Comments on: REVIEW: Claiming the Courtesan by Anna Campbell

By: Janine

Janine — Wed, 09 May 2007 21:27:26 +0000

Eva, I don’t know if it would have had to be a flashback per se. A prologue could have also done the trick. But I wanted more of their earlier relationship.

Jan, thanks! I would say the prose was lavender, but these things are to some degree in the eye of the beholder.

Robin, I think it was her sense of deep shame about her sexuality that made it difficult for me to imagine her being seductive and powerfully sexual. To some degree one has to love one’s sexual side, I think, to exude seductiveness and sexual power. If Verity had just been a common prostitute, who only had to lie there and let men do their thing, that would have been one thing, but the role of courtesan is different.

By: Robin

Robin — Wed, 09 May 2007 17:29:05 +0000

A very articulate review, Janine. It’s interesting because I agree with many of your observations about the book, but I liked the schizo part much better than you did, I think. I can barely remember the second half of the book, in fact, except for the IMO too far over the top Kylemore to the rescue ending. I agree with you, though, both about the villain and about the way Ben is given short-shrift in terms of a believable and nuanced resolution. You are so right that Ben deserved more from the book.

I’m not sure I completely understand your initial reaction to Soraya/Verity, though. Wouldn’t a woman who could compartmentalize sex be a potentially very powerful courtesan? I think one of the reasons she was so afraid of Justin for all those years was that she knew (at least subconsciously) that he could confuse that separation (which IMO he did, right from the beginning, and Verity was basically in denial of that throughout their relationship and the novel itself). Her previous two lovers were easy prey, so to speak, in that she was either much younger or way more experienced. I got the sense that a lot of her reputation was cultivated by her first lover (and by all those reports of duels and deaths over her beauty, which IMO was way unbelievably over the top, even though it made it a little more understandable why she’d be suspicious of passion). So in a sense, she was a woman who really did sleep with men primarily for money, until Justin challenged those boundaries, that is. While I wish Verity hadn’t been so afraid of her own sexuality (i.e. shame substitutes for her missing hymen), at least she was actually, you know, selling her body.

By: Jan

Jan — Wed, 09 May 2007 17:17:00 +0000

Thank you for the review. If I trust anyone’s opinion on this book it would be yours.

“A carillon of victory joined the desire pounding through his veins to create a thunderous symphony of desire.â€?

Whoa, even I know that’s not a good idea. Was the prose outside of occurences like that OK, or was it slightly purple?

By: Eva Gale

Eva Gale — Wed, 09 May 2007 15:51:50 +0000

Wow, that’s very interesting that you wanted a flashback and why. Interesting. Writers are told often to go forward, you don’t want to go back halting the action.

But in this case,it may have lent to more empathy with the hero which was the biggest hurdle.

I’ll have to think about that one.