This book wasn't nearly as shocking as all the hype surrounding it would suggest. In fact, it's pretty conventional in many respects. For example, the pat incest resolution, as well as the pretty quick thawing of Sean's resolve to beat down and kill Kit. I was prepared to have a couple hundred pages of abuse, but imagine my surprise when Sean's attitude towards her turns to love & protection (well, of a sort) by page 85 and lasts for well over 200 pages until Kit acts according to her conscience and brings it all crashing down into a short-lived loop of hatred and revenge, followed by the rest being selfless acts of devotion and sacrifice. I think this book has gotten the reputation it has from people who didn't read past page 50 (if they got that far) and hearsay and groupthink took over like it usually does. Read it for yourselves, if you can get a copy or find it online.
The book lost steam around page 450, when Kit and Sean wind up in France as Napoleon's ambitions and intrigues and counter-intrigues take center stage. Monson was unable to make these big picture machinations nearly as interesting as the intense personal struggle that consumed the first 2/3rds of the novel with just Sean & Kit and the dark, dysfunctional little world of the Culhane keep of Shelan. It was atmospheric, close, and terrifying. Excellent stuff. I felt it should have ended by pg 450, as neatly tied up as it eventually was on pg 568. The extended epilogue in France was so at odds with the rest of the book and, well, frankly boring. So much was thrown into it that by this point I thought it was overstuffed. The final chapter was rushed, indicating four years had passed with Sean at Austerlitz, that I wondered why Monson hadn't paced herself and kept it for a sequel. (Separation over the battlefields of Europe as they fight to reunite! I'd have read it.) The overall feeling I had by the end was that it was very ambitious, overdiligent, and half-successful. Even the typos started getting heavier by the end, as if the editor gave up. But it was a first novel. I have some others of hers that I'll read to compare.
I was glad to finally finish it, as the end kept dwindling down and got more ponderous. It's not a keeper, that's for sure, but I'm happy to have read it and actually seen for myself what the big whoop was all about. Overblown hysteria in the current pablum romance era, IMO.
The book lost steam around page 450, when Kit and Sean wind up in France as Napoleon's ambitions and intrigues and counter-intrigues take center stage. Monson was unable to make these big picture machinations nearly as interesting as the intense personal struggle that consumed the first 2/3rds of the novel with just Sean & Kit and the dark, dysfunctional little world of the Culhane keep of Shelan. It was atmospheric, close, and terrifying. Excellent stuff. I felt it should have ended by pg 450, as neatly tied up as it eventually was on pg 568. The extended epilogue in France was so at odds with the rest of the book and, well, frankly boring. So much was thrown into it that by this point I thought it was overstuffed. The final chapter was rushed, indicating four years had passed with Sean at Austerlitz, that I wondered why Monson hadn't paced herself and kept it for a sequel. (Separation over the battlefields of Europe as they fight to reunite! I'd have read it.) The overall feeling I had by the end was that it was very ambitious, overdiligent, and half-successful. Even the typos started getting heavier by the end, as if the editor gave up. But it was a first novel. I have some others of hers that I'll read to compare.
I was glad to finally finish it, as the end kept dwindling down and got more ponderous. It's not a keeper, that's for sure, but I'm happy to have read it and actually seen for myself what the big whoop was all about. Overblown hysteria in the current pablum romance era, IMO.
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