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A review by halffast
The Conqueror by Brenda Joyce
4.0
A Norman invader claims a Saxon village and takes its lady as his bride, but he only has eyes for her illegitimate half-sister, Ceidre. Ceidre despises the Norman and intends to spy on him to help the rebels, but she can't deny the simmering chemistry between them.
This is a prime example of an angsty bodice ripper chock full of heartbreak, betrayal and passion. Ceidre is a courageous and conflicted heroine, torn between her hatred and desire for Rolfe. Rolfe is an anti-hero in every sense of the word. His only redeeming qualities are his loyalty to his king (which he struggles with as Ceidre constantly commits treason), and the fact that he is totally gone for Ceidre. There are a lot of hurt/comfort moments where Ceidre has been harmed (either by Rolfe's actions or other people's) and he drops everything to take care of her. Alice, Ceidre's jealous half-sister and Rolfe's jilted wife, is an unbelievably conniving and horrible character whom I loved to hate.
Spoilers:
One note about the Kindle version I read -- lines of dialog are sometimes incorrectly split across paragraphs, or multiple lines of dialog are combined together. This occasionally made it difficult to follow who was saying what. Not impossible, just annoying. I think this was due to a buggy OCR process and not the author's fault.
Content Warning:
This is a prime example of an angsty bodice ripper chock full of heartbreak, betrayal and passion. Ceidre is a courageous and conflicted heroine, torn between her hatred and desire for Rolfe. Rolfe is an anti-hero in every sense of the word. His only redeeming qualities are his loyalty to his king (which he struggles with as Ceidre constantly commits treason), and the fact that he is totally gone for Ceidre. There are a lot of hurt/comfort moments where Ceidre has been harmed (either by Rolfe's actions or other people's) and he drops everything to take care of her. Alice, Ceidre's jealous half-sister and Rolfe's jilted wife, is an unbelievably conniving and horrible character whom I loved to hate.
Spoilers:
Spoiler
I thought Ceidre became a little too desperate and weepy at the end of the book, but I also sympathized with her losing everything, including losing her heart to Rolfe. I also didn't like the hints of kink shaming toward Alice, who enjoys painful sex. Rolfe hated her enough as it was, so his extra scorn toward her for being a masochist was unnecessary. The angst continues up until the very, very end. There were 15 pages left in the book and I thought it would be impossible for the author to give Rolfe and Ceidre a happy ending.One note about the Kindle version I read -- lines of dialog are sometimes incorrectly split across paragraphs, or multiple lines of dialog are combined together. This occasionally made it difficult to follow who was saying what. Not impossible, just annoying. I think this was due to a buggy OCR process and not the author's fault.
“Come here and demand of me, Ceidre, that which you want. I am most amenable tonight.” He smiled again. It was like the brightest of suns, when he smiled, perhaps because true mirth, from him, was so rare. Ceidre realized her heart was fluttering madly and that her limbs were taut. “You are not serious.” “Oh,” he said softly, “I am most serious. Do you not know you can get anything you wish of me?”
Content Warning: