From the Bookshelf of Bodice Ripper Readers Anonymous…

Flame of Savannah

Maggie Lyons

Start date: September 21, 2014

Finish date: October 31, 2014

Discussion: Group Reads and Challenges

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Group Reads and Challenges

* Group Read - Dec '14/Jan '15 The Wildest Heart by Rosemary Rogers
By deleted member · 56 posts · 121 views

last updated Jan 03, 2015 04:19PM

* Extend that novel's Ending and/or give it a HEA
By Mermarie · 6 posts · 94 views

last updated Nov 21, 2013 01:37AM

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What Members Thought

Jan 20, 2013 Kit★ rated it liked it

Shelves: paperback, historical, romance

BotM for Sept/Oct over in Bodice Ripper Readers Anonymous. Since I had it on my TBR, I decided to read along and get it moved off of the mountain. This was one I'd found on a Goodwill trip, and I'd picked it up because it looked interesting, with the Southern setting and the classic style cover art. Just so ya know, this ended up not being a bodice ripper at all. It was just a regular, if somewhat old-fashioned, historical romance. Somewhat reminiscent of a Gone With the Wind type thing. The her BotM for Sept/Oct over in Bodice Ripper Readers Anonymous. Since I had it on my TBR, I decided to read along and get it moved off of the mountain. This was one I'd found on a Goodwill trip, and I'd picked it up because it looked interesting, with the Southern setting and the classic style cover art. Just so ya know, this ended up not being a bodice ripper at all. It was just a regular, if somewhat old-fashioned, historical romance. Somewhat reminiscent of a Gone With the Wind type thing. The heroine, Melinda, most definitely was a Scarlett type, headstrong, willful, spoiled, vain, and a bit selfish. I liked her though, in a way. Sometimes, I wanted to smack her around a bit, but she was alright. The hero, Geoffrey, an English lord in the mind to move to Savannah, was... Well, I liked how he wasn't like, invincible as some heroes can be. But to an extent, he was kind of a wuss. I mean... he declares his undying love for Melinda within hours of meeting her, and proposes marriage. Later, he's challenged to a duel by a wannabe beau of hers, and when given the pick of weapons, chooses pistols, a weapon he's not at all proficient with (should I even assume he's proficient with any sort of weapon? Not even a sword? What sort of Earl can't sword-fight!?), necessitating a hasty pre-duel lesson from his manservant, Judas, that doesn't do a whole lot of good. Let me digress for a minute and mention that Judas was probably my favorite character in the book. The big, scarred man was very likable to me, and he probably played nearly as big a role in the story as the main characters did. For that matter, the secondary couple, Melinda's friend Cathleen, and her forbidden beau Aaron, were just as featured. Anywho, back to Geoffrey. So the duel, (view spoiler) It's not too often (in my experience) that things like that happen to the hero, so it was interesting I suppose. Back to the secondary characters, I will say that the secondary romance between Cathleen and Aaron was even more intriguing than that of Melinda and Geoffrey. Their circumstances made their love dangerous, and they faced so many endless obstacles along their way. Then, (view spoiler) Judas had a bit of a little romance of his own. In Savannah, he and a girl named Rosalie were fond of each other, then in England, he found love with a girl named Mary. Heck, Judas got more sex scenes in this book than anyone. Come to think of it, there was never more than passionate kissing between Melinda and Geoffrey. Even Cathleen and Aaron got a scene. There was more mystery to this story than those sorts of scenes. There's the mystery of the Englishman with the grudge against Geoffrey, the mystery of Geoffrey's (as well as Judas') hinted-at dark past, the mystery of Geoffrey's title and whether he is who is he says he is or not.
Despite being somewhat hard for me to get into at first, by the halfway point, I was invested in seeing where it was all going. It all mostly worked out by the end, and while there were many tragedies, (view spoiler) the epilogue left me with a pretty good feeling. It was one of those totally sappy type ones, where the couple is shown with their beautiful happy babies, and everything's right with the world, but the little twist of (view spoiler) had me grinning a bit foolishly nonetheless. All in all, it was a pretty decent read. I did enjoy the good feel for the time period I got from the writing. I could see much of it in my mind, the big dresses with their hoopskirts and the bustling city and the plantation houses. Even Melinda's spoiledness served to give me the feel for the life of a rich debutante, her reactions to things she sees in the outside world. At any rate, I'm glad I've got it read. ...more

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