A Memory Of Love

Cover

Title A Memory Of Love

Author Bertrice Small

ISBN 0-345-43434-X

Publisher Ballantine Books

Category Romance

Shira's Rating

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What It's About

The central character in this story is Rhonwyn, the daughter of Llewellyn ap Gruffyd, the prince of Wales, in the 13th century. Like many a young noblewoman, she was betrothed into an arranged marriage in order to satisfy her father's political agenda. And like most young women in that situation, she tried hard to make the best of it. It wasn't easy, but she coped admirably.

When Rhonwyn's husband joined the English army on a Crusade, Rhonwyn decided to accompany him. After all, the queen was going on Crusade, so why shouldn't a loyal noblewoman? They eventually arrived at the Crusader encampment in Carthage (along the northern coast of Tunisia). It was while they were there that the story takes on a new twist. I won't give away the rest of the plot from here. Suffice it to say that an important part of the story is set in this section of North Africa.

Like most romance novels, this book definitely contains some explicit sex scenes. Although they didn't bother me, readers who prefer books to be less, um, lusty probably wouldn't appreciate this one.

Its Good Points

Bertrice Small clearly did extensive research when preparing this book. Although I certainly would not encourage anyone to think of a romance novel as being a legitimate source of historical or cultural information, I nonetheless was impressed at the overall use of historical detail in this book. I'm not an expert on the 13th-century politics between Wales and England, but it rang true.

Rhonwyn is certainly not your typical dutiful nobleman's daughter. Dutiful, yes. Typical, no! The fireworks between Rhonwyn and her father were entertaining throughout the book.

On The Negative Side....

I found the beginning of this book to be a bit dull. In fact, I was a bit bored until about Chapter 13 (out of 18) or so. Up until then, too much of the plot seemed predictable. Fortunately, the last several chapters started to pick up the pace, and it ended much better than it began.

Parts of the book seemed too far-fetched. For example, the fact that a prince would keep his mistress in a hut so remote that her older child had reached the age of five without ever seeing another human being other than her parents and younger brother seemed hard to swallow. It may have offered an opportunity for making Rhonwyn's character a rather unique young woman, but I kept finding myself thinking, "Yeah, right. Like that would happen!"

In Conclusion

I felt this book was weaker than some of the others that Bertrice Small has written. I really didn't warm to any of the characters, even Rhonwyn, until late in the story. The plot seemed too predictable.

If you're the kind of person who enjoys historical romance novels, particularly ones with a hefty dose of passionate sex scenes, then you'll probably like this book very much. However, if you've never appreciated romance novels, or if you are squeamish about books with lots of explicit sex, this is not the right book for you.

So far as I know, this book is not a sequel to any other. The plot stands on its own, and is not cluttered with references to characters from other books. Also, so far as I know, no sequel has been written for this book. (It was published in July, 2000.)

The harem scenes were minimal. There were some insight into the politics and dangers of being in a harem, but really there wasn't very much of it. I felt like the view of the Orient depicted in this book was rather generic--there was nothing distinctive to give me the feeling this story was taking place in Tunisia as opposed to anywhere else in the Mediterranean region other than mentions of the city of Carthage. (In contrast, another of Small's books called The Kadin was partly set in an Ottoman harem, and it was sprinkled with information on what the Turkish harems of that era were like.)

If you're generally a fan of romance novels and you particularly relish ones with part of the plot unfolding in the land of the Crusades, then this book is probably worth a look. It will teach you a little about that era in history. But if you generally don't care for romance novels, this one probably isn't a strong enough book to make it worth taking a chance on it.