Bold Angel

By: Kat Martin

Narrated by: Lucy Rayner

Length: 14 hrs and 40 mins

Publisher's summary

They were enemies in a divided land.

Saxon beauty Caryn of Ivesham longed to escape the chill gray cloisters of the convent to which she'd fled - but not in marriage to the towering, feared Raolfe de Gere, the Norman knight they called Ral the Relentless. Even though he had once saved her from a fate worse than death, she could not forget he'd raised the grim battlements of Braxton Keep on her dead father's lands or that his men had dishonored her sister. If she wed him to bring peace to her people, he would have to lay siege to her bed.

Will their love conquer all - or destroy them both?

The darkly handsome warlord's blood coursed with desire for Caryn's burnished crimson lips, and his passion would not be denied. But in the wild ecstasy they shared, Ral feared more than his heart was in danger. Could his rebellious bride be a traitor deadlier than the wolves and brigands prowling deep in English forests?

©1994 Kat Martin (P)2016 Tantor

Critic reviews

"An excellent medieval romance...Readers will not only love this novel, but clamor for a sequel." ( Affaire de Coeur)

What a surprising book

I was not expecting such a great book but this was one of the best I have read in a while. I love the Norman and Saxon stories. This one was well written and narrated great.

Good but ..

Over all the story was good and the heroine had spunk.. BUT two rape scenes in a romance is too much..

Noble hero, idiot heroine

Unfortunately author of this book employs all the tricks of mediocre romance novels: big misunderstandings, marriage without consummation, virgin to vixen multiorgasmic but too dumb to live heroine. Most of the time I just wanted to reach out and slap her and it is not a good feeling......One of the reviewers mentioned that hero is acting paternal towards heroine, but it would have been impossible to act in any other way as she never thinks or uses her brains.... maybe she will improve but I can’t wait that long.

I stopped listening after chapter ten, when our plucky heroine did another good deed for her husband by revealing the location of the brigands to her husband’s arch enemy. I just couldn’t stand her, which is a shame because story seemed interesting and I kept hoping for it to improve but it didn’t.
But again, it’s just my opinion as I have low tolerance for idiotic heroines.

Sad.

This is not my first book by this author and I usually enjoy her tales. However, I admit that I did not care to go past Chapter 5 except to skim quickly this tired story to its' predictable end. I realize we can not apply today's mores to that time in history. Like much of history this was a brutal time, especially for the women, children, sick and elderly. However, I avoid most "enemies to lovers" of any time period especially if there is abuse, most certainly rape of women. It is not what I want to read about when I select a romance for some "mind candy". Although the male MC was not guilty of this particular sin, I still felt he acted more like her daddy than a lover. He was the all-knowing, powerful patriarchy while she was the weak, TSTL female. Yes, they had their supposedly redeemable HEA (the payoff for enduring the abuse) but I have enjoyed other novels of this period that do not seem to gratuitously wallow in perversion (such as Kathryn Le Veque's writings). I think it takes a wise and light hand when addressing these taboo topics.

Furthermore, I found the narration overly dramatic. The voices between gender were well differentiated but not between characters of the same sex. There was also an indefinable quality to the mood projected in her voice that I found irritating. The best way to put it was that she seemed cheerful no matter what she read, even when describing the bloody thighs and pumping hairy a**es in the mass raping of young maids. Ugh! At least try to sound sad and regretful in the past perverted use of our sisters (as I consider all women).

In conclusion, I do not like to leave negative reviews. I respect the power of the written word and the labor an author puts in their publications. Since I am a long time participant of online publications, I always read reviews before making an selection but did not pick up on the usual warnings given for this type of book. As a health care provider who has worked the ER and actually seen and treated the aftermath of rape and abuse it is the last thing I want to read about now that I am retired when written about in this manner. I don't consider a it "trigger" especially when it is handled with dignity and without gratuitous details. Since 1 out 3 women are sexually abused (and I suspect that is an underreported statistic), most of us already know about the cruelty of the details. Imaginative horror if not association with friends or relations provides the rest. At least reviewers can now be aware of what is not included in the synopsis and if this type of thing doesn't bother you, read ahead.

Couldn’t listen passed the 5th chapter

Oh I tried, the story was interesting and I’d love to see how it finished but her voice is like nails on a chalkboard. The men didn’t “talk” they yelled and the women all had a whiny high pitch squeal while talking. Horrible.