Woman of Fury in Bodice Ripper Readers Anonymous

Sep 13, 2012 Julz rated it really liked it

Shelves: brutal-read, intense, hero-loves-the-b-word, family-from-hell, mean-angry-dude, alpha-hero, historical-romance, trainwreck, bodice-ripper, rape

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

Warning! This is one great big spoiler.

This was freakin' crazy awesome! It had me shrieking “OMG!” practically from the get-go.

The story is told over two generations. We start with the beautiful mama, Rebecca, when she was a ripe young thing and the love interest of Matthew Lorne, the most evil baddy I have ever encountered in this genre. When he started busting out with the wicked action I was floored from the shock. Definitely not your everyday evilness. The dude didn’t like his future mothe ...more

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Aug 26, 2017 Sarah Mac rated it really liked it

Shelves: reviewed, zzz-departed-4-star-not-keeper, zzz-2017, paperback-swap, read-regifted, i-aint-got-the-words, zz-publisher-signet, douchebag-party-of-one, zzz-departed-vintage

This book...is an experience. *blinks*

I'm not a big fan of Gluyas' schizo style (this is my 4th attempt), though there are things she does well. They are:

-Secondary characters. David & Shalada are annoying with their endless hate!banter (see below), but the secondaries are much more interesting. Poor stockade'd Polly, cringing daughter Tamsin, Rebecca herself (the catalyst for everything), her dead mum Margaret, even John Avery (who has a brief but touchingly emotional role in the drama) are all This book...is an experience. *blinks*

I'm not a big fan of Gluyas' schizo style (this is my 4th attempt), though there are things she does well. They are:

-Secondary characters. David & Shalada are annoying with their endless hate!banter (see below), but the secondaries are much more interesting. Poor stockade'd Polly, cringing daughter Tamsin, Rebecca herself (the catalyst for everything), her dead mum Margaret, even John Avery (who has a brief but touchingly emotional role in the drama) are all pretty fascinating.

-Rebecca West. I loved Rebecca & wish the book had been solely focused on her. Such continually broken & rebuilt dignity -- that downtrodden inner strength -- reminded me of Kit from STORMFIRE, which is a high compliment.

-Villains. Gluyas loves her sadistic asswipe antagonists, & Matthew is the worst of the worst. He's just batshit insane -- end of story. It's a love-to-hate-you kind of deal, & his final scene is hugely satisfying. Well done.

-The opening 100 pages, the finale, & That Bloodbath midway through. (Hardened ripper vet that I am, rarely have I encountered such an onslaught of rape & familial homicide. OMGWTF. :D) Any rate, those 3 scenes were great, & the extended finale in particular gave me feelz (poor John Avery).

That being said, Shalada & David were both flat & uninteresting, esp when their predicable hate!banter goes on for entire chapters. Zzzzz. Gluyas has also demonstrated serious pacing issues, & this book is not immune; she begins & ends with fairly gripping stuff, but the middle sags & bogs down with, well, not much (though the Familial Bloodbath did improve the middle section in this particular effort). As a final gripe, the heavy imbalance of negative characters makes this an exhausting read; I love a good cast of villains, but there's a point where too much Evul(tm) becomes a chore to endure. This book crossed into that territory, particularly when David was revealed as such a bonehead mimbo.

So...while it isn't something I want to reread, I still award 4 stars for ballsy plotting & the secondary characters.

NB.: this is NOT a ripper for the fainthearted. And I do mean that. >:P ...more

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May 01, 2023 Jena marked it as maybe

self note...WTF lol. Julz has all the spoilers..

"The dude didn’t like his future mother-in-law, so he decided, ‘eh, I’ll just burn her at the stake.’ WTF!?!?!?! I kept waiting for her to be saved but, no, they cooked her. And it was pretty graphic too. I was disturbed. The totally insane part was how surprised and miffed he was that his fiancé didn’t like it. ???????? This was just the start of the crazy.

Understandably, beautiful h #1 mentally cracked and took off running. She just so happened t ...more

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