Customer Reviews

The Willing Wife

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

 

 

Set in England, the year of 1155. King Henry II was on the throne. Lady Nicolaa of Cheneteberie had already been given four husbands from the king. All four had asked Henry to set the marriage aside and had gotten new brides. Word had it that Nicolaa could not produce children. After being harshly handled by four husbands, she never wanted a fifth. The king sent her one anyhow. Nicolaa did her duty. She married him, Rowland the Dark. She knew he would leave quickly too. The fact did not displease her. Her heart had become well armored. Besides, Rowland's heart would forever belong to his deceased love, Lubias.

Sir Rowland d'Albret of Aquitaine knew she could not give him an heir. He did not want one. Nicolaa was worthy and would make a fine wife. He vowed to protect her and be gentle, unlike her previous husbands. Yet even though he would not ever give Nicolaa his heart, he believed she should, and would, give him hers!

**** Be warned, though a willing wife, the consummation of the marriage is harsh ... almost to be called rape, in my opinion. The entire book focuses on the two main characters. The secondary characters, in no way, detract from their tale. Rowland and Nicolaa seem to be very strong willed people. This makes for many battles between them and great reading for the readers. My only real complaint is that the villain seldom made an appearance. Great love story! ****

Reviewed by Detra Fitch of Huntress Reviews.

Wow - I have read lots of bad romances, but this really was bad. Right on to the reviewer to pointed out that Nic's incredible coldness was too played up. There was no logical reason for Rowland to fall in love. Her fall in love with him, yes, possible, but not he with her. She was too emotionally and physically unavailable for any man to find attractive. Also, it is impossible to imagine, in that time, that Rowland would actually not have slept with Nic in the marriage bed. So as far as the law was concerned, they were not legally married and if he had died in the battle when he first left, where would that have left everything? He was ordered to marry and in a way, he disobeyed the King. There was no love, no tenderness in this story. Nic inspires no real sympathy in this reader.

... This book was just awful. The plot has already been summed up. Having to wade through over 250 pages for some action was boring. I fail to understand Nicolaa. ... Nicolaa was just plain ridiculous in refusing to believe that men could not love..... Sure, as a reader, you might get some glimpse of why she was so cold, but how could he? He more than tried to please her, yet she was unaffected. Her coldness, her reckless disregard for the women in her "court" and not making marriages for them, made her unlikeable. ...Nicolla's not so very logical views were to distorted to be realistic. Poor Rowland. Daine portrayed Nicolaa to severe in her inability to imagine that love was a possibility. Her very coldness was a turn-off for this reader.

I feel the need to give this book five stars in order to offset earlier, harsher reviews. I do not "love" this book, but I LIKE it very much. Both hero and heroine are wounded, three dimensional characters. I strongly disagree with an earlier review that said they did not solve their own problems - on the contrary - that's exactly what they did. For believable reasons, both characters begin to trust one another. True, there is not a lot of action, per se. And I do agree that there is more internal dialogue than is sometimes necessary. However, I could actually picture everything that was happening. I felt as if I were seeing it all play out in my mind- like a movie, if that makes any sense. The descriptions and imagery are more vivid to me than most other romances I've read. Claudia Dain is a different kind of romance writer - she's unique. And that's a GOOD thing. I also recommend THE MARRAIGE BED - the second book in her medieval 'trilogy.' I haven't read THE HOLDING yet, but each book stands alone so don't worry about reading them out of order.

This was my first Claudia Dain book, and definitely won't be my last. Others have summed up the plot here--Nicolaa is ordered to marry her fifth husband, and he's none too excited about marrying her, either. What other reviewers haven't mentioned is the wonderful characterization in this book. Nicolaa had me rooting for her from page one--she's a woman who's been burned badly by her past husbands, yet has used that experience to make herself a stronger woman, ready to withstand anything. She has made her heart impenetrable. Rowland, on the other hand, has allowed grief from his past marriage to tear at him, leaving his heart in tatters, and making him a romantic hero to the entire country. Dain plays these character traits off each other beautifully, and had me turning pages at lightning speed to watch these two people grow and develop.

Brava! I'll be picking up more Dain books ASAP!

from Ms. Dain. I enjoyed this book as I have enjoyed her previous books. Highly recommend.

Normally, Claudia writes a very good book, but this one somehow fell through the cracks. She starts out with a wonderful idea of a heroine that is ordered to marry husband number 5 by order of King Henry. The Hero is ordered to marry after loosing a much loved wife. The first 50 pages sets a good pace and by page 200 I was more than ready for she some kind of action. But nothing ever happened.

Claudia (or her publisher)allows some very "beginner-like" writing behavior to slip through. This book is about 98% internal monologue and it drags - badly. Sometimes there is as much a two pages of internal monologue between dialogue phrases, that makes the already tediously slow story drag even more and it looses the reader...making them back up over and over again to follow the dialogue which should be crip and fast. Sometimes she starts a line of action and then it just fades off without explaining why.

The whole plot could have been written in short story (or maybe was)and then padded with pages and pages of internal monologue that goes no where in fits and starts. The "Big" sex scene (after 250+pgs)is delayed with sections of OTHER character's comments in the middle of the "big scene"(I was so frustrated I didn't care a fig about them - it was NOT their story). When the big scene arrives it's a total flop. What little conflict that comes in the end is watered down and solved from off scene. Neither the hero or the heroine solves their own problems, there are few action sequences, and very little hot dialogue. The whole books seemed to be written to set up OTHER characters and leaves the reader totally unsatisfied with the book cut off at the knees. I really don't think this book was ready to write yet, I nearly threw it down twice and when I finished it I wanted my money back.

Claudia needs to go back and look over the pacing of her other two books, 50% dialogue, good pacing and confrontational ACTION, characters that solve their own problems, hot and steamy romance. The Willing Wife falls short of everything.

When I read what this story was about, I thought wow this will be an interesting read. The author had created an unique and refreshing premise--too bad she failed to deliver an unique and refreshing story. The novel was slow and boring. I did however, think that the heroine was interesting and likable and deserved a much better hero. Furthermore, I felt uncomfortable and appalled with the hero's method of getting through the heroine's barriers and earning her trust. Forcing someone to have sex is not the best way to gain their trust. Please note that despite what one reviewer stated, the heroine was never a widow, even though she had been married four times.

Ms. Dain has again created two very interesting and troubled characters in this story. Nicolaa has been married four times only to be left when her husbands found heiresses who had larger estates and more money. King Henry has now "awarded" her number five. She has become resentful of the husbands, but she has also learned to deal with men by being willing to do their bidding until they leave. Nicolaa assumes number five, Rowland, will be the same. Rowland comes to the marriage as unwilling as Nicholaa. He is carrying, in his heart, a deep love for his first wife who was killed helping him during an attack. Nicolaa does not believe a man can ever love anyone but himself, and Rowland will never love anyone but his lost wife.
The story is a simple telling of their lives together, trying to survive what neither wanted but must endure.
I loved this book, the story, the characters, and the writing. Ms. Dain shows a thorough knowledge of the Medieval times. Her descrptions of life in the tower and "goings-on" makes it easy to visualize what's happening.
You may want to read Ms. Dain's "The Holding" and "The Marriage Bed" before reading this book, though it certainly is not necessary to read either to enjoy this one. I recommend all three books very highly.

I read the first few pages of "The Willing Wife" in the bookstore and thought, "Oh, what an interesting, sexy set up." Call me crazy, but a woman who has been forced to marry man after man and has endured sex with them and then is faced with a great warrior who is sensitive and--of course--a great lover appealed to me! When I got the book home, I kept waiting for it to take off, but it never did. My general rule of thumb is that if a romance does not really interest me after 50 or so pages, read the end and see if it is worth it. Even the end did not seem very good. I may be doing Ms Dain an injustice here, but I couldn't really get going on this book. Maybe it will appeal to you, but I doubt it.