Karen Gets Historical: Part 1

Season of The Sun


In an effort to widen my reading horizons, I read the first of many historicals last night. The book was Catherine Coulter’s Season of The Sun.

I went to our local library yesterday without taking the list of authors that some of you had recommended, and for the life in me, I couldn’t remember any of the popular authors who write historical books, with the exception of Johanna Lindsey, and Catherine Coulter.

All the Lindsey books were out on loan, so I looked for Ms Coulter’s books instead. I found four of her books, so I borrowed all four:

Season of The Sun
Night Fire
Moonspun Magic
Jadestar

I had no idea what any of the books were about because I didn’t even bother reading the blurbs. (You can do that when you’re not paying...).

Whilst I was there, I also picked up Linda Howard’s ‘To Die For’.

When I got home, I closed my eyes and randomly selected my first read, which was of course Season of The Sun.

So basically, the story went like this:


Girl Orphan’s mother ran away with her lover, only taking Girl Orphans beloved five year old sister with her. (BTW they live in York, England)

Evil Step-Daddy had gone after Girl Orphan’s mother, but apparently found her and her lover dead when he arrived. (Likely story)

Evil Step-Daddy returned with Girl Orphans sister, but not before striking her so hard, she ended up losing her hearing. (What a wanker)

Girl Orphan and her sister end up living with Evil Step-Daddy who wants to shag her, but tries to hide his lust under the guise of fatherly concern. (Perv)

One day Viking Warrior spots Girl Orphan at a well, and instantly knows that he has found the love of his life (yeah, yeah, so I had to suspend disbelief temporarily).

Viking Warrior goes up to Girl Orphan, and tells her that he want to marry her, and he wont take no for an answer.

Girl Orphan realises that this is a chance to escape her Evil Step-Daddy, plus it helps that the Viking Warrior is well packaged, yum, yum...

Viking Warrior goes to Evil Step-Daddy, and asks for Girl Orphan’s hand in marriage.

Evil Step-Daddy is very angry, and vows to never let anybody take his precious Girl Orphan from him. He hates Girl Orphan’s little five-year old sister, so he kidnaps her, and blackmails Girl Orphan into refusing marriage to Viking Warrior.

Girl Orphan pretends to Viking Warrior that the only reason she accepted marriage was because she wanted to sample his cod-piece. (The harlot!)

Viking Warrior’s pride is hugely dented, and soon his love turns to hate.

Evil Step-Daddy weds Girl Orphan, to the fury of Psychotic Daughter-in-law. She fears that Girl Orphan will get all of Evil Step-Daddy's riches, whilst she and her weak-assed husband scratch around for scraps.

Psychotic Daughter-in-law poisons Evil Step-Daddy, and when he dies, Girl Orphan gets blamed for it, and gets hurled into prison.

Viking Warrior comes back, and buys her as his slave, and takes her back to his home in Norway with a slave collar round her neck.

Viking Warrior is still hurt and angry over what he sees as her betrayal, so he treats her like shit and forcefully ‘seduces’ (rapes) her night after night.

If Girl Orphan thought that Psychotic Daughter-in-law was bad, she was in for a real treat with Viking Warrior’s Jealous Raving Lunatic Sister (for the purpose of this blurb, we’ll refer to her as Raving Lunatic Sister) who hates her and feels irrationally threatened by her.

Raving Lunatic Sister whips Girl Orphan with a belt to within an inch of her life for daring to help herself to some porridge, and was going to do the same to her little sister, when Viking Warrior intervenes.

One day, Girl Orphan decides that enough is enough and takes her Little Sister with her, and tries to escape from Viking Warrior in a boat.

Viking Warrior is so angry that he jumps into the water after them. Girl Orphan’s Little Sister, thinks that her beloved Viking Warrior is going to die, and jumps into the water to try to save him (she’s five years old…) but goes under water, and her body is never found.

Girl Orphan is sickened with grief, and blames Viking Warrior for her death.

Viking Warriors son goes missing, feared dead. (Damn bad luck).

Now it’s Viking Warrior's turn to be grief stricken. In their mutual misery, the two lovebirds turn to each other for comfort, and Viking Warrior stops forcibly ‘seducing’ (raping) her every night. Instead he makes wondrous love to her, and they co-exist in relative peace together.

That is, until Raving Lunatic Sister (who is out of favour with the family) runs away to Very Bad Man who had been raping young girls and pillaging and burning nearby villages. (No accounting for taste).

Very Bad Man kidnaps Girl Orphan and attempts to rape her. (At the request of Raving Lunatic Sister)

I could go on forever, but basically Very Bad Man eventually gets his come-uppance, and they all live happily ever after (well, except for Raving Lunatic Sister, who went clinically insane after setting fire to Very Bad Man whom she’d loved like no other)

Phew, that took some doing!

My Verdict…

Well if I’m honest, I actually found this book very hard to put down. I feel like I should go to Confession after reading Season of The Sun, but I can honestly say that it was really interesting. *waits for lightning to strike her down*

I’m not sure what I enjoyed about it, because there were so many improbable situations that occurred in the book, that at times I found myself, laughing out loud.

In retrospect, if I’d been Girl Orphan, I would have probably killed myself long before her happy-ending. Some people are just born damn unlucky! :)

I suspect I liked this story, because it was different to what I’ve been reading lately, although I have to say, I HATED the forced seduction scenes.

So, onto my next book…. To be continued.