Customer Reviews

St. Raven

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

As a great Jo Beverley fan I always look forward to her new releases and having had a glimpse of the mysterious and handsome Tristan Tregallows, Duke of St. Raven in "Hazard" I was totally intrigued and couldn't wait for his story. The book description sums up the story with Cressida Mandeville agreeing to the swarmy Lord Crofton's vile proposal with her naively thinking she is going to put one over on him and retrieve her father's hidden wealth. Rescue, in the guise of a `highwayman' messes up her plans, as she and Crofton are held up by a `highwayman' who recognizes and knows Crofton for the slime-monster he is, so thinking of doing a good deed he rescues Cressida from his clutches. Instead of grateful Cressida is furious!

Tristan, our knight-errant `highwayman' is a complex character, not withstanding his very wild tendencies, he treated Cressida like a lady, once he realized she was an innocent, and her very naivety would make even him blush. Cressida is, for all her attempts at proving to be a lady, curious enough and naïve enough to have thought she could have gotten away with her plan. Realizing how tenuous her reputation is should word of this escapade be known she convinces herself to grasp whatever `pleasurable' experience Tristan so succinctly offers her. Tristan develops extremely well and the orgy he brings Cressida to was, to me, a highlight of this story and not to be missed. The extremely sensual loveplay is tastefully and skillfully woven under the expert pen of Ms. Beverley.

If any part of this romance were to bother me, it would be the reality of the historical era that they lived in and the division of classes. All through the story, you see Cressida, wanting so much to be able to spend her life with Tris, and his thoughts as well on the dilemma, with both rationalizing that they could never cross over the barrier that separated the high-born from the masses, especially when their very association would have led many to speculate as to how they met which could have very well ruined her. Bottom line, this is Beverley at her best, a keeper and a must read!

The story of Tris and Cressida was pleasant enough entertainment and another example of Jo Beverley's skill with the quill. Still, it didn't satisfy me to the same extent as some of her other novels have managed. (Warning, some spoilers).

Cressida is a bit too conventional and prudish. The strong and early attraction of Tris to Cressida is somewhat doubtful, considering his worldliness and her pretty ordinary behavior and looks. The difference in status between the protagonists is annoyingly ubiquitous. The fact that he is `the Duke' and with that just two levels below god is made clear on virtually every page - often by Tris himself. The plot is a bit too shallow and makes scandal, rumors and reputation the crux of the whole story. There are also loose ends; for instance, who is Caradoc Lyne - his role is never explained - and what happens to the Minnows?

What made me cringe however, was the fact that Tris could so easily prove that Cressida had not been the houri at Crofton's orgy by providing an imposter at his party at Nun's Chase. A discriminating (malicious) mind (and there were quite a few around) might have wondered if the second houri was identical with the first - since the disguise made a switch so easy and in fact likely, given Tris' known desire to protect her identity. Secondly, Tris risked Cressida's social death sentence if anyone had recognized the second houri as Miranda - who attended the first party (quite visibly so) and could therefore not have been the houri at Crofton's.

Some of the other characters were not really credible either: Would an adventuress like Cressida's mother really stay in England and away from her husband for over 20 years because as a child Cressida couldn't deal with India's climate? Would she have been content with the tedious life in Matlock, be a picture of propriety the whole time only to fall in love with her husband again, who by the way manages to lose their whole wealth at the card table within months of his return? Would Miranda, such a vulgar though highly-paid and seasoned prostitute in her first scene, who admits to `liking variety', become so virtuous and noble in a matter of days that she settles for married life with an artist, not minds the loss of a fortune in jewels and instead helps the recipient of said jewels clear her name by posing for her? Would a thief - even a gentleman like `Le Corbeau' - forget the bred-in grudge against St. Raven in just one conversation with his nemesis. When did he have the opportunity to get to know Tris better than anyone else, in fact well enough to play the psychologist and matchmaker between Cressida and Tris in the end?

Still, with all that said, the story progressed nicely enough and the characters were sufficiently likable and colorful to make this book an enjoyable past time.

Jo Beverley is one of the pre-eminent writers of romantic fiction. I have read everything she has written, purchased many of her backlisted, out-of-print books on the used book market, and looked forward with impatience to her newest novel, St.Raven. When the bar is set that high by an author, any book that falls short is bound to disappoint, and St. Raven was a disappointing read for me. First of all, the plot was far-fetched. It revolved around Cressida Mandeville's search for family jewels (no pun intended) secreted inside one of ten...statutes that Cressida's father had brought back from India. Her quest for the jewels takes her to a [wild party] thrown at her family's former home, which was recently gambled away ... by her father to the dissolute Lord Crofton. Lord Crofton had a plan to escort the [young] Cressida to the [party] to perform intimate acts in public. Cressida had agreed to become Crofton's mistress and was accompaning him willingly in his coach to her former home. Her plan was to try to outwit Crofton by taking a [medicine] that would make her vomit in the hopes that he would send her to bed alone and she could search the house unimpeded for the jewels later that night. The Duke of St. Raven thwarts both of these plans by kidnapping Cressida during a hold-up of Crofton's coach, while posing as the infamous highwayman, Le Corbeau, who also happens to be the Duke's long-lost, illegitimate, French half brother. Having rescued Cressida from the [party], the Duke then takes there anyway, costuming her in the revealing "disguise" of a harem slave that he just happens to have on hand..... I might have been willing to suspend my disbelief if the main characters had been great, but I found them to be inconsistently drawn.... At the same time, he unselfishly (and inexplicably) puts his own life on hold for weeks to assist a stranger to find her family's treasure. He possesses all of the usual Dukely accoutrements of a fine wardrobe, multiple estates, and a stable of horses, yet he refuses to sell any of those horses to pay the bills and bemoans the fact that he is unable to help out Cressida's bankrupt family financially, thereby leaving her with no choice but to track down a... statute through the English countryside in the Duke's unchaperoned company. Cressida is also an inconsistent character, at one point reveling voyeuristically in the sights at the [party]...and at other times displaying a self-confessed "middle-class" frigidness to the Duke when he gets a little over-amorous. What bugged me the most about this book, however, was poor editing. The lack of care in the editing process is evident in the pacing of the story: The [party] scenes drag on for five chapters and even mere carriage rides take two chapters to complete. The Duke refers on at least four occasions to the "stink and din" of the [party], which was descriptive the first time I read it and boring the next three times. Were there no other adjectives that could have been used? Finally, I was irked to read (on page 139) the Duke telling Cressida that he fled abroad "in a fit of funk." ... What kind of 19th century expression is that? I think you get the point. This is not a terrible book by any means. There are enough moments of witty dialogue and character chemistry interspersed here and there to keep you from throwing the book into a corner in disgust, but they were just not enough to carry the day for me. If you are a die-hard Jo Beverley fan, you will probably read this book anyway, just as I did, but prepare yourself for a bit of a disappointing experience.

Another success-story from Jo Beverley, St Raven is a semi-member of the Rogues series. Regular readers of Jo Beverley will have met Tris Tregallows, the Duke of St Raven, in her last book, Hazard. In one of his appearances in that book, he plays the highwayman, Le Corbeau, and that is how we first meet him in his own story. He holds up the carriage in which Cressida Mandeville is travelling and is immediately intrigued by what is obviously a lady in distress, travelling under duress with her escort. And yet a lady who does not wish for his rescue.

Cressida, in a desperate attempt to regain her family fortune, has agreed to accompany Lord Crofton to an orgy. In return for partnering him there and sacrificing her virginity to him, he has promised to return to her some ivory erotic statues - within one of which is hidden the precious gems which will recoup her father's gambling losses. She had a cunning plan to escape becoming Crofton's mistress too, or so she thought. But all of her plans are destroyed when the highwayman steals a kiss from her and then rides away with her into the night.

When she discovers that her abductor is the Duke of St Raven, she is no less furious. But Tris offers to help her regain the statuette. The only problem for Cressida is that she will need to accompany him in order to identify exactly which statuette it is that she needs. And so she has to dress as a houri and attend an orgy.

This is just the beginning of a chase around different parts of the country, at different times, in search of the statuette, and of course the beginning of Tris and Cressida's relationship. It's an exciting, and at times passionate, story, which also - unlike books by other authors set in the same era - faces head-on the realities of life within polite society. Being a duke involves sometimes onerous responsibility. It means not being able to behave exactly as one wishes in every matter. Being a young lady, especially one of not particularly good family, means that one cannot put so much as a little finger wrong, otherwise one is ruined. And never can the duke and the unfashionable gentlewoman meet on anything even approaching equal terms.

I didn't enjoy this book quite so much as Hazard, and I think part of that was the fact that Hazard focused solely on Anne and Race's relationship, while in St Raven there is the plot of the statuette and the sub-plot of the highwayman Le Corbeau. For me, these distracted from what I really wanted to read about, although I accept that Cressida and Tris could never have met except under this sort of circumstance. They didn't move in the same milieu. Cressida is the daughter of a nabob, a gentleman who made his fortune in trade in India and, although now knighted, is certainly not of haut ton. The family normally lives in provincial, unfashionable isolation in Matlock, Derbyshire.

And this is largely the conflict in the story: how can Cressida and Tris be together when he is so far above her in status? How could she cope with being a duchess when she hasn't been raised to it? It was interesting to see the other side of the coin immediately after Hazard, in which a duke's daughter finds a way to be allowed to marry a social nobody. I was pleased to see that the example of the Marquess of Arden, who married a governess (Beverley's An Unwilling Bride) was cited, although it appears that Beth Arden has had some problems being accepted into Society - going to tell us more at some point, Beverley?

It felt to me as if Tris fell in love with Cressida very quickly - too quickly, almost. Admittedly, the main conflict of the book related to their disparity in social standing, but I didn't really feel that I'd seen them fall in love - not in the way I saw Anne and Race or Lucien and Beth fall in love. This is probably the main reason why St Raven gets four stars rather than five.

I was also hoping for further glimpses of Anne and Race in this book; it seems as if they may well face problems of acceptance, and I wanted to know that their married life has begun well and that they have plenty of friends who will champion them - Tris being one, but the Rogues in addition. However, Anne and Race were only ever mentioned in passing. I would love to see the two couples meet!

Finally, who is Caradoc Lyne? He's clearly a friend of Tris's, and possibly someone who travelled on the Continent with him. He appears to be employed by Tris in some capacity, or at least dependent on him; Tris gives him things to do and asks him to find things out. His role in Tris's life is never explained. Will we see him again? The hero of a future novel, perhaps? This dedicated Jo Beverley reader is waiting with her fingers crossed!

This was a great book to be stuck on a train with! I'd just finished a rather amateurish novel; it was such a relief to read something by an author who knows how to construct a solid plot, interesting characters, strong conflict, and then flesh it out with a wonderful command of the language.

Was the orgy too long? Yes. Other than that the book held me in suspense by the twisted path to retrieve the treasure, and the fact that we went so long without a "hard" love scene was a surprise. Imho the heroine (and almost everyone else) should have been more shocked by the statue (and etc.), but otherwise the period seemed correct. What we were left with were two fascinating, dynamic characters caught in a skewed and tangled web where they could be discovered at any moment.

Excellent escapist fare.

I found Tris to be a great hero!! He was such a complex individual - having been such a wild young man, he is beginning to fight some of his rakish ways - feeling compelled to settle down and be a "Duke" but in so many respects, really just wanting to be a good, carefree and decent person. Enter into his life, just when he is beginning to come into what he will be, Cressida - a young lady with so very many problems of her own. And Tris just becomes her knight in shining armor. What a knight he is too - wow he was so gallant, caring, romantic and just a delightful unassuming person. I loved some of the dialog between these two. Cressida also is the first woman that really emotionally and romantically takes ahold of Tris's heart. Because of that he seriously questions how far he is willing to allow the dictates of what is supposed to be a Duke's life and a Duke's wife and what will really compliment Tris's life. Cressida was the one thing that would make him the best that he could be - she truly brought out the best in him and it was a wonderful romantic tale. Great Beverley rouge book!!!

This story had lots of promise in the beginning (more than a few women have fantasized about being 'forceably' whisked away by a masked rogue in the dead of night, yes?), but the rest of the tale was stretched out much longer than was strictly necessary. St. Raven whines alot about the responsibilities of his title and some of the sexual tension was so choppy that instead of building delicious suspense was simply irritating. Pages and pages later, I realized that the climax to this situation had come and gone! Frustrating.

The differences between the hero's and heroine's personalities and social viewpoints were so frequently and painstakingly declared that one often wondered what was it that made them believe they were friends and attracted to each other. Much of the time they are disdaining and unsympathetic to each other's lifetstyle, and, lust aside, thin excuses are offered as to why the hero agrees to help the heroine out of a jam. Even in romance novels, where love is able to leap tall social obstacles and other differences in a single bound (why I love 'em), there must be a bit more plausability in the connection between the hero/heroine. I think that's one small distinction between an out and out fairy tale a romance novel, the reader does want some details ironed out, not just wholesale acceptance of the thing foisted upon them.

I found that I was heaving annoyed sighs quite frequently when reading this book and skimming ahead at times. I got more done around the house during my days off with Ms. Beverly's book than I had intended (gee, thanks!) One has to wonder about the author's intentions with a five chapter-long description of an orgy: if it begins to sound more than tedious, maybe it has dragged on too long? Even if done deliberately, couldn't economy of language (and my time less wasted) have been exercised by someone in the story summing up this assessment? If not, I don't know what Ms. Beverly was at when she decided to write this way. I usually like her writing and thus graded this anti-climactic effort sentimentally with two stars instead of one.

I must also say that though the ending was rather sweet, by then I felt so ill-used for having wasted my vacation. In my opinion, the most accurate analysis of "St. Raven" takes in the book itself when a bored female participant at the afore mentioned orgy is complaining to her partner: "Come on, get on with it or give over!" I concurred with an 'Amen!'

I have to disagree with what seems to be the general feeling - I didn't like this book! The plot was terrible. Cressida's father loses everything to an evil man in a card game - including some erotic statues. One of these statues has gems in it that would save the family from ruin. So Cressida sets out to get the statue by agreeing to be the man's mistress but a highwayman kidnaps her and ends that plan.
The highwayman is actually Tris, our hero, playing at larceny. From there, nothing happens as the pair try to get the statue back.
Ms. Beverley tried to make it a very sensual book with the couple dressing up in silk and attending an orgy. But it just didn't seem to work in this case. "I want...I want to be closer to you, Tris, than I've ever been to anyone since I slid messily from my mother's womb." To me, things like that kill the mood.
I still enjoy Jo Beverley's books, just not this one in particular.

Though Jo Beverly's latest Regency on the Rogues bears uncanny shades of resemblance to her RITA-award winning novel My Lady Notorious, she acquits herself nicely in this nimble lark of a tale. Duke of St. Raven, Tristan Tresgallows chances upon the spirited Cressida Mandeville when he disguises as the notorious highwayman Le Corbeau and halts Viscount Crofton's carriage. Determined to save the innocent from the reputed lecher, he whisks her away to his retreat Nun's Chase, oblivious that he has foiled her plans to snatch back the treasure-secreted ivory statue that her father had lost, together with Stokeley Manor, in a gambling game with Crofton.

The rollicking adventure begins when Cressida bares her predicaments and St. Raven as the chivalrous knight errant steps in. They decide to penetrate into the Manor when Crofton holds his infamous sexual orgy and masquerade as a sultan and houri. Cressida is shocked by the decadence and oddly disappointed at Tristan's unsavory associations. She is however tantalized to the seductive masculine appeals of Tristan and knows love can never bridge the rank schism between them. Both of them fall in love against their wills.

Much of the intrigue is in the pursuit of the statue and Crofton's tenacity to unmask Cressida as the houri, which climaxes in a sharp battle of wits and lies to contradict Crofton's accusation. Corbeau, as Tristan's bastard cousin is the charming rogue who plays cupid to the reluctant pair. Jo Beverly is a master at her craft in creating simmering sexual tension and chemistry that sizzles and deftly avoids being vulgar in the detailing of the orgies. Her smooth narration compels readers to overlook the lack of resolution to the class distinction between the couple and the lack of emotional gravity that is surprising for a Jo Beverly's novel. No regrets though, St. Raven self-admittedly is fluff-light and every bit an entertaining sexy caper that packs escapism to the hilt.

I was extremely disappointed in this book. It is my guess that this is the finale of the Rogue Series. I did not really enjoy the Rogue series because it would have been impossible for Nicholas to spend as much time as he did away from his new wife and child and be the father that all of the rogues seem to have needed. All at the age of 25. I was happy that he did not make even the slightest appearance in this story but the story was still bad. It was great until the end of the orgy, and then it just got boring. She became what I hate most about the heroine in a romance novel - a stupid female- I put this book down several times but I made myself finish it because I had hoped the last few chapters would save the book. They did not. They just made me angrier because I kept reading. I highly recommend the Maloren Series if you are a true fan of Jo Beverly.