TEST
The Briar and the Rose tells the story of a beautiful young maiden who, found near death and having lost her memory, is named Raven and taken in as a maid at an Irish estate, where she soon comes to the notice of the owner. Devan, Marquess of Castlereagh, has come to his Irish estate to get over the loss of the woman of his dreams, Lady Katherine, who died in a tragic fire five weeks earlier. He berates himself for not being able to save her, and loses himself in alcohol. Amazingly, Raven is practically the twin of his lost love. Could it really be she? In an effort to find out more about this mysterious serving girl, Devan secludes her in pampered luxury, providing lessons in how to be a lady from his housekeeper, hoping all the while to jog Raven’s memory.
Soon, strange things begin to occur when Raven is found leaving the estate at night to join a group of revelers around a bonfire. In the morning she can’t remember where she has been, and Devan is suspicious of her motives. Raven herself can’t explain her actions – she was entranced in a vision. And so Raven and Devan’s romance intersperses, via nightmares and flashbacks, with the 16th century Irish legend of Mairead and her lover Seamus, fated to remain apart through time. Raven’s “visions” grow more vivid over time and are part of a paranormal subplot that thickens alongside the main storyline. This tale of star-crossed lovers is based loosely on the Dolly Parton rendition of a song Barbara Allen, which in turn is based upon an old Irish legend.
Raven’s nights are shrouded in mystery, but by day she thinks practically about her future, which creates problems for Devan, who resolves one night to follow her as she makes her way again towards the music and dancing. In the midst of a paranormal experience she allows him some liberties, convinced she is Mairead and he Seamus. You can only imagine the confusion poor Devan must be feeling, as she careens from passionate lover by night to fishwife by day, but I’m afraid it doesn’t compare to the confusion felt by the reader throughout. You see, Raven has made a bargain with Devan’s housekeeper Mrs. Captain, who agrees to tutor the young woman in how to be a lady in order to snare a rich husband. In return, Raven will take the housekeeper’s daughter Collette along with her when the time comes, thereby raising her station in life. And she sets her cap not for Devan, whom she believes is unattainable, but for Victor, Duke of Brookshire, even though he’s even higher up the social ladder than Devan, because he has shown himself to be interested in her.
Mrs. Captain’s character puzzled me. It is she who teaches Raven proper English diction and to act like a lady. She starts out as a strict housekeeper who seems to have a strong enmity for Raven, so much so that I didn’t buy into her sudden friendship with the young woman, even given the bargain they’d struck. And I wondered how it came to be that a housekeeper was not only versed in Shakespeare (her first act as tutor is to hand Raven Hamlet) but has a proper English accent and knows enough to teach her to take her place amongst English ladies, particularly since her own daughter’s Irish accent is later noted. I also questioned why she struck her bargain with Raven, a woman she seemed to dislike, rather than asking Devan, who confesses that Collette is like a “blood-related little sister,” for his assistance in helping her daughter.
In my opinion, according to the schooling I received growing up (I spent the first 19 yers of my existence in Ireland), the Irish dialogue in this book is very badly written. It would bore you were I to list each incorrect instance, but here are a few. When Devan and Raven run into Gypsies, whom the Irish call “tinkers,” Devan recalls that they are “Minceirs of second site,” and not only have I never in all my years of learning Gaelic at school heard the word Minceir (did she mean Tinceir?) but what is “second site?” We are never told, leaving me to conclude they are either Gaelic errors or typos. Sometimes, the author includes the Gaelic “fada,” an accent that appears over certain letters, which affects pronunciation, and sometimes she ignores them. At one point the tinker woman insults Devan by saying “a thoin,” which Raven translates for Devan as “she said you are an ass.” Actually “a thoin” translates literally as “his arse” and not “you are an arse.” While these may seem like small things, they added up. I felt as though I was continually tripping over clumsy dialogue and when I came across a character named “Lord Coushite,” I wondered whether the author, in naming a British lord after cow-manure, displayed sly humor or ignorance.
The language issue bothered me not just because it indicated sloppy research, but because I felt that coupled with the sham brogue sported by some of the characters it gave readers a far-fetched picture of the real Ireland. But a far bigger problem for all readers involves whether or not Raven is or is not Lady Katherine. When Devan first interviews Raven, he realizes “there were no other eyes in the world like those he now stared into” as Lady Katherine and Raven had very particular lavender colored eyes. Yet he dismisses the possibility of them being the same person as soon as Raven opens her mouth and he hears her thick Irish brogue. At this point I dismissed Raven as a possible Lady Katherine, as how would an English lady who lost her memory, be transported to Ireland, mysteriously end up on her depressed lover’s doorstep with an Irish brogue, with no account given for a sudden ability to speak and understand Irish? And things get murkier and murkier as the story continues.
And then, as if the language and plot issues weren’t bad enough, there’s the characters themselves, beginning with Raven’s pursuit of Victor, which gave her the appearance of being either mercenary or childishly trying to spite Devan. More than anything I was reminded of those 1970’s/1980′ bodice-rippers, particularly when, shortly after meeting, Devan French-kisses Raven in his study while she pounds weakly on his chest. But even the heavy-handed romance between Devan and Raven, though based on a frustrating Big Misunderstanding, was preferable to all the time Raven spent with Victor. Victor as impediment to Devan and Raven’s HEA not only overwhelmed Devan, who thinks, “All Raven seemed to truly want was Brookshire. Becoming his wife was almost an obsession, defying all reason,” it nearly overwhelmed me. I frankly couldn’t see how they would ever get together, and it only gets worse. Devan comes to believe he must sacrifice his own love for Raven to help her get together with Victor. When I read that “his every hope withered and died,” I lost all hope myself that the author could make up for the holey plot and bad dialogue with a compelling romance.
Recently, I read an interesting article at AAR on the gentrification of the romantic novel, a discussion as to why this genre is not taken seriously. The Briar and the Rose should leave no confusion as to why the genre hasn’t been welcomed with open arms – it shows exactly why romance novels are still lumbered with the intellectual status of Archie comics. Sometimes publishers are their own worst enemies. I understand this author has two more books in the works, both set in the British isles. I just hope that they are more convincing than this one.
Grade: F
Book Type: European Historical Romance
Sensuality: Warm
Review Date: 26/01/04
Publication Date: 2003
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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.