Promise of Gold
Grade : C+

Promise of Gold is not the best book I've read all year, but it does have the most unique setting and premise. These two elements go a long way to making this a pretty decent read.

Rosa Constanza Wright is a thief. She has three elderly godfathers to support, and can't provide for them entirely with her earnings as a dancer, so she supplements her income with a few side jobs. As the book begins, she is dancing before Cuban sugar baron Don Geraldo de Vargas as a means of entry to his lavish estate. She has heard he has some notable treasures hidden away on the third floor of his hacienda.

Derek Carlisle, Viscount Graystone, is also interested in Don Geraldo's treasures, specifically an old journal that recounts important details of a Spanish shipwreck. Derek is an archeologist and he learned his craft in Egypt under his father, the Earl of Aversham's tutelage. He has studied the wreck of Nuestra Señora de la Augustina for years, and has acquired the necessary equipment to do a careful salvage. All he needs now is the information in that book.

Unfortunately for him, Don Geraldo is not obliging about its sale. He requires Derek become a partner in the venture in trade for sharing the information contained in the journal. Derek is entirely opposed to this, both on principle and because he knows Don Geraldo cannot be trusted. But before any of this can be settled, Rosa gets her hands on the journal. So begins a tale of high seas adventure, kidnapping, torture, faked death, and true love.

Kudos to Kyle for setting this book in Cuba and for making her heroine an interesting mix of Spanish, Gypsy, and English heritage. The different cultural slant, exotic locale, and fascinating detail on the developing science of underwater exploration really made this book. Had the same story been set in Regency England, it would have been so same old, same old. With the unique historical detail, however, a rather typical adventure-story-complete-with-evil-bad-guy gets a second chance.

Since I generally can't abide heroine thieves, I didn't expect to like Rosa. But, really, she was rather fun. She was spunky, daring, always up for a challenge, yet never TSTL (though she was a bit accident prone which, unfortunately, seemed to support Derek's position that she shouldn't be allowed to actively participate in his adventures). Rosa has a bit more freedom to explore and maneuver than the average señorita of 1898 would have had. This freedom a little at odds with her godfathers' insistence that she be protected from lustful men, but at least with Rosa, the reader is spared the "I can do anything a man can do!" speech. Derek is a bit less defined, but still likable.

Their chemistry together, however, is less than incendiary. There is some noteworthy sexual tension between Rosa and Derek in the opening scene, but after that it sort of peters out. They are attracted to each other, and they make out quite a bit, but the heat just isn't there. There are several underwater scenes that emphasize their growing friendship and team spirit, but their love seems tepid at best. This is disappointing since real friendship between heroes and heroines is so often neglected by authors who prefer to concentrate on passion and lust. Here we have two people who actually like each other, but somehow the love part doesn't quite come across.

There are several conflicts in the story. Derek and Rosa fight the elements in order to accomplish their salvaging of the Augustina, and this was all well done. A lot of the underwater action and description was delightful and very interesting. But at about the two-thirds mark, Kyle introduced several action clichés that were less enthralling. Had the fast-paced ending been dumped and replaced with a little more character development, perhaps the love story would have been more compelling.

Promise of Gold was a pleasant read. It went quickly and, for the most part, held my interest. I would try Kyle again. I'm always excited about historicals with non-traditional settings, and it looks like her backlist contains some of these.

Reviewed by Rachel Potter
Grade : C+

Sensuality: Warm

Review Date : May 25, 2002

Publication Date: 2002

Review Tags: 

Recent Comments …

Rachel Potter

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

28 Comments
newest
oldest most voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
28
0
What's your opinion?x
()
x