Customer Reviews

Veils of Silk

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This novel, the last of the "Silk" trilogy is a wonderful read. The main character, Ian Cameron,a British officer assigned to India, has been imprisoned and tortured in "The Black Well" in Arabia and recently freed by his sister and her husband. He returns to India a broken man, having lost his eye and his sexual function. To make matters worse, his fiancee has married another man. While in India, Ian learns from his brother that he has unexpectedly become the Baron Falkirk, and needs to return to Scotland. Still depressed, Ian remains in India to deliver a bible written by a Russian with whom he shared his imprisonment. The Russian was later executed, and Ian promised to give Pytor (the Russian) his bible to his niece, Laura (who is also in India). Ian finds Laura in her own private misery, having just lost her stepfather, and notices how she is averse to men being attracted to her. In a bold move, he tells her of his impotence and proposes a marriage of convenience without sexuality, but with fidelity. Laura agrees,although Ian is in the dark as to why she wants no part of sex.

What follows is their marriage, and journey through India to tie up loose ends. This novel has a lot of historical detail about India, the culture, and political problems along the Khyber Pass.
Laura and Ian find themselves in some Indian intrigue, as well as deciphering the coded secrets of the bible Pytor left behind. During this time, Ian finds his impotence was only temporary and now is in a bind. He is attracted to Laura but feels guilty about breaking his promise. Overall, the way they both come to terms with the sexuality issue is interesting and becomes romantic as they do fall in love.

One of MJP strongest suits is that she addresses issues atypical in the romance industry, such as depression and impotence. She is unafraid to push the boundaries of historical romance fiction. In my opinion, this puts her in class that is a cut above the usual.

Overall, this novel is very enjoyable. However, be prepared for lots of secondary Indian politics and intrigue.

Ian Cameron, the brother of Juliet and the British officer whom Ross and Juliet rescued from the Black Well in Silk and Secrets, has returned to India, barely recovered in body and not at all recovered in spirit from his ordeal. Rushing to find his fiancee and let her know that he's safe, he discovers that she's already married to a friend of his. Feeling betrayed and lost, he intends to resign from the army and return home - especially after he discovers that he is now Baron Falkirk - but first he has a promise to keep. He needs to find Lara Alexandrovna, the niece of Pyotr Andreyovich, the Russian officer who was his fellow prisoner and who died instead of Ian.

Lara, now calling herself Laura, has just watched her stepfather die when Ian finds her. She is alone in the world, and also, he notices, wary of physical contact with men. One legacy of the Black Well, however, is that it has made Ian impotent; so he offers her what he believes will be a safe, affectionate, but passionless marriage. Laura, who likes Ian and feels safe with him, accepts.

Of course, Ian's disability isn't permanent, so at a later stage they have to deal with the consequences, and Laura has to confront her memories and fears. Ian also has his demons, which haunt his nightmares and sometimes make him difficult to live with. Gradually, over a period of a few months and in the course of their journey across India, these two tortured souls heal each other.

But the romantic/emotional plot isn't all there is to this book, which is why I've rated it less than the five stars I normally give Putney. Again, she has a strong dramatic plot - and I generally prefer her books without them - but she's also chosen to locate the book in colonial India. That, for a start, would have put me off buying the book had it been written by anyone other than Putney; as it was, it was difficult for me to empathise with Ian's feelings as far as that part of the plot was concerned, since my sympathies were with those who would prefer to overthrow British rule!

At one stage I did find myself getting somewhat frustrated with the emotional plot, since it seemed as if any time Laura made a step forward Ian would regress a stage, and vice versa! However, in the end that aspect of the book was satisfying.

I did wonder about Ian's mother: after all, she's the woman who was pestering the British Consul in Constantinople for months on end in Silk and Secrets, trying to get someone to find out whether her son was alive or not; and it was she who sent Ross to find Ian. In neither Silk and Secrets nor this book did we see or hear about Ian's reunion with his mother! And what about the British government, which effectively left him to die?

In relation to the series, I was disappointed not to see more of the characters from earlier books in each successive one; all we get is a brief epilogue at the end of each, which isn't enough for characters we've grown fond of. Putney did better in her Fallen Angels series, allowing other characters to reappear in more substantial roles.

Well, some things you might want are believable main characters, an interesting plot that grows out of the historical setting, a cast of supporting characters who each seem so finely drawn as to deserve a novel of their own, and smooth, fluent writing. If that's your wish list for a historical romance novel, this one delivers.

The most amazing thing about this novel is the main characters. Both are flawed individuals whose flaws first seem to fit together beautifully (so they embark on a marriage built around those "flaws"), but as the story unfolds, this fit disintegrates, leaving them with the challenge of addressing their individual demons and coming together, or blowing apart in a maelstrom of hurt and anger. The heroine alternately embraces and rejects her own struggle, in an entirely plausible way, and eventually takes ahold of herself and steps up to the challenge posed by her marriage. The hero, meanwhile, is fighting his own battles against the results of being traumatized (as a minor character in the earlier novel _Silk_and_Secrets_, which I also recommend). In the end, these characters come together as healed lovers, whose healing grew out of their courage.

And it's all believably set in 19th century India. The place and time are evoked beautifully, and the action of the plot is firmly grounded in history. In some ways, the plot is a little over-wrought, but then, so was British India at that time.

This book stands up to rereading wonderfully.

This book is charged with emotions, adventures .....and of course romance. Personally, I feel that this book has ended beautifully. This book really give me a feeling of satisfaction. There's also a touch of humour in this book. Of all the Silk Trilogy , I find this book the best. I think it's because this book's far more eventful.

This is one of the best historical romances I have ever read. It intricately weaves the politics and history of 19th century India with a touching and beautiful love story. The characters of Laura and Ian were unforgettable. MJP is an incredible storyteller. She integrates history, politics, angst, and love into an incredibly enjoyable read.

I'm a little ambivalent about this book. As a romance, I liked it - I'm a sucker for flawed heroes and heroines, and it's difficult to get more flawed than Ian! Laura's reasons for being so terrified of passion seemed a bit weak to me, but no big deal, really. I liked the way MJP develops their romance - it's not just lust, but also a lot of affection and warmth...
What cheesed me off completely was the setting. And not so much the fact that this was from a Brit's point of view of colonial India (which I think was a sore point with another reviewer). My take on that was that the Raj was a part of India's history, so okay. We've moved on since then. What really bothered me (and I'm speaking as an Indian, who's lived in India all her life and has done extensive historical research into 19th century India): it's very contrived. There are lots of mistakes (Laura couldn't possibly have heard a lion in northern India; jalebis are fritters and not cakes; Persian wasn't used in everyday conversation; and many of the names are all wrong - Habibur, for instance, is part of a name, never standalone). And more.
My main grouse is that this is too exotified. The scene with the maneater made me wince - as did many others that seemed to be a mere `let's get this in too; it's what people expect in a novel set in India'.
I guess I'd have liked this more if it had been set somewhere other than India!

This would definitely be on my top ten list of romance novels. MJP is great with description and with character development, and this is one of her best.

its a beautiful story about two people who have lost so much, and went looking for the missing peices, but instead found each other and in each other, what they had lost.the emotion was very powerful, it wasn't simply about sex as so many other romance novels are, this one really shows the struggles to overcome one's fears for the love of another. it was a wonderful book that can stand with or without the others.

What can I say but MJP finished the "Silk" Trilogy with a flourish. Though romance was kept at a minimal in this book compared to the previous two, the exotic setting, high adventures, interesting supporting cast and subplots more than made up for it.

Laura and Ian are tortured souls with their own inner demons. MJP once again brings these two together so that they may complete each other. I had fun reading this series and was sorry MJP did not write David Cameron's own story. I feel that he deserves his own book as he has a lot of potential for his love story to be told.

After reading the pitiful farce of Sally Mackenzie's "The Naked Earl" with an impotent romance "hero" I was SOOOOO loathe to attempt another book with that plot device. However, as usual, Ms. Putney addresses a sensitive topic with eloquence and skill. Ian's reasons for believing his impotence were long-term are understandable, as were his feelings associated with it. He is a kind, caring, honorable and loving hero who is also filled with self-doubt, suffering from severe physical effects of his imprisonment, and is stuck in a depressive state.

The only reason I couldn't give this book 5 stars was because of the heroine. I just couldn't quite accept Laura's level of "emotional trauma" manifesting itself into a fear of sexual relationships. Even if her reasoning that passion would cause "madness" is accepted, then she would choose to marry someone who wouldn't cause ANY passionate response in her at all -- not just someone who wouldn't cause a SEXUALLY passionate response. While the attachment to the sexual aspect of it seems to be explained by Laura witnessing a particularly impassioned sexual encounter by her parents, that doesn't seem to be enough of a catalyst to put her off sex entirely. I don't know, it just didn't sit right with me. I also felt that she didn't do enough to reassure Ian that he didn't rape her. I felt so bad for him that he had to feel that burden on top of all the others he suffered from.

I liked Kamala, and I enjoyed the advice and guidance she gave to Laura. She seemed like a very mature and wise woman, even if I personally would want to fillet my husband if he kept concubines. ;) I liked the sub-romance with Meera. She was a spunky woman with great personality. I liked seeing Mikahl as a father. I would love to see a story about Ian's brother David.

I guess I just plain like Ms. Putney's books, this included.