Customer Reviews

The Widow's Kiss

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

By 1537, King Henry learns that twenty-eight-year-old Lady Guinevere Mallory has been a widow four times, an excessive amount of husbands buried. However, what concerns His Highness is the legal marriage contracts have made her the prime owner of most of the wealth in the Derbyshire area. Wondering if he has a black widow among his aristocracy and worried that one person owns so much property, the monarch assigns Hugh of Beauclaire to investigate. Hugh informs King Henry that he has a personal interest in a piece of property that Mallory owns which he claims should be his.

When Hugh meets Guinevere, he is stunned by her beauty and even more shocked by how brilliant the woman is. Worse to Hugh in spite of his belief she is a deadly killer; he is very attracted to the woman. Guinevere tries to protect her own heart because she knows Hugh wants to hand her head over to Henry. As the duo fight the growing love between them, their mistrust of one another grows proportionally.

WIDOW'S KISS is a wonderful historical romance that succeeds because the characters seem genuine. The lead protagonists provide conflict, as neither trusts the love that is emanating from the other. Guinevere's daughters add a young energy that makes life even more complex and difficult for Hugh. The King and his key advisor provide a historical point of reference as well as added intrigue, tension, and mistrust. Although the climax is featherweight, sub-genre fans will relish this fabulous novel that proves Jane Feather is a heavyweight author.

Harriet Klausner

Ms. Feather is a terrific author who writes stories that are well researched, full of intrigue and romance, history and engaging characters.

Except that each book that I have read she seems to have to include one character who is guaranteed to drive you to distraction with irritating characteristics. In this story it is the 8 or 9 year old daughter Pippa who positively cannot shut up. Pippa piped, Pippa fluted, Pippa trumpeted or screeched or shrilled, etc. etc. The Pippa dialog is so often and so aggravating that I found myself skipping whole paragraphs when she used the name Pippa. This is not good for one loses the continuity of the story.

On a positive note, I did enjoy the history of 16th Century England during the mercurial, hugely obese and clever Henry VIII reign and all his poor wives who could not seem to provide him with a male heir. I would have enjoyed more information on the Star Chamber and Thomas Cromwell who was a terrible villian according to recorded history.

Ms. Feather has a real penchant for strong, nurturing, rough edged males as her heros. Well so do I. However, once again she has given us a heroine who is drop dead gorgeous, hugely flawed, conniving and quite difficult to feel much sympathy for in the story line. It was nice that she made the Lady Guinevere an intelligent and learned woman despite her obstinancy and intransiegence.

All in all, the story is interesting and Ms. Feather is becoming more elegant and refined with each book. I very much appreciate her breaking from the mold of most of the other romance writers who seem to need to refer to the male anatomy in cutesy or military language, ie: swords, etc. She uses the correct biological term which adds a great amount of intellectual credibility as a writer.

She remains on my list of writers who are closing the gap in skill as great as the incomparable Guy Gavriel Kay.

"The Widow's Kiss" is more a novel of romantic intrigue than it is a mystery -- for some reason several bookstores I visited over the weekend had this book in the mystery section. So if you a big historical mystery addict, be forewarned that there is very little mystery in this novel at all. However, the book does score very high on the suspense/intrigue level.

The plot of "The Widow's Kiss" centers around a land dispute. Hugh of Beaucaire believes that a vast tract of land should rightfully be his son's; the Lady Guinevere Mallory however disputes his claim and refuses to give up the land. So Hugh decides to tweak the interest of the King of England (Henry VIII), and that of the Privy Seal (Thomas Cromwell), by insinuating that the Lady Guinevere may have killed off all her previous husbands (4 in all) in order to inherit their wealth. The Privy Seal sends off Hugh to investigate. Right from the very beginnning however Hugh is drawn to the Lady Guinevere, as she is to him. However he does not fully trust her. But by the time Hugh finally decides that he doesn't really care if Guinevere murdered her latest husband or not, it is too late: he has set in motion events he can do nothing about; for now the Privy Seal is involved and he wants Guinevere's wealth for the Crown.

The second half of the book, where Guinevere has to defend herself to the King and the Privy Seal is brilliant and realistic. The tension is palpable and electric. You can actually sense the very real danger that the Lady Guinevere is facing and her complete isolation from everyone she cares about or who could help. Both the King and the Privy Seal are painted in appropriate menacing terms. The feeling of attraction that Hugh and Guinevere feel for each other even while they do not fully trust each other is believeable as well. So why did I give this book a 3 star rating? Because of the rushed last few chapters which gave the book a slightly of centre feel. This is a historical romance, so I understand that one cannot expect twentieth century sensibilities; however I do wish that there had been an added chapter or even a few extra pages where Hugh castigates himself a little bit more for his treatment of Guinevere -- this would have made the book more satisfying for me, and I do believe it would have centred the book a bit more. Jane Feather is a wonderful writer; "Valentine"; "Vixen" & "The Accidental Bride" are a few of her books that I enjoy rereading every now and then. And I enjoyed "The Widow's Kiss" as well except for the pacing that was a little off.

"The Widow's Kiss" is on the whole a good read, esp at the intrigue level. The rushed ending is a little disconcerting but does not detract form the overall enjoyment of the book. All in all, a good read.

While this story was entertaining, it was not what I was expecting when I picked up what I thought was a typical historical romance. When the two love interests in this story first meet, they don't particularly care for each other. Yes, there's a physical attraction, but that's about all. Hugh was sent by the King to investigate the deaths of Lady Guinevere's four husbands, and Lady Guinevere's suspects he came to her land expecting to find her guilty no matter the truth, and to steal her land from her.

After their meeting, Hugh starts his investigation and the storyline follows the investigation. As events unfold, Hugh comes to respect Lady Guinevere's mind. She's not the typical woman of those times - she's strong willed, very smart, and quite capable of taking care of herself. She finds him appealing but she knows she cannot trust him if she is to protect herself and her children.

Lady Guinevere is quite likeable. It's easy to respect her intelligence and ability to do what women of those times usually did not do -- protect their financial interests. Hugh on the other hand, is a difficult character to like. He's suspicious of everything, which in truth, is understandable since four of her husbands all did die untimely deaths. But his unyielding personality makes it difficult for Lady Guinevere to get through to him, and makes him a little hard to like. However, he does have his good points -- he has a weak spot for children which shows in his interaction with Lady Guinevere's children.

What follows is a story that provides a picture of the life and times of the 1500's. It's not a very happy picture. The book follows the characters' daily lives, but under the pall of the investigation, their lives aren't very gay and carefree.

Despite the attraction between Hugh and Lady Guinevere, this book really doesn't seem to be an historical romance. It reads more like an historical story that has a bit of mystery and intrigue and romance wrapped up in it. I expected the typical fireworks and cat and mouse game between lovers found in "typical" historical romances, but I did not get that here. The book was nonetheless enjoyable, but definitely different.

Yes, there are parts of the story that will pull at your heart strings and have you feeling strongly for one person or another, but don't expect to swoon and be enveloped in a lively romance like those found in a vintage Woodiwiss or Lindsey novel. It's not that type of romance story. But if you prefer more history than romance, and you like a little mystery and intrigue thrown in, you'll find this book quite enjoyable.

I am shocked to see so many good reviews of this book. Although I liked the heroine enough (most of the time) I absolutely hated the "hero" if you can call him that!

The story starts off with the "hero" petitioning the corrupt government to take money and land away from the "widow of a cousin on his uncles late wifes side" or some such connection. I was immediately reminded of the types of creeps who try to contest a will on loose connections. Worse this guy died a couple of years ago already, so you would have thought the "hero" would have moved on by now!

Nope, he convinces the crown that she may be a murderer or a witch or whatever else it may take to divest her of her money and property she has legally inherited. Promptly he heads off to her estates where he interrupts her daughters birthday party, and drags them all to London for possible execution because... well.. maybe he thinks she has it coming anyway... and he needs to ensure *his* son a future.

Now he is not totally heartless, since he likes her daughters... he will petition the king for custody of them after she is executed and even give them a proper dowry. With guys like him who needed rodents I wonder!

Well it all works out for the best it seems... (his best that is). Fortunately for all she can't resist the stirrings of lust she feels whenever she is near to the smelly brute even though he is dragging her off for her possible execution. Though frankly he seemed not even remotely interesting to me!

As she is intelligent, gloriously beautiful, and filthy rich he hastily proposes at her trial, and she has no choice but to accept his terms or be executed (leaving him her daughters and her fortune either way).... so she does. Such Chivakry! He ends up rich, and she ends up ... well alive, no longer financially independent, and married to a smelly opportunistic himbo! sigh....

Don't read this book unless you are on a male bashing frenzy. However, if you just broke up and you need something to remind you that they really are pigs, and have been throughout history, it will make an excellent read!

I have read many historical romances and found this one two slow with too little character development. The story idea was sound, but you didn't care enough about either of the main characters. The story was slow to develop and even at the end of the book I didn't care what really happened to either of the main characters. I enjoyed the children in the book more the two main characters-not a good sign. This is the first Jane Feather book I've read, and I'm not sure if I will read another.

The Widow's Kiss is a great leap from Ms Feather's previous V books. I'm amazed at how skillfully she has switch genres. The depth of characters of Hugh and Guinevere are complex and utterly believable. They are both flawed, human if you will, not all beauty and male good likes...you almost feel you know them as one of your friends when you have finished, which I did, finished the book that is, which was far too soon...every chance I had over a 3 day period, missing sleep, food and gym classes just to read the twists and turns of the plots of Henry VIII and Cromwell's machinations and how they longed to get their hands on the widows property and Hugh and his lady's fight to love and stay alive. The secondary characters are delightful, well rounded, the children are adorable, they too play important roles. I'm not going to go into to too much detail about the book itself, others have done that in their reviews, my main point is the book is by far the best read I've had in 2 years, and I've always got a book on me, buy it if you want excitement, romance, intrigue, danger, love, flawed but loveable characters. Above all read it because its just plain "unputdownable". PS Be prepared to be sleep deprived as well as lose a few pounds once you start you cannot put down!

I loved it, I don't usually read these types (romance novels) of books but something about the cover attracted me and after I settled down to read it I could't put it down! I read the entire thing in two days! It was fast passed and there was not a single page I was not gripped by - no boring pages in this book! I also really enjoyed the historical significance (the type of books I am usually attracted to are historical novels) and because I had already read so many about this time frame I found this to be right up my alley. Thanks Jane for a wonderful book!

Let me start off by saying that I love historical romances; however, I have never been interested in history ... until I read this book. This is the first book that has ever inspired me to read up about history. I was compelled to learn more about Privy Seal, Henry VIII, and Anne Boleyn, I was that fascinated.

I loved everything about this book. It made me feel each and every one of Guenivere's feelings, from anger, to fear, to downright outrage, and then love. Wow, what a ride. I truly loved Guenivere's daughter, Pippa. She was the most refreshing child I have ever read about.

I could not give this book enought stars.

This is the first of Jane Feather's novels to read- but I will definitely pick up some more. I loved this one and read it in 2 settings. I was actually a little hesitant of reading it because I have already read several books set during the 1500's in England and am starting to get a little tired of them. But this one was just different. It held my interest from the very beginning to end. It was fast paced and I was able to feel what the characters were feeling. I enjoyed all of them- even the annoying Pippa, the 4 or 5 year old who ran her mouth continually. One of my daughters was like that at that age. The love scenes were testfully done and did not get out of hand. It was more realistic than some, too. I was glad they did not jump into the bed right off- and he wasn't demanding of it. It was just a great book. I am getting it for my library and will recommend it to everyone!