The Untamed Heiress
Grade : C+

A guardian/ward relationship isn’t one of my favorite romance themes and a story of a young woman who swears she will never marry is even less so. But if anyone could persuade me not to avoid this type of book, it would be the author Julia Justiss, whom I can count on to be a consistently good writer. Well, those two elements weren’t a bother, but the familiarity and predictability of the overall story of The Untamed Heiress was.

Helena Lambarth is a considerable heiress, having inherited both her parents’ estates. While she is elated about her father’s death because he cannot abuse or imprison her on the estate anymore, her mother Diana’s death grieves her tremendously. Ten years ago, her father ripped her from her mother’s arms when her mother left him for a lover. Her father told Diana that he would kill Helena if she came near her daughter again. Diana Lambarth died more than a year ago, unable to outlive her husband. Helena never got a chance to see her mother alive again.

Adam, Lord Darnell, agrees to his stepmother’s request to take in her late cousin’s daughter. When he meets Helena at the solicitor’s office, he is shocked to find a bony young woman with unkempt hair and wearing an old black dress. She is completely unappealing to him, or so he thinks until the attractiveness of her smile sends a jolt into him.

Adam needs to marry a wealthy girl fast because his father’s neglect of the estate during his protracted illness before his death left it burdened with debts. Leaving his family to welcome Helena and prepare her to enter society, he overtly courts a rich girl of the ton of whom he has fond memories as a childhood companion. A month later, he is engaged to her. Adam gets drunk celebrating and goes home to find a beautiful woman in her nightgown in his library. Thinking she is a “gift” from a friend, he propositions her, only to recognize shortly to his horror that this woman he finds so desirable is his ward, Helena.

Helena and Adam are interesting and admirable characters. Like many a Regency historical miss, Helena vows never - nevah! - to marry. However, she has good reason not to want to place herself under a man’s authority ever again, because of how she suffered under her father for a decade. A compelling scene shows her not recognizing tea right away because she hasn’t had it since her mother left. She didn’t even know what cake tastes like or about the peel of an orange, much less the taste of one. Although she works hard to follow society’s rules, she doesn’t shy from speaking her mind, and there are a couple of amusing scenes where she renders her companions speechless with her frank tongue.

Adam is a good man, kind to his caring but silly and nervous stepmother and loving to his sister. He’s also the typical ex-army hero who fought bravely in the Peninsular Wars and at Waterloo. Although his attraction to and admiration of Helena is overpowering, he fights to honor his promise to another woman.

The goodness in both Helena and Adam is believable and likable, a testament to author Julia Justiss’s skill, yet at the same time they come across as rather perfect, excelling at everything and being gracious to everyone.

My biggest complaint, however, about The Untamed Heiress is that, while it displays Justiss’s usual great storytelling and writing, the storylines themselves are too familiar. And while stories of yet another young woman entering society for the first time and yet another man realizing his engagement is a mistake can be fresh or interesting ones, here they unfold in very predictable ways.

The first half of the book is distressingly predictable and unexciting, but the second half, with the romance growing between the two leads and the complication of his engagement on it, is enjoyable and has some nice, touching moments. Until, that is, the fiancée becomes cold to Adam and spiteful to Helena and then it becomes all predictable and unexciting again.

I know that Justiss is capable of writing daring books such as last year’s The Courtesan and books with familiar elements that still come out enjoyable, like The Proper Wife. Nevertheless, one-half of The Untamed Heiress was too familiar, too predictable, and therefore a boring read. It truly disappointed me that Justiss wasted her skillful writing and interesting characters on an unoriginal and unoriginally executed story.

Reviewed by Jeanne W
Grade : C+

Sensuality: Warm

Review Date : November 5, 2006

Publication Date: 2006

Review Tags: Harlequin Historical

Recent Comments …

Jeanne W

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
0
What's your opinion?x
()
x