Customer Reviews

The Captive Heart (Border Chronicles)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

1461
The war in England has forced Henry VI, his family and all their loyal retainers to become fugitives. They've traveled from place to place seeking shelter from anyone still loyal enough to aid them. Alix Givet is the daughter of Queen Margaret's physician and she's also the Queen's goddaughter.

With the weather getting colder it's become obvious that Alix's father is very ill and can't continue traveling. Alix is willing to do whatever must be done in order to make her father's final days comfortable but the marriage arranged by her father and the queen is more than a little worrisome.

Hayle's disdain for Alix is immediately apparent. He has a mistress whom he would like to marry but because she's of low birth and he's a future baron such a union would never be accepted. Despite Alix's misgivings and Hayle's abusive attitude, they go through with the wedding and bedding but it's definitely not the love match Alix's parents shared. Alix vows to do her best to make her marriage bearable for as long as her father lives.

When Alix's father passes away she's devastated, but even more stunning is the fact that Hayle's mistress and child died in childbirth. When Alix could have used some support instead she is faced with a surly child-man who blames her for everything that's gone wrong in his life and attempts to kill her. Hayle commits suicide to `be with his true love' and Hayle's father proposes a shocking idea. He believes that since his only son is dead, Alix should marry him and he's willing to buy the church's agreement.

Alix's only hope is to leave England for Scotland where she hopes to find Queen Margaret. Before reaching her destination or even a suitable shelter a winter storm sets in and she falls asleep between a couple of great horned shaggy cattle. The following morning she's found and quickly brought to the attention of Laird Malcolm Scott.

Malcolm's been through a disastrous marriage of his own and has no intention of marrying again. There's no denying he's attracted to Alix and his young daughter certainly becomes attached to the young woman. As time goes on, it's an attraction he's finding it harder to ignore but Alix's experience has her leery of any sort of sexual interaction.

CAPTIVE HEART is the third book in Bertrice Small's series THE BORDER CHRONICLES. Filled with memorable characters, stunning situations and historical facts entwined throughout the storyline this is a book that promises to satisfy readers' desire for a believable storyline that speaks to your heart. I found it extremely easy to empathize with the characters and was completely enchanted by Malcolm's five-year-old daughter Fiona. There are even a few twists to the plot that stunned me and even broke my heart. Bertrice Small has been one of my favorite authors for many years and her books will always have an honorary place on my bookshelves.

While this book is a part of THE BORDER CHRONICLES series, you do not have to read the other books in the series in order to fully enjoy this one.

Chrissy Dionne (courtesy of Romance Junkies)

This book falls far short of her early efforts that romance readers have come to love. The story set in the Borders of Scotland feels more like a story set in the Highlands: there were no clans (these were riding families, their culture wasn't Gael) nor were there family tartans in the Borders of the 15th century Scotland. She also has problems of consistency in her story: the hero telling his heroine his father and mother's marriage was one of anger and his mother being distant and cruel and then later telling her of his mother's love. What?

The real crime is the ending of the book, the final events were not needed to make this a better than average read. The actions of the once likable hero made this reader feel the author was deceptive and "the" event was so unnecessary made worse by the quick way the h/h recovered from the devastating sadness in just two pages. Then she expects the last paragraph of the book make up for it all, talk about short changing the reader. Shame on you MS Small for such an unnecessary ending. This was historical romance not historical fiction, and her loyal romance readers were cheated.

Also this offering is considered part of her Border series, yet it appears to be an earlier period than her last book that was part of this series, which was a disappointment to this reader. Additionally, I haven't really found the connection to her A DANGEROUS LOVE, which by the way is a far better book and should be read if you enjoy this period of Scottish/Anglo intrigues. Usually a series will have a connecting element and it appears in this book that element is location, which this reader feels her knowledge fell far short of the actual culture of the area. For those of us who read historical romance for the history we want more than just knowing the history of the events we want our characters to reflect the history/culture of the period/people. She fell short on this one, it read like so many other average books.

Disheartening to readers is this wasn't a mass market offering but a trade size book with the added cost. Ms Small has many fine offerings with her Skye O'Malley books as well as many books set in Scotland such SPITFIRE, which is a full bodied story of intrigue, angst and love. If you have to read this one wait for it to come out in mass market or buy it used.

The entire book was phenominal until the ending! I was thrilled to finally read this book and the ending was horrible!!! This is not typical Bertrice Small. It reads towards the end like she was in a rush to finish and just threw something together. Very disappointing!!!

DON'T READ THIS BOOK. If I could rate this book lower then a 1, I would. What a terrible book. I have never written a review on anything before, but I felt compelled to write this hoping that I could steer at least one reader away from reading this book. It was boring and inaccurate, but it was also horrific at the end. The way Ms. Small killed off a Fiona, a very wonderful and likable 9 year old girl, was terrible. I have to say it ruined the entire book for me. I literally threw the book in the garbage when I was done. Do yourself a favor and pick up a different book to read, this one is not worth your time!

Bertrice Small is my favorite author. At least 20 of her books are on my list of favorite novels. This book was not good. I liked the beginning of the book but shortly after Alix and Malcolm became lovers the book went downhill (so boring and silly). I found myself skimming through a lot of it. All of the villains in this book made me roll my eyes and I also hated the twists at the end of the book.

After reading 'A Dangerous Love', I really thought the rest of the books in the Border Chronicles were going to be entertaining, but I hated The Border Lord's bride and this book was just like The Border Lord's bride -forgettable and boring.

I'm starting to wonder what happened to the author who wrote such amazing books like 'Adora', 'Beloved', 'Lara', 'A Moment In Time' and 'Skye O'Malley' etc. I will continue to buy her books (I'm looking forward to the next book in the wonderful Hetar series) but I hope the next book in The Border Chronicles is a lot better than this one.

I only wish I'd read some more reviews before I actually read the book. It took me a month to finish it, because I've got some weird sense of Sado-Machochistic 'I've got to finish it because I started it' sensibility. I've got a whole list of issues with this book, starting with the fact that the author mentions that her birthday is two different times of the year and ending with the use of pornographic language and rape of a barely 16 yer old girl.

I had meant to spend a ton of time bashing this book in a lengthy, detailed terrible review, with the count of every time they have sex or drop the f-bomb. I can't bring myself to do it now. It seems a waste of time.

This is by far one of the worst books I have ever read. In every way imaginable. Writing, plot, character development. The entire thing was a terrible read. Please, stay as far away fom this as possible. This is as far from a romance novel as you could get.

Also, there should be some kind of warning for the trauma that they put this girl through. It seems able to bring flashbacks of possible terrible crimes against women.

This was a very disappointing purchase. I buy all Bertrice Small's books but this was a mistake. A plodding, uninteresting "story" I could hardly finish reading from boredom.

What a mediocre effort; I'm glad I read a library copy instead of wasting my own money. Ms Small repeates herself frequently, "tells" us everything she's afraid we'll miss and throws in enough sex to (hopefully) make us miss all of that. There was no foreshadowing of the plot twist at the end. Killing off the only likeable (and believeable) character in the end is dastardly and unnecessary. And Fiona's loving parents recover so easily!
This is the first book I've ever read by B. Small. I thought I would never read another, but the reviews of this book by devoted fans who found it as lame as I did mean I may give her one more chance.
For a vigorous, well-charactered, captivating story set in historical Scotland, try Julie Garwood.

First of all, I love her books and this the worst novel I have read from anyone in a long time. B.Small continually repeated the story, like we are all idiots, or maybe started reading late into the book or might have inadvertently started on chapter 6 and must recall all events. She dredged up not a bit of sympathy for any of the characters for me. The "raunchy" sex close to the end seemed to be just thrown in like she realized the book was on the tame side and tried to remedy that before she wrapped things up. When did she write this "never published before" nightmare? Had to be retrieved from the "trash heap" that got rejected along time before she wrote the good stuff. Historically it was OK, but what a pain to read. I had to cleanse my palette on one of her earlier reads. Sorry, for such a scathing review, but my opinion.

In 1461 the war seems to impact everyone even the court of King Henry VI and Queen Margaret. With her dad the royal physician to the queen dying, Alix Givet needs a home for herself and her father Alexander. Margaret arranges for her to marry an abusive Northumbrian aristocrat, Hayle Wattison, son of a baron.

With the death of her beloved dad, Alix considers running away from her odious brutish husband. She feels euphorically free when the beast kills himself. That lasts a nanosecond as her father-in-law informs her he will marry her. Rather than being wed to another abuser, Alix flees on foot heading towards wintry Scotland. Laird Malcolm Scott saves her life and though he vowed never to marry after his wife betrayed him, they fall in love and wed. However, her former father-in-law is coming to claim his bride.

This heated fifteenth century historical romance emits enough steam to melt the snow that nearly kills the courageous heroine. Die hard fans of Bertrice Small will enjoy the torrid romance between Malcolm and Alix. However, other readers need to consider the extremes of the prime cast; whereas the led duet is 100% good and honorable, the psychopathic baron is 200 proof amoral evil.

Harriet Klausner