E-Reading: Book Review of #2 Defiant Ecstasy by Janelle Taylor
Author: Janelle Taylor
ISBN: 9780821754474
Publisher: Zebra/ Kensington Publishing Corp.
Part of a Series: Ecstasy Series
Type of book: Inaccurate, secrets, confusing, improbable, laughable, 1776, Native American male/ white female, Mary Sue, America
Year it was published: 1982
Summary:
The longer Alisha Williams remained at Fort Pierre, the more she hoped her redskinned lover would rescue her from the taunts and tirades of the white pioneers. They would never let her forget she had been the mistress of the infamous savage warrior, Gray Eagle. As if the auburn-haired beauty could forget! Each night, Alisha sweetly remembered Gray Eagle's bold caresses, burning kisses, his blazing passion. Each day, she scanned the vast horizon in hopes her Oglala brave would recapture her. Then one day, Alish saw hundreds of Indian warriors riding to the gates of Fort Pierre--and at their head was the fierce Gray Eagle. Though her most fervent prayers had been answered, Alisha's heart skipped a beat: Would Gray Eagle destroy her--or make her destiny his own?
Characters:
Characters are ridiculous, just like in the first book. Chela, instead of being with Gray Eagle has to be with the other chief; poor Powchutu becomes evil (*sobs*) although Alisha does grow some backbone (yay is all I can say.) and everyone is telling Gray Eagle that he was too mean with Alisha. (Why does that remind me of everyone telling the author she sucked but then she explained how everyone misunderstood everything and it was all accepted and hunky dory?) Of course everyone falls in love with Alisha and wants to be with her. In this book, however, I didn't spot a lot of Alisha worship, but instead everyone, from man to woman worshiped Gray Eagle (not kidding...) I wonder if in third book everyone will worship White Arrow or someone else? Hmm, be patient my pretties...
Theme:
Wait a minute, there's a message? Okay, every single man in the world will fall in love with you.
Plot:
Third person narrative omniscient, and just like in previous books, point of views constantly switch, and if I should have read it straight without using my system, my brain would have wanted to escape my head. Improbable as well as offensive plot, especially when Alisha is confused as a half Native American child simply because of weird marks on her butt? Sounds very offensive to me. I also could have sworn they attempted to make her into an Indian woman. Also as well, someone please explain how its possible for Gray Eagle to completely disregard the customs he's so familiar with to satisfy Alisha's! In other novels such as Jade Lee's Tigress series or Karen Kay's, there are struggles with men abandoning polygamy or trying to adapt to heroine's needs. But in this book, "oh, hey no problem"?!
Author Information:
(from goodreads.com)
born
June 28, 1944 in Athens, Georgia, The United States
gender
female
website
http://www.janelletaylor.com/
About this author
The legendary Janelle Taylor was born on June 28, 1944 in Athens, GA. In 1965, she married Michael Taylor with whom she had two children, Angela Taylor-MacIntyre and Alisha Taylor Thurmond. Ms. Taylor attended the Medical College of Georgia from 1977 to 1979 and Augusta State University from 1980-1981. She withdrew from the latter after she sold her first two novels. Today, she is the author of thirty-nine novels, three novellas, and many contributions to other collections. There are thirty-nine million copies of her works in print worldwide and she has made The New York Times Bestseller List eight times. Ms. Taylor's works have also been featured ten times on the "1 million +" bestseller's list at Publisher's Weekly.
Some of Ms. Taylor's most recent books include By Candlelight, Someday Soon, Lakota Dawn, and Lakota Winds (due out in paperback in May 1999). She has also made contributions to other books including The Leukemia Society Cookbook, Christmas Rendezvous, and Summer Love. In addition, readers can see her as co-host of the QVC/TV Romance Book Club Show.
Ms. Taylor's interests include collecting spoons, coins from around the world, ship models, dolls, and old books. She loves to fish, ride horses, play chess, target-shoot, travel (especially in her motorhome and out West), hunt for Indian relics, and take long walks with her husband. Reading, in particular books set before 1900 and current Biographies, Thrillers, Horror, or Fantasy novels, is also one of Ms. Taylor's favorite activities. She is also extremely active with charity work and was even featured on the cover of Diabetes Forecast in February of 1998.
She lives in the country on seventy-nine acres of woods and pasture with a lake and a catfish pond. She writes her novels in a Spanish cottage which overlooks a five-acre lake, a working water mill, gazebo, and covered bridge.
Opinion:
I created a new system which will help me save brain cells yet at the same time see how crappy the books are: read a sentence per paragraph. (The system works, I swear!) This book is even more ridiculous, not to mention historically inaccurate. Blue coats? Umm a little to early for Civil War, Ms. Taylor. White wedding dress? Tiered cakes? Wrong century! White dresses became popular in Victorian era, in 1840s...and this takes place in 1776? Anybody see a problem with that? Also, Alisha is not familiar with violence? England anybody? The time in England was tumultuous and fraught with possibility of wars. What about becoming a half-Indian daughter? Have you studied genetics Ms. Taylor? If a pure white person mates with African or Native American or Asian pure person then their children will take more characteristics from either African or Native American or Asian parent rather than white! How is it possible that a pure Native American chief mated with a red haired woman and his daughter is red haired and green eyed? This is a very funny story, and I doubt that's what the author had in mind when she wrote it; Alisha gets kidnapped to the fort, she's rescued, someone sees a weird mark on butt and mistakes her for a chief's daughter. Gray Eagle allows her to be taken, then follows her, there's almost a war but no bloodshed, then the marriage, then oh my precious Powchutu? becomes evil and mean and finds out truth about Gray Eagle knowing English, then others find out the truth and Gray Eagle as well as Alisha marry and it should be a happily ever after ending, except you know it's not the ending because...because there's book 3 and 4 up until book 9 (I think book 5-9 move on with different generations...) Also, one last thing; I highly doubt that Native Americans used white as a wedding dress and I doubt they'd know about it. How is it possible for Alisha to come up with white articles or clothing on her wedding day?!
0 out of 5
(0: Stay away unless a masochist 1: Good for insomnia 2: Horrible but readable; 3: Readable and quickly forgettable, 4: Good, enjoyable 5: Buy it, keep it and never let it go.)
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