Valentina [Mass Market Paperback]

Fern Michaels (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 12, 1981

She was sold into slavery and vowed never to love. But he awakened, deep within her, an unquenchable desire that could not be denied....
Only Fern Michaels could create this dazzling, exotic tale of pasionate abandon and the lure of sultry Arabian nights....

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

She was sold into slavery and vowed never to love. But he awakened, deep within her, an unquenchable desire that could not be denied....
Only Fern Michaels could create this dazzling, exotic tale of pasionate abandon and the lure of sultry Arabian nights.... --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Fern Michaels is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of Fool Me Once, Sweet Revenge, The Nosy Neighbor, Pretty Woman, and dozens of other novels and novellas. There are over seventy million copies of her books in print. Fern Michaels has built and funded several large day-care centers in her hometown, and is a passionate animal lover who has outfitted police dogs across the country with special bulletproof vests. She shares her home in South Carolina with her four dogs and a resident ghost named Mary Margaret.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback
• Publisher: Ballantine Books (June 12, 1981)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345295803
• ISBN-13: 978-0345295804
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,808,913 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Fern Michaels is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of Fool Me Once, Sweet Revenge, The Nosy Neighbor, Pretty Woman, and dozens of other novels and novellas. There are over seventy million copies of her books in print. Fern Michaels has built and funded several large day-care centers in her hometown, and is a passionate animal lover who has outfitted police dogs across the country with special bulletproof vests. She shares her home in South Carolina with her four dogs and a resident ghost named Mary Margaret.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Absolutely wonderful!!, October 20, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Valentina (Hardcover)

I thought this book was great! Valentina shows strength by going through hell and surviving it all. The ending is very tearful, but happy nonetheless. This was unlike any book I've read and has remained one of my favorites since the first time I read it several years ago.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Tends to lose focus, but still much to like about it, March 28, 2011

By 

Karla Bushway "7Rabbits" (South Strafford, VT United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Valentina (Mass Market Paperback)

If there's one thing I've learned since reading bodice rippers, it's that if you expect a serious and impeccably realistic historical romance from Fern Michaels, you're an idiot.

Granted, I've only read this one and Captive Passions (henceforth CP) to base this on, but I feel pretty confident declaring such.

That said, after a WTF start in Valentina with rape, whipping, and lesbian molestation and resultant phobia, it did become a rather staid little historical with a beleaguered heroine very reminiscent of some of Bertrice Small's early heroines. The overall quality wasn't up to par with Small, nor did the characters really stick with me, but it was a solid romance that has a very dynamic love triangle that hinges on one's loyalty vs. another's treason.

Valentina is a childhood friend and current lady-in-waiting to Berengaria of Navarre, lusty and frustrated wife to that closet-case of legend King Richard the Lionheart. To satisfy her yearnings, Berengaria's taken on scores of lovers and even dabbles with a lady or two, including making some not-so-subtle moves on Valentina. While in Acre on crusade, things get tense when she catches one of her new lovers - Paxon, the Saracen Sultan of Jakard - macking on Valentina while en route to her queenly bower. That's where the whipping comes in and the queen has a slight reaction:

[quote] "Valentina's body convulsed with pain. Her knees buckled and she hung heavily by her wrists from the sconce. The snakelike length licked through the air once again, slicing into Valentina's tender flesh. Still she was silent; no outcry escaped her. Berengaria was leaning against a chair back for support. Her breathing was steady and rapid, her hips swaying slightly with an internal rhythm....

Berengaria was gripping the chair back, her knuckles shining whitely in the gray dusk. Shudder after shudder coursed through her as she sank, breathless, to her knees." [end quote]

This sexual jealousy doesn't stop with a mere whipping, and Berengaria plots to dispose of our heroine further. Fern's villainesses are bad to the bone, but Berengaria makes Gretchen in CP look like Strawberry Shortcake. Your garden variety bad girl wouldn't manipulate her husband into war criminal territory simply to dispose of a pesky rival, but Berengaria has no qualms suggesting to Richard that 2700 Saracen prisoners should be beheaded to show his strength, and she connives to have Valentina put in the middle of the wretched group. Quite an elaborate ploy, hmm? (Points to Fern for giving that decision of Richard's a rather creative genesis.)

Well, like all plots of Bond villain proportions, it fails and our heroine naturally escapes, only to find herself in Saladin's camp and tended by a cagey heart-of-gold whore. Our heroine's woes aren't over yet, as she gets some sudden visits via both the front and back entrances (if you get my meaning) and she's shuffled off to the auction block when Saladin needs to lighten his army's excess baggage and people. But is this the end for Valentina? What further degradations will she have to suffer?

Umm, not all that many. The WTFery has shot its load and it's on a somewhat even keel in that department from here on out.

This Fern femme really is a cat who lands on her feet. She gets a good gig with a doddering old emir and has unbelievable good luck at hoodwinking people in her schemes. She maneuvers the touchy political ground with iron hands in velvet gloves, and does what she can to stay alive while surrounded by the enemy.

Valentina also finds her wounded little heart torn in several directions: she's finally shown the gentler side of love by rock star du jour Saladin, her body is revved by Paxon (who has trust issues with "the enemy" but can't cure himself of wanting her), and her soul soars with Paxon's half-brother Menghis, a man destined to be a neutral power player up on a mountain somewhere with his body enslaved in a psychic trance commanding a personal army of freelancers until he dies.

Yeah, your Earth logic is so cute. Leave it at the door. It's not wanted here.

While I didn't exactly enjoy this one as much as CP because it lacked the cheeseball je ne sais quoi, I felt more tied to the romance. Regan and Sirena in CP were pretty unrealistic - he was an unrepentant horndog and she was a total cartoon character - but Valentina does have a more solid personality and her conflict between the two brothers was rooted in issues of what constitutes treason and loyalty, and what one's humanity is worth in the gristmill of war. It wasn't exactly staggering or brilliant in execution, but it was done well enough so that I could see the good of Valentina having her HEA with either of the men. I wouldn't call it a book with two heroes, but it provided a love triangle - a device that I really like, even if here it tended to make the story lose focus now and then.

I've read better, of course, but there was enough here to keep me interested and curious just how it would all turn out.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars This book sucks, May 21, 2006

By 

Book-a-holic "Cassy" (Kennesaw,GA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Valentina (Hardcover)

This book was pretty crappy. Its about a girl sold into slavery and gets raped(more than twice), falls in love, gets hit on by the queen and a whole lot of other stuff. I didn't understand this book at all! It was really weird. I recommend you not to read this book. its sucks