When one man is
brutally murdered and the priest he works for mortally wounded on the
streets of Bunard, Willet Dura is called to investigate. Yet the clues
to the crime lead to contradictions and questions without answers. As
Willet begins to question the dying priest, the man pulls Willet close
and screams in a foreign tongue. Then he dies without another word.
Willet
returns to the city, no closer to answers than before, but his senses
are skewed. People he touches appear to have a subtle shift, a twist
seen at the edge of his vision, and it's as though he can see their
deepest thoughts. In a world divided between haves and have-nots, gifted
and common, Willet soon learns he's been passed the rarest gift of all:
a gift that's not supposed to exist.
Now Willet must pursue the
murderer still on the loose in Bunard even as he's pulled into a much
more dangerous and epic conflict that threatens not only his city, but
his entire world--a conflict that will force him to come to terms with
his own tortured past if he wants to survive.
My Review: 8.5/10
This was a great read! At
about 10% in, I couldn't put it down and subsequently shirked all
duties (and sleep) for the next day and a half.
It's not for the
faint of heart- there is a lot of bloodshed and violence that is
described almost casually. There is war in the past and war in the
present and looks like war in the future, so if you're sensitive to the
realities and casualties of such, this may not be the book for you.
Usually
I am in that category myself, but as I was familiar with Mr. Carr's
works, I knew what to expect. Speaking of which, if you've read his
previous series (The Staff and the Sword) you'll notice some
similarities in set up and plot points; a super secret organization
charged with keeping the good in the world and fighting evil, corruption
within, etc. Yet it is definitely still its own story, and even better
in some ways.
I am eagerly anticipating the next book in the series!
The Painter's Daughter
Sophie Dupont,
daughter of a portrait painter, assists her father in his studio,
keeping her own artwork out of sight. She often walks the cliffside path
along the north Devon coast, popular with artists and poets. It's where
she met the handsome Wesley Overtree, the first man to tell her she's
beautiful.
Captain Stephen Overtree is accustomed to taking on
his brother's neglected duties. Home on leave, he's sent to find Wesley.
Knowing his brother rented a cottage from a fellow painter, he travels
to Devonshire and meets Miss Dupont, the painter's daughter. He's
startled to recognize her from a miniature portrait he carries with
him--one of Wesley's discarded works. But his happiness plummets when he
realizes Wesley has left her with child and sailed away to Italy in
search of a new muse.
Wanting to do something worthwhile with his
life, Stephen proposes to Sophie. He does not offer love, or even a
future together, but he can save her from scandal. If he dies in battle,
as he believes he will, she'll be a respectable widow with the
protection of his family.
Desperate for a way to escape her
predicament, Sophie agrees to marry a stranger and travel to his
family's estate. But at Overtree Hall, her problems are just beginning.
Will she regret marrying Captain Overtree when a repentant Wesley
returns? Or will she find herself torn between the father of her child
and her growing affection for the husband she barely knows?
My Review: 7/10
Generally,
with historical romance, you know the ending before you begin, so I
like marriage of convenience stories because we’ve officially gotten
that out of the way; the author doesn’t have to waste time trying to
build suspense that, let’s face it, I almost never buy into. I also like
the fact that the story doesn’t revolve around a courtship, but rather,
challenges within a marriage, all the while dealing with getting to
know each other, which if you have a healthy marriage, shouldn’t ever
really stop, in my humble opinion.
If you don’t mind the clichés
(i.e. cads who try to force themselves on innocent women and the knights
in shining armor who come to their rescue, etc. Really, I have to
wonder if this was as prevalent as it seems, based on how often it’s a
plot line in these books), and fake marriage-of-convenience
plot lines (see below), it’s not bad. I know many of us don’t read these books for
the unique story, but for the warm and fuzzy feeling, and if that’s you,
you will enjoy this book.
As for me, I did enjoy it; it didn’t
promise to be more than it was. I just read so many of these kind of
stories that are so similar and I am impacted by missed opportunities
as much as what I’m reading. I was a little frustrated that Wesley’s
behavior didn’t sicken Sophie more, especially after receiving the
first letter about Stephen. That should have been enough to disillusion
her about him, if nothing else did the trick. I was disappointed in her
there. I really liked Stephen’s character and the way he spoke his mind.
Often, I felt like Sophie didn't deserve him or even appreciate him. The details about painting and some of the characters’ side stories
were a little too involved for me and broke up the flow, so that I found
myself skimming here and there.
I felt like the opportunity for unique struggles and elements are kind of lost if it’s immediately
proclaimed a “marriage in name only.” I’m not saying I want details, but
let’s be real. If you had a marriage of convenience at that time, I
feel pretty confident in asserting that it would almost never be in name
only. I would like to read about the challenges that women at that time
faced- the emotional aspect and how the relationship developed as a
result. I think this can be done tastefully, yet it’s so rarely
attempted. Instead we get a regular courtship of the time with a bit of
modern challenge- they live in the same house. It’s a little worn. It’s
like the authors think that sex within marriage shouldn’t be in a
Christian book, or that it is the ultimate culmination of the
relationship, so either way, it doesn’t happen until the end. Every
woman knows that’s just one aspect of a great relationship.
Given
that I spend so much time hovering in Christian historical fiction, I
have to say that I’m tired of reading about love stories that revolve
around modern (and faulty, I believe) ideas of love and marriage, such
as marrying only for love and that love/your feelings are something you
have no control over. Those ideas are just not Biblical. Take me back to
a time when people married for any number of reasons and relied on God
to grow love and friendship there. When marriages lasted because people
had to work through things rather than chase their own elusive
happiness.
Fans of this author and genre will happily gobble
this up. And I will keep hoping that an author will read my review and
accept my challenge: give me a character who enters into a realistic
relationship from that time period. None of this “in name only”
nonsense. Let me see how she struggles with giving herself to her
husband while having not fully given her heart. How does that work? How
does she deal with the limitations and expectations of women’s roles
back then? And how does love come into play? What is the dynamic of
having children with someone she maybe respects but isn’t sure she loves
yet. Does that change things? I’d imagine so. When does she grow to
love him? Why ? How? That’s the story I want to read.
