Adora by Bertrice Small

[Karla]

Yes, that's one thing about Bertrice that always annoys me: her heroines are always precocious. If she wouldn't start so many of her books with them as children, it wouldn't be so bad. But especially in her older titles, she really starts at the beginning.

[Amanda]

Oh, I'm so reading this! You ladies have sparked my interest. (Side note: eunoch dildo scene? What the hell??)

Not sure when I'll get to it... maybe in the next few days after I finish what I'm reading now... hmmm... I'll have to think about it. Soon though! :)

[Karla]

Nope, I knew it was from this one! I even know the dialogue. LOL

Poor eunuchs, always getting the crap duties. Putting up with harem wenches....deflowering the virgin brides so His Majesty won't be bothered with it.....

[Karla]

Early Bertrice IS awesome.

And I think "rape by dildo" has to be on the bodice ripper checklist. Definite CHECK.

[Karla]

Get used to them, because Bertrice loves to put them in her books. :D

[Noelle]

Okay, I wasn't a big fan of "The Kadin" but now I'm I'm going to HAVE to read this one.lol ***adding Adora/dildo book to "to buy list" ****

[Karla]

You might want to also read All the Sweet Tomorrows too. It's the sequel to Skye O'Malley, so read that one as well. LOL

AtST has lesbian harem action and self-pleasure using Mr. D.

And to think my mom let me read these things in 9th grade. LOL

[Jennefer]

Oh, I just can't wait to hear what you two think of this one!!! I probably won't get to it before you guys are done, but I will be following this thread for sure! :)

[Amanda]

Well I decided to start it tonight since I finished my other book. I seriously just picked it up. It's reading well so far and I'm anxious to get into it, but I gotta say, the age thing really bugs me! On page seven, Theadora is four and a half and she says to her six year old brother who is scared:

"Father puts us with the church for safety. We'll be back together again soon. Besides, it should be fun for you - escaping from all us women!"

Um, yeah, four year olds don't talk like that. It almost distracts me from the story. There couldn't be a better way to introduce this character? Really? That sort of dialogue seems unnecessary and so contrived.

[Karla]

Yeah, the precocious heroines is something that Bertrice does in her early books. I haven't read too many of her later ones - from mid-90s onward - so I can't say if it's still a habit she has. It's a quirk one can overlook if there's enough to like elsewhere in the book.

[Karla]

But doesn't this book take place in the 1300s? So it'd be another Alexander the Great....?

Thanks for refreshing my memory. Like I said, I do NOT remember anything about this book apart from the whole eunuch rape by proxy!

I love that you draw the line of suspension of belief at ladypart soreness. :D

[Karla]

When I finally get around to reading this again, it will be like a WHOLE new book. :D

[Karla]

Oh don't worry about me. I'm so far behind, and I don't want to pause with Tarifa to read something else because it'll throw me off completely. I'm simply enjoying your updates. :D

Now I'm going off to read. (Fell asleep early again last night...arrrgh!)

[Amanda]

Well I'm still in the very beginning. I haven't had too much reading time in the last few days. I think I might be towards the part with pirates? She's on the ship with her son just after the storm. Maybe too early for pirates still, not sure :) So far I'm really liking it! I can't wait to get to more of the stuff with her true love.

[Karla]

That's one thing I love about Bertrice - she wasn't sentimental in the slightest about her supporting cast. The heroine always survived, but even heroes were disposable. And any author willing to kill off children is a-OK with me. No one should be immune to the author's pen/knife.

[Amanda]

I'm still making such slow progress with this one! My opinion has started to drop a little. I'm finding it ok but I'm not loving it. It's sort of "eh" for me. I think I'm going to take a break from it for a bit and spend some time on the Johanna Lindsey read for this month.

I'll get back to it soonish and post my thoughts on it when I get a little further!

[Amanda]

Jeanine ♥ Cheshire Catt ♠ wrote: "If it is already moving into eh territory for you - then I would bail. The story doesn't get any better and really just gets worse..."

lol. I can appreciate that. Love the honesty! I hardly ever bail on books so I might tough it out... after a bit of a break, that is! We'll see.

I like Adora's character and I'm interested in the pirate guy. The book was pretty exciting at first! But it's all kind of losing steam now. And there have been some parts that have really turned me off to it. There was one point where Adora was sort of thinking about how repulsed she has become by her husband the sultan and it comes up that he's turned to perversion to keep his sex life... um... active? or whatever... so he brought a ten year old virgin into their bed. The old guy with little girls just really skeeves me out! I haven't really found anything in a bodice ripper that has bothered me yet but I think that might be it. I agree with Karla about no character being immune to the author's writing so I'm ok with murder and death, even of children. And I don't care about violent sex or rape or any of that stuff. But I think sex with children is just a little too much for me. I've run into a bit of a dilemma in my mind with that one because this is a harem novel and I think in that setting this sort of stuff is accurate. If the book was "softened up" too much I might feel like it was historically unrealistic which I might not like. But at the same time I don't really want to read about it. This is the first novel I've read that is set in a harem and I'm just not so sure about it. What do you guys think about that? Any good harem recommendations?

Great review, by the way, Jeanine! I noticed you said after about the first 1/3 it sort of started going down hill. That's pretty much right where I'm at now. I think I started losing interest a little before you but it sounds like it became questionable pretty close to that same time.

[Terri]

I thought Adora was ok I have read better from her I thought the ending was good.I am not that into harem sometime it gets confusing to many people and lovers husband and wives????

[Amanda]

Thanks for the recs Jeanine :) I've been wanting to read Silver Angel so I'll definitly check that out. And Svavge Sands looks so good too! I skipped the Kadin when we were reading it as a group. It didn't really interest me too much at the time, but Jennefer said she liked it a lot too so maybe I'll give it a try.

[Amanda]

Alright, it's officially a ditch for me. I moved on to A Gentle Feuding and fully lost my motivation to get back to this one. It was ok but I think I'm just not interested enough in the story to care what happens.

It was fun, but not for me :) Hope anyone else who decides to pick it up likes it! I don't think I would necessarily say stay away... maybe just proceed with caution. haha.

Thanks for starting the buddy read, ladies!

[Jennefer]

Well this one if officially off my TBR list! What a bummer :(