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eak1013's review against another edition
2.0
Points to Balogh for making me buy into and even root for a relationship dynamic I generally loooooathe. This is all I-hate-you-so-much-I-love-you, except when it's I-love-you-so-much-I-hate-you, and I genuinely believe that the protagonists enjoy (get off on?) angering each other, at least for the first chunk of the book. I mean, it's sort of dynamic I find personally abhorrent (and have a hard time reading sometimes), but Balogh sells it.
It makes for a snappy read, right up until the heroine stops walking the line between crazy-like-a-fox and too-stupid-to-live and jumps right on over into the land of unforgivably, self-centeredly dumb. I mean, I do enjoy when a historical heroine rails against the restrictions placed on her by virtue of her gender, but when that railing takes the form ofplacing herself in the middle of a battle, where she has no real means of defending herself, despite stealing a gun, showing complete lack of awareness of how she is needlessly endangering people - yes, men - who have been ordered to ensure her safety, just because she would - and. I. quote. - "die of boredom" if she couldn't see what was happening in the battle firsthand , well, I'm outtie.
And once she's done that, for me all the other dumbass things she's done in service of her revenge quest, which I was able to buy when I was enjoying the chemistry between the protags, to look like time after time, the heroine made the choice to do things for the lulz, rather than in service to that quest, her ostensible motivation for pages and pages. Then my enjoyment of the chemistry between the two fades entirely when the heroine articulates how much pleasure she takes, not just in arguing with the hero, but in his misery. She demands things of the hero without ever considering the situation from his perspective and shows little inclination to change. This would be an excellent opportunity for the rare heroine grovel, but she explicitly won't do that, because reasons. (Gender-based oppression is real, particularly in historical settings, but inconsiderate dickbags can be *any* gender.) This particular happy ending makes sense with how Balogh structured everything, but they better hope they continue to want to bone each other senseless for a long, long time, because I am *highly* dubious about the domestic felicity they will find in their particular brand of sparring.
Saved from a one star by the intriguing setting.
It makes for a snappy read, right up until the heroine stops walking the line between crazy-like-a-fox and too-stupid-to-live and jumps right on over into the land of unforgivably, self-centeredly dumb. I mean, I do enjoy when a historical heroine rails against the restrictions placed on her by virtue of her gender, but when that railing takes the form of
And once she's done that, for me all the other dumbass things she's done in service of her revenge quest, which I was able to buy when I was enjoying the chemistry between the protags, to look like time after time, the heroine made the choice to do things for the lulz, rather than in service to that quest, her ostensible motivation for pages and pages. Then my enjoyment of the chemistry between the two fades entirely when the heroine articulates how much pleasure she takes, not just in arguing with the hero, but in his misery. She demands things of the hero without ever considering the situation from his perspective and shows little inclination to change. This would be an excellent opportunity for the rare heroine grovel, but she explicitly won't do that, because reasons. (Gender-based oppression is real, particularly in historical settings, but inconsiderate dickbags can be *any* gender.) This particular happy ending makes sense with how Balogh structured everything, but they better hope they continue to want to bone each other senseless for a long, long time, because I am *highly* dubious about the domestic felicity they will find in their particular brand of sparring.
Saved from a one star by the intriguing setting.
celli's review against another edition
4.0
In the intro, Balogh says that this novel (published 1992) took her way out of her comfort zone to write something "action-packed." I'm glad she did! This was a really fun book to read, and it's an earlier view of the non-romanticized view of war we see in later books.
Content warning:The main characters are especially antagonistic at one point in the book and it spills over into sex...they slap each other and the sex is consensual but kind of charged.
Content warning:
accidentalspaceexplorer's review against another edition
3.5
Okay, so I picked this one randomly off the shelf at the library completely based on the description on the back cover. I ended up loving the plot! It was complicated and twisty and full of fun double-crosses. I really appreciated the dual POV in this book, because it meant that you knew what both sides were thinking and planning for, and you could go, "NO you're so DUMB she's CLEARLY doing this thing!!!" I enjoyed that very much. If I could give a rating just based on the plot, I would absolutely give it 5 stars. I was very hooked by the plot and turned pages rapidly to watch as it unfolded.
The reason my rating is not a 5 star rating is because of the romance, unfortunately enough with this romance novel. The characters were well-developed, I just didn't like them, and I definitely didn't like them together. Joana/Jeanne was infuriating, and while I enjoyed that she was independent, her stubbornness and constant "teasing" of Robert was awful and dumb. And Robert wasn't a lot better, with his super angry lusting after her, the lack of respect, the yelling, etc. I did not enjoy the hate sex, and I didn't feel the romance, the passion, the anything.
So, on balance, it comes out to about 3.5/5! Great plot, but disappointing and irritating romance.
The reason my rating is not a 5 star rating is because of the romance, unfortunately enough with this romance novel. The characters were well-developed, I just didn't like them, and I definitely didn't like them together. Joana/Jeanne was infuriating, and while I enjoyed that she was independent, her stubbornness and constant "teasing" of Robert was awful and dumb. And Robert wasn't a lot better, with his super angry lusting after her, the lack of respect, the yelling, etc. I did not enjoy the hate sex, and I didn't feel the romance, the passion, the anything.
So, on balance, it comes out to about 3.5/5! Great plot, but disappointing and irritating romance.
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