Customer Reviews

A Promise Of Love (Lovegram Romance)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This is my 3rd book by Karen Ranney and I am in awe of this woman's talent! Her characters are so real, not fantasy, happily ever after perfect human beings especially in this story. She doesn't pull any punches and if you are a bit squeamish, the graphic details of the horrific abuses of the heroine and others may be a bit too realistic for you. War is brutal enough, and the atrocities that follow are brutal. The time after the battle of Culloden was one of deprivation and hardship for the inhabitants of the Highlands.

The central character, Judith, is a twice widowed woman who has never seen much kindness or love in her life - not even from her own family. She harbors her emotions like a shield that if let down would probably render a weaker person insane - but great strength and fortitude are traits which have kept her alive up to this point. The beginning story finds her returning home for sancturary, only to have her father barter her away the very next day along with 100 head of sheep to be taken to Scotland.

Upon arriving at the burned out castle of the widower, Scottish laird Alisdair MacLeod, the wily Scotsman Malcom, Judith's escort, with a very quick pronouncement in front of a witness had her wed her almost immediately to his Laird. Interesting bit of Scottish lore how this was done!

Now you have two furious people, having never laid eyes on one another, all of a sudden married! Alisdair was none to happy and neither was Judith but as the characters are drawn out you will experience the magic of love as Alisdair and Judith find that their love and trust can help them to lay to rest their pasts and build on a new future.

This is a wonderful period piece, and if you are not offended by the historical atrocities of the period, you won't be sorry if you pick this up! Outstanding!

It is true there are some very graphic depictions of violence. If you can make it through these events you will find a book with a very strong heroine in a time when women were not valued for their strength. The story of Judith and Alisdair takes place in Scottland during a very violent and cruel time. Ms. Ranney knows her history and that man can be very cruel. Above all Ms. Ranney knows that if we fight hard enough and don't give up we can all have a second chance. That if we have the strength, courage and compassion anything is possible. Judith and Alisdair are thrown together. Both are battling demonds within themselves and demonds let loose among the rugged highlands. Both with courage and finally love build a new life and future together. Although disturbing at times the book is well worth reading. I, infact could not put it down. Not often do you come across a book that stands out from the hundreds of books written that all so predictable with the predictable heroes, heroines and plots. The characters are will developed, the plot holds your attention and although we know there will be a happy ending, the story is plausible and it is not like all of a sudden the heroine loves the hero just because there are only 100 pages left and the story needs to be wrapped up. I hope I conveyed that I really liked this book. It disturbed me at times, it made me laugh then cry a chapter later. At the end I gave out a sigh happy to know life a Tyan went on with a bright future full of love and happiness.

While I adore many of Ranney's books (esp. Tapestry, After the Kiss), this one is waaaaaay too depressing overall. Multiple graphic rapes, sodomy, starvation completely overpower the beauty of the otherwise well-developed love story between the main characters. I just finished it - but I wish I hadn't.

"A Promise to Love" is a dark tale of a woman running from her brutal past and a lonely man learning to live, love and trust again.

Judith Culbertson is a plain, twice married widow who has never has a loving home or happy marriage. She lives her life in fear because she knows the brutality of life and of men in particular. She doesn't expect respect, affection or even love because she has never experienced those things. Forced to go to Scotland by her father, Judith doesn't know what she will face once she reaches her destination. She certainly never expected marriage to a handsome stranger.

Alistair Macleod is the laird of a clan of beaten Scots. Only a few years after Culloden, his focus is trying to scratch out a living for his clan. Living with a conditional pardon and the loss of all of his male relatives, he does not have the time or inclination to focus on women. Work, duty and honor are his focus. Not the strange Englishwoman he suddenly finds himself married to.

"A Promise to Love" is a love story of two unlikely lovers who learn about themselves and each other as they fall in love. Judith and Alistair are three dimenisonal characters that will stay with you long after the story ends. Judith was an intelligent woman who survived a horrible life the best way she knew how. Her resilience in the face of the brutality that she faced in her marriage made me admire and respect her. Her growing affection for Alistair made her blossom into the woman she was meant to be.

Alistair was a perfect foil for Judith. He was patient, loving, kind and understanding. He knew when to push and when to retreat. He saw the woman Judith was hiding under her prickly shell. It was a woman that he was intrigued by and wanted to bring to the forefront.

Chemistry is always one of the most important elements in a romance. I have to understand why the characters would want one another. Here, there is never any question why these lovers were attracted to each other. Respect, admiration, trust and affection paved the way before their relationship turned physical.

The book also offered a glimpse into harsh realities of life after Culloden. It did not gloss over the hardships faced by the clan. Yet, the book did not wallow in them and it actually contained some light, laugh out loud moments.

"A Promise to Love" is not a frothy tale of love in the Highlands. There are some violent scenes drawn in vivid detail in this book. A villain comes to the Highlands who tries to tear the lovers apart. His malevolent presence and disgusting actions are drawn in such detail that it could turn most readers off.

If you want some light fare, this is not the book for you. But if you are more interested in a tale of two wounded people finding each other and ultimately finding themselves, I highly recommend it.

In this story, the reader is taken into the mind of a young woman who endures the hardships, abuse, and inequities of women of that era. We suffer with her as she experiences flashbacks, self-loathing, social stigmas, family rejection, being used as barter, being married against her will, being hunted and terrorized by a sadistic brother-in-law until even the tenderness of a loving man is difficult for her to endure.

Karen Ranney gives us a rich portrayal of the times as she also gives us a real woman, a tender man, and a promise of hope even in the face of despair. If you can find this book, get it, read it, and love it.

I loved this book. If you want to really care about the characters in a realistic conflict, this book is for you. There are cruel men who abuse women, as there are in life then and now. The violence is not gratuitious; it sets the scene of a heroine worthy of empathy. Many books have characters living in war torn societies but the characters have no depth and the setting isn't more than a backdrop. This book shows better than most how the people survive and go on.

It is true there are some very graphic depictions of violence. If you can make it through these events you will find a book with a very strong heroine in a time when women were not valued for their strength. The story of Judith and Alisdair takes place in Scottland during a very violent and cruel time. Ms. Ranney knows her history and that man can be very cruel. Above all Ms. Ranney knows that if we fight hard enough and don't give up we can all have a second chance. That if we have the strength, courage and compassion anything is possible. Judith and Alisdair are thrown together. Both are battling demonds within themselves and demonds let loose among the rugged highlands. Both with courage and finally love build a new life and future together. Although disturbing at times the book is well worth reading. I, infact could not put it down. Not often do you come across a book that stands out from the hundreds of books written that all so predictable with the predictable heroes, heroines and plots. The characters are will developed, the plot holds your attention and although we know there will be a happy ending, the story is plausible and it is not like all of a sudden the heroine loves the hero just because there are only 100 pages left and the story needs to be wrapped up. I hope I conveyed that I really liked this book. It disturbed me at times, it made me laugh then cry a chapter later. At the end I gave out a sigh happy to know life a Tynan went on with a bright future full of love and happiness.

This is a tough book to read, not for the light hearted. My eyes welled up from the pain that I am sure Judith felt, And then the Love she found. Not your typical romance novel, but what a great read.

By the second page of A Promise to Love, I was hooked. Judith is such a well-drawn character that you feel as though you would like to know her. She is not a cardboard heroine with blond hair, blue eyes, and no brain who lets the hero solve all her problems. She is strong and independent and able to meet the hero on her own terms. She is so deserving of someone to love who will love her that you find yourself rooting for her. You actually like these characters and they stay with you after you finish the novel. I read it through in one sitting--it's that good. The author obviously did research on medieval Scotland before writing this novel; it is not a cookie-cutter plot that could be dropped into any novel that you have read a hundred times before. She also avoids one of my pet peeves when reading a historical novel; the characters do not speak 20th century American English! A Promise to Love is a beautiful love story and one you will not soon forget.

I can't believe the author who wrote "My Beloved" wrote this book. "My Beloved" is a story of tenderness...this is a story of brutality; described in overwhelming detail. WHY did Ms. Ranney think she had to describe every single lurid detail of the sexual attacks that happen to Judith? Such multiple descriptions have no place in a romance novel - a single descriptive instance of one of the rapes endured by the heroine would have been MORE than enough, if the author had to include ANY.

I also could not believe that any woman who had endured the following could have been made "happy" by the end of this story:

1. Father ignores, and/or criticizes, and/or slaps heroine around for her WHOLE life, never doing one single thing for her except marrying her off three (3) times without thinking about what kind of men he's giving her to;

2. Mother is a downtrodden, self-centered weakling, who shows heroine no special affection, OR makes any attempt to protect her;

3. Sisters who appear to be of no greater worth than the mother, who like their mother don't give a darn about the heroine either, except to be bitchy to her during their one & only appearance in the story;

4. Multiple, sadistic rapes of the heroine described in graphic detail committed by heroine's 2nd husband, AND his brother, PLUS that husband's friends, on occasion.

The author poured the horror onto this woman's life. I mean, we're supposed to believe that this woman can overcome a lifetime's lack of love & care from anyone, AND, abnormal sexual relations with sadists, AND accomplish this miracle over the course of a mere three months with the hero, thus becoming a normal, happy, sexually well-adjusted person? all thanks to the hero? I mean, it would take years & years of therapy for a real-life woman to overcome Judith's liabilities! I know it's only a novel, but, come on!

And frankly, I have my doubts about the hero too. He actually had the nerve to think -- briefly, it's true, but he DID think it -- that the heroine was having a tryst with her sadistic brother-in-law when in fact, she was obviously trying to run AWAY from they man, and was fighting with him on the ground. All well & good to make the hero a god in appearance (& in the bedroom) but, let's give him a brain, too, Ms. Ranney.

I really disliked this book! It was definitely the several descriptive rapes that threw me off -- I just can't believe a female author would describe these graphic multiple occurrences, over and over, in a ROMANCE NOVEL.

This atrocity of a "romance" novel was dumped in my garbage can.