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Shadows of the Heart
From the lush plantations of New Orleans to the brawling Chinatown waterfront and the gilded mystery of San Francisco, handsome, reckless Cage Norwood stormed women's hearts and claimed their souls...
LILLITH: Her marriage to Cage was bewitching, scandalous, fatal, yet such was Cage's passion that he built the magnificent Cage's Folly — a mansion that was hers alone, even in death.
OCTAVIA: Born of her mother's illicit pleasures, she might be Cage's daughter, yet still she burned for his kiss, his embrace.
ADELAIDE: She clung to her dream of love though all the world
defiled it, and flew to Cage's arms like a moth to a flame — only to find that the flame was Lillith...and Octavia...and an unseen tormentor who reached out to her from the past.
LILLITH: Her marriage to Cage was bewitching, scandalous, fatal, yet such was Cage's passion that he built the magnificent Cage's Folly — a mansion that was hers alone, even in death.
OCTAVIA: Born of her mother's illicit pleasures, she might be Cage's daughter, yet still she burned for his kiss, his embrace.
ADELAIDE: She clung to her dream of love though all the world
defiled it, and flew to Cage's arms like a moth to a flame — only to find that the flame was Lillith...and Octavia...and an unseen tormentor who reached out to her from the past.
- GenresGothic
400 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published June 1, 1980
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
June 10, 2011
2014 EDIT: Looking back, I think I was too hard on this book. My 3.5 star rating stands, but I've kept it on my shelf regardless of the flaws. My appreciation of old-skool romance has deepened since reading this one, so I'm (slightly) revising my original review.
*clears throat*
Sadly, the blurb is NOT accurate. Octavia & Cage's relationship is nothing incestuous -- it's just a stepfather & stepdaughter, & there's absolutely NO implication of such a desire on her part. (Honestly, I was a bit disappointed. :P) Another misrepresentation (though less dramatic) is the New Orleans plantation hook; the plantations are Virginian, & New Orleans plays very little part except as a touchpoint between Adelaide & her second love interest.
So what's the real plot? The book opens with a teenaged Adelaide (who narrates first-person) & her witnessing a duel between Cage & a local plantation owner. Cage's father exiles him to New Orleans as punishment, & Adelaide promptly follows him, making a risky (if abbreviated) journey to fling herself at his feet & beg her love be returned. But Cage, though he might be a weak-livered poop, isn't a pedo; he promptly packs her back home in the care of his friend Jay Cooke, who is intrigued by Adelaide's passionate nature. Such begins a 10+ year obsession on Cooke's part, as he doggedly pursues Adelaide's affections even when she grows into a 20-something woman & marries a older plantation owner.
This marriage is happy, if not exciting -- until her husband is killed at Gettysburg. We are treated to the horrors of the Civil War (again, quite abbreviated) & Cage returns to Virginia after his own father is killed. Now Cage wants to marry Adelaide, & her childhood obsession is still going strong. She follows Cage to San Francisco, where they reside in Cage's Folly -- a creeptastic mansion with grotesque cupids & mirrors lining the bedrooms, plus the broody stepdaughter Octavia & a mysterious quadroon housekeeper. From here the story reverts into full-on Gothic Mode. (Those details are unnecessary; if you read enough of that ilk, they're easy to imagine.)
I love bodice rippers that touch upon the gothic. Though it's not a perfect melding of the two, this does feature an overlap. It's a story of obsessions: Cage's obsession with Lillith, the housekeeper's obsession with Octavia, Lillith's obsession with her ugly cupid-strewn mansion, Cooke's obsession with Adelaide, & Adelaide's obsession with Cage. A more clearly defined genre might have made a tighter story with fewer time gaps & plot holes (e.g. more info about the random voodoo rites that the housekeeper was practicing), but Shadows makes up for its flaws in other ways -- the gothic bits are important to the story, & Adelaide's journey from childhood to womanhood is sympathetic, if repetitious. Despite her best efforts at remaining childishly ignorant of Cage's shortcomings (who does enjoy learning that the man they've idolized since forever is a gambling, womanizing lunkhead?), by the end of the book Adelaide knows she would rather have an adult love with the better hero.
At times the plot seemed to overflow its 400 pages. What with 10+ years of backstory & such intricate character motivations, it really needed another 50-100 pages to reach full potential. That said, I did enjoy it. The characters were rounded & the story hooked me early, so that counts for positive points. And if you're one of those readers who wish more rippers & gothics would crossbreed unholy love children (*raises hand*), this includes strong elements of both.
This book review has been provided by the No Book Left Behind Campaign! A Bodice Ripper Readers Anonymous group initiative to review the un-reviewed!**
**Okay, it's not pure bodice-ripper...but there was enough cross-over that it deserved the NBLB tag. :)
*clears throat*
Sadly, the blurb is NOT accurate. Octavia & Cage's relationship is nothing incestuous -- it's just a stepfather & stepdaughter, & there's absolutely NO implication of such a desire on her part. (Honestly, I was a bit disappointed. :P) Another misrepresentation (though less dramatic) is the New Orleans plantation hook; the plantations are Virginian, & New Orleans plays very little part except as a touchpoint between Adelaide & her second love interest.
So what's the real plot? The book opens with a teenaged Adelaide (who narrates first-person) & her witnessing a duel between Cage & a local plantation owner. Cage's father exiles him to New Orleans as punishment, & Adelaide promptly follows him, making a risky (if abbreviated) journey to fling herself at his feet & beg her love be returned. But Cage, though he might be a weak-livered poop, isn't a pedo; he promptly packs her back home in the care of his friend Jay Cooke, who is intrigued by Adelaide's passionate nature. Such begins a 10+ year obsession on Cooke's part, as he doggedly pursues Adelaide's affections even when she grows into a 20-something woman & marries a older plantation owner.
This marriage is happy, if not exciting -- until her husband is killed at Gettysburg. We are treated to the horrors of the Civil War (again, quite abbreviated) & Cage returns to Virginia after his own father is killed. Now Cage wants to marry Adelaide, & her childhood obsession is still going strong. She follows Cage to San Francisco, where they reside in Cage's Folly -- a creeptastic mansion with grotesque cupids & mirrors lining the bedrooms, plus the broody stepdaughter Octavia & a mysterious quadroon housekeeper. From here the story reverts into full-on Gothic Mode. (Those details are unnecessary; if you read enough of that ilk, they're easy to imagine.)
I love bodice rippers that touch upon the gothic. Though it's not a perfect melding of the two, this does feature an overlap. It's a story of obsessions: Cage's obsession with Lillith, the housekeeper's obsession with Octavia, Lillith's obsession with her ugly cupid-strewn mansion, Cooke's obsession with Adelaide, & Adelaide's obsession with Cage. A more clearly defined genre might have made a tighter story with fewer time gaps & plot holes (e.g. more info about the random voodoo rites that the housekeeper was practicing), but Shadows makes up for its flaws in other ways -- the gothic bits are important to the story, & Adelaide's journey from childhood to womanhood is sympathetic, if repetitious. Despite her best efforts at remaining childishly ignorant of Cage's shortcomings (who does enjoy learning that the man they've idolized since forever is a gambling, womanizing lunkhead?), by the end of the book Adelaide knows she would rather have an adult love with the better hero.
At times the plot seemed to overflow its 400 pages. What with 10+ years of backstory & such intricate character motivations, it really needed another 50-100 pages to reach full potential. That said, I did enjoy it. The characters were rounded & the story hooked me early, so that counts for positive points. And if you're one of those readers who wish more rippers & gothics would crossbreed unholy love children (*raises hand*), this includes strong elements of both.
This book review has been provided by the No Book Left Behind Campaign! A Bodice Ripper Readers Anonymous group initiative to review the un-reviewed!**
**Okay, it's not pure bodice-ripper...but there was enough cross-over that it deserved the NBLB tag. :)
October 16, 2018
Light gothic. Back blurb misleading, Octavia and Cage have father/daughter relationship (she is his step-daughter). Good characterization of Cage and Jay. Octavia got annoying with her obsession with Cage.
Fiona Harrowe/Florence Hurd is a gifted writer.
Fiona Harrowe/Florence Hurd is a gifted writer.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews