The Orchid Hunter
Grade : C+

I've always said that a good writer can pull anything off, but some plots are harder to swing than others. One of the very hardest is the "wild child" story where one of the two main characters has been raised in a "primitive" culture. This goes double when the country of origin is imaginary. All those primitive "wise sayings" and religious references ("Kibante, the spirit of the mountain") can pull you out of the story at inappropriate moments. That's what happened to me with The Orchid Hunter, a book that is about a young girl raised among the natives of an island filled with exotic orchids.

The Orchid Hunter opens with the arrival of hero Trevor Mandeville to Matarenga. Trevor has come to the island off the coast of Africa to find the famed Orchid Hunter, Dustin Penn, in hopes that they can work together. Trevor is soon distracted however by Penn's lovely daughter Joya. She is the image of his stepsister Janelle. It is not long before Dustin admits that the two are identical twin sisters. Joya was stolen as a tiny baby and raised by Penn and his wife. To explain more than this would constitute a spoiler.

Joya desperately wants to leave the island. She and her father are the only whites there and the native men have no interest in her. Joya is afraid that if she remains she will never marry or have a family. She is also beginning to be attracted to Trevor. Trevor, and Janelle (who has arrived from Zanzibar) ask Joya to return to London with them. Dustin, distrustful of Trevor, makes him promise that he will not touch Joya.

Soon the three are in London and Joya is reluctantly learning the finer points of being an English lady. Trevor is desperately fighting his attraction to her, a woman who looks just like his sister.

There were a few things that really bothered me during the first part of the book. The first was the issue of Joya being the identical twin of Janelle, Trevor's stepsister. Janelle and Trevor are not related by blood but they were raised together and relate to each other as siblings. Furthermore Janelle initially has the same icky feeling about the attraction between Joya and Trevor that I had. Eventually I got over this, but for a time it put me off the romance.

The second thing that made this part of the book very hard to take was that for a girl raised by English parents, Joya is absolutely clueless about English culture. This girl really knows how to put her foot in her mouth and she expresses thoughts that seem weirdly out of place for a young woman with her background. For example, when, in conversation with the housekeeper Joya comes out with this gem:

"What does a woman feel like when she wants to mate with a man? Do strange things happen to her body...Is it when she desires a man and finds herself wishing that he will take her to his bed and do all the things that husbands do to wives?"

This was supposed to be a light moment, but it was hard for me to believe that any young woman, even one raised in a primitive culture, would ask such a question of a veritable stranger. It was doubly hard for me to believe that a young girl raised by English parents would be so open in her questions about sex in the Victorian era.

As the book went on it got considerably better. One reason is that the couple are forced to marry to avoid gossip. Joya, passionately in love with Trevor does not understand this and when she finds out that he was forced to marry her, the situation provides the first credible emotion in the story. My heart broke for poor Joya when she discovered that Trevor had married her out of duty. By the last third of The Orchid Hunter, I was actually enjoying it.

Trevor is one of the reasons that the book improves. He starts out a stuffed shirt, a man so out of touch with his feelings that he cannot understand why being with Joya makes him happy. As time went on I got to like him though because of his protectiveness of Joya and his acceptance of her in spite of her odd behavior.

Jill Marie Landis is new to me but I can see by reading this book why so many people like her work. Her writing is sensual, her characters entertaining and during the scenes in England this book had a very nice period feel. Too many things in The Orchid Hunter pulled me out of the story, though, for me to recommend it without reservation. Nevertheless, if you like Jill Marie Landis and don't mind a lot of unusual phrases, you might enjoy it.

Reviewed by Robin Uncapher
Grade : C+

Sensuality: Warm

Review Date : March 31, 2000

Publication Date: 2000

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Robin Uncapher

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