TEST
Medieval Romances have been very thin on the ground in recent years, so I was excited to see a first-time author published in this genre, and an author who takes great risks in the creation of her hero and heroine. While I applaud the author’s willingness to venture into new territory, the book, taken as a whole, did not live up to its promise.
Morganna KilCreggar’s family was wiped out in a clan feud with the FitzHughs when she was ten years old. She has lived the eight years since as the male “Morgan”, honing her skill with weaponry and her hatred to a fine point. She finally sees her chance to kill the FitzHugh laird when she is taken up as a squire by the laird’s brother, Alexander, known to all as “Zander”. She knows that in Zander’s company, she will eventually meet up with the man responsible for the death of her family and her clan.
Morgan excels at knives, bow and arrow, slingshot – you name it. If it can kill, she is an expert with it. In Zander’s encampment, she quickly gains a reputation as “the god of the hunt”. Zander is very impressed and Morgan finds herself responding to a man for the first time. Other than that slight chink, she is almost inhuman. She shows no emotion, no fear of pain or death. She is, in fact, fatalistic, and welcomes the chance to die avenging her clan. She is a puzzle to Zander and one he is determined to figure out.
Zander is almost the opposite of Morgan. He is good-natured, always laughing and enjoying life and he tries to impart some of this to his stoic squire. But then things change and Zander becomes surly, terrified when he realizes that he is attracted to his squire. He visits a prostitute to no avail, and when he breaks and shares a passionate kiss with Morgan, he flees – disappearing for a week and returning engaged to marry.
I found this to be a very interesting and very risky move by the author. We’ve all read Chick-in-Pants books where the hero experiences some sexually ambiguous attraction to the woman in male guise. But this is different. Zander actually falls in love with “Morgan”, and admits to it even though it horrifies and disgusts him. He is alternately tender and cruel in his dealings with Morgan as the conflict rages within him.
Another interesting thing Ivie has done is to make this fully Morgan’s story. While it is not a first-person narrative, it is told entirely from Morgan’s point of view. There is no scene without her in it, and so we experience Zander’s moods swings along with her as she tries to work out what is wrong with him, though we figure it out long before she does.
While I admire the risks taken with these characters and the storyline, it wasn’t enough for me to fully enjoy this story. Even after Morgan knows Zander loves her/him, she does not reveal her identity. Her attitude is that soon she will kill Zander’s brother and so soon be dead herself, and the truth will be revealed when she’s buried – so why deal with it now? It fits her fatalistic attitude, but casts odd overtones on Zander’s love for her as a man, which continues for more than half the book.
And this fatalistic, depressive outlook pervades all of Morgan’s actions, so that frankly, I can’t see why Zander fell in love with her to begin with. And because the story is all from her point of view, this bleakness pervades much of the book. Once she admits to her gender, she and Zander spend most of their time having sex in between giving knife-throwing exhibitions as an opening act for Scotland’s new king, Robert the Bruce, as he tours the country trying to unify the clans.
I must mention one thing that may seem a petty complaint, but is something that grew in the annoyance factor every time it happened: Zander’s horse was named “Morgan”. Why? It was incredibly irksome to continually read “Morgan, the horse” when it is mentioned. And if she was riding the horse we got “Morgan, the squire” and “Morgan, the horse” often in the same paragraph. It was needlessly annoying.
This was an interesting, risk-taking book, and while I applaud the author’s courage and admired the devotion of Zander for his Morgan, ultimately, the slow pace and depressive atmosphere is too much for me to recommend it.
Grade: C
Book Type: Medieval Romance
Sensuality: Hot
Review Date: 05/01/05
Publication Date: 2004
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Recent Comments …
Yep
This sounds delightful! I’m grabbing it, thanks
excellent book: interesting, funny dialogs, deep understanding of each character, interesting secondary characters, and also sexy.
I don’t think anyone expects you to post UK prices – it’s just a shame that such a great sale…
I’m sorry about that. We don’t have any way to post British prices as an American based site.
I have several of her books on my TBR and after reading this am moving them up the pile.