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Title: Enchanted: The Donovan Legacy (Silhouette Intimate Moments, #961) (The Donovan Legacy)
ISBN: 0373079613
Author:
Nora Roberts
Publicate Date: 1999-10-01
Publish: 1999-10-01
List Price: $4.25
Average Customer Rating: 3.5
Format: Mass Market Paperback
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $5.00
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $0.01
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| Customer Review: |
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1: enchanted
I thought this book was very mystical and exciting! I would recommend it to all the readers who love the happily ever after fairy tales.
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2: 4th in the series
Fourth in the series about the magical Donovan cousins.
Rowan Murray has always been the quintessential good girl, but she really needs a break, so she accepts a friend's offer of a quiet vacation in a remote cabin.
Her nearest neighbor is sexy and mysterious Liam Donovan who is also, though she's unaware of it, the wolf she's seen prowling around, and that she eventually befriends.
Liam's next in line to head his family, an eventuality that weighs heavily on him and that tends to set him apart from his cousins.
Rowan, too, is the victim of family expectations. Her family grows increasingly insistent that she cease her foolishness and come home, go back to teaching, and marry the man they've chosen for her.
It's a pleasant story, but there are a few things that get in the way of completely enjoying it. Chief among them is that Liam tends to be a voyeur when he's in wolf form. It's a bit creepy, to be honest, and even though I've read this book a few times, I'm still not sure if I believe that Rowan's not angry with him when she finds out.
There's also Rowan's situation with her family. They're realistic enough, but they made me mad. A revelation later in the book helps to explain some of her mother's willful blindness, but I spent most of the book really irritated with them. Their confusion and concern for her well-being came across clearly enough--from their perspective, she's just abandoned her life, so they're worried. I didn't quite understand the pressure to marry the boyfriend, however.
Part of that was Rowan's fault. She's a bit of a wimp--okay, more than a bit--when it comes to her family. Instead of explaining to them that she didn't really want what they thought she wanted, she just runs off. But I'll forgive her that, because she does develop a backbone eventually.
I liked Liam's dilemma. He's not sure he wants the responsibility, but he's determined to do it right if he accepts. And therefore he can't fall in love with someone who's not also a witch. His parents drop cryptic hints that are both amusing and irritating.
I really can't put my finger on why I didn't love this book--as you can see, because I'm rambling, trying to figure it out. Maybe it's that it doesn't end at the right place. It feels like it should have been either shorter--say, novella-length, or much longer--single-title-length. Various plot threads, like Rowan's heritage and Liam's eventual rise to power, were just not really developed all that well, and I think I'd have liked the story better if they were either dropped altogether or expanded. Maybe that's it.
Anyway, still a pleasant enough story, and we get to check in with the other Donovans, which is fun, if a bit pointless (another reason why the head-of-the-family thead should be expanded).
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3: Not A Werewolf?!
As a reader of paranormal fiction, it always amuses me when authors claim that vampires aren't vampires which has become an increasingly popular approach. In this novel Nora Roberts' hero who usually shapeshifts into wolf form refuses to be categorized as a werewolf. He doesn't think he's a werewolf because werewolves are supposed to be brutal uncontrolled killers. Not only isn't this the universal portrayal of werewolves, but this stereotype is a slander against real wolves. So I don't appreciate a perpetuation of the slander in paranormal romances.
Yet I did like the heroine's comfort with wolves, or at least with this particular wolf. That was the most remarkable aspect of the book.
Over time Nora Roberts has gotten better at characterization and backgrounds. I wish that Nora could write a Donovan novel with the writing skills that she has now. She would do quite a job on it. Enchanted is a bit unsophisticated.
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4: Weird
In order to enjoy any work involving the supernatural, one must put aside doubt and rational thinking. I've been able to do that with the Harry Potter books, with most of Anne Rice, with Bram Stoker, with Sax Rohmer, and with most of Nora Roberts' other novels, etc. But it just didn't work for me with this book, not for a moment.
Many of the usual elements are here from other Roberts' books: the pretty but self-conscious heroine, the handsome young suitor, the sex, no worries over funds, wine, flowers, pretty trinkets.... Where it went wrong for me was with the wolf. I couldn't accept the fact that a young woman from the city would not be fearful of the wolf, would pet it, would invite it into her remote cabin, would allow it in her bed. And I can't accept the wolf changing to the man, the Masonic incantations that feel completely out of place, the casual and unexplained magic.
All this might work in a fairy tale that begins with the words "Once upon a time." But this is set in modern day, with telephones and cars and electric lights. There is no gauzy screen of time between the reader and the plot.
I realize that this book belongs in the purely love and romance series, not in the quasi-mystery series by Roberts. Still, the plot has to work, and it doesn't for me.
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5: A magical addition to the Donovan series!
I recently re-read this story upon seeing some very negative reviews (with misspellings of characters' names too!) to find out why I liked it and if I still did. I DO!!
The Prologue of the book sets up the reader to know that Liam Donovan is a shapeshifter and likes to roam the forest as a wolf and that he knows some change is coming but he is very independent and in control so he feels he does not need to act or react to anyting that is happening.
Rowan Murray is a college professor from San Francisco almost engaged to another college professor and daughter of two more academics. She has come to her friend Belinda's cottage on the coast of Oregon for some time to herself to review her life and relax. Rowan is a person who has always done what her parents and later her boyfriend-almost-fiance Alan so she is taking three months to do what SHE wants. She has brought along loads of books of all types that she has wanted to read and plans to revel in her freedom. As she is unloading her car, she spots a black wolf with topaz eyes at the edge of the clearing. She is more surprised than afraid and when it doesn't rush her just talks conversationally to the wolf.
As Rowan begins her journey of self-discovery and makes friends with the wolf and her intriguing neighbor Liam Donovan, she begins to uncover talents and ideas and dreams that she had never indulged in before. I also felt for her calling her parents and trying to make them understand what she is doing and why.
This is a very interesting magical romance for the story and the self-discovery as well!
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