Customer Reviews

The Untamed Heiress

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

 

 

The heroine of "The Untamed Heiress" is an interesting character. Justiss does a good job of making her different from the run-of-the-mill heroine in that she's been physically abused by her father and cut off from the outside world since the age of 10. So, by the age of twenty she is wild and wary, but has retained some of the refinement that she gained from her mother before her mother is taken away. Helena, this heroine, is a unique mix of cultured bluestocking and untutored child. The hero, Darnell, is also a well-drawn character. He has compassion for her and honorable intentions while trying to fight his attraction for the beautiful woman she becomes. The plot moves along nicely and the dialogue is witty and true to the period. The only negative is the slightly sappy tone in the last few chapters. I could almost hear the violins playing and often wanted to roll my eyes. The two protagonists turn a bit mushy, and that's hard to take after watching their internal and outward struggles up to that point. Other than that, this is a very good offering by Julia Justiss.

Helena Lambarth is celebrating the death of her father. She was a virtual prisoner in Lambarth Castle. Helena was abused by her father and separated from her beloved mother. Now that he is gone, Helena has traveled to London to meet with her mother's friend, Lady Lillian Darnell.

Lord Adam Darnell needs to marry a wealthy woman. His father did not take care of the estate and his stepmother Lady Darnell spends excessively. As Adam contemplates this, he heads to retrieve poor orphaned Helena. Expecting a child, he is shocked to find Helena a woman who has clearly been mistreated.

While Adam continues with his plans to marry the wealthy Lady Priscilla Standish, he is slowly coming to admire and respect Helena, who's beauty is also becoming a fierce temptation for him. Now, Adam's increasing desire for Helena is waging a war against his feelings of duty.

In The Untamed Heiress, Helena is magnificent. She is beautiful, honorable, intelligent, innocent, unconventional and sensual, and I really enjoyed watching Adam fall for her. As the story progressed I was captivated by Adam and Helena's plight. Each character in The Untamed Heiress contributes to its dramatic storyline, but it's Adam and Helena who enchanted me in this incredibly moving and romantic story.

Nannette
Reviewed for Joyfully Reviewed

While this is only my 2nd book by Ms. Justiss (the 1st being "The Courtesan") I thought it was absolutely wonderful! "The Courtesan" was OK, but "The Untamed Heiress" kept me turning page after page.

I admit I thought certain things, such as the physical aspects of Adam's and Helena's relationship moved a bit slow, and Helena's continual lust for freedom cost those who truly loved her a bit to much heartache, but her plight from what she endured through her childhood to her growth of strength and independence, was very touching. Maybe I simply was able to relate to some of Helena's ordeals but this story definitely touched my emotions. And I much prefer the slow passionate old fashioned unveiling of love to the crude lust so many authors employ today.

The secondary characters were just as good! I would really like to see Priscilla redeem herself with her own story and return to the girl of her childhood and the one Adam remembered and was initially attracted to. I think Priscilla has a lot of Helena-like qualities and with the right man, perhaps, Dixon (*gRiN*), would make just as good a read as "The Untamed Heiress."

"The Untamed Heiress" was a beautiful love story! If you like charachters such as "Rhett and Scarlett" you won't be disappointed!

The Untamed Heiress by Julia Justiss is a historical novel that had some great moments but there was alot of fill in the middle. The basic story is Helena who goes to London after her evil abusive father dies. She moves in with distant cousin who connected to Adam, Lord Darnell. Adam and Helena ignore each other for most of the novel. She improves herself and He get engaged to nasty spiteful women. In the last 1/3 of the novel it get very good. I think this would be library book and test the waters on this author.

When his wife ran off with her lover, Lord Lambarth punished their daughter Helena keeping her a virtual prisoner at their castle for the past decade. Nine years ago she escaped, but the villagers simply returned the wee girl whose mind they assumed went over the edge when her mom vanished to her irate father. Only the recently deceased medicine hermit "Mad Sally" enabled Helena to survive her captivity. Now her dad is dead but instead of mourning her sire's demise, Helena rejoices as she is finally free and plans to find her mom.

She goes to London though she has no idea how to behave amidst the Ton. Her mom's cousin Lady Lillian Darnell takes in Helena, who learns her mom died, but left behind loving letters for her. Helena meets Lillian's step son, Napoleonic war hero Adam and falls in love with him. However, he needs a wealthy spouse to fix the mess his late father left the family in, which means this wildcat living with Lillian is out of the question so why does his heart tell him to marry for love not money.

This exciting regency focuses on abuse amidst the aristocracy in which everyone ignores the obvious signs so as to not have to deal with an unpleasant situation. (Sounds familiar?). Thus the story line is driven by Helena who struggles with adjusting to "normalcy" that includes cruelty after being a prisoner for so long. Though the ending is too inside the sub-genre's boundaries, readers will empathize with THE UNTAMED HEIRESS as she tries to join a society that blames her for the travesties of her parents.

Harriet Klausner

I think that she is a good writer, once I start reading I do not want to put the book down, its as if I am part of the story, I love being there. I can not say one book is better than her other books because I enjoyed all of them.

I was a little reluctant about this novel. I'm not a big historical romance fan, but after reading this book, it changed my mind. I had also missed the chance to read something by Julia Justiss and I am now determined to read more of her novels.

The story is about a woman (Helena) who is abused by her "father." When he dies, she sets out to London to live with her mother's cousin (Lady Darnell). There, Helena gets to meet Lord Darnell (Adam), whom she finds increasingly interesting. Although he is set to marry another woman, Helena finds a way to retain the only man she has ever loved and spare him from being unhappy in his future marriage.

Helena is a superb, dynamic character. She is very strong, yet sufficiently feminine, passionate and sensitive to make her one of the best female characters I have ever read about. She fights for what is hers, goes against the rules, and will do whatever it takes to finally have a moment of happiness.

Adam is a great character as well. Although he avoids Helena due to his amazing attraction to her, he slowly begins to find that he is deeply in love with her and will do whatever it takes to be happy together.

The story has a great build up. Helena's transformation from a battered, malnourished woman to a beautiful, strong minded heiress is done wonderfully. The passionate build up between the two characters finally ends with a big bang at the end. The last chapters are sure to be read in one sitting.

Great characters, great story, great build up. An excellent novel.

This was my first romance book, it was not over the top, and you just fall in love with Helena!! This is a great book and I would recommend it to anyone!

The Untamed Heiress is the sixth regency period novel I've read authored by Julia Justiss and the heroine she created in Helene Lambarth is unlike any other heroine I've encountered in this entire genre over the past several years. Some of the things Helene says will rock you back on your heels. In this particular genre nearly all story lines are essentially the same, to wit: the hero and heroine must go through a number of misunderstandings, hardships, and other hurdles before they get together at the end of the story and all is well in their lives. But Ms. Justiss makes the journey from the beginning to the anticipated conclusion of the story more than ordinarily interesting largely through Helene's character. As a bonus the author throws in some unexpected twists and turns in the plot to keep the reader's attentiion focused. After reading six of her novels I must say that I am impressed by this lady's creative imagination and her talent for effectively getting her ideas into words. I particularly enjoyed a lot of the heroine's dialogue and found myself laughing more than once, which is certainly a more pleasant response than I've had from reading trial and appellate legal briefs for nearly 40 years.
For readers who have not read any of Ms. Justiss's many novels yet you should know that she is of the tribe of modern writers who are not reticent about penning explicit sex scenes, and The Untamed Heiress is no exception. I concede the philosophical point that authors can do whatever they please with characters of their own creation, but I have grave reservations about taking liberties with characters of another author's creation such as Jane Austen's Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy in Pride and Prejudice. To the best of my knowledge Julia Justiss is not among such writers.
I give this book a strong four stars with the conviction that maybe I'm being a little stingy. It's not often that you come across a character like Helene Lambarth in modern literature relating to the regency period.

Other reviewers have done an outstanding job in revealing the facts concerning the protagonists and story line so there is no need for further discussion on that score.

I just want to say that Helena is unique among historical romance heroines. Ms. Justiss has outdone herself this time. This is my tenth Julia Justiss novel and Helena is the best heroine yet. Adam complements her perfectly as does the supporting cast of characters. Even the villains fit perfectly. This work was extremely well done.

However, my personal taste is such that the use of graphic sex scenes very seldom contributes positively to a romance novel. In my opinion, truly great romance novelists elevate intimacy without stooping to dime novel standards. I must allow that Ms. Justiss does not use sex gratuitously in this work. However, its graphic use cost one star on my rating scale. Thus, I award four well deserved stars to Ms. Justiss.