Coming from a native country that has been and continues to be ravaged by religious fanaticism, I can say without a doubt that Bertrice Small did an outstanding job of illustrating the depths of depravity, insanity and bloodlust that ordinary people can resort to given the motivation and enabling circumstances. Though Small writes about centuries old feuds between Catholics and Protestants in England and Ireland, she could just as well be writing about hotspots today that still put neighbours, friends and family against each other, all in the name of this or that deity. It was definitely hard for me to read some of the scenes of senseless slaughter, grief and evil in Besieged. Small definitely does not hold back when she is trying to make her point.Besieged was also interesting to me as it gave quite a bit of historical background into how the British Colony of Maryland was conceived and the utopian vision of its mastermind George Calvert, who believed that all religions could peacefully co-exist, an attitude that was certainly light years ahead of his contemporaries and which even today has not come to realization in most of the world.As a historical fiction, I found Besieged moving and interesting. As a romance, less so. The story is part of an immense saga started in the late seventies by the author, about two intertwined great families of Scotland, Ireland and England, and spans the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. In this particular volume, we learn the fate of Fortune Lindley, daughter and granddaughter of characters who had their own namesake book in the series,Sky O'Malley, the Kadin, Wild Jasmine and Darling Jasmine, to name but a few books in which Fortune and her ancestors had already made an appearance.Fortune's romance with the Irish Catholic Kieran seems forced, used more as a tool for the author to illustrate the problems of a marriage between a Protestant and a Catholic in that era. Points are repeated ad nauseam, to the point that it became tiresome. On an emotional level, the romance was a bit too instant for my taste. I like a slower burn. I did not really warm up to the couple the way I have for characters in Small's other books. I am still happy I read it because I am completely addicted to this series and hope to read every single one however this will definitely not be a re-read.
I wanted to give this book a two stars. But my husband said I re-read them so frequently I couldn't possibly dislike them that much, and implied that I was somewhat two-faced, liking it privately but dissing it publicly. So all right. Three stars it is.Fortune is the heroine, and despite her fiery hair, her personality seems quite mild, even milksoppy. This is described as "practical" by everyone in her family, but she has so much bland acceptance about things that should matter more to her that it's hard to care about her, from the start. She's set to marry the richest landowner near her mother's horse farm in Ireland, and she's fine with it.Good, hope they're happy, no problem. So then I assume there will be more of a story with Fortune finding out the truth about her paternity and the very weird and contrived reason she was conceived (her mother needed dick or she'd die, and was too delirious to realize whose dick it was). (And that's not a spoiler, because Fortune's conception actually happened in her mother's first book, Wild Jasmine, which you will have read before this book, presumably.)Fortune's true biological father, Rory Maguire, does figure it out, only after he is browsing through some old "miniatures" which are all the photo album one has in the 17th century. He realizes that the 20-year-old Fortune looks almost precisely like his younger sister! But how could this be!...Oh, right, when he saved her mother's life by giving her the necessary semen transfusion. Bloke finally figures it out--not when the baby is born nine months later, not when meeting Fortune at age 20, but only after looking through the pictures. (view spoiler)[ He could easily show the picture to Fortune and explain how it came to be, but this is a secret that others want to keep buried, so Rory, predictably, knuckles under to their pressure. (hide spoiler)]
What do You think about Besieged (2003)?
This book is about yet another of the infamous Skye O'Malley's great granddaughters. Fortune goes to Ireland to see if she can find a husband. She meets William, whom she finds quite dull. William is upset when she refuses to marry him. Fortune, however, does not find his half brother, Kieran, dull at all. William, his new wife and his mother do not take kindly at all to Fortune and Kieran's newfound love. They decide that they must move to the New World in order to live in peace. Kieran's famil
—Donna
Besieged, set in 1630's Ulster area of Ireland, is the first of Small's Skye O'Malley series I have read which is a matrilineal historical romance series. It tells the romantic story of Skye's granddaughter Fortune Lindley and Kieran Devers, she a Protestant and he a Catholic, in a very intolerant world. They are faced with the classic “A fish could marry a bird, but where would they live?"While Small does a fairly good job of portraying the conflict between the local Irish Catholics and their new Protestant landlords, Fortune's family is painted as the only tolerant Protestants in the book. The noble Irish under the cruel Protestant yoke makes the story a bit one sided. Kieran's brother William is a nasty, obsessive villain as is his stepmother, Lady Jane Devers, who marries a poor Irish lord for his land and covets Fortune's large estate.It is in romance where Small excels and Fortune and Kieran are inspiring lovers. Their passion and devotion are well-portrayed. Her sex scenes are excellent examples of women's erotica, although they are less prominent in this book than they are in works like Love Slave.
—Orion
