Rating: 
Summary: A let-down
Review: I agree with my fellow reviewers who found Shadowheart a disappointment. Laura Kinsale, to my mind, has written the most intelligent and well-researched romance novels of any. But this novel doesn't match her previous efforts by half. The heroine is only seventeen, yet the reader is expected to believe that she goes from an innocent girl with a crush on an English knight to a sadomasochistic lover, with no compelling explanation for her behavior. I just never connected with the characters. There were some interesting minor characters but we never learn enough about them. A dearth of details about daily life made me wonder how Elena, the ruler of Monteverde, could take off looking for her lover without clothing or food or protection of any kind. She must have needed to pack something. Nothing seemed real. I appreciate Laura Kinsale's writing efforts, and hope that she continues to look for her muse. But this book isn't up to the high standards she set a decade ago.
Rating: 
Summary: Gritty Read
Review: I am fairly new to Laura Kinsale and had heard great things about both Shadow Heart and For My Lady's Heart. LK did not disappoint. It should be made fairly clear that this is not a book for those who only want romantic sex; you won't get it here. However, if you are prepared to accept some mild bondage and domination then I highly recommend this tale. Kinsale does a wonderful job with the time period (14th Century) and weaves old English, French etc in with enough modern language to make the book very accessible. This is a time when marriage was often about a contract rather than love and women were often mere chattels. The heroine, Elena, refused to play the role of a chattel and took on the big boys at their own game. My only problem with the book is, ironically enough, in the character Elena. There is no real explanation for her sexual knowledge (...); and that is quite unrealistic considering her background, age and experience. Compare her to say, Ruck, in For My Lady's Heart. His sexual knowledge was actually explained (if it needed to be) and he was a 30ish yr old man. However, apart from that I really did love this book and if you like gritty period pieces then give this one a go! As an extra note: I actually read this before FMLH - I had trouble getting into that one initially (language etc). Reading Shadow Heart first did not dimish the other at all and actually made reading the story far more enjoyable given the additional character info I had.
Rating: 
Summary: didn't need the pain
Review: I am only three-quarters of the way through her new book, but I am seriously considering putting it down. Laura Kinsale has been, from the beginning of her career, one of my favorite authors. I waited for this book for about a year, which probably intensifies the disappointment I am feeling about the direction Ms. Kinsale took with this one. Shadow Heart contains most of the elements that always kept me anxiously anticipating the next Kinsale. But, to be blunt, the "dominant" part played by pain in the sex scenes turned me stone cold. Call me provincial or unsophisticated, but when a book spices the literary meal with physical pleasure and pain, I at least want them on separate plates. I could have overlooked the heroine going all soft and sexy every time she thought of how much she wanted to hurt Allegreto, if it had been subtle - would even stretch it a little and say it could have been incorporated in such a way as to spice the sex (he was a violent man after all) but it was pretty much in-your-face and a central theme of their mutual attraction. Every time Elena excitedly dug her fingernail into Allegretto's nipple and drew blood, or raked her fingernails across his cheek in a state of arousal, or whacked him with a wide leather belt across his ribs to turn him on (I could really make you wince by quoting from the part where she draws back his foreskin and rakes his head so hard with her nails that sex becomes painful for him), I was pretty disgusted with them. The only thing that would have made these scenes more complete would have been to dress Elena in a leather bustier and give her a whip. I am just not into kink and I don't think most of Kinsale's readers buy her books for bondage scenes, and so was very disappointed to find it running dead center through this long-awaited new book by a very fine writer. I can only wonder why she did it?
Rating:
Summary: Dominance and Submission
Review: I appreciate the comments from readers who were troubled by the type of sex which is portrayed between Elena and Allegreto in Shadowheart. It is unusual in the context of a romance novel to find "deviant sex," as one particularly thoughtful reviewer put it. However, in the context of a Kinsale novel, it is the norm to find the boundaries of the genre stretched, even outraged, and so I find myself applauding the direction Ms Kinsale took her latest anti-hero. I respectfully disagree with the characterization of the sex as S&M - it's more about submission and dominance than being able to come only through pain. (I realize that the plain vanilla-ers among us might not be able to distinguish, but that's due to lack of exposure, rather than a nuanced comprehension of the varieties of human sexual expression.) I further think, had the submissive partner in this relationship been the heroine, we habitues of romance novels would not have objected to the sex, as it would have fallen within the confines of reader experience, as well as our expectations of what is "normal female fantasy." What I find ironic in the reactions to this intriguing portrayal of a love dyad, is that Allegreto's ripping out the arms of a rival is just so much ho-hum routine romance fantasy, but his enjoying a nip, pinch or scratch can only be comprehended as pathology! The other point I comprehend differently than some readers is Elena's path into a non-traditional sexual role - I saw her as wanting to explore the extent of her power, and to increase her power vis-a-vis the opposite sex, even in the opening scenes at Savernake. Her immature interest in spells, for example, and wishing to both bind Guy to her, and then not quite enjoying it when he takes over, and then her wish to learn how to revenge herself upon runish males in general, these were adolescent attempts to find the source of her power, and practice using it. That, it seems to me, is the natural business of teenaged girls in these times and then. I also thought her resentment at being packed off to an arranged marriage in Italy, at having the power she was just learning to wield pruned back by Lancaster, Riata and Navona (males all) - feeds her interest in sexual dominance. It just seems natural to me that the more powerlessness one feels in one's waking life, the more one might enjoy the feeling of dominance in one's sexual life. (And vice-versa.) What Elena finds in a relationship with Allegreto, as opposed to marriage to Franco or Guy, is someone who increases her feelings of control, who empowers her. Yes, Allegreto is also using her, but he accedes to her the dominant role in sex, and thinks of her not as a pawn, but as queen of the board. Elena is more than she would have been because of her relationship to Allegreto - married to your typical tough guy alpha male hero, she'd be nothing - a housewife. But she manages to transcend society's (and the genre's) limitations! Good on her, and good on Kinsale!
Rating:
Summary: Kind of Sick
Review: I enjoy a tortured hero and a dark romance as much as the next gal, but this was too far beyond that for me. I gave the book two stars because it is so well written, it's not the how, it's the what that got me. I will be brief and say that the sex was disgusting, involving domination, pain, and little romance. Hello, this is a romance novel, I want romantic sex. I don't want to finish the book thinking these are some twisted people who need help...not each other. It was a nasty relationship they had and I just felt it did not belong in a historical romance...more like erotica where the sex is down and dirty and has less focus on the love the two feel for each other. The sex between these two was like reading about feral animals mating...more dangerous than fun.
Rating: 
Summary: I'm ruined to any other hero!
Review: I love Laura Kinsale. She is my all time fav author. This book was written beautifully and Allegreto will be remembered like no other hero. I loved him in For My Lady's Heart as a young boy/assassin. He's menacing and dangerous, cunning and yet still very innocent in some ways...I think afraid of horses lol. And though he's not a good man he's intriguing like we are intrigued with vampires and such for he does kill without remorse but was made to be this way from an early age. He's definately not your cookie cutter knight in shining armor hero but someone made of more substance and complicated layering. It was good that he found someone to accepted his tortured soul. The only thing I didn't like about the end of the book was that they went through all that and then she gives up everything and then everything is happily ever after. I think I would have liked it better if it had ended in a little tragedy. That would have made it all the more realistic to me. I can't imagine Allegreto domesticated...but love does strange things to people.
Rating:
Summary: More Bertrice Small and less incredibly gifted Laura Kinsale
Review: I own almost all of Laura Kinsale's material but I have to admit I am very relieved to say that I only borrowed ShadowHeart from my public library. I have read more than enough historical romances in my time but never has the story haunted me in such a way that I am currently on a reading marathon to purge the images from my mind. My impression would have been that what Allegreto needed was softness to counter the hardness that had been his entire life; a conscience (like he himself asks Elena to be). I did not feel Elena was that... Allegreto and Melanthe are so similar in personality that it surprises me that Laura Kinsale chose a sadomasochist as his soulmate. I also found it ironic that Elena was able to find the killing and violence repellent when it applied to Monteverde but violence appealing and arousing in the bedroom. I was very relieved to read the same distaste in other reviewers for the S&M because it was confirmation that I am not a prude. There are certain expectations for a historical ROMANCE and although the story as a whole is different and original, LK failed to make us connect, with the heroine especially. How a supposedly innocent and god-fearing 17 year old girl could do that to a beautiful man like Allegreto is beyond me. I felt sorry for Allegreto at the end of the story and I also felt that it should have been more HIS story than Elena's because we had been introduced and seduced by Allegreto in For My Lady's Heart. Maybe if LK had explained what motivated these people to delight in hurting each other so viciously during sex and making the readers cringe with distaste while they were at it, we may not have enjoyed it but understood. Especially when it was implied that after being confessed the two would be a little healthier in their sexual practices. Never before have I read a well plotted -and for the most part- written historical romance and DREADED the love scenes. I wanted to personally REPLACE Elena and show her how it SHOULD be done. As far as the story goes right now, I would say it should be up for some serious re-writing! This book is definately no, FMLH, Flowers from the Storm or the Hidden Heart.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Book!
Review: I read For my lady's heart and was mesmerized by the character of Allegreto. I bought Shadow heart with some doubts. I was not sure if Kinsale would ruin his character by turning him into your normal (unbelievable)DARK hero of romance novels. I have never read a hero that was really dark in romance with the exception of Anne Stuart's Moonrise hero.This was an excellent story and a perfect conclusion to Allegretos character.His life had been frightening so I dont think he would be opening doors for Elena and acting like a gentleman.We as readers need to leave the modern thinking behind and realize this is a historical fictional book. Instead of seeing him as horrible take in consideration the tragedy his life had been. He was just as mesmerizing in this book as in For my ladys heart. As for Elenas character, she was a godsend for this poor tortured hero.Kinsale is an AMAZING writer-
Rating:
Summary: I tried, oh how I tried..........
Review: I really, really wanted to like this book, but I just could not. The "pleasure from pain" is not my thing. That, and the fact that as the story progressed, I never warmed up to Elena. I think I'll just stick with For My Lady's Heart and call it quits.
Rating:
Summary: Dark, Daring, and Captivating
Review: I was absolutely surprised with the intricacy of the plot in this novel. The storyline was absolutely interesting from beginning to end; partially because of the characters. Though Alegretto and Elayne were not the typical romance novel character, there were certain aspects about them that enriched the novel. I especially liked Alegretto's role of professional assassin and his charmingly enigmatic personality.
The ending of the novel was also surprisingly original - something I didn't expect to happen. Shadowheart is a bit on the dark side; it's not a lighthearted, simply laid-out romance novel (which is why I like it). I definitely recommend this book for people who like to read about court intrigue and adventure. All in all, I'm glad I picked Shadowheart up at the used library book store; it was definitely worth it.
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