

Another person who does know about the papers though is Felix since he works as a government official. He also suspects Alphahole is a spy, but can't prove it. Eventually, he learns that Alphahole's contact had the papers at one point and interrogates her, but she kills herself before she reveals anything damning(like I said this book gets dark). However, Felix does find the necklace, and since he was at the ball and saw Charl wearing it he traces it back to Alphahole.

Some more stuff happens, the only important one being a secret baby that of course, Charl won't tell Alphahole about. Their happiness comes tumbling down once more when Felix finds enough circumstantial evidence to arrest Alphahole. This naturally shocks Charl to her very core, but as always no one will tell her anything, so she goes to Felix to ask about the arrest, even though Alphahole has warned her that he's a liar. Felix of course says he'll tell Charl everything she needs to know if she'd just stop by his apartment later that night. He doesn't tell her to come alone, but she goes to his house by herself because she assumes he'll want sexual favors in return and that's the only way she sees to save Alphahole. At the end of the meeting though she refuses to give him what he wants and tries to leave. Felix then offers her a drink before she goes. This is too stupid to live moment number two. As you might suspect, the drink was drugged and while what happens after that is off-screen, she wakes up naked and her reaction is to feel unclean and dirty. Felix makes it worse by saying how great she was in bed the night before and lets her leave.

At this point, I'm no longer having fun, but I still want to see what happens and continue reading . The book then cuts back to Alphahole in jail and Felix tells him that Charl totally willingly told him everything about the papers and by the way she also slept with him. For some strange reason, even though his arch enemy is telling him this, an enemy he knows lies and manipulates, he believes him. To make things worse Felix then brings Charl and Alphahole tells her everything that just happened all the while calling her awful names that eventually bring her to tears. Desperately, she tries to explain that she has no idea what's going on and doesn't even remember what happened the night before, but Alphahole still believes the arch enemy he knows he can't trust over the future wife he was beginning to trust. HE EVEN SAYS HE DOESN'T KNOW WHY HE BELIEVES HIS ENEMY OVER HER BUT CONTINUES TO BELIEVE CHARL BETRAYED HIM ANYWAYS!

I really, really, really hate this trope, especially in cases like this where it's far too obvious that the author simply didn't know how to keep the conflict going. I almost dropped the book here but continued after I assured myself that it was still a romance novel and this misunderstanding would be cleared up soon. Boy was I wrong.

In the very next scene, Charl goes back to Felix to try and wrap her head around what she just found out. He once again takes her to his apartment and she still goes with him even though she blacked out there the previous night! This is her final too stupid to live moment.

Inside, in true villain fashion, he tells Charl his entire evil plan and then locks her in a room in his house. The next day he tortures Alphahole and then has his way with Charl after his done. The grisly parts are off-screen, but the implications speak volumes. The only reason I was still reading at this point was that I thought that surely Alphahole would escape and rescue Charl. The first part proved true, but he is so damaged from Charl's "betrayal" and the torture that he.s just taken home after he's rescued.

The story then cuts back to Charl and Felix tricks her into believing Alphahole is dead and leaves. She considers freaking suicide until she feels Alpahahole's baby move and that gives her a reason to live. She also decides that for the baby's safety she'll submit to Felix's demands until she can escape.

I read enough romance novels to know that the rest of the story was going to go in one of two directions:

A. Charl is rescued before she has to spend too much time in the Villain's clutches and then she and Alphahole would slowly build back their trust better and stronger than ever.

B. She'd be in the villain's clutches for weeks until she escapes on her own and reunites with the hero. The hero's response will consist of victim-blaming and judgment.

To find out which direction the story would go I skimmed ahead and when I found out that the story was going to go with option B I had to put the book down. Like I said in my disclaimer, I'm very forgiving of the more problematic tropes of bodice rippers, but when a hero pulls the kinda crap I mentioned in option B, it makes him irredeemable in my eyes, and thus the book is no longer fun. It's that reason that I dropped the book.

[Misfit]

I am bored. Going to put it aside and try another day.

[ANGELIA · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is one of those regrettable novels, that had so much potential, but didn't live up to it. (Or you could say, a good idea but poorly executed.) That's especially regretful, since the story takes place during one of my favorite time periods: the War of 1812. There was historical detail, as well as an espionage plot, but it wasn't enough to save things. There were way too many misunderstandings, lack of trust, separations, and false accusations between the H and h, not to mention too much time spent in other people's beds. The book went on way too long (it could have been a good 200 pages less) and there were pages ad nauseum of descriptions, that could have been done in a few paragraphs.

There was one thing that set this apart from a lot of HR books: the fact that it was the H who had major trust issues (though the h had hers, as well). as well as a stubborn refusal to listen to explanations. More often, it's the h who jumps to the wrong conclusions, and won't listen to reason. And this H sure went overboard, actually believing the OM/Villain, instead of the woman he claimed to love. He knew from the start that this guy was no good, yet he just took his word at face value. Can you get any dumber?

Unless it's the h, who's forced to go to Mr. Horrible to try and help the H. She knows the guy's been wanting to get her in bed, yet while alone in his house with him, she accepts a drink, never even suspecting that it might be spiked. Small wonder, she finds herself the next morning in his bed, naked, while he makes his gloating comments.

She ends up (long story) being this creep's mistress, then escapes to a Native American tribe and becomes a brave's second wife (his first is willing to share), then ends up being blackmailed into yet another relationship (though never forgetting the H). Meanwhile, the H has casual hookups and tries to convince himself the h means nothing to him.

But perhaps the most ridiculous part, is when (between her second and third OM) the H and h are reunited for a time, and then he takes part in the war, is reported killed, and lets her go on believing that while he leaves the country to settle his estate in England! He decides she'd be happier without him, and they should both make new lives for themselves. She doesn't get a vote. (Since women couldn't vote back then, I guess that makes sense?) Again, this is a switch, as it's usually the h who makes the decision to leave, and then sets sail for another country and a long separation. No matter who does it, it sucks. And in this case, she had already thought once before that he died and was miserable, so for him to deliberately put her through that again was really crummy.

Need I say more about this book? I think not.

[Jerry Jares · Rating 2 out of 5]

As I understand things, authors sometimes take up a pseudonym when they want to write a book that is significantly different from what their readers expect of them. A case in point is LOVE, HONOR AND BETRAY.

Elizabeth Grayson has written a number of interesting and delightful books under her own name (PAINTED BY THE SUN; COLOR OF THE WIND, etc.). She was wise to use a pseudonym because this book is nothing like the other books.

I doubt that I could explain this book (of 649 pages!) in less than 5 pages, single spaced and that's not a good thing! Thinking that I was missing the point of this story, I searched the Internet for other reviews of this book; I found two.

One reader's review included this telling sentence, The story - or, rather, the hero, if you want to be specific - hit the Brick Wall of Logic on page 143. Amazing! I turned to that page and found that she had cited the exact place I'd found the story go awry. Things that happened after that significant event made the rest of the story less credible.

Anything I might say about the activities in this book would spoil it for others; so I won't talk about specifics. I think this book could make 2 or 3 stories the plot is very involved. By midway through the book, I was hoping the author would just finish the story as explained thus far. However, there were innumerable additional adventures and twists that did not add to the enjoyment of the story. Elizabeth Grayson is such a fine author; I was really disappointed.

One of the things I had the most trouble with was the frequent degradation of the heroine by the hero! He often called her whore and bitch. This story occurred between 1812 and 1815 hardly a time in which a man called his intended such names.

I'm sorry to find so little to like about this book. The plot moved slowly and lots of things were repeated too much (I got the message the first time). Although the hero was a man of honor as a scout/soldier, he had little to recommend him as a human being.

[Chrisangel · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is one of those regrettable novels, that had so much potential, but didn't live up to it. (Or you could say, a good idea but poorly executed.) That's especially regretful, since the story takes place during one of my favorite time periods: the War of 1812. There was historical detail, as well as an espionage plot, but it wasn't enough to save things. There were way too many misunderstandings, lack of trust, separations, and false accusations between the H and h, not to mention too much time spent in other people's beds. The book went on way too long (it could have been a good 200 pages less) and there were pages ad nauseum of descriptions, that could have been done in a few paragraphs.

There was one thing that set this apart from a lot of HR books: the fact that it was the H who had major trust issues (though the h had hers, as well). as well as a stubborn refusal to listen to explanations. More often, it's the h who jumps to the wrong conclusions, and won't listen to reason. And this H sure went overboard, actually believing the OM/Villain, instead of the woman he claimed to love. He knew from the start that this guy was no good, yet he just took his word at face value. Can you get any dumber?

Unless it's the h, who's forced to go to him to try and help the H. She knows the guy's been wanting to get her in bed, yet while alone in his house with him, she accepts a drink, never suspecting anything. Small wonder, she finds herself the next morning in his bed, naked, while he makes his leering comments.

She ends up (long story) being this creep's mistress, then escapes to a Native American tribe and becomes a brave's second wife (his first is willing to share), then ends up being blackmailed into yet another relationship (though never forgetting the H). Meanwhile, the H has casual hookups and tries to convince himself the h means nothing to him.

Need I say more? I think not.

[Df Bo · Rating 2 out of 5]

Another blast from the past. I remember reading this one twice. There were spies and a war. I don't recall much else. I doubt I could make it through a re-read now.