Flight into Fantasy

In which I review a romance classic.
Title: Flowers from the Storm
Author: Laura Kinsale
Genre: historical romance
Reason for Reading: This year I’m participating in the TBR challenge 2009 hosted by Avid Reader. This month we were to read a book that received a desert isle keeper designation from All About Romance. And no book has been more universally praised than this one. You can read the AAR review here.
Synopsis:

The Duke of Jervaulx was brilliant and dangerous. Considered dissolute, reckless, and extravagant, he was transparently referred to as the ‘D of J’ in scandal sheets, where he and his various exploits featured with frequency. But sometimes the most womanising rake can be irresistible, and even his most casual attentions fascinated the sheltered Maddy Timms, quiet daughter of a simple mathematician.

First Line: ” He liked radical politics and had a fondness for chocolate.”

My Thoughts: Maaan, does that synopsis ever suck hardcore. It’s true as far as it goes, but if that were really all there was to this book, I’d never have read it because I have so been there, done that, and bought the T-shirt. Relatively early on, Christian, Duke of Jervaulx, suffers what we would now think of as a stroke. He loses the ability to understand speech and to speak, so his grasping, money-grubbing family has him confined to a lunatic asylum. Archemedia Timms meets him there, but she’s seen him before. She finds his rakish character to be dissolute, and she hates it that her father is working with him on a mathematical paper. But seeing him in the asylum, Maddy experiences what Quakers call a Leading, and is moved to help Christian in his recovery, understanding that he’s not a lunatic, nor an idiot.

Given that the praise of this book has been effusive, I suppose the most immediate question is: did I like it? Yes, I absolutely did. Is it one of the best romance novels I’ve ever read? Up until about the last quarter of the book I’d have said yes. Would I recommend it? Possibly.

The premise is certainly unique. The characters are types that are all too common in historical romance, but the fact that we really get to know Christian as he deals with the aftermath of a stroke brings this story out of the realm of the ordinary into the realm of something really special. Christian is easily one of the most compelling romantic heroes I’ve read about in a long time. The growth he goes through in the course of the book, from cad to devout husband, is truly wonderful to watch, as is his recovery from the stroke. He totally had me from the beginning, and I cheered at his successes and wanted to cry for him at his setbacks.

Then… well… there’s Maddy. Maddy frustrated me, because I felt that there was a lot of potential there. She could have been a wonderful character. I wasn’t bothered by her Quaker convictions. Some of my very best friends in the world are Quakers, and I could tell Ms. Kinsale did her research. Even toward the second half of the book, I was interested in Maddy’s struggle as she finds herself living more in the world than she ever wanted to.

Except… There came a point where her stiff, prim “thee-thou” ways got on my nerves. Since I loved Christian, I hated that, toward the end of the book, in a lot of ways it’s Maddy that makes him suffer because she’s so unbending in her principles, and she doesn’t even try to understand where he’s coming from.

One of the complaints I’ve seen about this book is that Maddy is also not very proactive. That bothered me, too. Given the stick she had up her ass, I wasn’t surprised when she turned out to be one of those historical heroines who is always whining about what a slut they aren’t. I can live with that. But I wanted her to come to the realization that she needed Christian as much as he needed her. I wanted her to reach this conclusion on her own, instead of… what happened. That didn’t exactly convince me, and given Maddy’s nature, I half expect that she’ll eventually get another bee in her bonnet and flounce away again or something.

In the end, I found Maddy to be too much of a self-sacrificing martyr, and I found some of her actions to be extremely hypocritical. But to be fair, Christian, even toward the end, has a tendency to be a self-serving jerk, so I’m forced to conclude that I’ve got to give mad props for Ms. Kinsale’s ability to create three-demensional characters.

That all being said, I’m not normally someone who notices prose and style, but this book was gorgeous. I particularly loved the way she wrote Christian’s experiences with the world around him. His recovery is charted gradually in how well he understands and relates to those around him.

And while I don’t know anything about England of the day, I felt Ms. Kinsale definitely did her research. She obviously learned a lot about Quakers, which was the most fascinating bit for me. (I never would have thought that the Quaker practice of “plain speech” (using the now quaint “thee and thou”, not acknowledging titles, etc.) would really piss off, say, the aristocracy. (Note: For those interested in modern Quaker application of plain speech, Google reveals this fascinating blog entry.)

My Verdict: Whatever faults I may have found with the heroine, I can’t fault Ms. Kinsale as a storyteller. I was absolutely hooked on this book, and think it is one of the most moving romances I’ve read. A B+ for all of that alone.