Review: Solsbury Hill by Susan M. Wyler

Solsbury Hill by Susan M. Wyler
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Wuthering Heights is my all time favorite book. I first read it when I was a teenager and I'm in my 40s now, and have read it many times. Last summer, I went to Haworth to visit the Bronte Parsonage and walk to Top Withens. One of the best experiences of my life.

Suffice it to say, I am drawn to anything related to Wuthering Heights. But often, I end up disappointed when stories connected to Wuthering Heights don't regard it as the love story I consider it to be, or focus too much on Heathcliff being horrible. There were moments when I worried that this book would go that direction. I wasn't certain who the Heathcliff character was in the current day storyline. Also, at one point, the main character says Cathy died because she couldn't let go of Heathcliff - to which I yelled in my car (I was listening to the book) "She died having Linton's baby - that wasn't Heathcliff's fault!" Anyway, I ended up really liking this book. There were a few elements involving the backstory of a some characters that I thought were a bit much and unnecessarily - what's the word, without giving away the story - scandalous? I think the tragic, unrequited love of family members could have been expressed without such extreme examples. But still, didn't alter my overall enjoyment of the story.

The basis of the story is that Emily Bronte's novel was inspired by her own fierce love. (This is a popular belief among Bronte fans - how else could she write something so passionate is how people explain this.) Rather than follow her heart, she tried to do the right thing - much like Cathy, choosing to marry Linton because she felt she should, rather than be with Heathcliff, who she truly loved. With each generation of women who occupy this house haunted by Emily's ghost, they tend to make the wrong choice, doing what they think they should do, rather than what they want to do.

And now Eleanor is there, faced with a similar decision.

I loved the characters in this book, the love story was beautifully written - fiercely passionate, the way a Wuthering Heights retelling should be. And the descriptions of the house, and the moors was wonderful. I spent the day thinking of this book, wishing I could be there on the moors. In my short time there, it felt like a place I belonged and I want to go back. I want to find my Heathcliff there. But until that happens, I am grateful for books like this.

I highly recommend this to any Wuthering Heights fans.


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Review: Watch Me by Cynthia Eden

Late last night, I got the text letting me know work would be closed due to inclement weather.  Not completely a surprise, as there was already a thick layer of sleet on the ground.  For a brief moment this morning, I considered using the unexpected day off to clean house, so I wouldn't have to spend so much time doing that during spring break next week.  But all the World Book Posts I was seeing on social media convinced me reading a book was a better idea.  (Not that I needed a lot of convincing.)

I wanted a book I could finish during the day.  Something quick and fun, something with plenty of danger and romance.  I wanted what I consider to be mind candy. Having read and loved Cynthia Eden's Mine series, I figured Watch Me, the first of her new romantic suspense series, Dark Obsession, would be a safe choice.  Every once in a while, I do make good decisions, and this was one of them.

Fast-paced, plenty of action, suspense and a very steamy romance.  Your typical "boy gets hired by girl's dad to protect her from stalker, and girl and boy end up falling in love as he's protecting her from crazed stalker."  No, actually, there's a bit more to it than that.  Like the body guard had worked for the dad years before, when dad was a big shot government official, and that's when he fell in love with the daughter, but he was too professional to act on those feelings.  The woman he loved took this as a rejection and was very hurt.  Now he's not working for her dad, or at least she doesn't think he's working for her dad.  That gets a little complicated.

One of the things I very much enjoy about this book is that the women - even though they have men who want to save them and take care of them - are perfectly capable and willing to take care of themselves.  From the daughter who doesn't want to be controlled and is willing to fight to save herself and the people she loves to the police officer who makes clear she can get a promotion without having her boyfriend call in any favors - these women are great.  I can never get enough of this in books and I will always return to authors who feature women like this in their stories and recommend their work to others.

This book reminded me quite a bit of the books in the Mine series - the guys have the same type of job and similar backgrounds and the romance has that same type of intensity.  But I loved the Mine series, so I am perfectly okay with the similarities.  I have every intention of continuing to read as many of these books as are released because I enjoy them quite a bit.  As I was reading this I was thinking of how the love story almost has a Heathcliff and Cathy-like quality in that the love borders on unhealthy obsession.  But the characters are willing to acknowledge that they may not exactly in a healthy state of mind, (the series is called Dark Obsession) and while in reality that might be a little distressing, in a book, it makes for a very enjoyable read.  (And to be clear, in case it wasn't apparent, Wuthering Heights is my all time favorite book.)

Glad I read this, made for some delicious mind candy.  I've already started reading the second book in this series, Want Me.  Would recommend this to anyone who wants to read a fun, sexy romantic suspense novel.

I received a review copy via NetGalley.

Review: Wuthering Nights: An Erotic Retelling of Wuthering Heights by I.J. Miller and Emily Bronte

Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights is my all-time favorite book. I was in high school when I read the book for the first time, and I’ve read the book many times since then, and still it has a powerful impact on me. I claim that Heathcliff ruined me for all men. If I can’t be loved the way Heathcliff loved Catherine, then why bother? I’d rather be alone. And, well, yeah, you get the idea.

I know there are lots of people who don’t like Wuthering Heights. I notice the way people look at me when I mention it being my favorite book. I believe when it was first released it was regarded as quite awful. They say it’s too dark and the characters too selfish and horrible, lacking any redeeming qualities. But to me, they were simply two people who put their love for each other before everything else. Things like social convention, family and marriage are tossed aside in their desperate quest to be together again. The world stood between them, but even death couldn’t keep them apart.

Reading this as a teenager, I found this book to be more sexually intense than the explicit Danielle Steel books my friends and I were reading in secret. My mind had no trouble imagining what Heathcliff and Catherine were doing while alone in the moors. And when he went to visit her in the home she shared with her husband, I doubted they simply chatted and drank tea while her husband was away. This is why I was intrigued by the idea of “an erotic retelling” of this story that I’d loved so much.

But I hated Wuthering Nights. I hated this book so very much. I wish I had not read this book. It disturbed me, it grossed me out and it made me angry. So many times, I put down my Kindle and said to the empty room, “This is so stupid!” This was not the story of my beloved Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw. There was nothing beautiful or passionate about this story. There was plenty of sex, but it was rarely, if ever, associated with love. The sex in this book was there to shock and horrify. It was about control, domination and humiliation. This didn’t turn me on, this disgusted me.

For some reason, Catherine, as a teenager, fooling around with Heathcliff, seems to have transformed into a 90s teen, willing to do “everything but” so as to not violate her purity ring. Not very believable. And Heathcliff is now a rapist, but he’s so impressive that his victims seem to enjoy what he does to them, and keep begging for more. Even with Catherine, who is supposed to be his very reason for living, he simply wants to degrade her, wanting to control her instead of love her. Heathcliff would never have been so coarse with Catherine and Catherine wouldn’t have tolerated that kind of treatment.

Some of the scenes were so very horrible. For no clear reason, Heathcliff decides to start chopping wood outside of Catherine’s house – this is after she’s married. As he’s chopping wood, Nelly, Isabella and Catherine are all in the window – three different windows — watching and masturbating. Catherine strips and presses her naked body against the glass door, in full view of Heathcliff, who simply keeps chopping wood. Then all three of the women orgasm at once at the sight of him taking a piss. Really? Gross.

But it gets worse. Heathcliff has a dungeon that would rival that of Christian’s Grey’s. It’s in this dungeon that he says to his wife, “My cock controls you.” Oh good grief. Then we’re treated to a three-way between him and Nelly and Isabella. This is the point in which I put down the Kindle and said, “Why am I reading this trash?” But for some reason, I kept reading.

The odd thing was, after reading something horrible, eventually I’d get to a part that I loved, and I’d think, “oh, okay, this is getting better” and then I realized every time that happened, it was because I was reading a part directly lifted from the original Wuthering Heights.

I suppose that lovers (or haters, for that matter) of Wuthering Heights all have their own opinion of the true nature of Heathcliff and Catherine. The characters in this story were not at all the way I imagined them to be based on my many readings of Wuthering Heights. My Heathcliff would never, ever do these things. Oh, I admit, he had a fierce temper and the potential to be cruel, but it was fueled by his anger at being separated from Catherine. He would have never treated Catherine the way he did in this book and he wouldn’t have cared enough about the others to torture and control them in this manner. None of that behavior came close to getting him what he wanted, and he wasn’t the sort of man who got sidetracked from his main goal. Now while I do admit to always thinking there was something controlling and maybe a bit kinky going on between him and Isabella – because why else would she have so readily abandoned her family for him? – I refuse to believe it reached the level of dungeons, whips and dog collars.

Clearly, someone who viewed Wuthering Heights as a love story did not write this book. It seems to be more the result of someone who was forced to read it in school and felt the need for vengeance.

I wish I’d not read this. Not only did it make me angry and disgusted, but it also gave me horrible nightmares. How dare this ruin the years of sweet dreams I’ve had of Heathcliff! This book might be enjoyed more by someone who doesn’t have a strong attachment to the original, but I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone who loved Wuthering Heights. In fact, if you loved the original, stay far away from this re-telling.

I reviewed a review copy of this book via NetGalley.