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A Dangerous Temptation (1994)

by Barbara Kyle(Favorite Author)

3.79 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

0451179323 (ISBN13: 9780451179326)

languge

English

genre

Romance

publisher

Onyx

series

Thornleigh

review 1: I liked the idea of this book. The history isn't a disaster - so refreshing in a Tudor-era novel. Ms. Kyle can write engagingly, and I liked especially how she described some of the events the protagonist witnessed (her early recount of the apprentices' revolt is very well done). However, I disliked enough that I can't recommend it.- Every character except the protagonist is insanely histrionic to the point that suspension of disbelief flies out the window. It's not just that they aren't well-rounded; it's that they're turned up not to 11 but to about 33. There's an early scene with a priest at the deathbed of a sweating sickness victim that's so immensely unrealistic - a priest acting like a wild insane raving maniac around someone dying of the sweat (who, to make things ... moreworse, was conscious and alert at the end) - that I was shaking my head and murmuring "no, no" long before we even met Thomas More for the second time.- The personalities and actions of historical personalities are often twisted in service of the plot. Thomas More gets the brunt of this; he's portrayed basically as Bill Clinton with an inaccurately represented form of autism spectrum disorder. But Anne Boleyn, Catherine of Aragon, Henry VIII: they're all what the author needs them to be, not what they were. Luckily there's not much of them.- The original character names - I would be very happy were I never to see another English surname froo-frooed up to sound more dramatic. What is it with all these Thornleighs and their ilk anyway? At least there are no Blazes or (ugh) Storms, although Honor is itself a wildly unlikely name for a pre-Reformation child no matter how it was spelled. I do recognize that this (as well as the awful paperback cover - can we stop cutting women's heads off on book covers? Please?) may be more her editor's choice then hers.- I too take exception to the protagonist becoming an atheist, and not for personal reasons but because it would have been illogical. There was no concept of the scientific method at that point, no evidence-based system of explaining the world. They didn't anatomize: they didn't even know there was such a thing as prostate cancer or congestive heart disease. They didn't know bacteria existed; they'd never heard of plate tectonics or electricity. The workings of a supernatural being were the best and most logical explanation anyone could offer at the time for events like earthquakes, lightning, epidemics, or famine. So why would anyone deny the existence of God, at a time when almost everything happened without any other possible explanation?
review 2: I really enjoyed reading this book. I bought it expecting a typical tudor book focusing mostly on the plight of the Tudor family and specifically Catherine of Aragon. Instead I got a version I had never read before. It focused on how this time was such a high point of religious tension and new thinking. I have yet to read another book that captures that aspect of history quite as well. I did not realize it was in a series. Looks like I'll have to go book shopping. :) less

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