Rating:
Published: 1989
Illustrator: Lisa Falkenstern
Book Series: Peregrine #1
Published by: Pocket Books
Genres: Historical Romance, Medieval Romance
Pages: 311
Format: eBook, Paperback
Buy on: Amazon, AbeBooks
Reviewed by: Introvert Reader
SPOILER FREE REVIEW 😊
The Book
The Taming by Jude Deveraux was a rare clunker from this talented author. This medieval romance was not a one-star read due to the valiant, terrific heroine. She deserved a better book and hero than the one she got!
As a teen, I loved Jude Deveraux’s books and devoured them like candy corn.
I loved the spicy dynamic between her heroes and heroines. However, the one hero I HATED more than any was Rogan in The Taming–even more than Gavin in The Velvet Promise!
The Plot
The Taming is the opposite of Highland Velvet, where the hero works his butt off to make his wife happy. Here, the wife works her fingers to the bone to help her lazy husband and his annoying siblings.
Sir Rogan Peregrine needs a wealthy wife and Lady Liana Neville needs a husband. She is a wealthy heiress. His castle is in disrepair, and his family–a younger brother and sister–run wild. They’re two attractive people, so you expect some sexy antics to occur.
They do after Rogan stops being such a swine, but why would I want a great heroine to settle for a loser like Rogan?
Rogan was such a lazy jerk with mistresses aplenty. He had one for each day of the week. Seriously. He named each woman after each day, as he couldn’t be bothered to remember their real names.
Liana loved him, but he did not deserve her.
Liana was a resilient lady who worked hard to make her husband’s castle a livable place. I remember reading that the moat was so clogged with excrement and how it stank up, and nobody cared! Gross!
Plus Rogan had no charisma. A hero can be a jerk, oblivious, or even a pompous arse at times, but charm goes a long way.
Final Analysis of The Taming
The Taming got me so angry I didn’t even bother to read the sequel! And back then I read all of Jude Deveraux’s books!
2 Stars
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Synopsis
England’s most valiant knights paid court to wealthy Liana Neville, but only the infamous warrior Rogan Peregrine made no secret of his powerful desires. His very caress melted Liana into liquid fire, and she vowed to capture this manificent, wild man. Boldly the delicate beauty gave him her hand — and Britain’s richest dower. Yet he was bound to a bitter feud: for love betrayed, brothers killed, and ancestral land usurped. In Rogan’s war-ravaged castle, Liana would lay her tender seige…to redeem his embattled spirit and win his untamed heart!
The Taming by Jude Deveraux