Stormswift
by Madeleine Brent
(Heavily-Edited) Blurb:
The year is 1897. Deep in the mountain wilderness of the Hindu Kush, a 17-year-old English girl is brought to the primitive tribal kingdom of Shul, where she lives the life of a slave. After two long years, she has the chance to escape back to her home in England, where she believes she will step back into her life as Jemimah Lawley and finally inherit her parents' wealth and luxurious home. The hazardous journey takes her across Afghanistan with a man who hates her. Little does she know that even more difficulties await her in England. Is she truly Jemimah Lawley, or is she suffering from a delusion caused by her degrading ordeal as Lalla of Shul? Soon she is plunged into a new world, where she finds there are others who, like herself, are perhaps not what they seem to be. Life in England brings her strange adventures and a touching friendship, but also the heartbreak of love without hope.
My Reaction:
So far, nothing else of Madeleine Brent's has lived up to my memory of Moonraker's Bride! Stormswift is a pretty good read, but it's not a favorite. At first, I felt it was going to be very similar to the last MB book I read, Golden Urchin, but then the story veers... I prefer Golden Urchin, though that had flaws, too... I will say this-- for a book that is very predictable in many ways, it still surprised me a few times! I didn't see some of it coming, perhaps because so much happens in this novel that it's impossible to predict everything. Stormswift did a good job of holding my interest. I was entertained more often than not, but some things about this book did annoy me. If you're not afraid of spoilers, read on.
Hey, did you catch that?
SPOILERS to follow!
(As well as spoilers for Golden Urchin... and Rebecca!)
Stop reading now to avoid
BIG,
BAD,
INFURIATING
SPOILERS!
I had problems with the hero in Golden Urchin. For much of the book, he gave the heroine the hot/cold treatment and was frequently brusque with her as a result of his self-disgust. He was angry with himself for being attracted to her while his beloved wife was slowly wasting away. It wasn't fun to read. Not my taste for a romance, at all.
So when this book came along with a strong-and-silent hero figure-- Casper, the man who is Jemimah's unwilling rescuer-- and he's surly to her, but no-one else-- and then we eventually learn he is already married-- I assumed we were in for more of the same. Another Golden Urchin-style, rather disappointing romance.
This seems even more likely when we are told how amazing his wife, Melanie, is-- just like the tragic first wife in Golden Urchin. I'll admit, I was disgusted with Melanie long before we were supposed to be! She's soooo beautiful that men can't drag their eyes off of her, but somehow (because she seems so pure-hearted?) none of the wives of those men are resentful (as they usually would be, so the author annoyingly informs us-- because women are so petty that way, you know-- not like men, who are perfectly happy when other, more handsome, wealthy, or witty men attract the breathless attention of every woman in the vicinity). No, women love Melanie, too. She's just so, so, SO good, no-one can help but love her. She's just that special! BLEURGH.
...Anyway, at some point you start to think that maybe Melanie is based on "Rebecca" from... Rebecca. And if you think that, you're right. She is (complete with the hideaway). She's not pure. Well, unless I interrupted before you could finish saying "pure evil". She's wicked and rotten to the core, and poor Casper is tethered to a monster he can't escape, despite his love for Jemimah. (You're shocked, right?)
Now, I still don't like the idea of "second-hand goods" in a romance of this kind. Something in the nebulous and/or distant past? Okay, fine, but please don't make the heroine meet, know, and even love the first wife/girlfriend. I just don't want to read about that in a romance. (It's depressing. It's too close to real life. It's not remotely "romantic", in my opinion. I just don't LIKE it, okay? I'm a horrible person who doesn't find romantic escapism in the thought of the heroine selflessly picking up the pieces after a man's wife has died under tragic circumstances. Shame on me, I guess. Whatever. It's not romance-novel-y enough for me.)
...But. When the first wife is a "bitch-goddess" (hey, just quoting the book), I don't mind it quite as much. Still not thrilled with the situation, but at least it's not a case of, "Oh, his first wife was a beautiful saint on Earth; how can he ever stoop to marry humble little me after having loved someone like her? But if he doesn't mind me too much, I'll happily devote my whole life to making him comfortable! Even the stale, musty crumbs of his love would be a veritable feast!" !!YUCK!!
At this point, I was just interested to see how the author would do away with Melanie so that Casper could be free to marry Jemimah. It helped that Casper had finally started talking to Jemimah in complete sentences, so you could at least begin to form him as a character in your mind. (Speaking of settling for crumbs! "Thank you, kind author, for sparing the time to give us lowly readers a snippet of conversation between the apparent hero and heroine! You are too, too good to us, O Genius of the Pen!")
However, the author had something else in mind. Jemimah won't end up with the attractive spy (who is also a brainy archaeologist!). Oh, no. Instead, she realizes she's in love with her rather goofy friend, the Punch and Judy man (who's actually a very wealthy member of the nobility who has already had more adventures than you can shake a stick at).
~exasperated sigh~
I mean, Lord Henry is okay, and under other circumstances I wouldn't have a problem with him as a romantic lead. But when we first meet him, he's already happily shacking up with someone else! In fact, his gypsy girlfriend is also a good friend of Jemimah's, until she's whisked out of the tale. I was expecting her to return to the book, eventually. I expected/wanted her to end up with Lord Henry.
To make things worse, the author kills off poor Casper! (You see it coming from a mile away, but it's still sad and infuriating when it actually happens.) And then, just pages later-- though I believe months have passed, in the story-- Henry proposes to Jemimah, and we're supposed to get all misty-eyed about it. I was just frustrated. I didn't care what happened, at that point. Might as well have just stopped reading, really. Yeah, sure, just go off and have fun floating down the Mississippi, I guess, but it's not a happily ever after I can get all that excited about!
I don't know... I didn't love the idea of Casper, but then just when I was coming around to it, MB snatched him away and gave us this other, even less attractive option, after I'd already decided he was merely Friend Material. (And at least Casper never called Jemimah "Mim", which always makes me think of "Mad Madam Mim" from The Sword in the Stone!)
I guess I like my romances to be even more predictable than this one was! I need to know which way to look and what to expect. Give me time to form an attachment to the characters as a couple. Dialogue and other interactions between the characters do wonders, but in this case, the interaction between Henry and Jemimah was just friendly talk. It didn't make me want to see them together as a couple. And apparently I really dislike this trope of "partner-swapping" in romances.
Also, "Stormswift" is a poor name for this novel. I get why MB chose it; it sounds very romantic and atmospheric and cool, but it/she really isn't important enough in the story to deserve to be the title, in my view. It's a choice that prioritizes style over substance.
