Friday, January 13, 2012

Of damaged heroes and cynical heroines

Hidden HonorHidden Honor by Anne Stuart

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This is the first book I finished in 2012! Let's see how good I am at cataloguing all the stuff I read for this year. *grin*



I have always enjoyed reading Anne Stuart's books; she is a master at crafting stories involving two damaged people and how they survived their adventures to live happily ever after. Hidden Honour explored the choices available to aristocrat women in Middle Ages England as its background. Perhaps their existence was better than serf-dom but they were still repressed with limited choices apart from marriage and nunnery. They were little more than goods for barter and had little say about their future.

Ms. Stuart is fond of writing of the termagant-type heroines; female protagonists who are strong, speaks their mind and very competent in what they do with a tender underbelly that makes them vulnerable. Lady Elizabeth was a healer who was leaving her father's keep for St Anne's to take up her vows accompanied by the villainous Prince William and his entourage. And that's when things start to get interesting.

Can't say much more about the male protagonist as it would spoil an important plot of the book, but suffice to say that the complex intertwine between the Church and life in Middle Ages Europe makes for difficult choices and a great back story for the hero.

Highly enjoyable stuff.



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