 "It could have been so much more!" | 2009-08-12 |
| - Reviewed By User: A2IFO267D90DF0 |
Ugh, this book could have been so good. I've been lately into reading the books by this author, since the Malory series was oh so delicious. This one could have been. Yes, we have another woman who dresses like a boy. The heroes in these medieval stories are all the same. There's no real character development there. This hero could have been the hero of Hearts Aflame. They are all the same medieval male and I can't tell the difference between them, like the Malory-Anderson men.
They are all dumb brutes, so it becomes tedious, just like Warrior's Woman became tedious because of the dumb brute. There are so many well written and witty lines between the twin sisters in this book. That was the best part. I also like the arguments about men and their opinions that the hero and heroine get into and then it stops. The story gets going at that point and the whole thing just dies away in a wimpy ending.
What would have made this book worth reading? The hero and heroine keeping at it with their intellectual discussions on the role of men and women like they did with the discussion on men, their opinions and need to be right over a woman's opinion. Those lines in this book would be something Shakespeare could have been proud of and then to just let it all die. Sigh. What a waste. More romance also, since that is non existent.
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 "Verily, this is one of the most insipid medieval romances ever written!" | 2008-05-20 |
| - Reviewed By chicbookfiend |
Thirteenth century England. Milisant Crispin is unhappy with the fact that a contract has been signed and that an arrangement to wed Wulfric de Thorpe, Earl of Shefford, will have to take place soon. The earl is also upset with the fact that he is to wed a hellion. They have both been avoiding the inevitable for years, but it is time to take the arrangement into motion. Milisant hates Wulfric. He had killed her falcon when she was a child. Not only that, but she'd almost ended up lame-legged because of him. He is a brute, and she doesn't want to marry a brute, especially one who intends to lord over her. She has an independent spirit, and her one grievance is that she hadn't been born a man. Why do women have no right? Why do they have to depend upon men for everything? Wulfric is not looking forward to meeting the little devil who had threatened him with a wild falcon when they were little. When he meets her again, he is surprised to find a docile, sweet and willing woman instead of the rascal he had expected. Unfortunately, the docile girl is Jhoan, Milisant's twin sister, and Milisant is as bad as she had been as a child. But when someone threatens her life, making it clear that they want to stop their joining, Wulfric does whatever possible to protect her, and feelings ensue between them.
Joining and its characters did not draw me in. Milisant is an annoying heroine. She has no feelings for Wulfric throughout the novel. Then, in the last hundred or so pages, she loves him? That is my main problem with this novel. We are told that they fall in love. There is little sexual and romantic tension between them throughout the novel. I cared nothing for these characters. They are one-dimensional, so are the villains and secondary characters. Milisant isn't as compelling as the heroine in Heart of Thunder, which I loved, and Wulfric is so underdeveloped it's ridiculous. Milisant is too much of a feminist in a time where feminism hadn't been hinted, much less discussed. Yes, I believe women with independent spirits in those times cursed their gender, but come on! All in all, Joining is a one-star read. Johanna Lindsey has the ability to create a good language in whatever time setting she chooses, but this one fell flat and uninspired. I have bought a few of her novels. Here's hoping that the others are better than this. |
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 "Story lacked character development" | 2008-01-27 |
| - Reviewed By User: A1R5DGMUEF8J2C |
I enjoyed this book. but I found myself not quite as enthralled in it like I am some of Lindsey's other books. I think that the story had a good foundation behind it, but it did not live up to its full potential. so much more could have been done with this story to make it more romantic. I found the lack of romance and interaction between the two characters Millie and Wulfric to to be very disapointing. They did not have enough moments for me to actually see why they fell in love with eachother. but over all this by far was not a horrible book. It was entertaining, just not quite as romantic and developed as i would have liked.
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 "An enjoyable tale set in King John's England" | 2007-03-06 |
| - Reviewed By kentish_bookworm |
Johanna Lindsey is well known for writing Regency romances and that is what I assumed "Joining" would be. However I discovered that this book is instead set in King John's reign in the year 1214 (the same era as Robin Hood). This made for a very different setting and an interesting one too!
Wulfric of Shefford, heir to an Earldom, has been promised in marriage to Milisant Crispin since he was 13 and she 8. However he's put off the marriage because his one meeting with her was a disaster - she was a tomboyish termagant who attacked him. However Wulfric's father insists that the marriage takes place once his son reaches 25 and Milisent is 19 and Wulfric reluctantly goes to Milisent's castle. He consoles himself with the fact that she might have improved in the past 11 years.
He's disappointed. She's an ungovernable and bad-tempered woman who still dresses like a boy and goes out hunting. However he has no choice but to marry her and has a month to help her reconcile herself to the match. Unfortunately it seems that someone is trying to kidnap or injure her and Milisent is also trying every way possible to get out of the marriage. Can they stop fighting long enough to actually communicate and overcome some of their obstacles?
It's interesting reading about life in King John's reign, the powerless position of women, the differences between the landowners and serfs, the hunting parties and the financial disasters of John Plantagenet's reign. Johanna Lindsey works at the dialogue to make it sound old-fashioned and this works fairly well. Her hero is a rather overbearing and alpha male but this is usual in her novels and it actually fitted reasonably well into this period in history - after all, women were just possessions to be married off to cement political relationships.
The love story is characterised by arguments and misunderstandings (as so often in books) but it's not too irritating and I actually liked both hero and heroine. The sub-plot about the danger to Milisent was fairly minor and there were no real surprises - the denouement at the end was obviously going to happen - but it was an enjoyable read for a lazy afternoon and is notably better than some of her older offerings. Worth a read.
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| "Typical" | 2007-01-30 |
| - Reviewed By streetmouse |
Maybe it's just me, but of all the medievals I've read, they all seem to have a woman who doesn't want to be a woman, and a man who will marry her anyway. I get how this pretty much has to happen in order for the modern reader to identify with the woman, since we are so culturally different, but it gets a bit tiresome.
On the plus side, the plot was a good one, if somewhat typical, and I enjoyed seeing King John featured.
Wasn't a bad book, just not one of my favorites. |
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| "Not Lindsey's Best" | 2006-12-06 |
| - Reviewed By lmilziz |
Milisant Crispin's father, and the father of Wulfric (future Earl of Shefford), are great friends. Such great friends that they decide to betroth Milisant and Wulfric as babies-which is unfortunate, since they hate each other. A meeting when Mili is six and Wulfric is thirteen results in mutual hard feelings, which never dissipate over the years.
Now Mili is nineteen-and still a tomboy who loves hunting and animals (an odd combination, if you think about it), and Wulfric is twenty-five, and their parents have given them one month to accustom themselves to each other before they wed.
Not my favorite by Lindsey, this story lacks the author's usual deft touch with a romantic duo. While the plot line and the characters sound engaging, they simply don't work out that way. The best relationship in the book is that of Mili and her sister, Jhone, and the relationship between Mili and Wulfric never attains the depth that most of Lindsey's works have.
The actual event which serves as the catalyst for the two young people to dislike one another seems improbable, and their resulting life-long hatred equally so. With less interaction between Mili and Wulfric than there is between Mili and her sister, there just seems to be too little time and opportunity for the lovers to come together as they do by the story's end. Still, readers of Lindsey may want this one to complete their collection.
Reviewed by Lee M
Copyright © 2006 CK2S Kwips and Kritiques. All rights reserved. |
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