Comments on: Review: The Raider, by Jude Deveraux (with matching figurines)

By: Janet W

Janet W — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 00:03:00 +0000

You are so mean … well, what I “meant” to say was oh I would have been all over this review like white on rice had I not been away! So I know a few other books where you get more than one hero for the price of one (well, he’s the same guy) … Mary Balogh has a couple. My head is swimming with everything I want to catch up on!

By: Jessica

Jessica — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 18:01:54 +0000

@Julia Rachel Barrett: oh, thank you, but that is so not new to me! I'll see if I can find out where it originated.

By: Julia Rachel Barrett

Julia Rachel Barrett — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 16:40:15 +0000

Jessica, your statement that somehow a forced seduction or sort of semi-forced seduction eliminated the ‘slut’ factor and somehow made a woman’s sexual side more acceptable back then is fascinating….that her body wanted him but her mind knew it shouldn’t….great stuff. I’d love to read a post about that particular subject.

By: Jessica

Jessica — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 13:46:37 +0000

@Carolyn Crane: I regret not starting to read romance earlier, myself. Which is why I occasionally enter the wayback machine and red books like this. Of course, judging form comments here, I can never replictae the awe and wonder that would have accompanied my reading of this book at age 13. But sarcasm and amusement will have to do. @KristieJ: That's interesting, that she turned you off. Was it a case of a good author going in a direction you didn't like? Or just getting sick of the same old same old, I wonder?

By: KristieJ

KristieJ — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 03:03:58 +0000

LOL – I loved me some Jude Deveraux in my day though I don’t know if I read this one. Oddly enough though – she was also one of the authors that turned me off romance for years.

By: Carolyn Crane

Carolyn Crane — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 03:03:46 +0000

I’m dying a little inside that I wasn’t reading romances as a teenager, and hadn’t read this. Oh, what glorious insane fun. And also, this review of yours! LOL. It’s wonderful. I love that the tension is truly between Alex and the Raider. And the Cartesian aspects of the heroine’s desire.

I’m glad you provided an answer to the appearance of the dolls, too. It was blowing my mind just a bit.

By: Shiloh Walker

Shiloh Walker — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 17:48:12 +0000

@Wendy: Wendy... I loved the ending of Knight in Shining Armor, too. Up until recently, I didn't even KNOW people had a problem with the ending-it fit the book! @Jessica: You described it better than I did-her body wanted it ~and that's not the 'man saying, oh you know you want it'... she really did want the guy, but she didn't think she should. This was how they got around it. She wasn't ever really scared of the guy, or intimidated, and he wouldn't have hurt her anyway-he was besotted. There was nothing even remotely akin to true rape in the book. I guess that's why it never bothered me. Some bodice rippers did have it and I hated them, but this wasn't one of them.

By: katiebabs

katiebabs — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 15:57:41 +0000

LOL. The Raider raids the heroine’s luscious body all over the countryside.

By: Sherry Thomas

Sherry Thomas — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 14:52:40 +0000

Type your comment here@Jessica: Historicals were HUGE in the 70s and 80s. When I bought my copy of Sweet Savage Love, it was in January of 1990, I believe. The book was first published in 1974, and it was available in Wal-Mart, new. And my particular copy was from the book's 53rd printing! And I forgot to say earlier, what I remember best from The Raider was actually not the primary romance, but the secondary one between the Russian archduke and one of Jessica's friends. There was something larger than life about the archduke.

By: Kate

Kate — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 14:00:09 +0000

@Evangeline:

The Duchess is, hands down, one of my favorite historical romances.

Me too! Oh, absolutely my favorite, mostly for Trevelyan, not Claire. I love the scene in the derelict ballroom when she dances with Harry, who is promising he’ll make her a good husband, and all she can think of is Trevelyan telling her that he himself would be a terrible husband. Though Brat and what’s-her-name from Pasha are less than amusing, and Claire is a bit of a barnstormer. But I really did like her struggle between the love and respect of history against her desire for modernization for better conditions. The end was sort of a cop out on that theme, but nice at least that it was raised.

Jessica, I fear your review of it