Joyce, Lydia - Shadows of the Night

[oyceter]

Caught up now, will stop spamming!

Colin and Fern have just gotten married after a fairly standard courtship. Fern has images of herself miraculously becoming the perfect society wife without quite knowing how that happens, and she's dismayed to find that she doesn't know the man she's married and frightened at the loss of control in both sex and in other aspects of her life.

Colin is simply unthinking and inconsiderate; he's not a Gothic hero with a wife in the attic, he's just a normal man in Victorian England who has never thought about his wife having thoughts and emotions, much less how he would react to that. He's done what's expected of him his entire life; after a bit of marriage, he plans on resuming his relationship with his mistress.

But after a simple argument, Fern slaps him, and Colin feels alive for the first time, while Fern wrenches back some of the control she's lost. It's not the S&M relationship in Shadowheart, but it's a very realistic portrayal of two people beginning to discover who they are underneath the trappings of societal expectation, and of two people gradually learning about each other as well.

I wanted Fern's sadistic tendencies in sex to be less forced by Colin (he basically goads her into hurting him several times), and I wanted him to back down a little more, but I am not complaining much at all, as Fern and Colin feel like real people. While I like Colin and enjoyed watching his examination of his own privilege and his assumptions about Fern, I adore Fern, who is frightened and stubborn and trying to be who she thinks she should be even when she's questioning the roles she's taking.

There's a plot about Colin's ancestry that is incredibly boring; I don't even remember how it ends.

Overall, definitely recommended, and I'm now hunting for Joyce's other books.

Links:
- coffeeandink's review

Comments

[sajia.livejournal.com]

Hmm. This sounds like a romance I might want to read. I like the idea of the SM-play as an feminist examination of gender roles.

[oyceter]

It's pretty good! The plot is rather silly, but the characters and their interactions are wonderful.

[sajia.livejournal.com]

I just went to Coles to check it out and would have bought it had I not left my card at home. She's a sexy writer and a genuinely talented one; she could easily write a literary novel, although if she does I hope she retains her wit and lightness of touch.