Customer Reviews

Defiant Ecstasy (Severn House Historical Romance Series)

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

 

 

"Defiant Ecstasy" continues the story of Alisha Williams and Gray Eagle. Alisha and Gray Eagle, both captives at one time in the first book, "Savage Ecstasy" fell in love with each other - a white woman and an Indian. Now Alisha has been "rescued" from Gray Eagle's camp and taken to Fort Pierre. However, the rescue is not what Alisha wants.

Alisha's heart and soul is with Gray Eagle. She yearns to be back with him in his camp. Also, her treatment in the camp has not made it any easier for Alisha. She is shunned by the women because she has been "touched" by a redskin. Alisha yearns for the day when Gray Eagle will come to rescue. Eventually, Alisha and Gray Eagle are reunited and they can share the love that was destined to be.

"Defiant Ecstasy" is about a bold and undying love between two brave people. It is about survival. "Defiant Ecstasy" is a good book and so are the first book and the remaining books in the 'Ecstasy' series.

O.K., This book is decent and if you have read the first, then you will probably want to read this one too. I loved the first book (Savage Ecstasy), but this book just did not fulfill me. The problem for me was that I wanted to strangle Alisha, Lese, Cinstinna, whatever you want to call her. I know that in every romance novel, there are doubt and conflicts, but in my opinion the doubt that the heroine experiences in this book borders on the ridiculous. It was constantly "Does Grey Eagle love me?; Why does he hate me?; Ohhh, please just love me Wanmdi Hota!"...This would have been fine, for one or two, or even three conflicts, but it is endless. Every time that something seems to be going good, wham! everything falls apart. It became very repetetive. I was like "Stop Whining for crying out loud!"

Anyway, with all that said, I still think it is worth the read if you enjoyed the first, if for no other reason then to use it as a stepping stone to get to the third(Forbidded Ecstasy)in hopes that it will be better.

The longer Alisha Williams remained at Fort Pierre, the more she hoped her redskinned lover would rescue her from the taunts and tirades of the white pioneers. They would never let her forget she had been the mistress of the infamous savage warrior, Gray Eagle. As if the auburn-haired beauty could forget! Each night, Alisha sweetly remembered Gray Eagle's bold caresses, burning kisses, his blazing passion. Each day, she scanned the vast horizon in hopes her Oglala brave would recapture her. Then one day, as she beheld the blue skies of the wild frontier, Alisha saw hundreds of Indian warriors riding to the gates of Fort Pierre -- and at their head was the fierce Gray Eagle. Though her most fervent prayers had been answered, Alisha's heart skipped a beat: would Gray Eagle destroy her -- or make her destiny his own?

This is the second book in the Ecstasy series, and another great read. The love of Alisha and Gray Eagle continue on. It begins where it left off. Alisha was rescued from Gray Eagles tepee and taken back to the fort of her people. But they dont treat her as nice as she expected. She cant wait to be back in her handsome lovers arms, she misses him. Gray Eagle and about 2,000 warriors show up outside the fort to take back his lover/captive, Alisha Williams. When they first re-unite, things seem to be great between them. Everything seems to be alot better now she is back with her warrior, well,... for now anyway. Something happens and Alisha is taken away from Gray Eagle again. Just as she thought everything might be changing for the better, Gray Eagle does something to her that she wont ever forgive him for. She believes he doesn't love her anymore and is heart broken after what he has done to her, or what She Thinks he has done to her.

Read on and see how strong and awesome their love is for each other. Gray Eagle will do anything for the Love of his Life.

What can be better than a love story between two people who come from completely different worlds. This is the second book in the Ecstasy series which chronicles the love between white settler Alisha Williams and the mighty Oglala warrior Gray Eagle. To her credit Ms. Taylor has studied her American Indian history and customs and relates them to the reader at every turn, complete with some language. It is too bad that she felt compelled to fill up endless pages with the heroins mindless, idiotic nonsense.

Defiant Ecstasy continues the story of the white woman taken captive after Grey Eagle is held captive at her fort and escapes to take her with him. Now she is in the camp and has time to acclimate to the Indian ways but just doesn't seem to get it. Pages and pages of this book are filled with Alisha's "head thoughts" ....."If he loved me he wouldn't do this", "How can he treat me this way", on and on, over and over, page after page as though the author didn't really have much to add to the story in this book and needed to fill the space. After the second round of this introspection you start thinking that this 20 year old girl (old by the standards in that time period) would get the message. When Gray Eagle and Alisha or Lese as she calls herself are in each others arms than everything is great and you think that now the book is going to progress. After a lot of regression into Lese's head we end up with Lese being rescued and taken back to a fort where every male wants her and everyone in general hates her for being held captive by Indians. Gray Eagle comes back for Alisha/Lese and she willingly leaves the close minded people in the fort to their fate. Her and Gray Eagle have one night where they come together in love and then she is taken by another tribe as they think she is the chiefs long ago stolen daughter, "Shalee". Alisha/Lese/Shalee does not understand any of it and thinks Gray Eagle has sold her off. After another endless round of introspection we get to learn about this other tribe and the new brave that comes into her life..Mato Waditaki another handsome chiefs son. She is happy there until Grey Eagle comes back to challenge for her. More misunderstanding ensues.

All in all this series could have been a lot better with less angst and more or the heroine falling in love with the Indian way of life. It would have been more facinating to learn more about these wonderful tribes and their customs and less me thinking that Alisha/Lese/Shalee needed to be throttled until she realized she was in a much better place. Taylor had the chance to relate the heroic efforts of the Lakota people to keep their land from the greedy white man, but barely touched on it. A good love story that could have been GREAT!! I like the characters in general but it kept bringing me back to the typical male "seeks curvy body and no brain" scenario". This heroine deserved more.

Oh boy. Where do I start.

This story was another ridiculous one by this author. The first 70 pages are a rehash of the end of the first book in the series and then the rest is just more drama of "I love him! I hate him!" by Alisha and "I did everything that I did to you for your own good!" by Grey Eagle. (Note, that in the first book a lot of abusive behavior was going on--I suggest listening to the more negative reviews given to this book between here and Amazon. The positive ones are apparently from people who think that whole Stockholm Syndrome thing is cool and romantic.)

Alisha is a whiner. Plain and simple. The girl is constantly upset because she's either being abused and won't take it anymore or that she loves Grey Eagle and can't live without him.

Grey Eagle is a bully who reminds me of those guys who beat their wives/girlfriends but say they did it out of love. (But with him it's out of a sense of having to maintain his honor that he's beat the snot out of the woman he loves in the previous book--at least that's what he keeps saying.)

And all the men who keep wanting to possess Alisha for their own! Wow! Somebody just tramp-stamp this girl and get it over with!

I had hoped that the story would improve and that I'd want to read more of these, since I love the historical value, but the Jerry Springer drama between the couple and all the side characters just really turned me off.

This book keeps you on your toes. As the 2nd book in Janelle Taylor's 9 book series you can tell that the adventure is just beginning.

I recommend reading Defiant Ecstasy after reading Savage Ecstasy , and feel free to skip the first chapter in Defiant Ecstasy completely. It was nearly a word-for-word repeat of the very last chapter of the first book in this series by Janelle Taylor. Overall, I thought this book was fabulous. The tension between Grey Eagle and Alisha is better than ever. There's a few times where I feel like she's talking too much - voicing her doubts about whether Grey Eagle loves her or not a little too redundantly. Of course she had never heard the words "I love you" come out of his mouth because she doesn't yet know they share a language and his moods seem very unpredictable to her, so I got past this minor annoyance easily. Their love for one another is so great that Grey Eagle will risk his life to fight the successor of a neighboring tribe to get Alisha back. And before that even happens, Alisha believes Grey Eagle has sold her to another but she still can't push him out of her heart. In the end, they have a heart-to-heart and Alisha's doubts are finally remedied.

So glad the characters weren't left hanging and got to have more adventures, perils, and passions. You'll learn so much about the Lakota Indians. You'll be eager for the next saga. Soon, Kindle will have all 9 available.