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Review: The Innocent, by Posie Graeme-Evans


Digging out a review I posted on Amazon.com in early 2005...

A bodice-ripper with a young, innocent girl as its heroine, The Innocent follows the story of Anne, a peasant girl. The prologue of the book narrates the bizarre circumstances of her birth; the reader isn't told who wants her young mother killed, or why straight off. Anne lives in the forest with her foster mother Deborah, learning the art of herbal medicine. There's a bit of religion involved- not only traditional Christianity, but pagan rituals as well.

At the age of 15 she goes to the manor house of Sir Matthew Cuttifer to become a body servant to his wife. A series of unfortunate circumstances leads to the death of a servant girl who works with Anne. Hearing of the wonders she performs, the Queen has Anne come to court, where she catches the eye of King Edward IV. The book is all about lust, and how Anne tries to suppress her lust for the king. And, like a harlequin romance novel, the female characters in this book are extremely shallow and empty-headed; Anne never seems to be able to think for herself.

While the book could have had less sex in it (most of it pretty disturbing rape as well as sex of the kinky variety), it is still very well written, with a lot of detail, especially with regards to clothing and hair. I'm a huge fan of English history, especially medieval history; this book was quite a pleasure to read and much less taxing on the brain than other, denser historical novels. Its good for the beach or an airplane ride.
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Meghan said…
Oh, I hated this book. Really, really hated it, and felt guilty for hating it, but I did. I found Anne far more empty-headed than any heroine of a well-written romance novel (and the latter tends to go through more development as well!).

I don't get why I disliked it so much when the general consensus seems to mark it as a decent read, but I'm glad you liked it; we're all good and different after all. =)
November 30, 2008 at 10:08 AM
Marg said…
I hated the first half of this book with a passion. Not only was the sex gratiutous (sp) and violent, it was completely unrelated to the second half of the book.

I didn't mind the second book too much though.
December 4, 2008 at 4:52 AM
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