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Petals On The River (1998)

Petals on the River (1998)

Book Info

Rating
3.91 of 5 Votes: 2
Your rating
ISBN
038079828X (ISBN13: 9780380798285)
Language
English
Publisher
avon

About book Petals On The River (1998)

It's been a while I haven't had so much trouble getting into a book as I did with Petals on the River. The fact that this romance exceeds 500 pages wasn't very encouraging, either. But because it's Woodiwiss, I ploughed on and waited for the magic to happen. Wise decision! I didn't regret it.But before I explain why in more details, once again let me add a little context for my friends who might be new to romance. First of all, while people often like to mention Jane Austen or Georgette Heyer as the precursors of today's romance writers, Kathleen E. Woodiwiss is the one who, in the 70's, pioneered in the actual subgenre now known as "historical romance" (at the time distinct from the Regency subgenre). Her recipe? Rebellious heroines, lots of adventure, passion, violence and explicit sex in a 600-page format.Woodiwiss wrote Petals on the River in the late 90's, yet she still writes like in the 70's. Meaning her sentences are convoluted, heavy with qualifiers, and everything is a pretext for a description and a bit of colourful dialogue. Mind you, it's well done. But it certainly isn't fast, efficient or straight to the point, and it takes some getting used to. By page 20, I had finally adapted to the novel's peculiar pace and was able to enjoy it till the end of the book. I can even say that, once you take it in stride, Ms. Woodiwiss's rich style turns out more captivating than many a modern, condensed and concise one, and the perfect tone for her fantastic stories, reminding one of the never-ending historical frescoes of old.Shemaine O'Hearn, a respectable, if half-Irish young woman, is kidnapped from her home and wrongly imprisoned before ending up on a ship to the colonies, where she will be sold as an indentured servant along other criminals. Thank God, the man who buys her is even better than she'd hoped for. Gage Thornton, an honest cabinetmaker with dreams of building ships, is a widower and father to a toddler. As both Shemaine and Gage soon discover each other's good qualities, nothing could stop them from falling in love but 1) the mysterious death of Gage's first wife, and 2) the many enemies Shemaine has made, who will not rest until she is dead and buried...William raised the sights of his pistol toward the man and began to squeeze the trigger, but before he could complete the motion, the roar of another flintlock echoed in resounding waves across the ship. Ever so slowly, the huge brigand's knees buckled, twisting oddly beneath him as his body began to collapse. Blood glistened wetly in the rosy shade of the coming dawn as it oozed from a large hole in his head and cascaded down over his ear.In reality, though, this novel is much less somber than it sounds. In a way, maybe it is not enough so. There is practically no internal conflict preventing the heroine and hero to find happiness together, and though it is a refreshing change from the "love-hate relationship" cliche, it makes one wonder what, then, is taking so long to tell. And, indeed, the whole subplot feels quite artificial. It is ironical that what Woodiwiss is best known for, and what I was most expecting from her, is what I liked the least in Petals on the River: heightened emotions, hatred, revenge, jealousy, gunshots and blood. A strongly Manichean story, it wouldn't end until all the bad guys were defeated, and all the good ones happily settled.She grew flushed and warm, while in the depths of her being there again sprouted that strange, insatiable longing that grew apace with her mindful meanderings, as if her young body desperately hungered for fulfillment from that particular entity whose face and form haunted her imaginings.What I liked, then, was the positive, fluffy love story. Shemaine is just perfect for Gage; Gage is just perfect for Shemaine. They follow the perfect steps on the path to love, and find perfect love together. It sounds boring, yet it was the least boring part of the novel to me. It was, in fact, enchanting. Following Shemaine as she rediscovers the simple pleasures of life in a colonial's handmade cabin―and discovers more adult pleasures in the same colonial's arms―is very touching, fun, and entertaining. Petals on the River may not be as epic as Woodiwiss's more famous works, but it's a fully satisfying romance with a raw, genuine "back to nature" flavour.

It hurts my heart to give this book three stars because Kathleen Woodiwiss is my all-time favorite author. Hands down! I love her and she can do no wrong. But this sort of pushed the envelope. The story dragged a lot toward the end and it became monotonous and cumbersome to read it. Gage and Shemaine were ga-ga over each other. I got that. I also got that Gage was a boob man. The story was rolling along okay and then dragged and then suddenly all of these characters started showing up and they showed up all at once. Maurice, the O'Hearn's and their servants, Gage's dad, and then here comes the wicked old granny. Every time I turned a page, somebody was trying to kill Shemaine or Gage or both of them or Gage was groping her boobs again. Holy cow, Batman. But I have to give the author credit. She wrote it with style.And another thing that kind of struck me badly, and Kathleen Woodiwiss has done this in all of her books, the women are always significantly younger than the men. Gage was fourteen years older than Shemaine who was just eighteen. Yeah, he was gorgeous and studly but he was too old for her. Times were different then, I know but for some reason I just couldn't get past it in this particular book.I had another issue, too and unless you've read her other novels, you might not have even noticed. When Captain Beauchamp came to look at the ship that Gage was building, he had a guy with him by the name of Ruark and Captain Beauchamp were brothers (Nathaniel Beauchamp). Not a big thing only Ruark Beauchamp was Shanna Trahern's husband in the book "Shanna" which is a fantastic read by the way. I could be wrong about the last name on Ruark in "Shanna" because it's been years since I've read it but I'm very positive about Ruark being her husband in that novel. Ruark in this novel was a far different character. I don't know if that's a literary faux pas or not but being a wannabe writer myself, when I'm done writing a novel, I retire those names forever unless they come back in another novel as the same characters they've always been. I have Jared, Jack and Caine and none of them will ever meet and Jared and Jack are retired while Caine is still plugging along. Not that it matters, These guys are as different as the sun and the moon and none of them have anything to do with each others stories and I guess I look at it as sort of sacrilege to reuse their names without the characters I created with the names attached to them. Just saying...I'm still a fan of Kathleen Woodiwiss, God rest her soul. I still think she's the best romance writer I've ever read and knew how to do it with style and finesse. I just didn't love this book. She wrote others that were so much better.

Do You like book Petals On The River (1998)?

When Shemaine O Hearn finds herself engaged, and falling in love with a wonderful man she thinks nothing could go wrong, everything is going right, but she has one person that doesn't approve of the match, his grandmother. So before Shemaine knows it, she has been falsely accused of thievery and is sent to America and sold into servitude for seven years. The ride on the ship was hard enough and she doesn't know what is in her future. Then she is surprised when she is sold to a Gage Thornton, who is a shipbuilder and in need of someone to care for his son and to cool and clean....Shemaine figures it couldn't get any worse now. Shemaine is surprised by how well Gage treats her, with courtesy and respect and kindness something no one has treated her since she was taken. So even though Shemaine misses her old life, she is prepared to start a new life with Gage and his son, and in Gage's arms finds "Home".Petals On The River would have to be one of my all time favorite books from this author...one that I have probably read over and over....but its been a while since I have read it, and when I saw it in the library I just wanted to read this old favorite of mine. Petals On The River is such a sweet and charming story, and both Gage and Shemaine are such endearing characters you can't help but love them. Also one thing that I love about this story is how there is much more to this story than a mere love story, it has some difficult conflicts that both Shemaine and Gage have to go through, and there some suspenseful scenes that kept the story going...and I just loved the blossoming romance that developed between these two. And I just thought Gage's little boy Andrew was just charming and adorable.....Overall a loveable story filled with a charming characters, a exciting plot, and a love story that will make you cry, written by a Legend......A Sensational Romance!!!!
—Lover of Romance

I’m starting to see that with Miss Woodiwiss, it’s either a bullseye or a complete miss, as it is the case with this book.Petals On The River disappointed me at several levels and that’s why I rated this onewith mere 2 stars.First of all, the length of the book was one of the major flaws.I don’t feel like the book had to be so long to tell the story of our heroine, Shemaine O’Hearn and how she constantly found herself in serious trouble.In fact, I would have thought the same thing if the book had only half the pages. I think we could have learned the same throughout 300 pages or so.As it is, I think most of what I read was unnecessary and could have been easily cut out.Nothing relevant or interesting ever seemed to happen and I had to go through endless descriptions of Shemaine’s household chores and how much Gage unsettled her ‘freshly awakened woman senses’ and all that jazz, which, as you know, was extremely boring.The only time something somewhat important happened was when our heroine found her life threatened.Now, come on, how many enemies is it humanly possible for someone to have?Shemaine had a bunch of them, all eagerly waiting for an opportunity to put her in a wooden pajama.Let’s count them: Mrs Fitch, the London Pride’s captain’s wife, Jacob Potts, one of the sailors, Morrisa Hatcher, the whore, Roxanne Corbin, who spent years lusting after Gage before Shemaine arrived on the scene and Lady Edith du Mercer, who preferred her dead rather than face the possibility she could marry her grandson and sully the family’s precious aristocratic blood with her Irish blood.And I’m just talking about the ones who actually tried to kill her, direct or indirectly. She had way more, like Mrs Pettycomb, the gossipmonger.Really, it came to a point that this entire situation became ridiculous and the only thing I could do was sigh with dread and skip pages.Besides that, I had other issues with the book, like the fact that Shemaine, who although not a lady came from a family with money and possessions, slipped too easily into the role of a slave and servant.I don’t think that’s believable. First of all, someone used to that level of comfort would surely notice the difference in circumstances and there’s the fact Shemaine was supposed to be a fiery woman.I would surely expect her to actively fight against her new circumstances and everyone involved, like Gage, the hero and the man who bought and ended up marrying her.But no. She had a privileged life in England, was surreptitiously taken away from all that comfort and thrown into prison and a life of slavery, but she’s okay with that. She’s only grateful she was bought by an honorable man who didn’t try to rape her at his first opportunity.That’s not right at all in my point of view.Plus, the fact Gage bought her as an indentured servant took a lot away from what the romance could have been. Things just felt strained and forced and I didn’t like that at all.I need things to develop at a normal pace and to feel natural. Also, I need to feel that the people that are supposed to fall in love with each other are someone on the same level and that certainly didn’t happen.Shemaine was already reduced to a mere servant and she kept humiliating herself to Gage, not even showing a single drop of her combative Irish temperament.I hope that what I just referred doesn’t make you think the author is worthless, because that isn’t true. She is very talented, but sometimes she just doesn’t create the right situations for a read to enjoy.
—Lucy *Mrs Kaidan Rowe*

A Sweet Story, But Not The Best of WoodiwissKathleen Woodiwiss wrote some of the finest historical romances in the genre, beginning in 1972 with her first, THE FLAME AND THE FLOWER, that sold over 2.5 million copies, but there was a period from 1984-2002 when what she wrote fell short of her own standard of excellence. Oh the writing is still good but sometimes the stories dragged a bit and the plot was not as exciting or as intriguing as the rest. I've listed her novels below with an "*" behind those I think are her best (and you can see my separate reviews of them).Petals on the River falls into the "dark" period. It is an American Colonial romance that takes place in mid 18th century Virginia. It's the story of beautiful Irish lass, Shemaine O'Hearn, who was born to loving wealthy parents in England and who was betrothed to the Marquess Maurice du Mercer. Though Maurice loved Shemaine and was committed to being her husband, Maurice's grandmother did not want the Irish twit in their family genepool so she plotted to have the girl falsely arrested and thrown into Newgate prison without her family's knowledge. Faced with a choice of being a bond servant in the colonies or possible rape in prison, Shemaine sets sail for Virginia with other prisoners. Once there she is "bought" by a widower, Gage Thornton, a prosperous cabinetmaker and hopeful shipbuilder who has need of a nursemaid for his young son, one who can teach the lad to read and write. He instantly sees that Shemaine is no ordinary prisoner. Soon Gage and Shemaine find they are attracted to each other and Shemaine, believing her betrothed has likely moved on and knowing she faces 7 years of servant hood, agrees to wed Gage when he asks her. And they soon fall in love. But there are those who would see her dead, either out of jealousy or because they are in league with Maurice's grandmother who still seeks the girl's end. Several attempts are made on her life. Then one day her past catches up with her and folks start arriving from England. That's basically the set up for the story.It's a sweet romance and there are no dramatic twists and turns though there are a few altercations and narrow escapes. I thought Gage was a man of character and a droolworthy hero. Shemaine was a bit too sweet and without apparent faults. Unlike some reviewers, I did not think the characters two dimensional. As usual, Woodiwiss paints a vivid picture of the world she has created. It is a very realistic portrait of life in the colonies at the time and I found it believable. I just did not find the story compelling enough for more than 3 stars.Here's the list of her novels so you can see where this one fits in. I've divided them into the Birmingham saga trilogy (omitting related short stories) and then in the single novels, I've drawn a line when I think the work went from 5 to 3 stars. Though I know some would disagree with me, I gave 4 and 1/2 stars to "Everlasting" as I really enjoyed it. Again, those with an "*" are her best.Birmingham Family Saga Series1. The Flame and the Flower, 1972*2. A Season Beyond a Kiss, 20003. The Elusive Flame, 1998Single Novels' The Wolf and The Dove, 1974*' Shanna, 1977*' Ashes in The Wind, 1979*' A Rose in Winter, 1981*___________________________________________' Come Love a Stranger, 1984' So Worthy My Love, 1989' Forever in Your Embrace, 1992' Petals on the River, 1997' The Reluctant Suitor, 2002_________________________________________' Everlasting, 2007*
—Regan Walker

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