The Velvet Promise

This one is a hard book to rate. I waffled between 3 and 4 stars and I'm going with 3.5 rounded up. Ms. Deveraux is a longtime favorite author of medieval romance, and this book takes place in the early Tudor era though it sometimes feels earlier medieval. It's also one of her earlier books, a 1990s bodice ripper.
Judith is destined for the convent until her father loses both his sons and decides he needs Judith to produce a grandson to inherit his lands. The Montgomerys produce lots of male babies, so he settles on Gavin, the eldest of four men. Unfortunately, Gavin is in love with another woman, Alice, who's a stereotypical schemer, only out for money and power, though she wants to keep Gavin on the side as a lover.
Judith is show more strong-willed and independent (the author does a nice job of explaining that her prioress training gave her skills that most women of that period didn't have). Gavin wants a meek lady like Alice (he thinks) until he realizes that he's in love with Judith. But he's naive about women and can't seem to see Alice as everyone else does until the bitter end which is why I have a hard time with the rating. He really makes it hard to like him with his stubborn adherence to the OW.
The writing is excellent with detailed historical descriptions of clothing, food, and daily living. It's and interesting historical period, after the Wars of the Roses, when England was recovering from those civil wars under the first Tudor king. There are three more books in the series and I look forward to what happens to the rest of the Montgomery men. show less

I like the character of Judith already; she rather become a prioress (high ranking nun) than get married and "become a servant to a man". I sense the beginnings of a strong woman character.

Judith is turning out to be quite a woman! When she accidentally spies Gavin, newly her husband, and Alice (vindictive, crazy, lover of Gavins) talking she tells Gavin exactly what is on her mind. Judith doesn't run away crying instead she claps and says Alice put on quite a performance and basically how dumb Gavin is for falling for it.

The author does a commendable job with the time period and setting. Ms. Deveraux actually describes the type of dress, housing, and culture she is writing about to help the reader get a good feel for the time, instead show more of just say "hey it's the 1500s and everyone rides horses, the women wear dresses, and the men carry swords".

I can definitely tell this book was written awhile ago (1981) and their marriage night is less than desirable reading. N.O.W. would probably have some issues with how Gavin treats Judith from time to time, however, considering the time period I can't fault Deveraux too much.

This is decidedly Judith's story, her force of will and strong personality overshadows poor Gavin many times.

For the last half of the book I was practically salivating waiting for Alice to get her comeuppance. It started to get a little ridiculous how blind Gavin was to Alice's true personality (psycho bitch). Hard to have respect for a guy who was pretty oblivious/dumb throughout most the book. In fact it wasn't until the last 5pgs that Gavin finally realized Alice was ka'raaazzzy. Alice snarls and he sees for the first time she has crooked teeth; crooked teeth apparently coincides with evil woman in Gavin's mind.

The ending was so completely abrupt I think I was still like wtf for 10 mins after. This book had some good moments but for the most part I think it is past its prime. show less

Jude Deveraux is an author I first read many years ago and while some of her books definitely do not age well I do think the Velvet Montgomery Annuals Quadrilogy books do continue to be basically enjoyable to read. I have always enjoyed the interactions her characters have had and the places she sets the story. The plot can be a bit thin but overall I think it's a good beach read.

I’ve read a couple of romances from the 80’s as of late, but I have to say this is one was so poorly thought out that it was painful to read. The writing wasn’t bad from a technical standpoint, but the story “telling” was awkward and failed to keep me engaged. There was very little showing, unless of course we care about every detail of Judith’s clothing. Who wears fur trimmed undergarments? I was also surprised to learn that “underpants” were a part of womens fashion in 1501. I'm not an expert, but I pretty sure bloomers weren't even around until the late 1800's.

Yes, I’m nitpicking, but that happens when I can’t connect with the story. The characters actions were always over the top, which tends to be a common show more “thing” with 80’s bodice rippers. I can usually cope, but there were a lot of glitches in the book. I did try, but I could not bring myself to care about a single character. They were clueless, selfish, superficially driven morons.

The hero is a non-hero, a complete azzhat. He was abusive and cruel in just about every way. Other reviewers have said he was “unredeemable.” I couldn’t agree more. He did many things that were unforgivable over the course of the book…okay, okay, nothing is unforgivable, but there is no way these two would have stood a chance at love. All of the male characters think with the wrong...ahem...let's just say they don't think.

Judith was book smart for the times, but I couldn’t get past her attraction to Gavin after he beat and raped her on their wedding night. That just does NOT happen. One minute she hates him, the next she's back in his bed. WTH? The bickering got old fast. It wasn't even witty or fun.

Wish I could give it a higher rating, but I had to force myself to finish it. This one just didn’t work for me. To be fair, I will say it was nice to see at least one of the sub-plot romances succeed. I won’t continue with the series. show less

The first in the Velvet series by Jude Deveraux, this one follows Gavin, the oldest of four brothers (the Montgomerys) as he gets married to a woman named Judith and has to deal with his former lover's jealousy.

It's really several stories in one, not one continuous story, much like Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series. There are several plotlines, each building to a climax and ending to make way for the next.

The interesting parts of the story mostly have to do with the interactions between Judith and Gavin's brothers; the brothers definitely seem the most fleshed-out part of the story (to some extent, even moreso than Gavin himself). You could definitely tell she had the idea in mind to write a book for each of them, because they're show more strongly-developed characters in their own right.

Deveraux has a tendency to go full-tilt for the detail in her books; as the narrator of one of her later books (Remembrance) says, romance novelists have to do a ton of research because their fans will never let them hear the end of it if they get a detail wrong. I think we spend a little too much time on descriptions of clothes, but I freely admit that I'm not the most representative of women -- maybe a lot of other women *want* that sort of detail.

While this book contains some of the traditional romance novel tropes of the late '70s and early '80s (it was apparently first published in 1981), such as the classic "hero has to rape the heroine to prove his virility to the audience", there's a sense that the author's not tremendously comfortable with it (as opposed to many other tropes that she *is* comfortable with, such as hyper-romantic language and make-up-break-up super-jealousy), but for those who are avoiding stories in which the hero rapes the heroine and then she discovers she has a passionate love for him (and sex with him), this is one to leave on the shelf. show less

Ugh ... simply ... ugh. There is no excuse for this book. The leading male, Gavin, is a selfish and abusive jerk who basically rapes the heroine, Judith. And, sickly and sadly, she loves him and pines for him anyway. I realize this is an older book, written before strong, independent heroines took over the romance scene. Still, I remember reading this book back when it was relatively new, and I thought it was horrible then. I can only imagine what my reaction would be now. Even if you like other books my Jude Deveraux, do not read this one.

One word: Disappointing. I've read a couple of Jude Deveraux's novels and found them to be entertaining but Velvet Promise just left a bitter aftertaste in my mouth.The heroine is the only one, unfortunately, to have some spunk and backbone to her. The hero, on the other hand, is too stupid for words. Not only is he a pain in the arse; he's head is also filled with nothing but rocks and Alice. Even Alice seems to be more tolerable and less aggravating than Gavin. One of the reasons why I rated it so low was because of the rape scene. Maybe it's just me, though I do not think that this has anything to do with being a prude but resorting to rape isn't the way to start a relationship. It's just appalling.I'm sorry to say but this is the show more one book that I would not recommend. show less