I have been struggling with insomnia for a while now. It hit pretty hard last night -- I finally "gave up" giving up on sleep at 4:00 am. For those who don't "do" Deenie-Speak, that means I finally said, "Dammit! I have to WORK tomorrow! I'm going to lay here in the dark with my eyes closed until I fall asleep. So THERE!!"
Really. That's what I said. Out loud. To myself. In the middle of the night.
When I first gave up on sleep last night, I picked up one of my freshly delivered Harlequins -- a Spice novel called "Tortured" written by Amanda McIntyre. It's not new - came out in 2009 - but it's new to me.
Based in the Dark Ages somewhere in Britannia, McIntyre chronicles our heroine Sienna's misadventures from the point of her mother's execution to her freedom from the Saxon warlord who made her the apprentice to his executioner.
His gay executioner.
Not sure why that was a big deal, except that it kept him from taking advantage of our then twelve year-old heroine.
Anywhoooo....
Sienna is a slave - forced to witness the torture (and occasionally partake in the torture) of people who have P.O.'ed the Royal Badass for one reason or another. By the middle of the story, she's brainwashed, uncaring and has somehow become said Royal Badass's most trusted ... posession (?). She's okay with it because it keeps her alive. At least, she's okay with it until our dashing hero - the half Roman, half Briton Dryston of Hereford - comes on the scene.
I liked our hero and I thought our heroine was off the hook. There was a good bit of mind-messing here -- what with all the torture, rape, murder and villainy about. While I think Sienna's mistrust dissolved rather quickly, McIntyre did a good job of relaying the state of our heroine without wallowing in it.
The timeline hops back and forth a couple times -- once completely threw me and I had to turn back and figure out what happened. While it didn't do so without reason, it started to get old. Maybe it was just a bit too Tarantino for insomniac reading.
What's my opinion of it? I'm not sure... When I turned the last page, I flipped back and re-read a page or two. I closed the book. Stared at it and crumpled my brow. I was left... hungry. I wanted something more. I suppose one could say I had expected something more.
Don't ask me what more I expected. I don't know. I can't put my finger on it.
I mean, I liked the story. It's a historical, which is a good thing for me. Three of my top 5 favorite romance novels are historicals -- The Short Straw Bride by Dallas Schulze, Charming the Prince by Teresa Medieros and Beauty and the Beast by Taylor Ryan (no, it's not a rendition of the fairy tale!).
I thought the storyline was well constructed and there were enough plot twists to keep me interested. I mean, I finished it in what was essentially one sitting...
But the story isn't what I would call an "erotic novel" despite what the title says. I didn't find much erotic about it. I would guess it was labeled "erotic" because there were flat-out sex scenes - no emotional involvement - for most of the book.
The writing was good, the story was interesting... but it wasn't anything that would have made me keep reading had I been able to sleep. It didn't engage my heart.
Wait... That's it!!
It Didn't Engage My Heart.
I've been entranced by far less sophisticated works. I mean, HELLO!! I read "Twilight" and "New Moon" back to back in about 8 hours one night! I've read that entire series 5 or 6 times. (As much as I ADORE those books, the writing isn't incredibly strong.)
What "Tortured" DID do was interest me in that historical period. I'll probably search out a couple more books of that time period in the future.
Now, it's 12:30. I'm going to try to go to bed. For the first (and, I hope, LAST) time tonight.
Sweet Dreams!
Deenie
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