McClairen's Isle: The Reckless One
Grade : C+

The second book in a trilogy labors under some problems. It has to recap the story from the first book so new readers will not get lost and set the stage for the story in the third book as well, and do all this without losing sight of the main goal - to tell its own story.

McClairen's Isle: The Reckless One, manages this juggling act fairly well. I have not read the first book, but I never felt lost. However, the need to do enough re-capping of the story from the first book, meant that the main characters from this one, Raine Merrick and Favor McClairen, disappeared from the story from time to time.

At the beginning of the book, Raine Merrick is in a French jail. He is taken from it by a lady whom he thinks is Le Noir, a high-born Frenchwoman who makes it a practice to take handsome young men from the jail to use for her pleasure. But the lady is not Le Noir, she is Favor McClairen, who needs Raine as a decoy so she and her brother (who is posing as her servant) can escape France and get to England. They betray Raine, and leave him to fight the French guards while they flee to England where they are to be participants in a revenge plot against Lord Carr.

Some background here: Lord Carr is Raine Merrick's father, a vicious and depraved man who had married Janet McClairen of the clan McClairen. Raine is Janet's son. Lord Carr had, through his marriage, taken land and money and eventually everthing from the McClairen clan. One day, in a rage, he had killed Janet. The clan and its leader, Muria, have vowed revenge. Since Favor McClairen bears an uncanny resemblance to Janet, the plan is to use the resemblance to get under Carr's superstitious skin and ultimately destroy him (Muria has a great knowledge of poisons). Incidently, while she is at Carr's home, Favor is to search for Janet McClairen's lost treasure which is hidden somewhere in the home.

Unknown to Favor, Raine Merrick has escaped the French and has made his way to his father's home. Raine is hiding there from his father, whom he hates. Favor is not the only one searching for Janet's lost treasure - Raine is as well. When the two meet again, the attraction between them is apparent but Favor is unaware of his real identity as the son of her hated enemy.

This is only a bare-bones beginning outline of a very complex plot. While I found it fascinating, the characters sometimes got lost in it. I liked Raine Merrick. He was a tortured character, but a good man - proud and a touch arrogant, but not cruel. And Favor was a wonderful heroine. I loved how she changed as she grew closer to Raine. From a puppet in the hands of her clan, Favor grows to be an independent woman who choses for herself.

McClairen's Isle: The Reckless One is written smoothly enough, but there are some typos that I hope will be cleared up in the final printing (there is a difference between a novice and a novitiate, for example). It was a book that I ended up admiring, but it lacked balance. While I like tortured and larger-than-life characters, I look for a balance of tone between darkness and light, and perhaps some small amount of humor to offset all the angst. Certainly author Brockway is capable of doing so, but this book offered no such balance. However, if you are a reader who likes a complex plot with tortured, larger-than-life characters, and can handle the nearly unremitting darkness, McClairen's Isle: The Reckless One might be just what you are looking for.

Reviewed by Ellen Micheletti
Grade : C+

Sensuality: Warm

Review Date : December 13, 1999

Publication Date: 2000

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Ellen Micheletti

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