Unconquered [Mass Market Paperback]

Bertrice Small (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 12, 1984

A breathless novel of sensual daring and fiery adventure, UNCONQUERED introduces the brilliant outspoken Miranda, who would give up nothing for a man, and whose spirited ways and breathtaking sensuality would sweep her into perilous escapades of brutality and erotic discovery...

Editorial Reviews

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A breathless novel of sensual daring and fiery adventure, UNCONQUERED introduces the brilliant outspoken Miranda, who would give up nothing for a man, and whose spirited ways and breathtaking sensuality would sweep her into perilous escapades of brutality and erotic discovery...

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 448 pages
• Publisher: Ballantine Books (February 12, 1984)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345314018
• ISBN-13: 978-0345314017
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.3 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #901,115 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Great - just one flaw, February 3, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Unconquered (Mass Market Paperback)

After reading the other reviews, I have to say that I really liked the book, except for one particular scene. When Miranda is forced into her extramarital relationships after going to Russia it is understandable. It is also reasonable that Jared becomes a rake after he believes Miranda is dead. However, the scene where Jared has sex with Gillian after he and Miranda are (happily) married is unnecessary. Yes, he feels terrible, and yes, she forgives him without question, but it was still disgusting. He could have said no or gotten the information without knowingly cheating on his wife. Ms. Small often has the characters engage in extramarital relations, but usually it is due to dire circumstances. I just really didn't like this scene. I'm surprised no one else has mentioned it.

But other than that (which happened fairly early on), I enjoyed the rest of the book, even if it did move sort of too quickly...

P.S. - My favorite Small book is "A Love for All Time." It starts in the middle of the O'Malley Saga, but since it is easy to read first.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars One of Small's early successes, but the rot begins to show, May 26, 2007

By 

Rebecca Huston "telynor" (On the Banks of the Hudson) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Unconquered (Mass Market Paperback)

I started to read the works of Bertrice Small back in the late seventies when she started to be published. When she started to write, the genre of historical romance had a love story that was written around historical events, generously served up with plenty of details, and tended to make the characters the center of the story, rather than the time and place. Sex, if and when it appeared, was more of the 'fade to next morning' variety rather than anything graphic.

Then came the seventies, and suddenly, historical romances got racy. Sex moved from the edges, and went far beyond what was to be found in most novels, unless they were of the sort found in certain adult bookstores. And Bertrice Small leapt into the genre with both feet and changed the standard.

Starting in the year 1811, this tells the story of Miranda and Jared Dunham, two very strong-willed lovers who meet through an arranged marriage, but manage to make a go of it. Miranda, barely above a child herself is resentful at having to marry before her twin, Amanda, can announce her own betrothal to an English lord. Miranda, naturally, doesn't want to marry anyone, deciding at the tender age of seventeen that she would much rather stay in her American home.

But when she returns to her home, the island of Wyndsong near Long Island, tragedy hits when her beloved father is killed in an accidental shooting. Worst still, it appears that she's going to marry the man who was partially responsible for the shooting -- his way 'of making things right' as it were.

Jared Dunham, Miranda's cousin and the new owner of Wyndsong Island, is one of those tall, dark, brooding heroes so common in romance novels. He's the younger son of a Massachusetts?s shipbuilder, and has always had to cope with his father's preference for his elder brother Jonathan. The anger at that has left him estranged and alone to make his way in the world, which has resulted in his sailing the open seas as a merchant trader. And sometimes, he takes on a bit of spying work for the English -- a chancy situation in a world where Napoleon is waging war in Europe, and tensions are rising between England and the new United States.

In Miranda, he finds a virginal spitfire, but soon the pair discover that they can dispel some of that heat in bed, and soon they're billing and cooing like a pair of doves, with Miranda pregnant. But Jared then makes the fatal mistake of going off on a mission to England, leaving poor Miranda cooling her heels in America. And now that it looks like her sister's suitor is about to jilt Amanda, there's only one thing to do about it -- load up her sister on a ship with herself and her mother and go off to England while war is about to break out.

There's plenty of misunderstandings, lover's quarrels, and the reader pretty much has to guess in this story if these two will ever get their heads on straight and kiss and make up.

Unconquered was Small's fourth novel, and it's pretty evident that she's still working out the kinks in her writing style. A great deal of the narrative is made up of a lot of descriptive writing, mostly about clothing and food. In between all of the dyed swan?s-down, fabulous jewels, and mouthwatering meals, Small has her characters fighting and making up -- usually with sex.

And what sex it can be. Of course, as with novels of this type, it's instant orgasms and sex without complications. While it may seem to be tame reading now, at the time it was considered to be pretty racy, and just on this side of scandal. Too, Small does something that few writers would dare to do now, and to be honest, I found it to be rather disturbing.

Adultery on both sides of the marriage is pretty common here. While on Jared's part it is either as a means of getting information, or as a way that he's grieving Miranda's supposed death, it wasn't that convincing to turn him into a skirt chasing rake within months of his wife's disappearance. If he's having such a deep love for her, then what's made him snap so?

As for Miranda, all of the extramarital sex is while she's in the throes of delirium (with her brother-in-law, no less!) or in a situation where she is a captive or victim of some sort. Small is infamous for these sorts of situations in her books -- nearly every one of them has a harem sequence with either multiple partners, kinky sex or both, and where it could easily be called rape if it was happening anywhere else. Early in Small's career it could be called spicy, now it's turned into a cliché thirty years on.

Too, besides the florid, purple prose, there are quite a few anachronisms here and there, and Small gets rather heavy with the name-dropping of various bits of historical trivia. But the most blatant error is that she will break off the action, and suddenly start explaining everything to the reader, whether it is a historical occurrence, or describing how her characters get from one place to another, sometimes telescoping months into a few paragraphs. It's a rather jarring experience.

If you can handle the problems in the writing style and subject matter -- part of the novel takes place in a Russian breeding farm for would be slaves for the Ottomans -- it does make for entertaining reading, and a snort or two of disbelief. Small continues to write novels of this sort, each one a bit more racy than the last one and has carved out a semi-permanent niche for herself, and while they tend to be on the lightweight side, they can be fun on a rainy or dull afternoon.

I would say a four star read, as her earlier novels are still her better ones, and this one at least moves out of her rut of using Tudor and Elizabethan England as a setting.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wild ride of a read, November 25, 2000

By 

Carol Peterson Hennekens (Colorado Springs, CO United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Unconquered (Mass Market Paperback)

Many romance novels revolve around an arranged marriage, love discovered after the wedding and eventually, living happily ever after. That's just the first 100 pages of this book. This book looks at the first four years of Miranda and Jared's marriage and they go go through some wild "adventures" in the path to true love.

It says something that this book is still in print after almost 20 years. It also was chosen as one of Romantic Times Top 200 Books of the 20th Century. The pacing is fast, the locations exotic and Miranda is a fun, spunky heroine. While the setting is largely the Regency period, this is no conventional Regency romance.

Unconquered is a fantasy, but it's a fun romp. Some of the undertones are a bit dated but surely were just the thing in 1981. I gobbled it down in a single sitting. Enjoy