I’m trying desperately to get caught up with ARC Mountain, so just a few thoughts on finally reading this classic.
So I realized that my love for the cruelly misjudged heroine isn’t gendered at all… a misjudged hero is just as good. Authors just don’t write them very often. (Suggestions?)
Another reviewer criticized hero Clay for being a saint. This is definitely a valid criticism, but I appreciated that he didn’t always turn the other cheek. He said a few pretty sharp (and entirely deserved) things to the heroine. And it’s an absolutely essential part of his character that he is totally committed to his beliefs.
The prose isn’t totally solid. In particular, the action scenes are very flat. And everything comes to an abrupt, neat ending. But there’s a beautiful use of incorporation around the themes of courage and what it really means. I had to grade down a bit for flaws, but I couldn’t give such an original and powerful book less than an A-.
Tangentially, it’s interesting how often a book I’ve heard about many times over the years turns out to be truly great, while a book I’ve heard about many times over the course of a week or month… not so much.
A Willful Woman... 
Oh I love this one!
And aren’t good books good precisely because they do stand the test of time?
Yes indeed. There’s just so much hyperbole clogging up Romancelandia, I’ve really had to train myself not to jump on every bandwagon. And it’s not even necessarily *insincere*, but that doesn’t mean it’s valid.
I always used to be bemused by top ten movie lists that included movies that just came out. I didn’t see how you could know that a movie that you just saw deserved to be on such a list. It’s probably equally true (if it’s true) with books. One of the downsides of having a new book review focus.
Yes. That’s one of the reasons I enjoy more blogs where books that have been around a while–not necessarily classics, but books with at least a couple of years in the wild, so to speak–get their fair share of space.
Among other things, it allows me to see how my tastes and the reviewers align, when looking at just-released titles.
Plus, it often makes me look at those books from a different, fresher perspective.
I love this one! I can definitely understand what you mean by some of the flaws, but the premise and the development of Clay’s character help me forget about those small issues. It is always nice when a book you’ve been hearing about for years actually seems worthy of the hype. Great review!
I agree with you about the ending. It is very tidy, but by that point I was so head over heels that Heath probably could have had a herd of unicorns running through a field and I would have been like, “Oh that’s so lovely!” LOL
+1 🙂
I think that’s more a Mary Jo Putney sort of thing. 😉