Customer Reviews

Keeper of the Heart

5 star:		(39)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(13)

 

 

"Keeper of the Heart" is a fun sci-fi romance, but by no means is it one of Lindsey's better efforts. In fact, "Keeper" in no way compares to its prequel, the outstanding and wonderful "Warrior's Woman," yet it is a far cry from the stupidity of its boring sequel, "Heart of a Warrior."

"Keeper" is a decent story, with bits of passion and humor here and there. The gist of the story is that Shanelle's fear of marrying a warrior and her low tolerance of pain make her resist and flee from Falon, forcing her chosen lifemate to chase her across the galaxy to prove his love.

First, the positives. Lindsey did an excellent job of incorporating the characters from "Warrior's Woman" into "Keeper" with little to no back-story and stayed true to their personalities and speech patterns. I read the three books back-to-back, and was pleased at how naturally "Warrior's" story flowed into "Keeper."

Now, the negatives: Shanelle's fear of pain and punishment were ridiculously overblown. It was difficult to sympathize with her. If she could learn to defend herself with martial arts, etc., she should be able to tolerate some pain. But the entire book was about her dopey fears! I found myself rolling my eyes once or twice while reading. Worse yet, with Tedra as her mother, how could she be such a wus?!?

I also thought the men in "Keeper" - Challen, Dalden, and Falon (wow, that rhymes!) - were ALL a bit heavy-handed where Shanelle was concerned. I'd be pretty upset if I had three overbearing warriors breathing down my neck over my love life. Yeah, I'd leave the planet, too.

As for the spanking scene, I started rolling my eyes (again) over the reviews freaking out about it. I'm sorry, but if that really offended you, you should not be reading a Johanna Lindsey romance. A lot worse happens to other heroines in her other books, many of which are awesome novels. This was NOTHING.

***For those interested in other sci-fi romances, try "Lord of the Storm" and its sequel "The Skyprirate" by Justine Davis. Both are out of print, but worth reading. Also look for "Shielder" by Catherine Spangler, which is first in a series. Or "Knight of a Trillion Stars" by Dara Joy (also first in a trilogy).***

'Keeper of The heart' is a sequel to 'Warriors Woman'. Let metell you, Warrior's Woman is EXCELLENT! I've read it more than 50times and I still love it. It's very funny, crazy and sexy. You'll roll around laughing, believe me. I LOVE the book. So that's why I look forward to reading 'Keeper of the Heart', to see what happened to the offsprings of the characters in 'Warrior's Woman'. Boy, was I VERY disappointed! 'Keeper of The heart' is a very poor imitation of the parent book. There is no strength in plot, in fact, there's no serious plot at all! To me, Shanelle is weak, empty and airheaded. I skip the first few pages because it's boring. Then I started skipping more pages. Then I ended up throwing the book under the bed without even bothering to read the end.

So my advice? Read 'Warrior's woman' first. THEN read 'Keeper of The Heart' and you'll find yourself agreeing with me.

At this late date, there isn't much I can add that hasn't already been written in past reviews. Basically, when I was browsing under Lindsey's name to see when her next holiday 2000 book was scheduled for release, I was surprised to see that "Keeper of the Heart" had scored less than a perfect 5, so I wanted to throw my two-cents in :)

"Keeper of the Heart", the sequel to "Warrior's Woman" (another 5+ star book) is the first futuristic romance I ever read. I put off reading these two books until I had depleted my stock of Lindseys, but they turned out to be 2 of my favorites of any author ever written, period. I have reread both of them (a rarity for me) at least 3 times a piece (an EXTREME rarity for me!)

If you're a fan of medieval historical romance that has never delved into the futuristic genre, this is an excellent place to start. (Then try Dara Joy's Matrix of Destiny series!) Lindsey's futuristic worlds are penned much like old medieval worlds--betrothed marriages, lord & vassal type of hierarchy (though the system works somewhat differently), and huge, barbaric heroes (in this case 7-feet tall!) I fell in lust at first sight with Lindsey's futuristic heroes!

Start out with "Warrior's Woman" (the story of the mother and father), then read "Keeper of the Heart" (their daughter's story). I've heard through the romance reviewer's grapevine that Daldon (the son) is the next one Lindsey plans to give a story to. Hmmm...can't wait for that one!

As a great fan of both trashy romance AND pulp science fiction, I'm begging you, PLEASE stop doing 'science fiction romance,' Joanna Lindsey; I'm pleading for mercy here! Your world building is atrocious and while I'm all for bending the boundaries of genre, it would help the cause of breaking out of the genre ghetto greatly if the books you try to do it in didn't suck anti-matter harder than a black hole!

I do understand that in all Lindsey's novels, setting is a prop for her 'romances' (read bodice rippers) but at least with the historical romances the reader has a generic setting they can place it in.
The men from Ly-San-Ter (Lysander, from Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, get it? Ha. Ha. TAINTED FOREVER) are basically Luddite vikings in space. You can't even be sure if they're supposed to be native to their planet or if they colonized it or what, because the SF setting really is nothing but a poorly used prop rather than essential to the story. Sure, it's trashy romance, not trashy SF, but small details like these become very distracting after a while.

Speaking of misused SF tropes, did any one else feel squicked out that even the computers are gendered, and gender dominated? Even the shipboard computer, ostensibly female, becomes seduced and dominated by the house computer which she created and programmed. If you're going to apply human ideas like gender to a computer, then does that mean she's been seduced by her son? Creepy.

Creepy as well, Lindsey's treatment of her heroine, who is totally dominated by all the men in the world, apparently. She learns self defense, but does it ever occur to her to just stay off the mother loving (literally, if you're a computer) planet? I know logic from one of Lindsey's females is a rather tall order, but really. And then there's that punishment scene, and the fact that women on that planet are pretty much slaves. Can Lindsey write anything that isn't borderline BDSM?

In other words, this is a run of the mill Lindsey romance with a really atrocious setting. SF fans should avoid at all costs. Romance fans should probably take a pass too if they have any taste. And if you're a fan of both? Dude, come on, I just said fans of both genres should stay far away from this stinker.

I admit, I can't review the whole book as I stopped reading about half way through, something I never do. I just got to the half way point and was so disgusted with Shanelle being whiny and afraid of everything and even more disgusted with Ly-San-Ter that I didn't want these two characters to have anything more to do with one another. So I threw the book away and made up my own ending.

I for one do not appreciate the abusive overtones that are going on in this story. BDSM is actually quite enjoyable when both participants are completely willing and know their own minds and bodies. But honestly, when a woman says no, even if her body (according to the guy anyway) says yes, it still means no. I felt like Ly-San-Ter didn't in any way respect Shanelle or her wishes/fears. "Oh, I've just been so overzealous that I crushed you, bruised you, almost suffocated you and caused you to faint. Oops. Let me give that one more go. No, I won't take no for an answer, it has to be right now."

The other message that I kept getting from this book, and perhaps this is just the author, is that men know our bodies better than we do. Which is of course total crap in my humble opinion. This book held promise, but it so didn't deliver for me.

This foolish book is nothing more than a justification, in fictional form, for hitting women and keeping them subservient to men. And for the indoctrination of women into this abusive practice, for they all accept it as being for their own good. Don't waste your time.

I found this book to be disturbing. The author is obviously obsessed with the punishment of women because the subject was discussed constantly throughout the book. In fact, it seemed to be the book's main focus. And for those of you who say "It's just a book!" remember that it is still justifying spousal abuse and is having an effect on impressionable young minds. One reviewer actually said that the spanking scene was no big deal because children are spanked all the time. I guess that person naturally equates women with children. Great to hear that kind of forward thinking! Read it only if you get a cheap thrill out of the heroine's getting roughly spanked while screaming in pain, because the story itself is quite weak. And the sad part is that I'm sure many people will buy this book based on this review.

A few weeks ago, I was very ill, and lacking anything to read. My friend came by and dropped off this 'jewel' of a book. In my cabin-feverish state, I started to read. And here is my impression:

412 pages of boringly-contrived misunderstandings; 412 pages of mind-numbing, tedious conversation between a computer and the lamest main character I've ever seen, I mean the girl is a MORON; 412 pages of ridiculous random crap. Seriously. You spend 80% of the book with only one thing to read forward to... her getting laid. And you hope the book is over after that, but it isn't. It just keeps going and going with even more ridiculous misunderstandings and shallowly motivated emotional drama from the incredibly unlikeable heroine.

I am sorry, but what the heck? Seriously? I cannot believe someone at Avon read this manuscript and said: "This is just the sort of quality material we want here at Avon!" I CANNOT believe they published this, because it's dreck! Pure 100% dreck. A waste of paper and pulp. I've reviewed completely unedited, badly formatted self-published material that was fifty times more compelling than this crud.

I can't believe people like this stuff.

I read this book on a Mexican vacation expecting another bodice ripper romance novel and instead I found a futuristic escapade into tomorrow. Johanna not only knows how to tell a story but she knows how to incorporate Sci-Fi and Sci-Fact into a thrilling tale. From a best friend in a box (laptop) to a cyber image bodyguard who can be programmed for lots of good and bad deeds. It combines StarGate with Bararians. Great for role playing game fans too. Awesome-- just when will someone make a movie of this...Maybe I will some day

Well, I'm sorry, but in this book, I think the Big Guy loves Helpless Girl goes a bit too far. I liked the use of technology, Martha rocks!