Lawson’s review of Beloved Warrior by Patricia Potter
Historical Romance published by Berkley 3 Apr 07
Life is what happens to you while you make plans. In the end you get what you plan for, or you have life slap you across the face. In Beloved Warrior, the past has made the lives of Juliana Mendoza and Patrick Maclean bitter and seeking some sort of revenge on those who put them in this situation. Revenge, it is said, is a dish best served cold.
Juliana is being sent to England by her abusive father to marry an English Lord whom she doesn’t know. She is going along with this so that her mother will not suffer at her father’s hands for her defiance or other acts that could be deemed rebellion. At the same time she doesn’t want to leave her home in Spain, and really, who could blame her?
After spending six years as a galley slave on a Spanish merchant ship, Patrick, can think of nothing better than to get home and exact his revenge on the people and circumstance that left him there. He plots in secret to mutiny against his brutal guards and is successful, with the help of the 100 other galley slaves.
Once Patrick successfully rids the ship of the Spanish sailors, he encounters Juliana. She is the captain’s niece and here enters the supposed sexual tension. They feel an instant attraction but deny it due to feelings of hatred for one thing or another. And they spend a lot of time in denial about how they feel. Denial, apparently, really isn’t just a river in Egypt. These two characters spend most of the book not wanting to admit anything to the other. They’re so wrapped up in revenge or protecting others that they can’t trust each other.
Beloved Warrior isn’t helped by the way Potter spends too much time with stereotypes than developing actual characterization. Patrick is Scottish, so he trusts no other nationality. Juliana trusts no man due to her abusive father. The assorted galley slaves are sketched from their nationality, not from any sort of personality.
The stories of the secondary characters, however stereotyped, are far more interesting. Potter spends time with Patrick’s brothers from the first two books in the series, as well as some of the galley slaves, making for a more interesting story than that of Patrick and Juliana. Even if the his brothers are more interesting, Patrick, who has spent the last six years thinking of his home and the horrible life he led there still does not trust them.
Obviously trust and revenge are big issues that are gradually, and not convincingly overcome, but the actions by the secondary characters make this an interesting, but ultimately forgettable read. If these interesting single secondary characters get their own story, it would be a better book.
Grade: D
Summary:
While on the way to England to meet her future husband and save her family from ruin, Juliana Mendoza is taken hostage by a mutinous Scottish warrior who awakens within her a fierce desire, forcing her to choose between honor and love.
No excerpt available.
