Almost Innocent (Mass Market Paperback)

~ (Author)
Key Phrases: outer ward, Guy de Gervais, Lord de Gervais, Edmund de Bresse (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"An accomplished storyteller ... rare and wonderful."
-- Daily News of Los Angeles


Also by Jane Feather:

A Valentine Wedding
The Least Likely Bride
The Accidental Bride
The Hostage Bride
The Emerald Swan
The Silver Rose
The Diamond Slipper
Vice
Vanity
Violet
Valentine
Velvet
Vixen
Virtue

and now in hardcover

The Widow's Kiss

Available wherever Bantam Books are sold -- Review

Review

"An accomplished storyteller ... rare and wonderful."
-- Daily News of Los Angeles


Also by Jane Feather:

A Valentine Wedding
The Least Likely Bride
The Accidental Bride
The Hostage Bride
The Emerald Swan
The Silver Rose
The Diamond Slipper
Vice
Vanity
Violet
Valentine
Velvet
Vixen
Virtue

and now in hardcover

The Widow's Kiss

Available wherever Bantam Books are sold

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 432 pages
• Publisher: Bantam (May 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553573705
• ISBN-13: 978-0553573701
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (34 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #877,499 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic Hero, Unfortunate Heroine, June 1, 2001

By	K. N. Nelson (California, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

It is puzzling that a writer as talented as Ms. Feather would consciously choose to portray her heroine Magdalen as such a self absorbed, narcissistic, ignorant, rebellious character with zero sense of morality. This is a disservice to women, both now and then, and one has to remind oneself that this tale is set in a period of time that was equally barbaric and chivalrous, at least on the part of the knights charged with the safety of the realm and its peoples.

Magdalen's lover and protector, Guy de Gervais, is a truly nurturing and loving man despite the fact that he has at "un pointe non plus" slapped her to remind her that her wilful disobedience gravely threatens Guy's task to keep her safe from harm that was placed upon him by her father, the Prince John of Gaunt. At issue is an uneasy truce between England and France that governs the political balance of power and she is a major player.

She is utterly absorbed in her passions and physical neediness, rendering her extraordinarily unlikeable. Yet, this may reveal the realities of women in that era, who is to say? The tale is a fascinating slice of history which makes it worthwhile reading for this fact alone. I do hope that in the future Ms. Feather makes her heroines more sympathetic, because, in all fairness, she is nearly as gifted as Guy Gavriel Kay in her ability to evoke the reader's deepest involvement with her characters which makes the story unforgettable on many levels.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars There's a reason I love Jane Feather's novels, May 26, 2005

By	pmacph "pmacphie" (Canada) - See all my reviews

And this book pretty much exemplifies that. Like the others I've read from Feather, there's much more than fluff involved. The characters are clearly at home in the setting she's chosen for them and they act as one would act in the circumstances and time period and not how one would act today. And you have to love a romance novel that's more than just sexual tension and consummation. This one had a good story, and that's what more of Feather's contemporaries need to learn.

I'm always impressed at how her heroes are less than the perfect ideal compared to the standard, and Guy is no exception. Though there are times you want to strangle him for not being typical ultimately it enriches the story. Magdelen is as what's to be expected for the genre, a woman vs her lot in life, but she doesn't have that selfish nature that's so exasperating in other heroines, like the modern 90s woman trapped in some nightmare. Like Guy she ultimately does what's right for herself, her child and her country, even with the personal sacrifice, and that's what makes this story believable and the culmination is better for it. Nobody's perfect, and Jane Feather doesn't try and pretend otherwise.

The secondary characters, as always, are as interesting as the main characters, and no one writes a more wicked villan than Jane Feather.

Add to all this the fact that Feather has clearly done her research in respect to the medieval world and you have a romance novel that's less romance and more escapist.

I'll add my voice to the reviewers who have said that this is not for the reader who wants something generic with flawless characters, nor one who wants to read about a period past through the presentist's eyes. And I'll also add my voice to that of the reviewer who says that Jane Feather should break out of the genre for a little bit and try her hand at a more general fiction novel.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars OK, but I had a few issues, June 12, 2004

By	Alexis Coxon (Holt, MI, USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This is the first Jane Feather novel I've read, and I enjoyed it. It was well-written and had a compelling plot. Overall, I did like the heroine, but the adultery thing DID bother me. It would've been one thing if she'd truly believed her husband was dead, like her lover did, but she DIDN'T.

I didn't have the issues that some of the other readers did. You have to take a novel set in medieval times in historical context. Children were beaten back then. So were wives. Men raped women.

All of those things were very, very common Magdalen's times. It's like the outrage over the scene in the first "Outlander" book when Jamie beats Claire. It's just how things WERE back then. And they're distasteful to us, and I'm sure they were no great shakes then, either, but if you're reading a historical novel, you need to be prepared for historical reality.