By Kasey Michaels
Read: January 2010
Rating: Bit weak
I’m really not a fan of romances along these lines–they usually star a modest white woman being swept away be her “Savage” lover. Somehow the Native American man and his sheltered lover manage to bring peace and harmony to their peoples, blah, blah. Not too different from Sheikh books. I think what I dislike most about the American ones is that the Amer-Indians, the real ones, often don’t get much of a say in how their people are represented. There are plenty of Scottish people around to tell you your highlander romances are full of crap, but not so many Lenni Lenape available to tell authors to shut their pieholes.
The Untamed was not a terrible offender in this way, but it was still a bit irritating. I chose it because the plot wasn’t cookie cutter.
It’s the 1760s. Brighid Cassidy was sixteen when her family was killed in a raid and she was taken captive by the Lenni Lenape. She doesn’t remember the sequence of events clearly, but she wound up being taken into the bosom of a Lenape family. Like many other white captives, she integrated into the tribe and, after five years, considers herself more Indian than Irish.
But her cousin back in Pennsylvania has never stopped looking for her. Finally an agreement is made between the colonists and the tribe, and Brighid is one of the agreed exchanges. Her cousin sends an Englishman to retrieve her. Philip Crown is idiot enough to bring his fucking walking stick into the wilds of western Pennsylvania/Ohio. He’s not an idiot in other ways, however. Though Brighid makes it very clear she does not want to return to ‘civilization’, even demanding that what’s left of her Lenape family must come with her, Philip manages to coax her back with him.
Of course, integrated back into white society is going to be a trial. These captives are considered soiled, punished by God for their presumed sins, heathens–and horror of horrors, Brighid was wife to one of those savages! A peer like Philip really should be marrying a wealthy British heiress who can give him perfect English children.
Anyway, sparks fly, misunderstandings as compounded, lies-told-for-the-good-of-others are told, vengeful villains attempt to destroy their happiness before it can start, etc. etc. Now much to complain about in the plot. Nothing to squeal over, either.
What makes the book weak is the writing, which is fine for long stretches and then something stupid leaps out. Like, Philip, who is an intelligent man, who wears deerskin leathers, who is pretty much the opposite of a dandy… carries his ebony cane into the fucking wilds of Pennsylvania, and every so often blurts out, “I’ll have you know, good man!” and other such dandyisms. That do not suit him at all. Either he’s a ridiculous, pompous stuffed shirt, or he’s a down to earth, reasonable person. It’s the author who can’t bother coming up with creative dialogue when stock phrases are to hand.
There were also some wording things. I don’t remember any specifically, but they annoyed me. It was stupid, glitch-y stuff that broke the rhythm.
Thankfully, I’m hormonal and moody enough to let almost anything slide right now. :p
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