Gentle Warrior

Gentle Warrior was Julie Garwood's first published romance from way back in 1985, and although I mostly enjoyed it, I would have to say that it showed some of her greenness as a writer. There are many of the trademark Garwood elements here such as a temperamental alpha hero who has a gentler side; a feisty, independent heroine; lots of spirited, humorous banter between the pair; and love scenes that were pretty steamy for the time period in which they were penned. However, the book is written in a style in which the points-of-view (POV) sometimes slip back and forth between various characters every few paragraphs within the same scene rather than there being longer passages in one person's POV and then having a scene break before show more switching to another character. I'm not sure if this is just an older style of writing that was more common in the 1980's or one of the signs of the author's inexperience, but for me, it was a little confusing and made it more difficult to get inside each character's head. In my opinion, it also gave the narrative a more passive tone that had a telling rather than showing feel to it. Additionally, there wasn't quite enough details in any area of the book to fully satisfy me.

As I mentioned, Geoffrey and Elizabeth are the typical Julie Garwood character stereotypes. Geoffrey is an intense, stubborn alpha warrior with a hot temper, but in the bedroom is usually quite gentle. Elizabeth is a brave and fiercely independent young woman who was taught more masculine pursuits such as hunting and riding by a father who longed for a son and didn't get one until later in life. Even though she isn't very good at more feminine things such as sewing and household maintenance, Elizabeth still had a tender side which made her more relatable to me. She witnessed her entire family, with the exception of her little brother, be massacred by greedy men who wanted her father's land, and is now hell-bent on seeking vengeance against them. Needless to say, Geoffrey and Elizabeth have a clash of both personalities and wills as they try to create a lasting, affectionate marriage. The moments where they are butting heads while trying to “teach” each other how to be a proper spouse, when each of them has a completely different idea of what that means, were quite funny. In fact, I would have to say that the largest part of this book was about them learning to compromise and come to terms with the other's inherent personality traits. Geoffrey could be rather arrogant at times which occasionally grated, but sometimes could lead to something endearing. I loved the scene in which he tells Elizabeth, “You are mine,” and she says it right back to him. I didn't feel that the hero and heroine had as much depth as they could have, but overall, they were both pretty likable.

The one thing about the book that wasn't quite my cup of tea is that it is written more in the bodice-ripper style of the 1970's and 80's. While Geoffrey isn't exactly abusive like some heroes of that era in romance, he can get very intense and a couple of times he shook Elizabeth or pulled her hair in a way that was more than just a playful tug when he was angry. I'll allow though that on one of those occasions she had just confessed to doing something disobedient (although she had thought better of the idea and didn't fully go through with it), and then had followed that up with an act that scared the living daylights out of him even though it had a good outcome. The story simply had a healthy dose of a woman's subservient position to her husband which would seriously raise feminist hackles, but at the same time, it wasn't nearly as bad as some other bodice-ripper romances or the reality for women in the Middle Ages. So, overall, I guess I would say that it had a pretty good balance even if that part bugged me just a little bit.

Gentle Warrior had a few significant secondary characters that helped liven things up, mainly Geoffrey's gruff vassal and second in command, Roger, and Elizabeth's precocious little brother, Thomas, and grandfather, Elslow. I really enjoyed the easy relationship that Elizabeth had with Elslow and how he is the voice of reason for both her and her husband when they are being too stubborn. The romance in the book was good, but not quite as strong as I've read in other novels. I think I simply have a preference for the relationship to solidify between the hero and heroine before they marry, or if for some reason a quick marriage is necessary, that they perhaps wait to consummate it. This way there is a slower build of sexual tension. In this story, everything happens right up front, leaving only their journey to figuring out that they have fallen in love somewhere along the way. All in all, Gentle Warrior was a pretty simple, uncomplicated romance (even the bad guys were dispatched with little fanfare which was somewhat disappointing), but in spite of its weaknesses managed to elicit enjoyment from me. I think it just simply falls into the category of a sweet, feel-good story that makes a nice comfort read. show less

Elizabeth is an irritating heroine and even by the end of the book you don't feel like you know her enough. Geoffrey is too hard, too strict, too traditional, and too awkward a hero. The story is weak and the two characters lack chemistry. The love scenes make me cringe. ("Let me drink your nectar."???) It's a mediocre read and does nothing to set the book apart from others in the genre. Considering Ms. Garwood's talents, this book falls short. Not a must-read, even for Garwood fans.

One thing I enjoy is reading an author's work in order written and watching how the author develops over time. In this case, I'd already read some of Julie Garwood's later work, so reading this first novel of hers was surprising. You can certainly see the weaknesses of a beginning writer. The story is indicative of the bodice-ripper variety of the times it was written in, and yet you can see the author's attempts to make it more. Although this is a cute love story with all the trappings that a romantic is looking for, it lacks cohesion. I did enjoy the tiny bits of humor that popped up now and then...there could have been more of them, but on the whole, I would love to see this story developed more.

It's all about an alpha male warrior show more overlord who is determined, but can't quite manage his new feisty virgin bride, who is just as determined to 'help' him with his duties. There interactions stumble along, but they make it despite coming from different mindsets.

Enjoy the story but don't look to deeply and don't give up on Julie Garwood. She really does get better as she settles into her craft. show less

This is my second Garwood romance read in less than a week. This is unheard of for me... I very, very rarely read romance, but as I'm participating in a blog activity with a friend, I'm going for it and reading 5 of them this month.

I read this one in place of a different one that my friend had sent me, because that one was about rippling abs in kilts and the Garwood I just read featured the same theme... sort of. So I went for something a little different and went for Feudal England over Scotland.

Other than those differences though, there was a LOT that was similar in this book. Having read the newer of the two, The Bride, first (although I didn't know it at the time), this book felt a bit shallow. Neither one was really plumbing the show more depths of humanity, although they certainly went for SOME sort of depth-plumbing, ha ha ha. The characters here didn't really have the same spark that they had in The Bride, and after finishing the book and thinking back on them both, I can really see the difference and improvement in the writing and characterizations in just the four years that separated these.

Elizabeth is very, very much like Jamie from The Bride. Both are spirited, skilled in ways that women usually weren't way back then, such as hunting and use of weaponry and defense. They both have problems with authority, both have knowledge of healing, both caretakers of their family, both beloved youngest daughters, etc. I could go on. But in truth, Jamie just had something MORE. I didn't really understand a lot of Elizabeth's reasoning and logic or her actions. She just seemed contradictory to me. But they were very similar in exterior facets... probably their most striking similarity is the fact that they are both innate sex-goddesses. Their first time brings out the cougar in them both, which is just unrealistic. Maybe Garwood is a few years past her first time at the rodeo, or maybe she's just really enthusiastically romantic, but let me clarify: It hurts. Virginal women don't go from "OMG WHAT THE HELL DID YOU STICK IN THERE?! A BASEBALL BAT? GET IT OUT! GET IT OUT!" to "I know! Let's see if we can get a table leg in too, dear. That'll be fun!" in the span of 5 minutes. Yet both of these girls did. Like I said, unrealistic.

More similarities abound in the male side of the relationship. Big, hulking menfolk, who are just gentle giants and don't realize that they love their little wifey until they almost lose her 567,118 times because she's such a little uncontrollable firecracker. These men have no subtlety when it comes to the horizontal mambo. True, they aren't just "Wham, Bam, Thank You, Ma'am" guys, they each make sure that she gets hers too, but the actual deed consists of much whamming and much bamming. Which is fine, but again... virgins and the recently deflowered don't like this tactic in real life.

One thing that the guys do have going for them in the sexy-time realm is their willingness and enthusiasm to please. This book had quite a few trips downtown, and while that sounds fun, it was actually quite a bit like a paint by number... 1-brown: play with boobies, 2-beige: tongue action on boobies, 3-off white: kisses down the belly, 4-green: circle navel with tongue, 5-blue: VICTORY!
(That picture makes a puppy frolicking in the grass under a blue sky.)

These complaints don't mean that I didn't enjoy the story... I did for the most part, and there was one part that really tugged at my heart, so despite the predictability of the story and the characters and the sex, I still liked it. I can't say that I would really recommend it, because I'm sure that there is better out there in this type, but it's not terrible.

Well, except for when Garwood refers to Elizabeth's mare as "him". I cringed a bit at that, I admit. show less

This is the story about Elizabeth and Geoffrey. He is an English warrior, a favorite of William the Conqueror. I can't say I liked Geoffrey. He was domineering, autocratic and had almost no sense of humor. For a 27 year old, he acted like he was over 50. Good looking in that tall, dark and handsome warrior kind of way, he had an appeal to him, but he had to dominate over everything (yes, yes, I understand he's an overlord and this is feudal England). It got old really fast.

http://ktleyed.blogspot.com/2009/01/gentle-warrior-by-julie-garwood.html

I think so far that I like her Scottish medievals better, but this was still a good read. Considering that I think this is her first book and what I’ve heard of some other old school romances, this still far surpasses others.

I love her For The Roses series and some of the other books but this one was too predictable in places and choppy in others.