Tuesday, December 15

Nothing New

That is I'm not reading anything new.   I've given up on the TBR pile.  I'm sure there are some great books in there, but nothing is screaming "READ ME." 

I did finish Jude Deveraux's The Taming and The Conquest.  Both were written more than 15 years ago.  Both are old school style romances.  I didn't expect to still enjoy them, but I did.  Deveraux hits all my "redemption" buttons.  Both have a bit of The Taming of the Shrew thing going on.  In The Taming it's the Peregrine oldest brother that needs taming/redemption and in The Conquest it's the only Peregrine sister that is tamed.  The Peregrine family title and lands have been stolen by a manipulative Howard going back two generations.  They are taught to hate, to the point of obsession, all things Howard.  Considering what the Howards have done to them over the last two generations, it's probably understandable.  Slaughter, starvation and utter poverty drives everything the Peregrine's do, from how they treat each other, to how they treat their peasants. 

And of course, it's love that heals them. 

Ultimately, that's why these stories worked for me.  They are wallpaper historicals with story holes you can drive a Mack truck through, with massive inconsistancies within each book and between the two books.   And yet they still worked for me, because Deveraux took me by the hand and walked me through a story about strength, love, growth and family. And--Happily Ever After.

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