Thursday, April 26

Raintree: Inferno

The middle of the night seemed to be a good time to finally finish Linda Howard's RAINTREE: Inferno. Apparently I'm an oddity in romance blogland. I liked it. :D It had entertainment value. Different from a typical Linda Howard, but not as much as some people are complaining about.
Back blurb:

Two hundred years after the Raintree clan defeated them, the Ansara wizards are rising again to take on their bitterest foes. As king, it's up to Dante Raintree to protect his clan, but his heart--and maybe his loyalties--may be fatally divided when Lorna Clay walks into his life. Suddenly fire, always his to control defeats him taking with it his livelihood. Unsure whether Lorna is to blame yet unable to walk away from her, Dante faces the fight of his lifetime, a fight even his strength and that of the Raintree clan may not be enough to win.
That sounded way more dramatic than the actual telling of the story...contains spoilers...

Lorna Clay is somehow cheating while she's playing blackjack at Dante Raintree's Reno casino. He's not happy. Pulls her into his office and while they're discussing the situation two things happen. 1. He realizes she has some sort of psychic abilities that's why she wins consistently (it's a number thing) and 2. The casino is on fire. Here's where the "brain-rape" comes in. He needs to control the fire and the only way he can is with the help of someone else with strong psychic ability. So he does what he thinks he has to forcibly links with Lorna and controls the fire in order to save lives. Not nice, but certainly explainable and is explained after the fact.

Now he thinks maybe she's Ansara, tears off her clothing to see if she has the "Ansara birthmark". Of course she doesn't and at this point she's really pissed off. He forces her to stay at his home (force field thingy) and she wreaks havoc with little get even tricks.

Dante is over the top and bullyish, but hey he's a king, he's used to getting his way. I'm not horrified by what happened up to this point, everything fits within the context of the story.

There's a turning point near the end of the book right before they have sex for the first time, she basically says no more mind control and they need to be equals or they don't go forward...
Reading him wasn't easy, but she could see he didn't like relinquishing control at all. Intuitively, she grasped his dilemma. On a purely intellectual basis, he understood. On a more primitive level he didn't want to lose her, and he was prepared to be as autocratic and heavy-handed as necessary..."All or nothing."...
If you are a Linda Howard fangirl this book shouldn't shock you. If you're a borderline fan you're not going to like it. And if you're not a fan at all, avoid it completely.

I'll finish the series. The ending of this book is very reminiscent of Jane and Grant's part in Diamond Bay, she's told to stay put and of course she wont. Got to see where it goes.

11 comments:

Kristie (J) said...

I haven't read this one yet - have it though - but I think I'm going to be with you. I'm a real fan of hers too and I give her over the top heroes a pass just about every time.

vanessa jaye said...

I had a really long replie here, then thought I might as well take it over to my blog since I need to blog about something. :-P

nath said...

All right, I was going to be a good girl... and stay away from it, since it's been getting somewhat bad reviews... but now, hmmm... Lucky for me the book is cheap!

Rosario said...

At last, ONE good review! I've been telling myself I shouldn't read it, but I'm just kidding myself, of course I will ;-)

Rosie said...

TM, you didn't feel after all that intense build up between the two of them the book just fizzled? There was no real resolution to their story (for me).

Tara Marie said...

Kristie, if you can give her over the top heros a pass this one might work for you.

Jaye, I saw your blog post and can agree with what you found problematic.

Nath and Rosario, yikes after a recommendation I hope you like it :D

Rosie, the abrupt ending didn't really bother me as I saw it as part of the overall story arc, since there's 2 more books I'll hold off complete judgement until then.

I'm gettting less fussy about a book completely standing alone if it's part of a short series like this one is. Kind of like Nora Roberts last trilogy, the first book was the weakest of the series because of the world building. I'm hoping that's the case here too. I still enjoyed the story.

erika said...

I like this hero type! I've ordered this from bamm.com and reading the comments from various message boards has stoked my interest.

CindyS said...

I love her over the top Alpha heroes but her last book was just boring and I didn't believe in the romance - it was like it was tacked on.

So my question - is there heat? Howard does some of the greatest sexual tension (yes, I loved Dream Man!). Or is the story more centered around a mystery while the romance gets shoved to the side?

Thanks Tara Marie!

CindyS

Tara Marie said...

Erika, I was thinking I was the oddity with this hero type, apparently not :D

Cindy, I thought there was heat but the story's short so the "action" comes late in the book and if you liked Dane then Dante shouldn't bother you :D

vanessa jaye said...

I love her over the top heroes! My favourite parts of the book was when the focus was on the romance/ particularly when the sexual tension was at the forefront.

Anonymous said...

Midnight Rainbow and Diamond Bay are two of my very favorite Howard books, but RI just seemed such a steep drop from those older category books to me.

I had a hard time getting over the strip search scene and the way Dante dismisses Lorna's feelings of being mind-f'ed (her description). I had originally thought that Dante and Lorna's relationship would continue to develop over the next two books, but Rosario corrected me about that, so now I'm feeling even less enthusiastic about RI. Probably the thing that got to me the most was the fact that I felt Dante promised not to control Lorna any more only because he wanted to get his hands into the cookie jar PDQ, not because he really realized how wrong it was. And am I the only one who things he mind-locked her into the house at the end? At least Jane had a fighting chance against Grant.

I've enjoyed Howard's a-hole heroes on occasion (i.e. After the Night and Shades of Twilight) when the book itself grips me, but RI really started to drag for me once Dante and Lorna finally did the bedroom boogie.