Her Shining Splendor

The Lovers #2

by Valerie Sherwood

LENORE
The flame-haired, violet-eyed beauty who flouted a king's favor for a man who broke her heart, flies across Northumberland into a stormy liaison with a gambler who once saved her life.

LORENA
A jewel, with hair of gold and eyes of sapphire - a treasure who tempts both father and son - seeks her fortune in London.

LENORE and LORENA, mother and daughter, names and destinies intertwined

Genres: Historical Romance, Romance

574 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1980

About the author

A pseudonym of Jeanne Hines.

Reviews

[William]

Valerie Sherwood concludes the story of mother and daughter Lenore and Lorena Frankford begun in "This Towering Passion." The book is more Lorena's story than Lenore's, detailing her coming of age in a Cotswold village, her first romantic stirrings and eventual intersection with both healthy and unhealthy lusts. Meanwhile, Lenore spends the novel estranged from her true love Geoffrey Wyndham, whose scheming French wife involves him in dangerous intrigue. Lenore's story diverts into a tense interlude in a gloomy house in the frozen North, before somewhat cursorily bringing her back to London where her past and future collides and all subplots intertwine. In this novel, Lenore makes a somewhat passive heroine, known for making bad choices; while the younger Lorena occupies more sympathy. Sherwood creates memorable secondary characters, such as the lovable, gluttonous Mistress Potts, staunch friend to Lenore; mixing the real and the historical with aplomb. As in many of her books, she manages to convey the excitement and drama of historical times, marked by strong-willed protagonists, underlined uneasily with a strong sense of the dangers that women faced, legally and societally, as objects in a patriarchal society. Although things may end up a little tidily and the denouement seems to happen a little more abruptly than its lead-up would suggest, the novel is a fun read. Sherwood would more develop more confidence in sustaining stories across multiple volumes with her next series, inaugurated by "Bold Breathless Love."

[Dawn]

I have been anxious to write this review since there were a few ratings but no reviews for this book. I loved it. It was not what I expected, but I should have. Having been written in the 70's, it is the epic saga typical of that time period.

This is an intricate tale with three interconnected story lines. You have Lenore, a mother forced to give up her newborn daughter into the care of an aunt and uncle to be raised in a vicarage. Then there is Lenore's lover, Geoffrey. He is truly her soul mate. He rescued her many times but was in a marriage of convenience when they met. Lenore refused to be his kept mistress, so they went their separate ways, but never stopped loving each other. Thirdly is the story of the daughter, Lorena. All three stories are independent of each other. The way Valerie Sherwood brings them together is the beauty of this book.

I had not wanted to tackle a book of this size, almost 600 pages. But I'm glad I did. I truly felt a part of this book, could see the sights and hear the sounds and smell the smells. It was a joy.

[ANGELIA]

I gave this an extra star for the historical background, but the story itself gets only one. Lenore waits ages to be with her "one true love", only to walk out on him when she finds out he's married, when meanwhile she knew in the time they were separated he thought she had married someone else. Yet, she takes a high moral stance about not wanting to be a married man's mistress, yet she has no trouble a bit later getting naked with a man she doesn't love, figure that one out!

It makes about as much sense as her daughter, Lorena falling for a guy named Tabby! Sounds more like a neutered cat! And considering his personality, that's probably right!

I've read four books by Ms. Sherwood and so far I've found the hype didn't live up to the writing. I'll try a couple of more to be fair, but I won't expect much.

[Scott]

My goodness, I had no idea I would enjoy this book as much as I did! At first, the completely separate storylines of mother and daughter and their respective love lives seemed a bit disjointed. But as the story continued and the narratives began to intertwine, the story became quite thrilling. I found it very difficult to put down!

[karla]

One of my favorites from Valerie Sherwood