| |

TBR Challenge 2016 – Kickin’ It Old School

tangled August’s TBR Challenge prompt is “Kickin’ it old-school” and it’s a prompt I always enjoy as it gives me the opportunity to pick something from the TBR Pile of Doom, which still looms large next to the bed. I went for Tangled by Mary Balogh, a standalone title originally published in 1991 which features a somewhat unusual premise; one I haven’t read before although I’m sure this isn’t the only book to have made use of it. I see that the book has engendered very mixed reactions over the years, and although I can understand why, I enjoyed it, principally because Mary Balogh is so skilled at portraying the emotional lives of her characters in a way that makes them feel very real to the reader.

The book opens as Lady Rebecca Cardwell is saying a fond farewell to her husband, Julian, before he departs with his regiment for Malta, and then the Crimea. He is accompanied by his foster brother, David, Viscount Tavistock, whom she dislikes and blames for Julian’s joining the army. Julian is eagerly reassuring his anxious wife that he will be in no danger, and it’s clear that he is keen to be on his way and sees the whole thing as an adventure.

The glimpses we see of Julian’s life in the army very quickly reinforce those initial impressions of his character. We learn some of his and David’s backstory, and see that Julian is one of those happy-go-lucky types who breeze through life with no care for anyone but himself. He’s not evil, per se, just incredibly selfish and immature. But his devil-may-care attitude, and particularly his womanising eventually have disastrous consequences which ultimately result in his death.

David returns home a decorated war hero, haunted by the death of the man he’d loved like a brother, and looking to settle down to a useful life at his country estate. He very quickly realises that Rebecca is in a difficult situation; even though she regards the Earl of Harrington as a father, she is not actually related to him and since his remarriage, feels the awkwardness of being the house’s former mistress in the presence of its new one. David has been in love with Rebecca for years, since long before she married Julian, and even though he knows that she will never love him, he offers her marriage, telling her that he can provide her with a home of her own and a purpose in life. He makes it clear, though, that while he is proposing a marriage of convenience, he wants a wife to share his bed and, hopefully, give him children.

Initially, Rebecca is stunned and turns him down. She doesn’t really like David, believing him guilty of a slew of misdemeanours in his youth and of having fathered a bastard child and refused to marry the mother. Yet she has to admit that since his return, she has seen a much quieter and more thoughtful man, and believes that perhaps he has outgrown his youthful exuberance. She also can’t deny that the prospect of a home of her own and having tasks to fill her days is an attractive one, so she eventually agrees to David’s proposal, assuring him that she will be a good wife to him and that once she is married to him, she will put Julian out of her thoughts.

At first, David thinks he has made a fairly good bargain, although his father is sceptical and warns him that he wants more than Rebecca will be prepared or able to give him. The marriage takes place and the newlyweds travel to their new home where Rebecca is delighted to discover that there is plenty for her to do and looks forward to being useful and taking her place as the foremost lady of the local community.

But their married life gets off to a rocky start. Rebecca’s version of “being a good wife” is letting her husband do as he wishes in bed with no thought for her own wants – and David is bewildered. He knows Julian and Rebecca were very much in love and thinks Rebecca must have experienced passion; but not only does she not respond to him, it’s clear she is having to force herself to endure his lovemaking. David believes that she is deliberately holding herself back from him because she doesn’t love him and because, in spite of her promise not to think of Julian, she is doing just that. Their relationship becomes incredibly strained until, after their third night together, David snaps, says some cruel things and then tells Rebecca he won’t be bothering her again.

Rebecca is equally confused. She has been brought up to believe that sex is for a husband’s pleasure and for procreation, and that she should just lie there and let him get on with it. She is surprised by her attraction to David, but is ashamed of her response to his kisses and lovemaking, feeling things she’s never felt before and desperate to control herself to make sure he isn’t disgusted by her wantonness. But after that night, she finds she misses the bonding that had begun between them in bed and also that she needs the reassurance of David’s presence there, and of his lovemaking, too. The couple settles into a way of life that sees them living and working together as little more than business partners, but Rebecca wants a real marriage and has no idea how to achieve it while David distances himself from her; his jealousy of Julian and the guilt, the secrets and the lies that shadowed their relationship distort his view of the situation and lead him to believe that Rebecca is disgusted by him. It’s a stalemate for quite some time until at last, it seems as though they have finally found a way through … which is when (of course) disaster strikes.

I am not normally a fan of stories in which so many misunderstandings and secrets abound, but I did enjoy Tangled. True, there were times I wanted to beat both protagonists over the head with a big stick and tell them to just be honest with each other; but somehow, Mary Balogh has made their reluctance to confide in each other believable. It’s frustrating to read at times, but is understandable, especially given that Rebecca’s upbringing has conditioned her to propriety and submission and that David is driven to protect the people he cares about. The deeper emotions are brilliantly illuminated, and the author has very skilfully illustrated the importance of sex in the development of the central relationship. Without it, David and Rebecca are almost strangers, and because they are both hiding things from each other, they don’t have any other way in which to achieve closeness on an emotional level.

It’s difficult to say much more about the plot without giving away spoilers for the last third, but there are several places in that final section of the story that deliver a real emotional punch to the gut, as David and Rebecca struggle to adjust to a huge upheaval just as they were beginning to make something real out of their marriage. I especially liked the way in which the author shows that Rebecca is falling in love with David while being completely unaware of it, and how she shows the depths of his quiet, unrequited love for his wife, but as individuals, they are complex, flawed and not always easy to like. Rebecca puts Julian on a pedestal and is unable – or unwilling – to see any of the shortcomings of which the reader – and David – is aware. She elevates him practically to sainthood after his death, and there are times when her continual harping upon his perfection gets very irritating. David, too, is not without his faults; for the most part, he’s one of those honourable, quiet men who are driven to protect, but I did have to ask myself how he could bear to let so many people think badly of him for so long. But with those things said, both characters feel very much like products of their time, and I applaud Ms. Balogh for creating and keeping them that way in spite of the sometimes negative effect on their overall appeal.

While the secret-keeping is frustrating and the central characters could sometimes be a bit irritating, my principal criticism of Tangled is with the ending. Granted, the outcome was a foregone conclusion if David and Rebecca were to get their HEA, but the action that leads up to it is so completely out of character for the person concerned, that I had to read and accept it as a necessary plot device rather than a natural direction of the story.

This is an angsty and emotional book, and I can understand that the secrets, misunderstandings and – for want of a better word, passivity – of the protagonists may mean it is not one that everyone will like. But the depth of the emotion contained within its pages and the skilfully developed, strong connection between the protagonists are sufficiently compelling as to allow me to overlook any weaknesses and commend it as an absorbing and thought-provoking read. Grade: B

– Caz Owens


kingsman I have a bunch of older romances sitting in my TBR, so Old School Romance month is always fun.  I was in the mood for a historical, so I started digging nice and early.  My first choice, Knight Dreams by Suzanne Barclay featured a “hero” raping the heroine before we even get 40 pages into the book.  So, that one was a no-go.  Thankfully, my second choice, a 1991 Harlequin Historical called King’s Man fared much better.  Written by Caryn Cameron (aka Karen Harper), this novel set in a struggling seafaring town during the days of Henry VIII was as much historical fiction as romance and I rather enjoyed it.

The heroine, Rosalind Barlow, is a young widow who inherited more than just her family’s inn to run. She also finds herself heading up the rough and ready local band of smugglers hauling in French goods for sale.  With no market license, the small village of Deal on the English coast struggles for survival and without their smuggling, many would likely starve. As with many in Deal, Rosalind is no admirer of the king.  In fact, her one connection to the larger world came when locals saved the passengers on a sinking royal vessel only to have all of their own boats later destroyed by the government.
After living under these conditions, Rosalind isn’t too thrilled when Nicholas Spencer rolls into town. As with the last visitor from the Crown, Nicholas’ vessel runs into the trouble in the rocky waters and he has to be rescued. However, things are different this time. Even though Nicholas comes to Deal with a mandate from the King to oversee the building and fortification of Deal Castle to protect from threat of the French, he treats the people of Deal fairly. They are paid a bounty for their efforts in rescuing him and his crew, and his men are living, working (and spending their coin) in Deal rather than simply occupying the town.

Even so, Rosalind is suspicious of this agent from the King and treats him initially with the disdain she reserves for all things associated with the government. Given what has happened in Deal over the years, I initially couldn’t blame her. However, “initially” would be the key word here. Rosalind goes on hating anything and everything having to do with the King and his government for way longer than seems rational. A kind and goodhearted craftsman sent by the Crown to work on the building project falls in love with her sister?  He must be up to no good and the two must be separated! Nicholas treats her and everyone in town decently? Rosalind wonders what his game is and…you get the picture.

To be fair, Nicholas does have one end in mind that won’t do Rosalind much good. The Crown is aware of the smuggling in Deal and in addition to protecting the area from foreign invasion, Nicholas has been tasked with figuring out who’s behind all this illicit activity. I have to admit, watching him and Rosalind acting on their mutual suspicion and attraction for one another at the same time did make for some entertaining reading.  Both characters are intelligent and resourceful, and the author handled this part of the plot well. In fact, I would have loved to see more done with this plot and perhaps have the actual villain of the piece – one who means both Nicholas and Rosalind harm – left out all together.  His twisted and crazy evil scheming really wasn’t necessary in what was already a fully realized story.

And what of the romance?  In a book published today, we probably would have spent more time inside the hero and heroine’s heads and I suspect there would have been more flowery mental lusting. However, this story does quite well without it. Instead, readers get a picture of what life is like in Tudor England, in a village far beyond the glittering entertainments and intrigues of Henry VIII’s court, and it’s fascinating stuff. The romance grows naturally out of these circumstances and is in many ways influenced by the external events around the characters.  I could have used a tad more of the internal emotion, and a tad less bickering but the story itself worked well for me. I liked the strong but fair Nicholas.  I also really appreciated how Rosalind was portrayed.  She is very feminine and also a true leader in her town. Unlike the curl-tossing, feisty heroines so many reviewers decry, Rosalind has real ability and when we see her among her peers, we see her commanding real respect.

Reading King’s Man reminded me of one of the things I loved about 90s historical romance. Readers could find books set in a variety of time periods and many authors set their books in a variety of different settings. Just as today, some of these books were great and others were real turkeys, but there was certainly variety of a sort that I wish we could get more of today.  This novel has an annoying villain and a few other niggling things that keep it from being a keeper for me. However, I did enjoy reading it and now I’ll have to pull out the other two novels by this author that I have sitting on my TBR case. Grade: B

 – Lynn Spencer
Subscribe
Notify of
guest

7 Comments
newest
oldest most voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments