TEST
When I read Laura Kinsale’s unique and startling first novel, I remember thinking either it was a fluke or I had just come across one of the best writers in the history of the romance genre. Her subsequent works proved that she was no fluke, but in my opinion it wasn’t until The Shadow and the Star that she came to full maturity, finding the perfect balance in story and characters. Laura Kinsale has a gift for expressing powerful emotions with incredible subtlety. Her writing is clean and easy to read, but her simplicity is deceptive – she chooses words with the sensitivity of a poet.
Reading Kinsale is always an emotional experience. The danger is when her trademark angst-ridden heroes are a little too tormented. Some of them teeter close to the edge of insanity, which makes me uncomfortable. I don’t like my fantasies too dark. But when this tendency is under control, as in The Shadow and the Star, the hero’s deep need to love and be loved, and the heroine’s ability to redeem him, all make for a transforming experience.
Samuel Gerard, the story’s hero, is a survivor of childhood sexual abuse, and has been rescued and brought to Hawaii by a well-to-do family, the Ashlands. Their Japanese butler, Dojun, helps the boy to heal his inner wounds by training him in the techniques and philosophy of the martial arts. Samuel eventually becomes a formidable warrior, but he is always on guard against the sexual side of himself, which he regards as dangerous, something to fight against and conquer.
Making the acquaintance of a prim and proper London shopgirl, Miss Leda Etoile, Samuel enlists her help in his secret campaign against the city’s child prostitution houses, and eventually hires her as his private secretary. Leda is a lovely character, naive but intelligent, never daring to believe that a man as handsome and wealthy as Samuel would want her, but loving him with all the sweetness and generosity in her soul.
Their unfolding relationship, infused with the emotional yearning and impetuous desires of two innocents, is a joy to behold. After a prolonged struggle with his chaste love for the Ashlands’ daughter Kai, and his desire for Leda, Samuel seduces Leda in one of the most erotically charged love scenes I’ve ever read. It’s quite a trick to make a male virgin so sexually appealing while believably depicting his lack of experience, but Kinsale carries it off in a way that makes your toes curl.
At the prodding of the Ashlands and his own conscience, Samuel reluctantly does the right thing by Leda and marries her, surrendering all his dreams of a noble and chaste love with Kai. He believes that he has lost all chance of personal salvation, but instead he finds it with Leda.
Patiently, gently, Leda helps him to reconcile the two halves of his divided self, to let go of the ugliness of his past and learn how to love a woman body and soul.
I reread this book occasionally to remind myself of a few things . . . that a romance writer needs to push the boundaries of a story beyond what is comfortable, and to give the hero a necessary streak of vulnerability that will emphasize his strength. Exotic locations, colorful characters, expert writing, a tender love story . . . The Shadow and the Star has it all.
You can always tell when someone is great by how easy he or she makes it look. I can’t think of any writer who has the amount of sheer talent Laura Kinsale does. She’s just amazing. The Shadow and the Star is Laura Kinsale’s best novel, and anyone who doesn’t read it is missing out on a writer at the top of her form.
Buy it at Amazon/Apple Books/Barnes and Noble/Kobo
Grade: A
Book Type: Historical Romance
Sensuality: Hot
Review Date: 30/09/97
Publication Date: 1991
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.
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God I love this book. Samuel is so fabulous and the plot has stuck with me years later. True DIK material!
I adore her books and read them multiple times. I had the absolute pleasure of meeting her once, and I’ll never forget it. She told me about her latest project, but it hasn’t happened yet.
I, too, have been waiting for her new project, but then again I have been waiting awhile. I don’t think it’s going to happen. Must be so hard to top that track record of stellar books.
I haven’t read a Kinsale I haven’t loved. The first time I read them, I read them all back-to-back and I remember being shell-shocked afterwards
for days. It was emotionally too much.
I have conflicted feelings about this book. I always enjoy the intellectual project of Kinsale’s works and so her ideas resonate with me nearly always. The execution of them though from a perspective of a romance reader though do not always work, and this is one of those books where I wanted to feel more. Samuel remains largely devoid of emotional intelligence for nearly the entire novel, except for the final pages, where it felt a bit too little/too late. I would like to reread this some day though and see if I feel more for the characters.