Customer Reviews

Unconquered

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"Be careful what you wish for, you might get it" is an old truism, as apt for today's reader as it was for a hero of the Norman Conquest. Sir Drogo de Toulon was one of the invader William's mighty war machines. Eada of Pevensey was a young Saxon woman who had been widowed on her wedding night, leaving her still a maiden.

Drogo has fought for William in the hope of gaining lands and wealth, yet when it is offered, he discovers that without Eada as part of the package, there is no worth in it. Eada has inherited from the village witch-woman the ability of hearing and seeing portents of the future. The last prediction made by Old Edith before her death was that Eada's 'mate' would be among the invading Normans. Mayhap there will be even more.

Set against the brutal battles and invasion of the Conquest, the characters in this wonderful book will stay in your heart for a long time. The secondary characters are no less pervasive; you'll especially be enamored of Ivo and May, another Norman/Saxon pair who turn Drogo's war camp into a traveling orphanage. Even though they acquire fourteen kids of various ages, along the way into London, neither of them speak the other's language!

Sensibility, humor, sensuality, panorama, plot, intelligence, romance. All this and wonderfully lifelike characters combine to make this a reader's delight. It'll be yours, too.

The Norman Conquest is such an interesting period to read about, and it takes a very talented author to insert humor, lovable characters and a heartwarming love story into this violent period of time, and Howell accomplished this with remarkable ease.

Eada of Pevensey is a great heroine. She is feisty, strong, and courageous but she is also mature, willing to see other's point of view and caring. The woman is brave enough to face a knight twice her size who all and out tries to kill her. Drogo De Toulan is a fierce and deadly warrior, but he is also a kind, gentle human being. It is so refreshing to hear a hero not prattle on about how he is a warrior and cannot love because it will make him weak, or not tell the heroine that her place is only to warm his bed. Drogo claims Eada as his, but he shares with her and seeks her advice on important matters. How often do you read this in a medeival romance? Add in some wonderful secondary characters and you have a great book. Also if you like reading about this period of time, I would recommend Elizabeth Chadwick's The Conquest of Jo Beverley's Lord Of My Heart.

Hannah Howell has created a wonderfully engaging medeival love story without the following elements that I hate to find in romances. First, a hero who does not try to tame or break the heroine. He likes her strong will and respects her intelligence. He also does not rape or enslave the heroine as most heroes do in these Norman/Saxon love stories. Second, a heroine who is strong and feisty while being mature, practical and intelligent at the same time. Third, secondary characters who take an active part in the story and have the reader caring about what happens to them also.

I cannot begin to say how much I enjoyed this story. I also liked the ending. Without giving anything away, I will just say that the hero lets his love guide him and as a result gets everything he had been after. Read and find out for yourself.

This book was unbelievable - literally! Are we to believe that this tiny girl (yes,yes, she is a woman by the standards of the times, but still just barely out of her teens, and tiny, to boot!), are we to believe that she is able to fight against, and best, a battle-hardened knight like Sir Guy - a very nasty character by all accounts? This man who has fought in so many battles and is savvy when it comes to dirty fighting, a man without honor - how on Earth is this possible? This scenario totally killed the book for me. Throw in Eada's continuous traipsing into danger, following her "sendings", from which she had to be rescued time and again, and the whole plot becomes trying. I found some of the language to be totally 21st century; she also seemed quite at home with cursing! I found that the words "she cursed" "she swore", " he/she drawled" appeared far too often. I had a very difficult time imagining what an 11th century Saxon woman would sound like when (if!) she drawled. I liked Sir Drogo's character, although he seemed quite tame by the standards of the day for a conquering knight, I liked his inner decency and caring; and I very much liked the secondary characters, especially May and Ivo, and their rapidly expanding band of cast-off children, which they collected as one would sea shells at the seashore. I like that Brun survived and went on to be of help in the final solution. I thought the description of the army moving towards London and their arrival there quite informative. One could only imagine the conditions under which they lived! I expect more of the soldiers died from `ill humours' and starvation than from actual fighting! All in all I gave this book 3 stars because I thought it seemed kind of unrealistic - witness May, a bond-servant learning to speak French in so short a time, enough to be understood. The plot was tame and predictable - I might have liked it better if either Eada or Drogo were given another love interest to add a dash of spice to it. Not a bad read, but not a keeper either. However I agree with the previous writer, I wondered what happened after the ending - but I wondered about Tancred and whether or not he settled close to Drogo's holdings and did he marry; I also wondered about Searle and Eada's `mother' - did they also settle close by or did they go away. And how did Unwin, Garnier, Serle, Ivo and May and their brood react when they found out that Eada was really quite wealthy, and had more land than Drogo could ever want! That scene would have been nice to close the story. Oh, and by the way, here's my pet peeve: what is it with these huge warriors and these child-like women? For once I would like to read about a heroine who's at least 5feet 7inches tall and nicely put together instead of skinny and narrow!! These women would not survive child-birth, and that's a fact! Too narrow in the hips, and with fathers the size of a small tank you know the bairns are going to be huge!

The year is 1066 and William the Conqueror (Duke of Normandy) has invaded the Kingdom of England. Spotting the hundreds of ships off their coast the people of Pevensey flee for their safety. Separated from her family Eada of Pevensey hides in the woods but is eventually captured by Drogo de Toulan, a Norman Knight. Bewitched by the beautiful Saxon, Drogo decides to make Eada his own. Eada's emotions, on the other hand, swirl in opposite directions. She hates him for what he is doing to her people yet it has been foretold that he is her true mate and she already feels a special connection with him. Soon they are marching across England and through battles (notably the battle at Hastings). Eada slowly accepts the shift in rule but wonders what will become of her when William is crowned King. His trusted Knight Drogo is to be rewarded with lands of his own........... and maybe even a wife.

I really enjoy Howell's books, even the later Highland books which seem to be a bit repetitive. She always has interesting characters and well rounded plots. But this book had me yawning. I don't know, maybe its just me but I found it to be very anticlimactic. Case in point -Eada has some ability see the future events. My problem is that she knows that the villain is going to be killed. Why? I thought that ruined the excitement of the battle scenes between her or Drogo and the villain. I mean we (as readers) know that in a romance the villain will die (or something bad will happens to them) but do the H/H have to know? Not that thrilling for me. And I also thought that it was ridiculous that Eada had some very important information that she wasn't willing to share with Drogo. No woman in her right mind would do what she did at the end, especially for a lone Saxon WOMAN living in 1066.

Other than that its a fine book. And Drogo is F I N E in the fullest sense of the word ;). Plenty of good love scenes and secondary characters. So if you don't mind the above, get it, read it and enjoy. I'll just be skimming to the good parts instead.;)

One of Howell's better novels. Some I have enjoyed and some were almost painful to get through. This is worth the read if you like this time period setting for romance. Some say too nice, not believeable, but I must say Romance novelists these days are kind of "damned if they do and damned if they dont" so to speak. If the guy is too nice, they are not being realistic enough. If the guy, in this case a Norman invaider (let's face it those invasions weren't pretty and women did not fair well), is more realistically portrayed then the book is "too violent" and women are treated in a manner "unexceptable by today's standards." Howell chose to make him of the "too nice" variety. It did not interfere with my enjoyment of the story. Hey, it's romance. I do want to be able to loose myself but I also get the need for some suspension of disbelief. They key is being able to strike a balance between these two objectives, which I think Howell does fairly well in this case. I will say that if you come across Howell books that get consistently poor ratings, believe them. If they are pretty good, as is the case with many of the reviews of this book, you can also believe them. I have found the ratings to be pretty spot on.

This story was heart-warming. It kind of left me wanting to know more of what would continue to happen to Eada and Drogo. I like those two characters because Eada was a strong woman and yet like you and me when it came to love. She had feelings, fear, etc. Drogo,,,,,OMG he sounded like a KEEPER. Someone I wish would fall in love with me. Although he was a warrior, he had a BIG heart, and he treated Eada with respect, love, and passion. <sigh> Overall it was a good story. It brings you back in time to the harsh realities of war and the irresistable force of passion.

Unconquered started off as an interesting historical read but quickly turned into a quick wrapped up ending. Drogo and Eada became frustrating, with Eada constantly running off and putting herself in danger, how many times can he save her? I liked the secondary characters such as Brun, May and Ivo, but would of liked to see a more detailed ending. All of a sudden Drogo and Eada where back at Eada's property and we didnt get to see what happened to the rest of the group. What happened to her family? Did May, Ivo and Brun react to Eada all of a sudden being a rich land owner? The reason I gave this book only three stars is it just seemed a little too unrealistic but I did find some of the descriptions of the battles and the trek to London interesting.

As always Hannah Howell does a great job!!!!! I have all of her books and would read them more than once!!!! this book was really great!!!!

Like all of Hannah Howell's books, this one did not disappoint. It was very interesting, the characters were terrific, and the writing was just superb. I thought the book was very realistic, and it taught me some history in a very entertaining way!