Customer Reviews

The Lion's Daughter

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

 

 

In the Lion's Daughter, Esme Brentmor is the heroine, the daughter of Jason, an English nobleman in self-imposed exile with a beneficiary link to the British government. Esme is a rather different heroine; she was raised in Albania, and this has made her independent with more of an Eastern idealogy. Through some events that I won't spoil, she has to leave to avenge her father's death, and she is accompanied by Varian St. George, Lord Edenmount.

This book began oddly for me; I didn't like the hero, Varian, very much, because he seemed too much of a parasite (he's broke, and lives as a house guest in the homes of social climbers who like association with his title); also, he seemed to be a pushover. The heroine, likewise, was too much of what you'd politely call "feisty;" she was abrasive, reckless, and arrogant. But into the book, Esme softens and is toned down, letting her be vulnerable without making it unbelievable, and Varian, despite his fashionable, foppish exterior, is honorable, with integrity and a worthiness for love. Oh yes, they deserved each other, and that is not meant with an ugly tone.

And in The Lion's Daughter, we are introduced with one of my favorite villains in the world: Ismal, who is plotting an overthrow of Ali Pasha, the current leader of Albania, and he is simply delicious. Following The Lion's Daughter is Lord of Scoundrels, which is every bit as imaginative, and probably my favorite among all; Captives of the Night, which is suppose to be set a few years after Lord of Scoundrels, and The Last Hellion, which is the latest one but set during the time of Lord of Scoundrels.

Loretta Chase is probably my favorite romance author, and this book really stands out from her others. It's less slick, but more heartfelt; maybe because she's writing about Albania, and I gather that Chase has some Albanian ancestry.

Of course, some of the things that one expects from Chase are here in force: strong women, for example. There are lots of them, and the heroine in particular is a fierce little thing. Excellent research, for another. This isn't a book full of vague guesses and stereotypes; there's a real feel for the contemporary landscape of Albania and Italy, both geographical and cultural. Excellent dialogue, for a third. It positively sparkles.

The story is of the "reforming a rake" variety. Edenmont, a dissolute wastrel, stumbles by accident into the role of a hero and then doesn't quite know how to walk away from it. He's used to being lazy, pampered, and ultimately unhappy. In "The Lion's Daughter," he finds himself concerned over the welfare of a young boy, obsessed with a beautiful girl of terrifyingly indeterminate age, and in a rough, dangerous country he doesn't know much about. For all that, it's the best thing that's happened to him in years.

Esme, the heroine, is used to leading a wild, wandering life. She's used to danger and fending for herself, but she's also innocent and pretty lost in the battle of the sexes. She has no idea of her own appeal, and hadn't learned any kind of caution or restraint. Esme is an amazingly well-drawn, rich character; alternately practical and wild, matter of fact and fantastic.

Their relationship is "tempestuous" - they fight a lot, but I don't think either of them ever comes out entirely on top. There's a lot of passion, a lot of sparking, a lot of making up, and also a lot of love between the two. This makes for a really fun and sexy read.

The narrative is very well worked out - it is fast-paced, smart, and really stunningly intricate. Chase writes beautifully as always and has managed to write a romance here that's fun to read but also has more depth of feeling and character than most romances. Definitely one of her best.

This is a reissue - orginally published 1992. I did not care for it as much as Loretta Chase's later books: the plot was overly complex; the hero, more of a nere-do-well than appealing; the heroine, overly impulsive and thoughtless. However, there were interesting twists and turns,more wit than many other historicals, an engaging 12 year old boy, plus tragedy and mystery spanning a couple decades. One can also learn a bit of Albanian. Esme Brentmor is a young lady, daughter of a disowned noble (kicknamed the Red Lion by his adopted countrymen). She was born and raised in Albania circa early 1800's, a country full of intrigue and fatal political infighting, not to mention harems.Varian St. George, Lord Edenmont is an impoverish lord, living off his wits, who ends up entangled in Albanian plots, Esme's young cousin, Percival, and the search for a missing chess piece that is linked to illegal weapons trade.Everyone ends up back in England, revisiting the past, with a dramatic finale that ties up all the loose ends. As for Esme and Varian: 'opposites attract'; during the course of events, Varian matures, and Esme learns some self governance. By the end, the reader feels more confident that they will live happily ever after.

It was a bit tedious until the exciting end. I love Loretta Chase, so a lot of the scenes had humor and intrigue, but I didn't get INTO the story for a very long time.

I read Captives of the Night first, so I was aware of Ismal's eventual redemption and that may have hampered him as a villain. He *was* set up very well for a future story however and I give Chase kudos for that.

I liked both the Hero and the Heroine -- especially because they would both admit they were wrong when appropriate. And they were both wrong a lot. But sometimes Esme's single-mindedness really got on my nerves.

The thing I liked the most was that she readily admitted that she wanted him. It was a good rendering of a character who was innocent enough to be guileless but not so innocent she didn't know what was going on.

So why the three stars? It took me days and days to finish it. I found it too easy to put down. My house actually got cleaned which doesn't usually happen when I read Loretta Chase. An odd scale, I know, but the cleanliness of my home is directly related to the enjoyability of the book I'm reading.

I grudgingly recommend it because it's Chase and its sequel is slightly better, but read it before Captives of the Night. There's good background in this book for Ismal's story.

PS: I hate the cover of this book as well as the cover of Captives of the Night. If publishers ever read these reviews a note to you -- PLEASE don't ever do covers like these again!!!!! I covered them up with masking tape they were so awful.

The Lion's Daughter offers an annoying tomboyish heroine who misunderstands everything, messes up everyone's plans, and causes more trouble than she's worth, a dandy/rake of a hero who has a nice sense of humor but very little character, and more plot twists than the author can handle. It's convoluted, messy, and not that interesting. I read this after the second book in the series, Captives in the Night, and the only reason I don't regret reading The Lion's Daughter is because it provides a background for Ismal, the hero of Captives and the villain in this book. In the latter, his back story was kind of taken for granted and only obliquely alluded to, and I felt there were some gaps in his character as a result. They were happily filled in here, but that's the only saving grace of The Lion's Daughter.

Loretta Chase's novels seem to be rather variable but always interesting. I loved "Lord Of Scoundrels" which has a dreadful cover but is a great story; "Captives Of The Night" was a very different read (although with some characters in common with "Lord Of Scoundrels"), with far more mystique and secrecy in the plot and characters, but it was still very good. I didn't like "Miss Wonderful" at all, one of her more recent books and far more in the traditional regency romance vein. So, what's "The Lion's Daughter" like?

This book is also related to characters in "Captives Of The Night" and "Lord Of Scoundrels" and is, in fact, chronologically before them - by about ten years. Not that it seems to matter which order you read the books in, although the central character in "Captives Of The Night" features in this book as a villain, which makes for interesting reading.

What's so fascinating about this book is the setting; there's no jaunting around London at balls and routs, most of the action takes place in Albania. It's very clear that Loretta Chase knows an awful lot about Albanian life and society in the 1820s as the descriptions are excellent, not just of places but of manners, behaviour and expectations. Although the story ends up in England it still has a rather wild and different flavour than the traditional Regency with a look at a failing estate and how that might be turned around.

The story focuses on Esme Brentmor, daughter of Jason, an Englishman, and of an Albanian woman; Jason has lived in Albania for 20 years and his daughter has grown up strongly part of that culture although also being aware of her English side. She is in danger of kidnap from Ismal who wants to use her as a hostage against her father so, when her father dies, she vows revenge. However her plans are somewhat upset when she finds herself looking after her cousin Percival, 12 years old, and a man who has been travelling with Percival, Varian St George, a dissolute and penniless aristocratic rake.

Varian and Esme soon find themselves fencing verbally and sometimes struggling physically (Esme is rather a wildcat). Her plan to get revenge on Ismal isn't compatible with Varian's plan to return her and Percival to Percival's father in Corfu, thus the two main characters are continually scheming against each other. Somewhere in the middle of this they find they are attached to each other and yet neither really understands what's going on most of the time, plus there is still danger to them - a piece is missing from a very valuable chess set and everyone is looking for that piece.

There are some twists and turns in the plot, of course, and the usual subterfuge; Esme's character doesn't change particularly but Varian is very much improved by the love of a good woman; he was a difficult hero to like initially, being a wastrel gaming rake, but the reader is left pretty confident that all will go well for them.

Although I did enjoy this book I didn't find it that gripping - I read several other novels over the time I was reading this - and although the setting was fun being so different the love story aspect wasn't as satisfying as some might wish for in a historical romance. Still, setting and historicity seemed very good and the Albanian angle was a real change. A book to read and enjoy when in the right frame of mind.

I bought all in this loosely woven series before I read one of them. The include The Lion's Daughter, set primarily in Albania (which I believe made it difficult to follow with the place and language references), Captives of the Night set in Paris and London (which I thought the best), Lord of Scoundrels (also set in Paris and London), and the Last Hellion (set in London and perhaps the least interesting to me of the stories). The writing is rather inconsistent in these books and the stories vary considerably, some more interesting than others. The Lion's Daughter is Esme Brentmor, daughter of an exiled English aristocrat living in Albania were he becomes known as the Red Lion and is deep into the politics of the ruling Pasha. Through a series of events, she becomes involved with Lord Edenmont (Varian) who is a penniless aristocrat living off his sexual favors bestowed on the ladies of Italy and other places. So, initially I did not like him. The story takes place in Albania where Esme seeks revenge for her father's murder. Varian is transporting the young son of Sir Gerald who married the Red Lion's first love. Varian and the boy end up in Albania where they become wrapped up in Esme's pursuit of a great villian who she believes is responsible for the Red Lion's death. I found the plot convoluted and the Albanian locations difficult to picture and the names and language references distracting. There were parts I loved but mostly it took discipline to finish it. The fact Varian saw Esme as a child when they meet (she's 18 but looks 14) though he is sexually attracted to her was a bit off putting.

I loved The Lion's Daughter. It takes place largely in Albania, and there's spying and political intrigue and family intrigue and a hero and heroine who don't believe they're worthy of each other. Characters grow and change; their motives are understandable and supported by their personalities. There's no superman hero here who rescues the dainty heroine, and yet he has strengths of his own, though he has to work to find them.

It's also worth noting that the sex scenes are very sensual. I'm known for skimming sex scenes, but these were both necessary to the story, showing changes in the relationship, and well-written: they felt sensual, as I said, rather than crude or forced.

The Lion's Daughter is a reissue from 1992, but it's just as well I read it now. I'm not sure I'd have appreciated it as much 16 years ago.

I looked for this book forever. I was just about to pay top dollar for an old issue- thanks Berkely! This book was great, it really had too many characters with too many motivations to follow but I absolutly loved the interaction between the family members. I enjoyed learning all about Esmond (see Captives of the Night - the best book she has ever written)

While all the Loretta Chase books I've read have been great, this earlier book was substantially different from her others and is now my favorite. Yes, it was a romance and I loved the character development of both Esme and Varian as the book progressed. They didn't change overnight, and even at the end, Esme's hot temper was part of who she was as a person. There was no bolt-of-lightning romance, but love snuck up on them in spite of themselves.

Yet, the book was also a relatively complex adventure story full of political and personal intrigue. It had a large cast of supporting characters, all with various hidden agendas, who were sometimes difficult to keep straight. While I was initially disappointed in this extended focus, I soon discovered that the broader scope created a fantastic book!!! I recommended my husband read the book as it was so good (and he's NEVER before read a romance). He loved it too.

So ... if you're looking for light romance, just pass on this one. If you prefer a engaging historical full of adventure, intrigue, humor, and romance as well, pick this one up. It's a definite keeper!!!