"Yesterday, when I was young
blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah”
https://betinakrahn.com/
I have in my possession tons of books from years gone by, and I have fond memories of
them. Over the years, I have found some of these books still hold up. Some do not show their age. And, that is because of some excellent writing. On the other hand, there are some books I fondly remember, however when I read them I start to ponder why I liked them. Say, for instance Johanna Lindsey’s Savage Love, written in 1977. I remember this story vividly. I remember loving it when I read it in 1977. I even remember the baby with the “green” eyes. But If I were to read it now with my more mature brain it would probably hit the wall. So, I have no desire to look at it again. Why? Because I have changed, I’ve matured, Savage Love has not. It happens all the time, and not just in Romanceland. Take for instance Catcher in the Rye, The Old Man and the Sea, Gulliver’s Travels, etc., etc. A number of books have not aged well. It is not the books' fault; we have just outgrown them. We can still remember them with affection, but it’s the memory which makes us happy, not the book. Which leads me to Behind Closed Doors written in 1991 by Betina Krahn. Behind Closed Doors is a sequel to Caught in the Act. By the way, Caught in the Act has not been released electronically. Before I begin, I will state for the record that this story takes place in Elizabeth I reign. I will admit I am a fan of the Tudor period, so that was a nice change from Regency/Edwardian.While I had fond memories of Behind Closed Doors, it wasn’t too long before elements in the story started to activate my “peeve” button. Shall we examine some of these buttons? Now on to my issues.
Barbara Cartland School for Naive Heroines. When romance authors are interviewed and asked what authors influenced them, most of them list Georgette Heyer. Usually they leave one big author out. I bet anything that another author who had an influence on Romanceland authors was Barbara Cartland. For anyone who does not know who she was, she was a writer of romance books. A really BIG writer. She wrote over 700 novels during her lifetime, at least that is what her website says. Starting in 1925 until her death in 2000, and beyond, she churned them out at an amazing speed. Did I read them? You betcha! I have read a ton of them. They were rather small, and they had a few things in common. The heroine was usually very, very, very, very young, and very, very, very, innocent. The hero was usually ten to fifteen years older than the heroine. He was typically a man of the world, and as you might guess, he was usually quite a jerk. If you have never experienced one of Cartland’s novels, I do suggest you pick one up. PS, it doesn’t really matter which one. These novels are very dated, they show their age, and if I recollect correctly, they showed their age at the time of their publication. When the world was turning in the 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s, Ms. Cartland’s books stood still. Which brings me back to this novel, and its heroine Corrie Huntington. Corrie is eighteen years old. She is a young eighteen. She is incredibly innocent. Her parents, especially her father Jack (previous hero), are over-protective of her. She has grown up isolated, and has no understanding of how the world works, especially the licentious Tudor court. Queen Elizabeth I orders Corrie to her court. There she will become a lady-in-waiting. Elizabeth is portrayed as a devious, jealous, possessive, almost crazed woman. Which she may have been, but in this book, her characterization is over-the-top. I also sensed something unsavory in Elizabeth's feelings toward Corrie, and I found that distasteful. But most of all, my main issue was with the way Corrie was written. Corrie was never able to see any of the deviousness that surrounded her. My big issue: I do not like my heroines to be diminished by the story, and sad to say Corrie was. Then there is the hero, Rugar Kilisson.
Revenge, Rugar style. Rugar Killisson is Swedish. His father was an ambassador to England, and the people in Elizabeth’s court made fun of him. So, his father died from a broken heart. Now, Rugar is representing Sweden at Elizabeth’s court. And, he’s going to show them. He’s going to win all the jousting contests because he’s bigger, and stronger, and handsomer than any of the men at Elizabeth’s court. He is also going to seduce all of the women in Elizabeth’s court. They are all strumpets anyway! Boy, will Elizabeth be embarrassed when all of her women end up in his bed. What a plan! What a great revenge! What a silly, silly plot device.
Drunk scenes. Sometimes there are things in books that make me cringe. Scenes written with drunken people often make me flinch. I think a drunk scene works better in a visual format as opposed to written word. Oh sure, I have read books that contain scenes where the characters are wasted, and they work. However, some authors cannot always write visually, and that is the case in this book. This book contained pages, and pages of an embarrassing tipsy scene. You see, Elizabeth as gone to bed, and allll of the women of the court decide to have a rousing drinking party. What makes it even worse: some of the wasted women were real historical figures. I’m not saying that these historical women never had a drink, but I doubt they had a pajama party. The scene was probably for comedy relief, but for me it was just absurd.
Kidnapping. OMG, there were a bunch of kidnapping scenes in this book. Rugar kidnaps Corrie, Jack (her father) kidnaps Corrie back, and Elizabeth kidnaps/arrests Rugar. All of these events happened in the last part of the book. It seemed like filler to me. It did nothing to enhance the story.
Overall, this was a disappointment for me. This was a book I had fond memories of, and it was sad to see that the story did not age well. I’m going to rack it up to my values changing over the years. I did enjoy visiting the Tudor court, even if the characterization of Elizabeth was almost villain-ish. I have always been very much aware of just how much Elizabeth had to struggle just to survive. So yes, sometimes she was not a nice person. However, my biggest issue with Caught in the Act was the minimizing the heroine. I find that I can no longer accept a Barbara Cartland type of heroine in my romance stories.
Time/Place: Elizabeth I Tudor England
Sensuality: Warm
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