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Adora (1997)

Adora (1997)

Book Info

Rating
4.05 of 5 Votes: 3
Your rating
ISBN
8440663927 (ISBN13: 9788440663924)
Language
English
Publisher
ediciones b

About book Adora (1997)

Theodora Cantacuzene is a Princess of Byzantium (and she'll remind you of it plenty of times) and is married off to the old Sultan Orkhan in a political move. Her odyssey takes her through multiple husbands, murderous plotting, wars, and personal tragedies. It's another early Bertrice Small book where the story goes cradle-to-grave with a focus on the heroine. Her life is the point of the story, not one isolated span of time with a binary romance.I liked this one better than The Kadin because there was a better balance of romance/bodice-ripping and history. The Kadin tended to sag under the weight of all the description, although Adora has its share of pure costume porn as well. Kadin also kept the bodice-ripping until the very end when Cyra found herself in foreign Scotland. Adora has the smut scattered throughout, and it includes everything from wooden dildo rape to child rape to plain ol' rape to feather play to backdoor action to eunuch seXXXoring to implied gangbangs to simple missionary lovin'. It's all a bit much at times, but this is one of my fond childhood books and I've read it a dozen times as a teen, so I'm no doubt grading it on a bit of a bias. ;-) It had been well over 15 years since I last read it, so it was no surprise to me to find myself reading most of it as though I was reading it for the first time. It wasn't as omgawesome as I remember, but it was still pretty darn good. And I realized that it serves as a chronological prequel of sorts to The Kadin, as Sultan Orkhan and Murad are ancestors of Cyra's husband Selim.While Small does go heavy with the history bits (and I wish these early books of hers were longer to flesh out and incorporate so many facts in a more natural way), I find the period really fascinating and thus don't mind the longish expanses of who is screwing whom over what and where. (They coined the phrase Byzantine Politics for a reason.) Because of the constant plotting and scheming from Adora's enemies, the body count is pretty high and not always where you would expect it.One thing I have always liked about Bertrice is that she's not afraid to kill people off - and since she is writing about historical figures, she has them exit according to history even if they're the/a hero or the protagonists' offspring (as in this book). She also doesn't flinch from the nasty realpolitik of the time, and Adora often displays a cool logic in matters that result in the deaths of others since it's an age of kill or be killed. A Christian city doesn't surrender when offered mercy? Then the sack and rape is an expected and regrettably necessary consequence. At one point, she even wields the pincers with burning coals that blind an enemy. It's not typical romance, or even bodice-ripping romance, but a life saga in a brutal time that is couched within the callous and cruel attitudes of the period, with a catalogue of salacious stuff to boot. Readers don't expect "heroes" to kill off their siblings or progeny, but it's a fact that sultans did. And Small is writing about sultans, so that is what must happen. If a reader can't suck up and deal, then don't bother picking up these early historicals of hers.I did have a sense of deja vu with this book after having read The Kadin so recently. Both Cyra and Adora are precocious children who turn into absurdly wise and astute women. It's a flaw of Small's, these Mary Sue heroines of hers, but I still enjoyed it greatly because of the outrageous BR moments and florid turns of phrase for which Small is so well-known. This book is an obvious bridge between the very straight HF of The Kadin and the flaming bodice-ripper that is Skye O'Malley.

Well..not sure just how I feel about Adora and her story. I was looking forward to reading this book as it was set in the Byzantine Empire,one of which I didnt know too much about. Being the "detailed" person that I am, I was looking forward to some historical background in this book.I forgot for a moment this is after all a Bodice-Ripper,OTT Bertice Small fan fare.But the author did give me enough to keep me into the story,(while not exactly historicaly correct)I decided to just "go with it" and Ms.Small has once again entertained me with an interesting tale of a Princess and the men who love and lust after her.Lots of betrayals,poison,torture,romance(of the obsessive-kinky kind)that kept me rolling my eyes, yet turning the page just to see what OTT thing could happen next.Despite my rolling of eyes at certain parts and dislikes,the story held my interest and it was well paced and didnt at all drag. As for the characters..Hmmm..cant say I really liked or cared for any of them,which accounts for the 3 star rating.There just wasnt anything "outstanding" about them,nor was I able to "bond" if you will to their character.But if I had to pick one it would be Adora. No matter what she went threw,she bounced right back up.I found her to have not only respect for herself,but also a strong sense of "duty" to those she loved even if they didnt deserve it. Ok so now for my "peeves". First off the author has Adora at the beginning at age 4, but has her acting like a 13 year old in speech and manner.Then at age 14 she is described as a 16-18 year old would be,also with very stong sexual desires and knowledge of one. Really? 14? Well guess I was into other things at that age..boring me.Then when her son is 6 years old he is affronted by a slave so he reaches over and drags the slave to the floor to bow down..that's one strong 6 year old you got there mama. So..please when describing an action said or done have it match the characters age or ability. Then spelling errors and sentences that didnt make sense.I am not one to catch these often but holy moly was there ever a lot of these!I do wonder if it has been corrected in the new issue? Repeated words by said lover of the moment...lord if I had to hear Alexander call her "beauty" after EVERYTHING he said to her one more time!? Well it almost went flying,but was saved by the next lover *whew* And last but not least the wedding night between Adora and Orkan. After hearing certain things that happen I braced myself..well I wont go into that as it would give it away but what bothered me most about "that" night was not the "act" itself(The author likes to throw in a shocker here and there) but again..Ms.Small you have placed a 14 year innocent CHILD in this scene?! Tsk-Tsk..I can handle your style, just leave the kiddies out ok? Make the female characters older is all I ask.I was going to give it a 4 star but for that It remains a 3. Otherwise the rest of the story/plot was good and I liked how she brought the end about. This was a fun OTT Bodice Ripper only Bertrice Small can do.

Do You like book Adora (1997)?

it was actually a very nice 1 n i liked it very much up2 the point where alexander was killed n murad claimed andora as his slave. der, it went downhill 4me. it's not the author's fault. she actually narrated it as it was in reality back in those days..dat is murad kept a harem of women n fucked them at the same time as andora. he had all women he lusted after in his harem. frankly, it disgusted me. i can't like this kind of hero. it repulsed me too much. also, by the end, the story was focused too much on war n plots like dat
—Roub

Much like her debut novel The Kadin, Bertrice Small's epic historical fiction Adora takes place mostly in the harem of the powerful ruler of the Ottoman Empire, about a century prior to The Kadin's setting. Adora is the affectionate nickname given by the Sultan Murad to his favorite princess Theodora, a Byzantine Princess who, in the fashion of Small heroines, is far better educated, spirited and of course beautiful than the average woman of her time, even one coming from royalty. That's the thing I have always loved about Small, that her heroines are feisty, cunning survivors who don't let the mostly horrible twists and turns in their lives crush their spirit. And there are plenty of horrendous things that happen to Adora, who is treated again and again like a chattel and political pawn by her family, be it her parents, siblings, spouses,or her own children. On top of it, she has to endure the very worst of what all women of her time, and let's face it, to a certain extent, even women in our times, have to endure:Rape, slavery, trafficking, betrayal, adultery, loss and grief galore, dehumanization, torture, pedophilia, incest, you name it, Small has included it. It is not all bleak of course. Adora fights for and gets what she craves, love, adoration, respect, adventure, happiness, romance, power. These are also all there.Adora is not a flawless book. Similar to the Kadin, it attempts to cram into one book a multitude of events spanning the life of one very busy Princess. It also has hopelessly purple prose and definitely questionable characters,including the heroine. These are not super cutesy cookie-cutter characters who fight for pure love, justice and rainbows. They are very true to their real-life historical inspirations (yes, there really was a Sultan Murad and a Theodora although as usual, Small takes her liberties with historical facts and lets her dazzling imagination run wild, much to the chagrin of some, and the utter delight of others): These characters are shrewd, pragmatic, ambitious, and occasionally given to blood lust. Adora'sister Helena, the Byzantine Empress, makes Cersei Lannister look like Pippi Longstockings. This is not a Barbara Taylor Bradford tame and cute romance. But it has spirit, boldness,energy,and emotion, which left me enthralled and choked up. RIP Bertrice Small. You have my respect forever. There won't be another one like you.
—Naksed

It's comforting that some things will never change. I mean...ever. This author's specialty is old-school bodice-rippers. We're talking arranged marriages with tall, dark, brooding stranger. Dare I say it, we're talking pirate captains. Her books might as well just have the cover blurb: "Don't! Stop! Don't...stop. Don't stop!" No. Really. But she also is known for packing in a lot of historical detail. Basically, NC-17 history buff brain candy. But as I was reading this on my Kindle (no, I can't explain why I bought this) I started thinking 'this plot seems familiar...if she gets abducted on the high seas by a pirate captain, I'll know I've already this one'. Guess what happened? That's right. But turns out I *hadn't* read this one - it takes place in Byzantium, so the setting was new - but apparently, there's a high seas pirate 'incident' in every book! I just feel comforted by the trashy continuity somehow. Good times.
—Alicia

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