A Knight In Shining Armor

 

By Jude Deveraux

Dougless (the female main character) has traveled to England with her boyfriend and his teen daughter to get to know the daughter better. But it has not been going well and after an angry confrontation, boyfriend and daughter have left and abandoned her in the graveyard of an ancient church. 

Feeling like an absolute failure at life, her tears call forth a knight in shining armor, Sir Nicholas Stafford, Earl of Thornwyck, who died back in the 1500s. Apparently he was buried in his armor, along with jewel encrusted weapons, he is a walking fortune in gold and gems. Which is a good thing, it turns out, because boyfriend's teen daughter has stolen Doug's purse. (What a strange name Dougless is for a heroine in a romance novel.)

Nick is a bit upset that some witch has called him forth from his grave and wants to be released from her summons. But Doug has no clue how she did it nor how to undo it. So together the two must figure out how to survive in modern day Britain, Doug with no money and no ID and Nick lost in a time 180 degrees different from what he knows. Good thing Nick was buried with a small bag of coins from his time that are worth so much the coin expert they visit eye's probably nearly bug out of his head.

The first part of the book is the best, I think, with Doug helping Nick live in the modern world. The second part has Doug back in Nick's time. Unfortunately, that Nick has forgotten all the time they spent together in the future, leaving Doug in a rather precarious position and existing on the good graces of his very mercenary mother. Doug's mission in the past is to save Nick's life. He will become the victim of the insidious plot of an dangerously ambitious woman and an angry cuckolded husband. 

I didn't find the second part as interesting as the first. Mainly I think because Doug found herself quite at home and happy in the past, coping well without all the modern comforts and conveniences. When I think about the state of medical care back then and of women's rights, I find it nearly impossible to believe any modern woman would be happy to be back in those primitive times. Which is why I really liked the ending of the story, it made a lot of sense to me, well, as much as a ridiculous fantasy love story can make sense.

Here is a review of the novel from the website Dear Author by contributor The Fallen Professor. 

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan

Lisa See

Set in China in the early to mid 1800s.

When Snow Flower and Lily were kids, their friendship was arranged by Madame Wang. A contract is drawn up and the girls agree to it and it is supposed to last as long as they are alive. It was a way, perhaps, to give women a relationship that was closer and longer lasting than those of the marital relationship. Because marriages were arranged, love was not a factor and men often took concubines when their wives became older or when the man became bored. So the sworn friend provided that long term, loving relationship lacking in marriage. 

The two girls do become good friends and grow up together and when they can't be together, they send each other messages written in the folds of an ornate fan which becomes a simple history of their lives. 

At first, it is clear to Lily that Snow Flower comes from a higher status family than her own. Snow Flower's clothes are nicer, her speech and manners more refined and her ignorance of household chores indicates those chores are taken care of by servants. Lily teaches Snow Flower the tasks that Lily performs every day, cooking, cleaning, caring for the elderly and the little kids. And Snow Flower teaches Lily the refinements she has been taught in turn. 

Foot binding was common in China at the time. I am not going to discuss a custom that I feel is depraved and barbaric except to say it was part of a young woman's appeal to a potential husband. Because Lily's bound feet were considered particularly appealing, she became the wife of man of higher status and privilege than her humble farming family.

However, even though Snow Flower's bound feet were also considered beautiful, she did not find a high status spouse but instead was married to a butcher. Snow Flower's father was a drug addict and a gambler and he bankrupted his family and a butcher was the best Snow Flower could do for a mate. 

It's not surprising that Lily and Snow Flower were not that close, given the disparity in their adult lives. As Lily's fortunes rose, Snow Flower's declined. Add to that the stress of a war that sent the people fleeing for their lives from their villages to shelter in the distant hills. Lily and Snow Flower became more dissatisfied with each other. While Lily wanted Snow Flower to try harder to improve her life and the lives of her family, Snow Flower wanted Lily to accept her and her life for what it was without nagging her to do better. Lily became distraught and cut Snow Flower out of her life. It was only as Snow Flower was dying that Lily came to understand how she had failed her lifelong friend.

This was a fairly interesting story. I have to admit that I hated the way women were treated in it, everything about the coldness and cruelty made me angry and distressed. On the other hand, the Chinese civilization is thousands of years old and apparently that system worked for them, as vile as it seems to me. 

This is not a happy story, the lives of the women as described in the book are miserable. They are hemmed about by rules and traditions and limited in every way, even the better off women have very little freedom and very little choice in how they live their lives. Throughout the story, we are reminded that women were viewed as evil and as a burden to the families unfortunate enough to produce them. Such sad, miserable lives and I was not sorry to be finished with the story.

Here is a review by Kirkus Reviews.

Savannah or A Gift for Mr. Lincoln

 

By John Jakes

Set in late 1874, this is the story of the citizens of Savannah, Georgia on the eve of the takeover of the town by General Sherman, the Union general famous for the trail of destruction he left behind as he and his army advanced across Georgia in 1864.

The main character is spunky Hattie Lester, twelve, the only child of an landowning widow whose spouse died in the war. Hattie is an ardent supporter of the Southern cause, mainly because her father died for it. 

As Sherman draws closer, the citizens of Savannah are understandably nervous, given the destruction for which he is famous. As the Union forces draw nearer, Hattie and her mother leave their rice plantation and move in with a family friend, Vee, a spinster piano teacher in Savannah. Vee lives in constant fear of being attacked by looters, thieves or Union troops. That is until she makes the acquaintance of a wounded Yankee soldier, who was shot defending her and her home from Yankee looters. 

Meanwhile, Hattie gets into a confrontation with General Sherman and kicks him in the ankle. At the time, she did not know who he was. But whether that would have made a difference in her actions is debatable. The General becomes a benefactor to Hattie because he is missing his own family and she reminds him of his daughter. (I believe this part of the story is entirely made up.)

In the end, the fearful citizens of Savannah had little to fear from Sherman and his arrival ended the Northern blockade of the city, which enabled food and goods to once again enter the city at a time when resources had grown very thin for many people there.

This was a pretty good read, if a bit pat in its handing of the different plots in the story. I did find the first part of the book much less interesting than the later part where the Union Army took over the city. 

Here is a review by the Historical Novel Society.

These Old Shades

 

By Georgette Heyer

The story is summarized by the author herself towards the end of the novel:

'"Once upon a time—there were two brothers. I have forgotten their names, but since they detested each other, I will call them Cain and—er—Abel ... The hatred grew and flourished until I believe there was nothing one brother would not do to spite the other."

"Cain, being the elder of these two brothers, succeeded in due course to his father ... Cain's succession but added fuel to the fire of hatred, and whereas our friend Abel was consumed of a desire to stand in his brother's shoes, Cain was consumed of a like desire to keep him out of them ... Cain took a wife unto himself and doubtless thought himself secure ... But ... the years went by, and still there came no son to gladden Cain's heart ... Abel ... grew more and more jubilant, and I fear he did not hesitate to make—er—a jest of his brother's ill-luck. [Cain's wife] raised her husband's hope once more. This time Cain determined that there should be no mistake. When madame's time was upon her, he carried her off to his estates, where she was delivered of—a daughter." ... Now observe the cunning of Cain. On his estate ... there dwelt a farm-labourer ... whose wife had just presented him with a second son ... [Cain] bribed this peasant to give him his lusty son in exchange for his daughter."

"Cain presently brought his family back to Paris ... leaving instructions that his daughter's foster-father was to leave his estate for some remote spot ... For twelve years [Cain's daughter] remained in the heart of the country, with her foster-parents, and was reared as their own child ... A plague struck down both foster-father and mother, but my heroine escaped, as did also her foster-brother ... She ... was taken to Paris by her foster-brother, a youth many years her senior ... He bought a tavern in one of the meanest and most noisome of your [Paris] streets. And since it was inconvenient for him to have a girl of my heroine's tender years upon his hands, he dressed her as a boy ... I shall not discompose you by telling you of her life in this guise ... Further, he married a slut whose care was to ill-use my heroine in every conceivable way. At this woman's hands she suffered for seven long years ... During those years she learned to know Vice, to Fear, and to know the meaning of that ugly word Hunger. I do not know how she survived."

"Then ... Fate stepped in again, and cast my heroine across the path of a man who had never had cause to love our friend Cain. Into this man's life came my heroine. He was struck by her likeness to Cain, and of impulse he bought her from her foster-brother. He had waited for many years to pay in full a debt he owed Cain; in this child he saw a possible means to do so..."'

So there you have it, pretty much the whole plot of the story. The girl, Leonie, is found by the Duke of Avon, an English lord visiting Paris. Her unusual coloring, bright red hair and striking black eyebrows and lashes grabs his attention. At first, the Duke believes she is a by-blow of his enemy, the Comte de Saint-Vire, a French nobleman that the Duke had a run-in with years ago. Comte too has bright red hear and striking black eyebrows. Doesn't take the Duke long to figure out that the person he thought was a teenage boy is in fact a young woman. Being an intelligent man, he realizes that Leonie was given up by the Comte as described above. This knowledge is the weapon the Duke will use to bring the Comte to his doom. And in the process the Duke will lose his heart to a beautiful, wild young woman who is twenty years younger than he is.

This is a very interesting tale. In the first part Leonie serves the Duke as a page, but eventually he sends her to Britain to learn to be a young noblewoman. Then he brings her back to Paris and introduces her to Paris high society as his adopted daughter. Let the fun begin!

Wikipedia has an entry about These Old Shades.