Montagues #5
Elizabeth Elliott
Medieval Romance
Published in 2018
H/h - Faulke Segrave/Princess Isabel Plantagenet
Setting: The time of King Edward I.
Read in July, 2018.
My rating:
[spoiler alert]
After 6 long years, book 5 of Elizabeth Elliott’s the Montagues series, The Princess
was finally published in June of this year. I was quite excited because
every year I’d check at least once for any news without any luck
whatsoever. Then again, the author stopped publishing for a long time
before book 4, The Dark Knight (titled The Assassin before
publication) was published in 2012. I like her writing a lot but big
gaps between installments hinders the enjoyment sometimes. My discovery
of her work was rather sudden; I had read the first 3 books already by
then and enjoyed them enough to continue on with the series.
Before
I get into my review, I want to mention a few things here about the
series in case a new reader wants to know: The first 3 books, The Warlord (#1- 1995), Betrothed (#2 - 1996) and Scoundrel
(#3 - 1996) were connected to each-other by characters. Set in the
medieval era, more precisely around Edward I’s reign, the first 2 books
are of the Montague brothers Kenric and Guy. Book 3 is regency set, of a
descendant of one of the brothers. I count book 3 as a standalone
release. Book 4 is also set around the time of 1 and 2, however, the
storyline veered away from the original Montagues. In book 2 we were
introduced to Dante Chiavari, who turned out to be the brother of the
heroine of book 2, Claudia. He was a minor but a mysterious character
and I was totally interested in knowing more about him. In that sense, The Dark Knight and The Princess are more connected than the previous 3 books. In fact, the Montagues were barely mentioned in the new release.
Dante
is Italian and had a sad past when his parents were murdered by his
greedy uncle. He came to England with his elder brother and only sister
Claudia. Elder brother was another greedy bastard that died in book 1 or
2 in a battle with one of the Montague brothers. But Claudia and Guy
fell in love and married. Dante, however, couldn’t fall in love with
anyone. The darkness of how his parents were murdered, with the urge for
brutal vengeance against the man who did so and took away the riches
and lands that should’ve been his and Claudia’s, was eating at him for a
long time. At a point while growing up, Dante came in contact with one
of Kind Edward’s closest advisers, Mordecai. He’s also a mysterious
individual with supernatural powers. He can see into the future and
people believe in him. He’s also trained in many tactics to bring any
enemy of the King down. Assassination was one of the most common deeds
and Mordecai had trained people in the past just for that purpose. Dante
became one of them. The King’s Assassin that everyone whispered about
but no one would directly point a finger towards him cause they were
scared. Yet, Dante had dark hair and intense green eyes; a handsome man
by all means.
So far Dante has done what he deemed was his
job successfully. Never disappointing. He was
exceptionally skilled, quite ruthless and determined to do the deed as
efficiently as was possible. But lately he’s been wanting to retire and
travel to Italy to take care of his own business that I mentioned in the
previous paragraph. It’s then he’s given one last assignment by the
King to seek out a Marcher baron and his family due to some feud or the
other. That’s how he came to know Avalene, the love of his life, the
said Baron’s daughter. He went to investigate in disguise of a Knight,
helped Avalene escape her own mean uncle and aunt, making her falling in
love with him in the process. She had no Knight in Shining Armor
because her father had pretty much abandoned her to her uncle’s mercy
after her mother’s death, and rarely kept in contact after his second
marriage. She wanted out but didn’t know how that was possible,
especially since she was recently engaged to a Welshman, the son of an
Earl, Faulke Segrave. Avalene had no love for this guy knowing he likes
brewing trouble around Welsh, leading rebellions against the King of
England. I don’t exactly remember how it happened but Avalene really
didn’t want to marry Faulke.
Long story short, though Dante had
kept his identity a secret for a while in the story, it’s eventually
outed by Faulke in a quest to save his betrothed. Even after knowing the
truth, Avalene couldn’t help falling more in love with Dante because
he’d done everything to keep her safe when he was supposed to be killing
her. He didn’t think he’d ever have any chance of having Avalene as his
wife but in the end, Dante made it possible. Among whatever chaos was
going on between England and Welsh, he wins Avalene with the King’s
grudging blessing. Mostly because the King had another plan in mind for
Faulke.
Faulke had been a thorn in Edward’s side for a while now.
I didn’t like him when he was introduced in book 4. He seemed quite
volatile in temperament, and after reading he had also been widowed 3
times with 3 daughters from each wives and that he’s been rumored to
have murdered them for their riches...Well, it certainly didn’t endear
him to me. Avalene was no one special in that sense but he wanted her.
With her now engaged to Dante, Faulke had no reasons to not rebel once
again. However, at the same time, King’s eldest daughter, Isabel had
returned to England from Rheinbaden, a small country in Germany (I think
so since her people all spoke German). She was married to the crown
prince Hartman for many years until he died a year or so ago. Isabel had
no children and had no other reason to remain there. But we get to know
more behind her return to England in The Princess.
Isabel
had been living in Rheinbaden since her engagement with Hartman at the
age of 6. The King there decided it was better to groom her in their
ways and Edward send Isabel right away. So, in that sense, England is a
*new* country to her. I forgot how old she was when the story began but
not more than 25. She was married to Hartman at 12, borne a child that
died at birth. She didn’t conceive again. It seemed she’d lived her life
and Hartman lived his own after that until his death by accident. He
obviously had many mistresses and hardly any contact with his wife after
Isabel was ‘declared’ barren.
Sadly, as we come to know from
Isabel herself, that the marriage was not a bed of roses even at their
early days. She was infatuated with Hartman’s blonde goodlooks but he
never really took to her. Probably not at all. Sex became duty to them
to conceive an heir, and when that failed, the marriage pretty much
crumbled. Hartman had mistresses as long as Isabel could remember. She
was young and naïve and tolerated them all through the marriage just
because she thought she was barren and couldn’t give him what he wanted.
It also seemed that sex wasn’t as enjoyable to her either. Isabel was
quite happy to not have to tolerate Hartman’s “visits”. :/ He had
bastards with his favorite mistress and that girl had taunted Isabel all
her life with this fact. Hartman never said a word, instead beat Isabel
up if she ever tried to say anything against that b!tch or asked him to
break it off. So all in all, you can guess how horrible it was for her.
The political scenario of Rheinbaden after Hartman’s death became very
unsettled. Isabel didn’t mourn his passing all that much and was relived
to be out of that miserable place. But she knew she’d know no happiness
because there were very few people she could trust in Rheinbaden, even
fewer now that she’s in England. She still wasn’t sure if she could
count her father among them.
Seems like (from my review) that I
didn’t like Isabel in book 4 since she came off very haughty and
unreachable. Cold, if I’m more precise. But then, she was a Princess who
was groomed to become a Queen someday. The Princess is more
her story than Faulke’s, #1 reason is it’s told from the first person
POV, whereas the others books in this series were in third person
narrative. I don’t hate first person narrative precisely but I don’t
enjoy it overmuch either. It rather diminishes the chance of knowing the
other characters properly since it reads more like one specific
character’s monologue if it’s not executed well. Did The Princess pass that test? I’ll talk about it later.
Back
to my review. After her arrival in England, Isabel learned that her
father had planned another marriage for her which would take place ASAP.
Like she couldn’t even breathe in England’s air and she was again being
made the pawn for another political game. Isabel knew it and hated the
fact that this is what she really is to the males of
this demented gameplay. But the King must be obeyed and Isabel would
meet the man she’s to marry ASAP. Someone she’d never set her eyes upon
before today. She was nervous, unhappy but she has to maintain that cold
and calm visage of The Princess so her betrothed knows who she is.
And
what a introduction it was between our two main characters; Isabel all
aloof and regal, ready to conquer her would be fiancé and Faulke all
dirty and smelly, angry and vicious, not appreciating the fact that he’d
lost another betrothed and being forced to marry someone else! Their
first impression was... eh, neither was very impressed. Isabel couldn’t
even see Faulke clearly due to the amount of dirt that was on him. And
Faulke was simply taken aback. I really liked their conversation where
Isabel is so unimpressed with Faulke she couldn’t imagine what the hell
those court ladies saw in him, because she’d already heard about his
womanizing reputation. She was rather, plainly speaking, oh
seesh, not another one FFS! This time I have to be more careful and not
let myself be humiliated once again. Also, she was worried
that her barren state would eventually wreak their marriage if Faulke’s
womanizing ways didn’t. It was like her worst nightmare playing at her
again but there was no escape for her.
I hardly knew Faulke’s
exact thoughts since it was all Isabel’s POV, which was a big bummer
TBH. And not until the next day when Isabel saw him in all his finery,
clean and clothed befitted his station, is when she understood why
Faulke was so desired by those women. He was tall and extremely
handsome; had dark hair that he kept long, neatly trimmed beard, and
with intense blue eyes. I thought they had superb chemistry because, by
then, it was quite certain that he was totally interested in Isabel,
though she didn’t know if she could trust him. Isabel’s self-confidence
has taken such a bad beating in Rheinbaden that she was sure it was more
to do with the fact that she’s bringing in a lot of riches in the
marriage, also that the marriage will elevate his status. She was more
worried that she’s going to make a fool of herself again the way she had
with Hartman and pay the price once again. That’s why she was taken
aback when they have the opportunity to talk alone. Faulke turns out to
be a genuine guy, quite genuinely interested in her. I was too since I
didn’t know what to expect of him. His worry over losing Isabel like his
previous wives seemed pretty solid. So he remained very protective of
her throughout the story until it was all resolved. Probably even after
that but we don’t really get much of an epilogue to prove that point.
Until
their marriage everything was going well. I was gearing up for a good
banter mingling with explosive chemistry. Unfortunately, the moment they
married and their first night together, Isabel became Faulke’s
‘kitten’, in more ways than one and I was like someone kill me
now, pls. *eyeroll* They were into each-other, just.like.that.
Even though they still had reasons to distrust one another, they were
already halfway in love. I mean, huh? Wtf just happened?? I hate to say
but it killed the fun I was previously having. I wanted to see their
relationship gradually build, growing stronger, especially when there
was chemistry but they both regarded each-other strangers they were
being forced to marry. It felt like both fell in lust, rather than love
and all done.
Another thing that bugged me exceptionally was how
modern Isabel’s POV read. Especially when, at one point, she uses the
word “sexy” to describe Faulke’s attractiveness. All that was needed was
to add “washboard abs” to complete this mess. -_- I don’t think people
in the 1200s used that word. Hell, not even in the Regency era! Then
WHY? That put me off so bad, even worse than how the first person POV
went throughout the story. Needless to say I wasn’t impressed with any
of it.
I don’t wanna go into the more intriguing parts of the
story that kind of saved it for me; the betrayal and the murder plot and
other things that were going on in such a volatile time. Those bits
were gooood TBH! Though I later came to appreciate the fact that Faulke
loved Isabel as I totally thought she deserved someone to love her
deeply, I still wished their relationship was gradually build solving
trust issues carefully rather the way it was. I couldn’t see why they’d
fall in love that easily with all that was going on in and around their
marriage.
And so, in the end, whereas I hoped for a ‘bang’ after
such a long wait, I found a rather tame and predictable story that
didn’t live up to my expectations. As I mentioned earlier, there was
barely an epilogue so the ending seemed very rushed. I still think it
could’ve been way better because the storyline was going the right
way...until it wasn’t. :( 3.5 stars. No idea if the series has come to
an end because I found no hint of another installment anywhere but I’ll
keep my fingers crossed.
0 comments:
Post a Comment
◈Thank you for visiting :)◈