First off, Stephanie Blake is a dude, and I had my suspicions early on when the heroine's POV just wasn't ringing true. Turns out I was right. "Stephanie Blake" is Jack Pearl. Pearl is an average author. Very average, in fact. The average side of average. And because Blake/Pearl didn't put much effort into this book, I'll be lazy and steal a friend's review format:
The Girl - Ravena Wilding is the George Sand-imitating, ultra-feminist daughter of an Irish lord who likes to ride astride in her pantalettes in the moonlight. (Ouch! Those were crotchless, ya know!) She lives a semi-privileged life in ye olde Ireland during the famine. Her daddy is among the British peerage with a conscience for their Catholic charges. She grows up with two twin brothers and marries...
Boy #1 - Roger O'Neil, an uptight guy who sees the Irish as trash and can't wait for any opportunity to display English might against any form of treason, even if it includes killing his own brother, whom he loathes, and that is...
Boy #2 - Brian O'Neil, an underground rebel for the Irish resistance and low-level alley cat who loves Ravena madly but has to flee Ireland and sets himself up in America.
The Setup - Pretty much what's above. Intrigue in Ireland forces the Wildings and Roger to come to America, where Brian already is, and the Civil War happens and there's spying for the Pinkertons and near escapes and sea voyages and revenge and all that.
My Gripes - Well, this had a cover promising that it was a bodice ripper in the style of Wicked Loving Lies. It's not. It's a historical with a bit of sex and a heroine who talks like Gloria Steinem. The "I Am Woman" sentiments, which are present in Wicked Loving Lies but done with more subtlety, have all the grace of a sledgehammer here. That's what made me question whether Stephanie Blake was actually a woman. Ravena's feminist pronouncements sounded like what a man thinks women feel. Or, more likely, what he figures they want to hear. It was a little too OTT for me. I don't like doormat heroines, but nor do I like them to be so anachronistically in the other direction. Ravena doesn't exactly burn her bra, but she's one step away from it. Also, the historical info dumps were excruciating. We got a Cliff's Notes of the Civil War in 30 or so dry-as-dirt pages with one of the characters stuck in for a sentence or two, just to keep the story attached somehow to the proceedings. The characterizations were pretty shoddy, too. Cardboard cutouts, for the most part. Brian is the most inept spy/imposter (if you read it, you'll see what I mean), and I wanted to hit pretty much everyone for being two-dimensional morons.
Still, I'll give it 3 stars, even though personally my enjoyment factor only rates a 2. Part of it is due to disappointment that the contents didn't reflect the cover, and the writing was so gender-obvious after a time. If I want to read historicals with some brief sex, I'll stick to John Jakes. At least his female characters are more believable and the historical part is interwoven into the story rather than being dropped like encyclopedia anvils.
It's ok for what it is - a quickly-written historical/adventure - but it's simply not a romance.
The Girl - Ravena Wilding is the George Sand-imitating, ultra-feminist daughter of an Irish lord who likes to ride astride in her pantalettes in the moonlight. (Ouch! Those were crotchless, ya know!) She lives a semi-privileged life in ye olde Ireland during the famine. Her daddy is among the British peerage with a conscience for their Catholic charges. She grows up with two twin brothers and marries...
Boy #1 - Roger O'Neil, an uptight guy who sees the Irish as trash and can't wait for any opportunity to display English might against any form of treason, even if it includes killing his own brother, whom he loathes, and that is...
Boy #2 - Brian O'Neil, an underground rebel for the Irish resistance and low-level alley cat who loves Ravena madly but has to flee Ireland and sets himself up in America.
The Setup - Pretty much what's above. Intrigue in Ireland forces the Wildings and Roger to come to America, where Brian already is, and the Civil War happens and there's spying for the Pinkertons and near escapes and sea voyages and revenge and all that.
My Gripes - Well, this had a cover promising that it was a bodice ripper in the style of Wicked Loving Lies. It's not. It's a historical with a bit of sex and a heroine who talks like Gloria Steinem. The "I Am Woman" sentiments, which are present in Wicked Loving Lies but done with more subtlety, have all the grace of a sledgehammer here. That's what made me question whether Stephanie Blake was actually a woman. Ravena's feminist pronouncements sounded like what a man thinks women feel. Or, more likely, what he figures they want to hear. It was a little too OTT for me. I don't like doormat heroines, but nor do I like them to be so anachronistically in the other direction. Ravena doesn't exactly burn her bra, but she's one step away from it. Also, the historical info dumps were excruciating. We got a Cliff's Notes of the Civil War in 30 or so dry-as-dirt pages with one of the characters stuck in for a sentence or two, just to keep the story attached somehow to the proceedings. The characterizations were pretty shoddy, too. Cardboard cutouts, for the most part. Brian is the most inept spy/imposter (if you read it, you'll see what I mean), and I wanted to hit pretty much everyone for being two-dimensional morons.
Still, I'll give it 3 stars, even though personally my enjoyment factor only rates a 2. Part of it is due to disappointment that the contents didn't reflect the cover, and the writing was so gender-obvious after a time. If I want to read historicals with some brief sex, I'll stick to John Jakes. At least his female characters are more believable and the historical part is interwoven into the story rather than being dropped like encyclopedia anvils.
It's ok for what it is - a quickly-written historical/adventure - but it's simply not a romance.
From the Irish revolution to the American Civil War, from the slave plantations of the South Seas to the Wild West, this sweeping love story follows the tumultuous life of a strong willed woman and the two men who engulfed her in their passion and fought for her love.
Revena, Roger and Brian.
Revena, Roger and Brian.
