The Black Lyon

Jude Devereaux is a long-time (like smuggling The Heiress in my luggage to sleep away camp) guilty pleasure of mine. I recently decided to revisit the Montgomery Taggert saga in order since it's been decades since I read my favorites and well, I had to start with the first one, which I don't think I'd ever read before.

Oh my god. it has all the hallmarks of problematic 80s romance--a passive underaged heroine, rape, the hero BACKHANDS the heroine at some point and no, you can't redeem yourself from raping and hitting the heroine in my eyes. And then there's his wonderful behavior when he's being "nice"! Let's see: his eyes smolder with jealousy if the heroine is looked at by another man, he grabs her wrists to the point of pain when she show more jokes she might find someone else attractive. If one of his friends flirts with her she has to loudly insult the man before her husband erupts in a jealous rage. No thank you. I don't remember rape and abuse in the others in the series. Let's see if I remember wrong. show less

Jude Deveraux is an author I first read many years ago and while some of her books definitely do not age well I do think the Montgomery/Taggert saga books do continue to be basically enjoyable to read. I have always enjoyed the interactions her characters have had and the places she sets the story. The plot can be a bit thin but overall I think it's a good beach read.

I've read a few of Ms. Deveraux's books with mixed reactions, but I decided to try one more and picked this, one of her best-known, on Sarah MacLean's recommendation. I love Ms. MacLean's books, but I disliked The Black Lyon.
The characters are awful; Lyonene is an airhead who never grows up and constantly gets involved in bad situations after being told to do the opposite. Ranulf is rude and abusive but somehow is soft inside though he never really shows it. The plot is ridiculous, just one stupid scrap after another, usually because Lyonene is afraid to talk to her husband. To be fair, he does backhand her once, so her fear is justified.
I don't necessarily care much about the historical details, especially in an older bodice-ripper, show more but so much was wrong with the history. The rules of inheritance were completely wrong, and I almost lost it when Edward I thought it'd be funny to give a drunken Lyonene white wine instead of water to get her even more drunk. I should have DNF'd this book but it was so bad I had to keep reading to see what happened next. Anyway, it wasn't for me, and Ms. Deveraux's books are off my TBR list. show less

I read this because it is referenced frequently in Radway's study of romance-reading habits as one of the participants' favorite novels (and because it was reissued and sold in the grocery store). I was curious as to the character of a good romance from the early 80s, when Radway performed her study; and The Black Lyon had just been reissued.

It was terrible. I have been spoiled, apparently, by Mary Balogh, and my standards for the behavior of my romance-novel hero are far too high: I actually expect him not to be physically abusive! I can only imagine what the worst of the novels available to the study participants must have been like, since one of their greatest preferences was a gentle, nurturing hero...

The heroine, quite an admirable show more character in many ways, reminded me of Chaucer's Clerk's Griselda, suffering in endlessly creative ways in order to prove her fidelity to her husband, who is presented as a rather godlike figure but in fact must have been a sadistic numbskull. show less

It's easy to tell that this was written during the time period when it was expected that men would be extremely manly and significantly older than their blushing brides. But setting aside that somewhat dated, if historically accurate supposition, this is a sweet, somewhat suspenseful story of jealousy, suspected betrayal, love and ultimately trust.

This was my second attempt at reading this book. The first time, about 12 years ago, I thought it was very clumsy, long, and boring. I enjoyed it more the second time, I think mostly because my knowledge of the historical era it is set in has grown, but also because it has more story and less steamy parts. That is a way my reading tastes have changed in the last decade.
Overall, however, this is your average romance story. Misunderstandings abound, heroine is feisty, hero is a rogue who must be tamed, heroine is kidnapped and must be rescued by the hero, heroine is poor, hero is rich, etc. The clothing, activities and settings of the medieval era are well researched and well depicted in the story, so that is encouraging. Both villains show more made me want to puke, which I suppose means they were accurately portrayed. I guess I was just left with an overall 'ho-hum' feeling after reading this book. Wasn't great, didn't suck. show less

Basically a love at first sight story where doubts and mistrust end up pulling them apart. Ranulf has to overcome pains from the past so he can be the husband that Lyonene deserves. Lyonene is a lovely spirit from the start seeing the wonderful person behind the dark man everyone else saw. Ranulf makes a great transformation from such a rough man to a loving husband. This was a book where you never knew quite what was going to happen and I loved it. A really great Medieval romance from start to finish.