Tender Torment

by Alicia Meadowes

Historical romance novel.

Genres: Historical Romance, Regency, Marriage Of Convenience, Romance, Historical, British Literature

303 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 1980

Reviews

[Preeti ♥︎ Her Bookshelves · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nothing tender, all torment.
This one is a bodice ripper - not genre wise but literally so.
Despite all the uncomfortable and shocking bits, and even the dizzying amount of push-pull, I read this one in one go.
The traditional HR writers can really bring the era alive and I enjoyed her descriptions of Portugal/Lisbon later on in the book. We often get a camp follower h but I think this - the h stationing in Lisbon - was more realistic.
Taking off a star for the triggery bits. But definitely a 3.5*.

The H -
I've never met another H who's constantly this angry, abrasive, ill-mannered, demeaning and frankly abusive. Unrelentingly so.
He's a 'woman-hater' and the term describes him well.
He believes in violence and dominance - emotional, physical and sexual. Whether it's the battlefield, the drawing room or his bedroom, it's his way or the highway. And he doesn't even puts up a show of being gentlemanly in any sphere of life.
Maybe only to his aged retainers and once or twice to his elderly grandmother.

Imagine a guy who thinks like this ---
“He’d like to slap her lovely face just to see if that innocent look were real or feigned.
And described as ---
'Very proud and very aloof ... heartless insensitivity ... He didn’t care much for society ... Why was he so cruel and unpredictable? ... hard nature whose consuming interest was the pursuit of war...
A certain dark strain in his nature sought violence and conflict.'

The newly elevated earl with floundering estates who has to marry a cit's daughter.
But no, he isn't grateful. We've read this before but this H's behavior is ott shocking.
Extreme misogyny is compounded by extreme snobbery.
The poor h bears the brunt right from the day they meet. Her father refuses to let her get out of the betrothal. Actually the H deserved her younger and truly crude sister but even he has an innate cunning that makes him choose the older sister. Her not-so-tender torment begins on the wedding night.
The book is full of triggers as far as rape/non-con is concerned. Followed by sneering insults during the day. If the h gets a little hopeful with slight melting on his part, he soon reverts to form. The h bears in a graceful way, or as pragmatically and gracefully as anyone can, a brutish husband and an inescapable situation.
'She was tempted to follow him and denounce his behavior except it would serve little purpose. Either he would laugh at her suspicions and deny them or abuse her and admit it. In either case, she would be humiliated and it would change nothing, because he would do exactly as he pleased without a thought for her feelings in the matter.'

Other triggers?
Slaps, even a lashing with a horse whip.
Sex with ow after their engagement - a ONS with a camp follower who gets booted out unceremoniously the next morning.
There are other wannabe ow - old and new ones - but to give him credit he never looks at anyone else after their wedding - maybe because he hates them all equally.
A punishing kiss to his unmanageable SIL and '(for) almost a full minute he shook her violently, and Meg gasped from shock and fright.' The silly girl certainly needed a firm hand but this truly shook me along with her. Although, I can accept that the kiss wasn't at all due to any attraction on his part and that such bizarre conduct is quite par for the course for this H. Shouldn't find it funny but I did. The sister finally sobers up, and now pities rather than envies her older sister who stole 'her earl'.
His lust for war and violence is another aberration. He goes from being a Colonel to a General in the story. In the beginning, he's just returned from India and is facing an enquiry for use of undue force and violence. He defends and advocates harsh treatment for rebels (and maybe locals) that gets him bad press. In the present, he actively pursues for a command in the summer campaign on the peninsula. He goes to Spain after the engagement and to Portugal after the wedding.

Still later ---
The H's cruelties - deliberate and inadvertent - continue for months.
When he's to leave for Spain, he doesn't even inform her and she rushes back from a party when his grandmother informs her about it, to find him packed and read to leave without a goodbye. By now, she loves him and his neglect really hurts her.
She follows him to Spain. We are to believe that he loves her now but his deep seated distrust of women makes him continue with his asshattety which albeit indirectly, almost kills the h.
He finally accepts his mistakes and owns them. But now she's not ready to forgive him.
But this is the fag end and the author brings in one last hurrah from an old enemy (and vamp) to wrap up the story - after a small rescue campaign, military style.

Tender Torment?
Some rare chinks/moments of vulnerability the H displays.
'And inscribed in the margin were lines in the bold script of her husband’s writing:
"The marble heart was pierced by
A white rose and there
Such tender torment abides—"'

The source of all this psycho-damage? Of course, his MOTHER - and also the not so sterling conduct of few other women in his life.
I know of evil parents but this lady's hatred is too putrid and unexplained (even after the explainings). I can accept that all that she did, did damage his psyche but he was also his own unique dickhead self.
Another thing - I don't think it's told when or if she has died.

*Have done some ETAs.

[Love love · Rating 4 out of 5]

I haven't enjoyed a book as much as I did this one in a very long time. It's not a book for everyone,the H in this story is VERY distrustful of ALL women (not a new story line and of course it had to do with his mother) and he is violent to the h (who had to marry who her dad chose,he wanted her to marry one of the nobility ....again nothing new as storylines go.) but I really enjoyed it. =D

[Mermarie · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a story about a hero..one who was so bad and vicious, that such badness smashed flat any hopeful chances of the reader to sympathize, because his own self-pity surpassed what ray of hope you could muster. And NO, not a Thomas Eden sort of self-pity, but a full-fledged Little Engine That Couldn't. Even from the grave, his mommy beat him down in everyday life, to the point where all women manifested into her. Sometimes, oftentimes, that can be harnessed into a great sculpting of hero lick-worthy stature, but in this instant, it wasn't. He was stuck in the same prepubescent runt rut, instead of the childhood trauma embittering him. HE was the bigger victim in all angles of the story.



I'm going to make this brief and to the point because the historical lollygagging had wrapped around the hero due to his ranking in the British military. It held up to his reputation. Now, I realize the hero's guts are prolly splattered under some feminist campaign bus-tires, and his acts were likely ones that set the Regency sterilized readers' into full weenie roast mode, but what disappointed me MORE than his cloak & mustache dramatic flares was that he was so freakin' whiny & Mommy Didn't Love Me, to the extent where I wanted to fire hose him down from a milk truck, was the fact that his BADNESS did not transcend beyond the stomping piss-fits and into a BADNESS I could love in my secret thoughts, if ya feel me.



He had all of the backhistory and military status that could have proved quite delicious, albeit--his I HAS NO FEELZ SNIFFLE SNIFFLE...granny you know I am inhuman and incapable of emotions! STOMP STOMP SLAM drivel had me wishin' he had been stampeded down in Run of the Bulls. The peppered assortment of sneers, scolds, glares and other evul incarnated gestures overpowered the sincerity that would have been possible to view him as a realistic hero; where they're capable of goodness as well as terrible acts.

An agenda of adjectives cannot convince me of his tortured past and mixed emotions; the hero lacked a vitality to prove himself worthy, or unworthy of anything, except an easy HEA. Did he change? Yes, because the transitions were instant and written over yer forehead as the words are tallied in your mind. I guess I much rather the apologism be left unsaid and actions themselves speak when the characters have said far too much themselves already.

This hero would give old Contemporary Harley heroes a run for their money, for definite. If you like those types of heroes, he'll be a suitable Historical wetdream for your fancy.

[Untamed Rebel · Rating 1 out of 5]

Most awful book I’ve read in a long time. What did this not have - non-existent romance between H and h, cheating while “betrothed” with some random whore, many scenes of domestic violence including slapping, choking his wife out and whipping her with a cane causing welts on her shoulder! And this all because she dares to voice her opinions, especially after being so despicably spoken to by the H.

This book truly was horrendous also when it came to the romance, mainly because there never was one. The author portrayed the H as being so severely mistrustful and hateful towards all women (except his grandmother, which was meant to show his soft side?) that any and all interactions with the h were stilted and depressing. It also meant no real relationship between them could develop and when he said ‘l love you’ at the end it sounded so contrived, fake and literally came out of nowhere. Even the loving relationship between secondary characters Edward and Ann (who are married) was written more to tell than to show and was very one-dimensional. The author very clearly struggles to portray her characters’ emotions on paper.

And in typical fashion the h was an absolute doormat forgiving the H at every turn, somehow managing to see a “soft and loving” side to the H when even I as the reader couldn’t! And even when given the chance by the H to leave their marriage she still stays! The author clearly needs to work on her MCs and put a little more effort in character development so that her books don’t read as stilted, contrived and just plain boring.

[Lyuda · Rating 1 out of 5]

Awful story! I normally enjoy marriage of convenience stories but this one was not what I expected at all. The hero (if you can call him this) was a terrible brute with vile temper and no regards for his actions. His whole woman hater persona was stemmed from a treatment he received in the hands of his deceased mother. It affected the hero so much that he couldn't trust or respect any woman. Enters our heroine who was born into to trade but was convinced by her father(al bet with no good explanation ) on marrying the brute. What follows is the account of their awful marriage where our "hero" repeatedly rapes and attacks his poor wife. I wanted to be done with this book many times but some part of me wanted to see how the author redeemed the hero. Well it did not happened. I did not buy his remorse and/or groveling.

[Rika · Rating 2 out of 5]

the story had good plot well written however wasn't expressed well enough. It could have gotten the reader in a swirl of various deep emotions by getting deeper into the characters emotional states and feelings however it was very briefly expressed and was rather shallow to make any impact on me as a reader.

[Jaimey · Rating 4 out of 5]

A little disturbing at times; the hero is an extreme woman-hater. The heroine deals rather well, I think. Overall, it was pretty good. This is one of those regencies that stuck with me as emotionally draining. :o)

[Krystal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love this book :)

[Heshckhjk · Rating 1 out of 5]

Promising premise but it was just all over the place for me 🤷‍♀️

[Giulia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Im a sucker for angst, but this just didnt deliver

things were thrown around for shock, with no believable reaction or follow up from the characters
no groveling at all
ludicrous reconciliation
heroine making excuses and being a doormat for the entirety of the book
all the potential went nowhere.....a pity

[Su · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad but... from here on I second Rika`s comments.

[Lori Jordan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good

[Donnalee · Rating 2 out of 5]

Weird potboiler with lots of abuse and sexism, BUT political insight--written by Linda Burak and Joan Zeig in 1980

[Juno · Rating 4 out of 5]

目前见过最渣的romance男主，但文字自有魅力让我读完。

[Susan · Rating 1 out of 5]

They’d kiss, she’d melt, they’d have sex and then he’d roll over and sleep.

The characters lost their personality and became passive quickly. On one page the Hero was a woman-hating, cold, ruthless man and on the next he became a cliché, cheesy romantic. The parts where the main characters were together were rare, instead the book took up most of its pages with backstory and other character's gossip.

I ended up skipping pages.

[Nabanita Dey · Rating 1 out of 5]

If it is tender torment then what is brutal torment..I am thinking of writer mindset when she written such story and most pathetic heroine ever seen ...brutalised her raped her bitten her chocked her but still she didn’t have any reaction or better judgment...sad very sad for a lady writer to create such a pathetic character like her. First time for a book I didn’t want happy ending. Last but not the least unnecessarily dragged the story line.

[Αἰκατερίνη · Rating 2 out of 5]

Should have known better based on the synopsis. He is emotionally and physically abusive most of the book ... but it is okay because he is "tortured". The side "adventure"/subplot in the end seemed like of random.