Review: No island in sight
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 05 4, 2014
This is a very traditional historical romance, with a mild plot and an emphasis on the characters. Back in the Dark Ages, a great warrior is about to conquer a post-Roman town, but a peace is negotiated which includes wedding a daughter of the local ruler to seal the bargain. Aurora is a young woman of considerable spirit, well matched with Maelgwn. The best thing about these characters is that they're complex, troubled people who make plenty of mistakes. The Bad Guys, though, are completely bad. It's always a mistake to have characters with no redeeming values. The storyline is quite predictable. Aurora, coming from a civilized place with baths and mosaics, finds herself in a fairly brutish hill fort. Maelgwn's evil sister has been ruling the place for years and has no intention of allowing anyone to unseat her. Aurora finds herself at loose ends. Her husband has a poor opinion of women in general, and their relationship is pretty rocky - except in bed, on the grass, against a tree...you name it, they're indulging their passions there. In the meantime, since this is supposed to be the Dark Ages, there are untrustworthy alliances, threats all around, plotting and so forth. It's safe to ignore all of that and focus on the hero and heroine, neither of whom know exactly how to create a trusting marriage. That's an anachronism, of course, as marriages of that period were not based on modern criteria, but the book is an easy read. The only thing that puzzles me is the title, as there isn't a single island in the book, unless you count all of England.