The Velvet Promise (1982)

One word: Disappointing. I've read a couple of Jude Deveraux's novels and found them to be entertaining but Velvet Promise just left a bitter aftertaste in my mouth.The heroine is the only one, unfortunately, to have some spunk and backbone to her. The hero, on the other hand, is too stupid for words. Not only is he a pain in the arse; he's head is also filled with nothing but rocks and Alice. Even Alice seems to be more tolerable and less aggravating than Gavin. One of the reasons why I rated it so low was because of the rape scene. Maybe it's just me, though I do not think that this has anything to do with being a prude but resorting to rape isn't the way to start a relationship. It's just appalling.I'm sorry to say but this is the one book that I would not recommend. ( )

Ugh ... simply ... ugh. There is no excuse for this book. The leading male, Gavin, is a selfish and abusive jerk who basically rapes the heroine, Judith. And, sickly and sadly, she loves him and pines for him anyway. I realize this is an older book, written before strong, independent heroines took over the romance scene. Still, I remember reading this book back when it was relatively new, and I thought it was horrible then. I can only imagine what my reaction would be now. Even if you like other books my Jude Deveraux, do not read this one. ( )

The first in the Velvet series by Jude Deveraux, this one follows Gavin, the oldest of four brothers (the Montgomerys) as he gets married to a woman named Judith and has to deal with his former lover's jealousy.

It's really several stories in one, not one continuous story, much like Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series. There are several plotlines, each building to a climax and ending to make way for the next.

The interesting parts of the story mostly have to do with the interactions between Judith and Gavin's brothers; the brothers definitely seem the most fleshed-out part of the story (to some extent, even moreso than Gavin himself). You could definitely tell she had the idea in mind to write a book for each of them, because they're strongly-developed characters in their own right.

Deveraux has a tendency to go full-tilt for the detail in her books; as the narrator of one of her later books (Remembrance) says, romance novelists have to do a ton of research because their fans will never let them hear the end of it if they get a detail wrong. I think we spend a little too much time on descriptions of clothes, but I freely admit that I'm not the most representative of women -- maybe a lot of other women *want* that sort of detail.

While this book contains some of the traditional romance novel tropes of the late '70s and early '80s (it was apparently first published in 1981), such as the classic "hero has to rape the heroine to prove his virility to the audience", there's a sense that the author's not tremendously comfortable with it (as opposed to many other tropes that she *is* comfortable with, such as hyper-romantic language and make-up-break-up super-jealousy), but for those who are avoiding stories in which the hero rapes the heroine and then she discovers she has a passionate love for him (and sex with him), this is one to leave on the shelf. ( )

From BackCover:
ALL OF ENGLAND REJOICED ON HER WEDDING DAY, BUT JUDITH VOWED
THAT HER HUSBAND WOULD GET ONLY WHAT HE TOOK FROM HER!

At the flower-bedecked altar, the first touch of their hands ignited an all-consuming passion. The tall, broad-shouldered Gavin Montgomery looked deep into her golden eyes, stroked her rich auburn hair, and burned with desire for her ... but his heart had been pledged to another.

Humiliated and alone in a strange castle, Judith resolved to hate this husband who took her body, but rejected her love ...never admitting her fear of losing him--even after she faced Gavin's icy, blonde mistress, who schemed to keep the handsome knight by any means, even murder.

But destiny held another fate for Judith than the cold and loveless one she had chosen -- a fate as rich in rapture as their wedding had foretold long before ... a fate that would keep at last... THE VELVET PROMISE ( )