A review by elusivity
Keeper of the Dream by Penelope Williamson
1.0
The good: Above-average writing. A good sense of historical setting. I could feel the dirt and smell the grime. The last third of the book settles into something resembles a true loving relationship. --Well, if it were badly written, I would not have felt the urge to at least skim this to the end, and would have been spared much finger-trembling rage. GARH!
The bad: the forcing together of a harsh, autocratic man and a "feisty" woman, in which they have nothing in common aside from all kinds of quivering at his touch and frequent f*cking, in which he grinds her down and she loves him for it -- oo little wife, how you defy me, but look, I will conquer you completely both in reality AND in bed, "cupping your sex" while I berate you to make my point that you still get wet. Aside from their frequent sex trysts, what reason has she to feel compassion for him and his crappy childhood? Has he shown her any particular kindness or worth, or is restraint from violence sufficient to woo her oh-so-soft-yet-feisty heart? But nooo, this was Destined and Meant To Be, and their Connection was evident when first they set eyes on each other, and she will eventually Crack his Hard Shell and teach him the Joy of Love. Again and again and again. I kept thinking, ok, another argument, another bout of sex, feels like an ending, wha--ANOTHER argument, another bout of sex, whoa--ANOTHER... ad infinitum.
All this, plus the poor bastardization of Taliesin, Welsh mystic wizard-bard that he was, into some kind of a comic sidekick boy-matchmaker.
The loathsome: several sex scenes in the first 2/3 of this novel borders on rape, all described as though they were delicious. YMMV, but I find such couplings repellent and hateful.
I SHOULD give this 2 stars for the ending... but no. I DISLIKE 2/3 of this book. Dislike. So there!
The bad: the forcing together of a harsh, autocratic man and a "feisty" woman, in which they have nothing in common aside from all kinds of quivering at his touch and frequent f*cking, in which he grinds her down and she loves him for it -- oo little wife, how you defy me, but look, I will conquer you completely both in reality AND in bed, "cupping your sex" while I berate you to make my point that you still get wet. Aside from their frequent sex trysts, what reason has she to feel compassion for him and his crappy childhood? Has he shown her any particular kindness or worth, or is restraint from violence sufficient to woo her oh-so-soft-yet-feisty heart? But nooo, this was Destined and Meant To Be, and their Connection was evident when first they set eyes on each other, and she will eventually Crack his Hard Shell and teach him the Joy of Love. Again and again and again. I kept thinking, ok, another argument, another bout of sex, feels like an ending, wha--ANOTHER argument, another bout of sex, whoa--ANOTHER... ad infinitum.
All this, plus the poor bastardization of Taliesin, Welsh mystic wizard-bard that he was, into some kind of a comic sidekick boy-matchmaker.
The loathsome: several sex scenes in the first 2/3 of this novel borders on rape, all described as though they were delicious. YMMV, but I find such couplings repellent and hateful.
I SHOULD give this 2 stars for the ending... but no. I DISLIKE 2/3 of this book. Dislike. So there!