Customer Reviews

Analise

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Analise is a Southern belle, a New Orleans beauty with suitors aplenty, but once she sees the hero, he's the one she can't forget. This is a romance novel with a lot of the faults of the 1980's romance genre --I mean in that the hero is quite a bit of a bully with the heroine, and coerces her into being his mistress (although he falls in love with her and marries her eventually).

The hero is a fairly tormented person, however, and when we meet his family, we understand a little why he acts the way he does with the heroine --although, I still found his actions toward her hard to take. The hero is, initially, a spy for the Union, but after he marries Analise he becomes a soldier with the Union army and goes off to battle, sending her to live with his father and sister in New York City.

Analise gives birth to a son. After that, through machinations of the hero's sister (who's possessively jealous of her brother) the couple are parted and Analise later considers marrying another man who's helped her establish a means of support for herself. However, when the hero is horrifically wounded and seems about to be permanently crippled, Analise is "allowed" by his family to communicate with him, in the hopes that this will reawaken some hope in the hero and make him fight to walk again. Despite the fact that he's extremely angry with Analise (because he thinks she deliberately stopped writing to him during the war), the hero ends up falling in love with her all over again. Unfortunately, he puts her through quite a bit of hell first, and he also has an assignation with another woman, which was hard for me to stomach.

I think what kept me with the story was that I liked the character of Analise - she was no pushover, except perhaps in that she could never quite resist the hero's lovemaking. But then, when he chose to be, the hero could be very attractive. Candace Camp (aka Lisa Gregory) has the skill to keep the reader with the story, despite the hero's less than heroic moments.

It is a very readable novel, but while I liked it--(despite all my problems with some aspects of the story) -- for me personally, it's no keeper.

The hero in this novel starts out as dashing and debonair. By the end I despised him. I had to remind myself though that this is an older novel but even so, the hero was still unlikable.

Analise is a Creole living in New Orleans during the Civil War. She meets the hero, a handsome Confederate major, at a ball and instantly falls in love with him. Little does she know that he is really a Union spy sent to destroy torpedoes her father has invented. Mark Schafer hates deceiving Analise but knows the importance of his mission and he is falling in love with her anyway. When he destroys the torpedoes he leaves and Analise is furious that she has been used and discarded by the Yankee.

Later New Orleans falls and Mark comes back to claim Analise. Of course, she will have nothing to do with him. That all changes when her brother is arrested for spying and she makes a devil's bargain with Mark; she will become his mistress if he will allow her brother to go free. Mark makes the agreement believing that Analise is saving her lover because he never met her half brother. These two begin a passionate affair filled with mistrust and anger, however Mark does come to his senses when he discovers that Analise was protecting her brother not her lover.

From there the book takes an interesting and strange turn. Analise moves North to be with Mark's family in New York and her life is harsh there. I do not want to spoil the plot but a lot of misunderstandings occur and when the war is over they have so much they must overcome. Mark is so selfish and jealous. He is willing to believe the worst of Ananlise. His behavior towards her is beyond the pale. What's worse was he showed absolutely no regrets for his actions. The book ends without there being a real reckoning for his misdeeds. I wish that Ms Camp would have included some heartfelt apologies owed Analise.

Analise is one of my favorite historical romances. I would give it 4 1/2 stars. It has a great unforgettable ending. Worth reading and a keeper.

I read this book a long time ago,but the ending is unforgettable. I do love this book. It is among my favorites,probably it is in my top 25 favorite books. It is well written and definately worth reading.