Helpful Score: 7
A truly awful book, in my opinion. Suffers badly from an overly recycled medieval captor/captive plot, and then becomes mucked up even worse by a melodramatic heroine with a martyr complex. Ok, so the "hero" kidnaps her and locks her in his tower, hoping to break her will so that she will agree to become his mistress, *yawn*. Bad enough, but the heroine's subsequent suicide attempts, one of the most absurd cases of double amnesia I've ever seen in print, and the obligatory mustache twirling, cardboard cutout villain, make this one of the most excruciating books I've ever managed to actually finish. I'm still nothing short of amazed that I did:P
I gave it two stars - and it would have been one, had it not been for some pretty decent love scenes.
I gave it two stars - and it would have been one, had it not been for some pretty decent love scenes.
Helpful Score: 3
A truly awful book, in my opinion. Suffers badly from an overly recycled medieval captor/captive plot, and then becomes mucked up even worse by a melodramatic heroine with a martyr complex. Ok, so the "hero" kidnaps her and locks her in his tower, hoping to break her will so that she will agree to become his mistress, *yawn*. Bad enough, but the heroine's subsequent suicide attempts, one of the most absurd cases of double amnesia I've ever seen in print, and the obligatory mustache twirling, cardboard cutout villain, make this one of the most excruciating books I've ever managed to actually finish. I'm still nothing short of amazed that I did:P
I gave it two stars - and it would have been one, had it not been for some pretty decent love scenes.
I gave it two stars - and it would have been one, had it not been for some pretty decent love scenes.
Helpful Score: 2
I've had this book on my TBR shelf for some time now. Although I love everything Putney has written, I was in no hurry to read "Uncommon Vows" because of it's time period, around 1148, a period about which I am mostly unknowledgeable. However, once I started reading it, I regretted that I'd waited so long! Such a poignant, heart-wrenching love story! I couldn't tear myself away from it once I got started. Though I was worried about the final outcome of the lovers, they did, indeed, have a happy-ever-after ending. I heartily recommend this book. Once you get started, you won't be able to put it down.
This romance novel is fascinating and took me happily away from the day-to-day life of living in the modern world.
Twelfth-century England is troubled by political unrest, and Meriel de Vere, not knowing if her family and the Earl of Shropshire are friends or enemies, conceals her identity when she is mistaken for a poacher by the hunting party of the earl, Adrian of Warfield.
Adrian is attracted to the beautiful, spirited Meriel, so he locks her into a chamber in his castle and tries to coerce her into becoming his mistress; when this fails, he proposes marriage. Meriel would rather die than marry Adrian, and hurls herself out of a window. She survives the fall, but is afflicted with amnesia.
Having forgotten her aversion to Adrian, she falls in love and marries him. Yet, Adrian knows his wedded bliss is a fragile thing that could be destroyed if Meriel's memory return...
Adrian is attracted to the beautiful, spirited Meriel, so he locks her into a chamber in his castle and tries to coerce her into becoming his mistress; when this fails, he proposes marriage. Meriel would rather die than marry Adrian, and hurls herself out of a window. She survives the fall, but is afflicted with amnesia.
Having forgotten her aversion to Adrian, she falls in love and marries him. Yet, Adrian knows his wedded bliss is a fragile thing that could be destroyed if Meriel's memory return...
Adventure, intrigue and romance abound in this historical novel. Noblemen, Ladies, Earls and Kings, locked in the tower, royal forests, love, deception and fate - all a part of this good story line.
From 1991, a medieval romance by a top-notch author.
