Customer Reviews

Valentina

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

 

 

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.

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.

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

Lady Valentina has come to the holy land with Queen Berengaria when she marrys King Richard. After been betrayed by Berengaria,Valentina finds her being sold in slavely. After being bought by the kindly Emir,Valentina finds herself ruling his kingdom, but she still wants to help Richard. Helping Richard may cost Valentina her life.
It has been some time since I have read a book by Fern Michaels and while "Valentina" is early book by Ms. Michaels, I really didn't like it. I care much for Valentina. To me, she didn't have many good qualties and I have to really push myself to finish book. Overall it wasn't that great and I had to really forced myself to finish it.

this book is not short on passion but is definatly lacking in some basic and realistic honor on the part of the leading lady. she can't figure out who she really wants to sleep with and the person that she believes is her destiny only takes up a few moments of the first half of the book. deffinatly not a good read.