His Wicked Promise by Samantha James
Widowed Glenda MacKay returns to her family home after her uncle’s death only to find that, during his long illness, most of his serfs ran away due to raiders, the estate is virtually bankrupt, and no one has any discipline. Most of this appears to be the fault of a neighbor who is supposedly behind the raiders. He wants to marry her, of course. To avoid that, she marries Egan, who was sent with her by her brother in law. Egan has been Sekritly In Love With Glenda (For Years!) and spends most of the book being jealous that she still thinks about her first husband, who was his best friend.
James gleefully butchers the English language with her faux medieval prose and dialogue in a way that I think is meant to add richness, but mostly ends up being unintentionally funny, and helps to almost make this an Awesomely Bad Book. His Wicked Ways was Awesomely Bad because, along with the terrible writing, thin characterization, offensive themes, and men who needed to be shot, elements of the plot were totally absurd. This has terrible writing, thin characterization, offensive themes, men who needed to be shot, and a terribly mundane plot. The first 70 or so pages were very dull and only my fondness for Sekritly In Love With (For Years!) and the unintentional humor of the writing got me through them. Then Egan entered Alpha Male Bastard territory, referred to Glenda as a possession, threw hissy fits if she talked to or mentioned other men, and got offended that she had the nerve to still care about her first husband. At one point, he even accuses her of cheating on her first husband in a fight because she didn’t get pregnant in the first few years of her marriage. Did I mention that she lost that baby because her husband’s severed head being delivered to the castle caused her to go into labor early?
In short, it joined the ranks of Books One Sometimes Reads to Help One Better Appreciate Good Books.
James also has a frightening tendency to treat women like babymaking machines. It was bad enough when Meredith, the heroine of His Wicked Ways got pregnant less than a year after having a baby (yes, normal for the middle ages, but I like to think most readers realize that lots of babies close together got women in an early grave) and our only thought was meant to be impressed by Cameron’s virility. But then we had Glenda’s third pregnancy. The first we’ve covered. The second resulted in her spending weeks in bed bleeding and then her and the baby almost dying in labor. The third pregnancy was before the second baby was a year old, too. I’m thinking they both need to practice abstinence! Or dump their husbands for each other. They both kinda scraped the bottom of the barrel.
And finally, I owe the following authors apologies:
Jo Beverley, I’m sorry I complain about your tendency to catch us up with 6 couples and their kids in every book. You spend less time on that than James does on one previous couple. And you don’t make me worry your heroines will be dead in two years, or think they exist to give your heroes spawn.
Olivia Parker, I’m sorry I ever criticized your Sekritly In Love With (For Years!) book. Sure, it has problems, but at least you had a decent hero who treated the heroine pretty well, and the plot was a bit original and only somewhat iffy, instead of mundane and often offensive. And you, too, don’t treat women like babymaking machines that exist to spawn heirs for your men.
James gleefully butchers the English language with her faux medieval prose and dialogue in a way that I think is meant to add richness, but mostly ends up being unintentionally funny, and helps to almost make this an Awesomely Bad Book. His Wicked Ways was Awesomely Bad because, along with the terrible writing, thin characterization, offensive themes, and men who needed to be shot, elements of the plot were totally absurd. This has terrible writing, thin characterization, offensive themes, men who needed to be shot, and a terribly mundane plot. The first 70 or so pages were very dull and only my fondness for Sekritly In Love With (For Years!) and the unintentional humor of the writing got me through them. Then Egan entered Alpha Male Bastard territory, referred to Glenda as a possession, threw hissy fits if she talked to or mentioned other men, and got offended that she had the nerve to still care about her first husband. At one point, he even accuses her of cheating on her first husband in a fight because she didn’t get pregnant in the first few years of her marriage. Did I mention that she lost that baby because her husband’s severed head being delivered to the castle caused her to go into labor early?
In short, it joined the ranks of Books One Sometimes Reads to Help One Better Appreciate Good Books.
James also has a frightening tendency to treat women like babymaking machines. It was bad enough when Meredith, the heroine of His Wicked Ways got pregnant less than a year after having a baby (yes, normal for the middle ages, but I like to think most readers realize that lots of babies close together got women in an early grave) and our only thought was meant to be impressed by Cameron’s virility. But then we had Glenda’s third pregnancy. The first we’ve covered. The second resulted in her spending weeks in bed bleeding and then her and the baby almost dying in labor. The third pregnancy was before the second baby was a year old, too. I’m thinking they both need to practice abstinence! Or dump their husbands for each other. They both kinda scraped the bottom of the barrel.
And finally, I owe the following authors apologies:
Jo Beverley, I’m sorry I complain about your tendency to catch us up with 6 couples and their kids in every book. You spend less time on that than James does on one previous couple. And you don’t make me worry your heroines will be dead in two years, or think they exist to give your heroes spawn.
Olivia Parker, I’m sorry I ever criticized your Sekritly In Love With (For Years!) book. Sure, it has problems, but at least you had a decent hero who treated the heroine pretty well, and the plot was a bit original and only somewhat iffy, instead of mundane and often offensive. And you, too, don’t treat women like babymaking machines that exist to spawn heirs for your men.