Customer Reviews

The Shadow and the Star

5 star:		(37)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Kinsale knows what's sexy, what's romantic, and what touches the human heart. In "The Shadow and The Star," a young Samuel is rescued and raised by a loving, aristocratic Hawaiin family after a shockingly degrading, sexually-abusive childhood. Mercifully, this traumatic past is not described in detail but, rather, hinted at through vaguely-described flashes of memory that torment Samuel. Samuel, a beautiful, golden-haired boy, is given love, support, and a very comfortable lifestyle by his foster family, but he can never shake the feeling that he is unworthy of love and true acceptance due to what he feels is his overwhelmingly shameful past, and he lives in constant fear of saying or doing anything which might cause his "family" to reject him.

Samuel leads a very quiet, solitary, and friendless existence. One day Dojun, a mysterious Japanese immigrant working for the family, reveals himself to Samuel as a martial arts master and begins teaching Samuel his craft. Samuel, so very anxious to please, and also finding satisfaction in the rigid control of the ancient discipline, a contrast to his inner turmoil, takes the lessons to heart and becomes a model student. As Samuel grows to manhood, he abhors his increasing sexual awareness of women, jumbling and twisting these natural feelings with his degrading past, and is fiercely shamed, horrified, and haunted by his sexuality. Dojun, who has become an increasingly powerful force in Samuel's life, encourages chastity in order that Samuel's every fiber is focused on the martial arts, and Samuel readily embraces such a lifestyle.

By chance, Samuel meets Leda, an impoverished-but-genteel dressmaker who, to Samuel's chagrin, sparks and sets flame to the embers of sexuality that Samuel has fought so hard to keep banked. The two are drawn to one another, but to Samuel, Leda exposes the thing he hates most about himself. He struggles deeply with his feelings for Leda and the celibacy he clings to like a lifeline. Eventually, unable to deny the attraction any longer, Samuel and Leda (both virgins) give in to their feelings, but they are exposed the morning after, and, in keeping with the times, Samuel is urged by his family to marry Leda, since he's "ruined" her. Thrown together in such a way, Samuel must live with temptation every day, and as love blossoms, he grows more certain that, should Leda learn of his past, she would shun him and despise him. His well-ordered life begins to unravel as past and present collide. Leda is bewildered by Samuel's enigmatic mixture of supreme self-control and wounded vulnerability, his potent, explosive sexuality and his self-loathing. Slowly Samuel's heart is healed by Leda's unwavering love, in spite of his efforts to push her away.

Amidst this beautifully touching and sexy love story is an underlying current of danger, and we come to learn what a powerful hold the mysterious Dojun has on Samuel's life.

A unique, engrossing, and immensely satisfying read. Extremely intelligent and well-written and quite refreshingly true to the times.

I am French, so forgive me if you find some mistakes or bad grammar in my comments (although I read quite well english, I don't have many occasions to write it).

I've been a romance reader for years now, and I must say that I tire easily with books which have no strength. To keep turning the pages, I need a good plot, strong characters and something more than the classic love story to keep me interested.

For all these reasons, Laura Kinsale is my favorite author and The shadow and the star my very favorite book. The story is wonderful, with a quiet woman finding the way to heal the terribly abused hero. The plot may seem very simple, but it is anything but : the tortured hero is a virgin and a Ninja-like warrior, with an old Japanese butler for master, a quest for justice and a very dangerous ancient spade on his hands. The heroine a very, very proper but impoverished lady who, quite by accident, falls the mighty warrior by the way of a sewing machine.

Laura Kinsale knows how to make her characters so lovable, so living with all their strengths and weaknesses, that they stay with you long after you closed the book. Another book I loved by the same author is Flowers in the storm. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did.

Wow! Laura Kinsale is an excellent writer of multifaceted romances. This novel could pass for general fiction but it is definitely a romantic story. Her stories contain such substance with strong secondary characters, an excellent suspense/mystery sideline, and a most unusual romance. Kinsale is not my favorite romance author but she is distinctly compelling and intense in her writing style. She does not write "quick reads". Her stories require a reader's dedication and effort to fully enjoy her complex stories.

Samuel is the handsome, golden haired hero trained in the martial arts and raised in Hawaii by a loving couple, the Ashlands, alongside their two younger children. Samuel is more than your normal, wonderful romance hero. He is even more self-assured and captivating even though he embraces chastity. His quiet forceful manner hides the secrets and shame of a particularly abusive childhood from which the Ashlands had rescued him.

Leda is a properly raised English woman on the fringes of London society. Although she doesn't see herself as such, she is a beautiful woman. She finds herself dismissed from her job unreasonably one day and is desperate to find another position - hopefully as a typist. Leda is one of the most proper behaving young ladies I have ever read. She doesn't even get near anything that could be remotely related to improper situations or behavior. As she repeatedly fails in her search for employment, she finds herself in one compromising position after another.

After a series of great encounters between Samuel and Leda, which I will not even begin to allude to, Samuel hires her as a typist. As she begins working for Samuel, she becomes acquainted with his family, the Ashlands, and is easily accepted into their midst. Samuel is a very self-controlled individual and cannot understand his strong physical attraction to Leda. He has already decided that he will marry another and his commitment to that is strong. Both Samuel and Leda fight their mutual attraction although Leda is so proper - not even meeting with her employer unless the door is open - that I found it amazing that they actually found the opportunity to become physically involved. There are some sensual scenes and they rate a 4.0 out of 5.0 (see More About Me for rating guidelines).

To tell more about this story, other than it is a tremendous love story, would probably provide a spoiler of some sort. It is a very compelling read as Samuel and Leda discover through many trials and tribulations that they truly love each other. Samuel had a lot of issues with his duties as one highly trained in the martial arts and had to decide where his duty to Leda ranked. It is a wonderful "hide and seek" as the two grow together, then seemingly apart, then together again.

I highly recommend The Shadow and the Star! I can remember so many of the details of this book even weeks later and I have read many other books in the meantime that I can barely - if at all - remember the primary plot. This is a book that requires time in the beginning. Kinsale is building a very solid base during this first portion of the book and I promise you that you will eventually feel very grateful for those long introductory pages. All of that background just ties you tighter and tighter to the book. Please note: I usually want romance without many peripheral characters. However, this is the exception to the rule. Take the time - get into The Shadow and the Star. I put off reading it for months only to discover it is one of the best books I have read!

I am a new convert to the field of Romance novels, having gotten hooked in the last few months. When I discovered Laura Kinsale, however, I had to acknowledge I'd found a WRITER who happens to write Romance, rather than a "Romance Writer". This is the second book of hers I've read and I think it's wonderful. The characters are real, lovable, vulnerable and still somehow larger than life. Kinsale is often said to write "dark" novels or stories of "troubled" characters, I disagree with that. While "Shadow and Star" has a depth and sense of tragedy that isn't often found in Romance, I would hardly call it "dark". "Shadow and Star" demonstrates that Kinsale has a fine command of humor, social satire, action scenes and erotic/sexual matters. In this novel she evokes a strong and transporting sense of place (Hawaii). I would go so far as to call the book "poetic". (And certainly at the same time a well- researched, historical novel.) I think the two main characters in this novel are made for each other in the same quirky and mysterious way that real-life lovers manage to find each other and stay together. and I have every expectation that they will "live happily ever after". Bravo, Laura, and thank you for writing Romance. Whatever you chose to write I know it would have been outstanding.

Are you sick of buying books rated 5 stars by Amazon readers and then finding out they are crap? Do you often start a romance that sounded good (and received positive reviews) only to throw it away halfway through reading it, because it is pure drivel? Do you feel like many of the celebrated romance writers operate on autopilot and end up just delivering the same novel time and again with different names and locations? If so, then buy this book.

The only bad thing about Laura Kinsale's books is that they will spoil you for all other romances. This is my first Amazon review, and I'm writing it for The Shadow and the Star because it is, in my opinion, the best of the best. (Although, Laura Kinsale's Flowers in the Storm and Uncertain Magic are close seconds.)

I won't bother repeating the plot -- since so many others have done that before me -- but what I will say is this: If you are the type of reader that loves Harlequin romances, "chicklit," and books that require minimal brain power -- DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK! However, if you are the type of reader who enjoys reading smart romances with heroes that literally give you a lump in your throat and make your chest ache -- then give this a try. It is not your typical romance!

The Shadow and the Star is an excellent example of "intelligent romance;" layered, complex, lyrically written, and full of historical detail, this is the type of book to give to anyone who scoffs at romance novels or calls them "chick porn."

Unfortunately, when said scoffer asks what the book is about, you'll have to say, "the relationship between a proper Victorian lady and a expatriot English ninja." Which sounds absurd.

Leda Etoile is an orphan, or perhaps worse; at any rate, a woman of no name. Raised within the circle of proper English ladies, she absorbed their values and morals, but she couldn't absorb their social consequence. When her foster mother dies, Leda is left to live independently. She settles on a career as a shopwoman, but she finds it hard to make ends meet. When Madame Elise, her employer, demands that she purchase a new dress for her role in the shop, it stretches her budget to the breaking point. Madame Elise suggests (indirectly and discreetly) that she supplement her income by prostituting herself.

Meanwhile Samuel Gerard, an English orphan and foster child of the Marquess and Marchioness of Ashland, has accompanied his foster family to England from Hawaii for Victoria's Jubilee celebration. Tess, Lady Ashland, and Lady Catherine, his family, desire to be reoutfitted at Madame Elise's. While there, Samuel sees Leda for the first time - in daylight.

Samuel is well acquainted with Leda's face, but only by candlelight. He has been using her rented attic room as a storage place for a dangerous game he is playing - stealing important artifacts various diplomatic groups have brought to be presented to Queen Victoria. He steals them and transplants them in scandalous places, and then sends word to the police where they can be found, in order to bring attention to the plight of children who are being used and molested in hellish procurement dens. Samuel, you see, was once one of these children, before Lady Ashland rescued him.

Leda is unaware of his activities. Samuel is as silent as a shadow; he has trained with the Ashland family butler in Japanese fighting and concealment techniques since early adolescence. But then one night she shifts the furniture around in her room, and Samuel makes an error - one that almost results in her death, and could very well result in social ruin.

This all sounds complicated, and it is. The book has several settings - various places in England and Hawaii - and Samuel and Leda are fully versed in completely different cultures and manners - those of upperclass English and the Japanese. It's a tall order for an author to make one part of history come alive, but Kinsale manages to infuse life and authenticity into three different aspects of one era. All the details are there - the language, the social practices and conventions, the philosophies and biases of these different traditions. Seeing how these cultures interact with each other is also fascinating.

If the settings and historical details are complex, so are the characters. Samuel is strikingly handsome, strong, intelligent, and amazingly able, but he's internally damaged from his childhood experiences. He believes everything good about him is external, that inside he is digusting. Leda is outwardly vulnerable, but inwardly strong and resolute. Her inner compass never fails her. She has a certaintly about her that stays her through the difficulties of her life. She is also kind and sensitive and courageous. The two of them mirror each other - both orphans, both caught between places in society by the differences in their upbringings and their initial stations in life. But she is strong where he is weak and vice versa.

Revealing more about the story would ruin the journey. Suffice it to say that they are both thrown out of their element and come to trust and respect the other's abilities and wisdom. Along the way they fall in love in the sweetest, most touching way imaginable. This is romance at its finest. The only caveat to giving this book to a scoffer to convert them is that there are few books of this caliber in any genre; anything they follow up with will, of necessity, be a disappointment.

I love reading reviews, and there are some incredible reviews of this book, however I always seem to feel the need to voice my own opinion..so here's my two cents.

Just a quick synopsis. Samuel was horribly abused as a child. He is taken in by Lady Tess and Lord Gryphon from the book "Hidden Heart" and made a part of their family. He has major scars, literal and figurative, from his abuse and is horribly wounded as a man. Leda was also "adopted" and is very much alone in the world. She comes to live with Samuel's family after some crazy events and thus begins a relationship with Samuel as his secretary.

Here's what I loved.....
1. The relationship between Samuel and Lady Tess is simply heart-wrenching. The flashbacks of him as a child coming home to live her and Gryph are literary perfection. Her love, devotion, acceptance, loyalty, and protection of this wounded child are heart rendering. The scene where Lady Tess talks with Samuel about his duty to marry Leda had me weeping!
2. Leda is a woman I loved. She was a woman of fierce devotion, strong moral code, and properness. She is constantly reminding Samuel of proper language (he tends to swear a little), and proper behavior.
3. Samuel is incredible. Strong....he's accomplished in the martial arts (a ninja), is very attractive, wealthy, and socially accepted. Weak....Maybe not the right word, but wounded emotionally from past abuse, extremely influenced by his sensai, very unsure of himself with Leda. All of these characteristics make him very appealing.
4. The writing is superb. There are no loose ends, no wasted plot lines, everything in this book is there for a reason and is tied up in the end. I loved how Samuel had to remind Leda to "breathe" when she gets into stressful circumstances, and this fact is true throughout the book...by the end this quirk of Leda's and Samuel's gentle care for her is so touching. Also Leda's name for him "Dear Sir" is used throughout and also is extremely touching.

Here's what I didn't.....
1. There's not much. I will say that Laura Kinsale is not for everyone. Some other authors...Kleypas, McNaught, Putney, Balogh, have more universal appeal, but Kinsale's writing sets her apart. She is smart...you as the reader need to figure out things for yourself...she not just going to give it to you. Characters feelings and motives are not always explained like you wish they would be, but this is her style. This is not a quick and easy read, (as many romance novels are). She is extremely in depth with culture and practice, and interweaves several different cultures/societies into one book. This may confuse and aggravate some readers.
2. The relationship between Dojun and Samuel was a difficult one for me. I went back in forth...is is good or bad, healthy or unhealthy, did Dojun hurt or help Samuel more...questions like this I wish were more understandable and clear, but here again lies the reality of Kinsale's writing...sometimes it's okay to live in the gray instead of the black and white.

I think this may be my favorite Laura Kinsale book yet. (Although I've only read three. I'm totally in awe of her, now.)

First of all, the setting. Although I've never been to England, as a long-time resident in Honolulu I can tell you that all the sections set there are right on target. The historical details about the Hawaiian monarchy are correct, the place descriptions are real, and the author even writes a convincing pidgin. (I think she got all the Japanese dialogue/grammar right on, too... Scary!)

Second, add in the fascinating flashbacks about Samuel and his martial arts sensei Dojun. Even besides the ninja-coolness, there were some parts that just made me choke up. Without getting all that background, the climax of the book wouldn't be half as gripping as it is.

Third, Samuel is a most sympathetic character.

I think the only thing I would criticize about The Shadow and the Star would be its length... Some stretches of the story feel as if they've been rather ruthlessly compressed for lack of space. You get the feeling that Kinsale could have written a lot more about the characters (for example, sometimes I found myself wishing she would show what Leda was really thinking).

What can I say? I adore this book. I was thrilled to find that Severn House published it in hardback, and Amazon carries it. My paperback copies are shredded. Now I'll be able to read, "It was a well-known fact that gentlemen must be provided with all due encouragement in such circumstances, so as not to hurt their feelings," for a long time. Thanks Severn and amazon.com!

I so loved this story. It is probably my favourite by Laura Kinsale. I read it through, waited two weeks and read it again. I picked up so much more the second time. My heart ached for this beautiful man and the lovely young woman who made him complete. To understand Samuel even more, I would suggest people read 'The Hidden Heart' first.

Laura's characters seem so real to me. I've noticed that some reviewers criticize their behaviour and/or consider them annoying. I think they are all wonderful. I also think they are simply products of their environment. Their actions and reactions all reflect their upbringing or the events that have shaped their lives. To me, they are all really believable.