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A review by katiev
A Savage Adoration by Penny Jordan
4.0
3.5 stars. I'll round up since it was a nice read on a cold yucky day. I enjoyed the atmosphere of the small town on the border of England and Scotland as well as some of the supporting characters like the older Lady and the stuffy old army man who obviously had an old flame for one another. Sometimes it's nice to delve into the older HPs that didn't require jaunting all over the world or gazillionaire heroes.
This hero was a doctor. He'd grown up around the heroine since his parents and hers were best friends. He was 8 years older and when the heroine became a teen her feelings changed from sisterly to romantic love. She (on some dubious advice from a wilder school friend) tried to seduce him at 17. He angrily rejected her and gave her a speech about the dangers of such behavior before carting her home like a naughty child. She was humiliated and confused. I could feel her to a certain extent. Society tells us that men want one thing and that they are almost always willing to give it to any reasonably attractive and receptive female. If they reject you, it makes you wonder if something isn't wrong with you. After all, many of us are conditioned to believe they have virtually no standards or interests outside of sex. So, if they reject you, you must obviously be a leper. Of course, she was only 17. But, at 17 I liked to think I was a woman too. I'd have been hurt and humiliated, even though it was done very much for her own good. Plus, of course, he loved her all along.
Anyway, she moves to London to be a secretary (hello 80's HPLand) and he moves to America to practice medicine. They don't see one another for 8 years when she moves home to escape a lecherous boss and he moves back to the area to start up a family practice. It's kind of sweet how obviously thrilled he is to see her and I love it how the author was able to exclusively use the h's POV, yet successfully convey all the longing from the hero (it all flew over the h's head, of course). IMHO that takes more talent than being privy to pages of the H's emo navel gazing feels. YMMV.
There are lots of misunderstandings, beginning with the heroine's lingering anger over the rejection at 17. Once that is set aside she assumes that he just wants her for sex and she can't handle that, so she lets him believe she actually is having an affair with her married boss. I'll never understand why heroine's do that. I can see not begging some narrow minded ass to see the truth, but this was deliberate. This hero wasn't even that big of an ass. By HP and especially PJ standards he was a nice, reasonable man. He shook her once, but come on I'm pretty sure shaking the heroine hard at least once was a contractual obligation in the old days.
Just be warned, if you aren't aware. You can't read a PJ and expect the heroine not to be sometimes annoyingly overwrought. They always teeter on the edge of a nervous breakdown throughout most of the book.
This hero was a doctor. He'd grown up around the heroine since his parents and hers were best friends. He was 8 years older and when the heroine became a teen her feelings changed from sisterly to romantic love. She (on some dubious advice from a wilder school friend) tried to seduce him at 17. He angrily rejected her and gave her a speech about the dangers of such behavior before carting her home like a naughty child. She was humiliated and confused. I could feel her to a certain extent. Society tells us that men want one thing and that they are almost always willing to give it to any reasonably attractive and receptive female. If they reject you, it makes you wonder if something isn't wrong with you. After all, many of us are conditioned to believe they have virtually no standards or interests outside of sex. So, if they reject you, you must obviously be a leper. Of course, she was only 17. But, at 17 I liked to think I was a woman too. I'd have been hurt and humiliated, even though it was done very much for her own good. Plus, of course, he loved her all along.
Anyway, she moves to London to be a secretary (hello 80's HPLand) and he moves to America to practice medicine. They don't see one another for 8 years when she moves home to escape a lecherous boss and he moves back to the area to start up a family practice. It's kind of sweet how obviously thrilled he is to see her and I love it how the author was able to exclusively use the h's POV, yet successfully convey all the longing from the hero (it all flew over the h's head, of course). IMHO that takes more talent than being privy to pages of the H's emo navel gazing feels. YMMV.
There are lots of misunderstandings, beginning with the heroine's lingering anger over the rejection at 17. Once that is set aside she assumes that he just wants her for sex and she can't handle that, so she lets him believe she actually is having an affair with her married boss. I'll never understand why heroine's do that. I can see not begging some narrow minded ass to see the truth, but this was deliberate. This hero wasn't even that big of an ass. By HP and especially PJ standards he was a nice, reasonable man. He shook her once, but come on I'm pretty sure shaking the heroine hard at least once was a contractual obligation in the old days.
Just be warned, if you aren't aware. You can't read a PJ and expect the heroine not to be sometimes annoyingly overwrought. They always teeter on the edge of a nervous breakdown throughout most of the book.