Review: Spanish Serenade

Title: Spanish Serenade
Author: Jennifer Blake
Genre/Subgenre: Historical Romance
Part of a Series? No

The first romance novel I ever read was written by Jennifer Blake. It was, I believe, Midnight Waltz, and I was fourteen years old. I still remember pulling it off the library bookshelf and examining the book jacket with furtive intensity and the first bloom of gleeful delight that would characterize my feelings towards all good romance novels from then on.

Spanish Serenade is almost exactly the same as Midnight Waltz, Royal Seduction, Fierce Eden, and, one can assume, all of Jennifer Blake's historical novels. In fact, though I have Blake's website before me, with a list of all her books, complete with synopses, I'll be damned if I can remember which ones I've read and which I haven't. I have a vague suspicion that this is my second time around with Spanish Serenade, but I can't be totally sure.

Each novel features a woman of superlative beauty and a man of superlative everything, and a few men who vie with the main man for possession of the woman. The woman is usually abducted by the main male character, and her virtue is often in question until he sleeps with her and discovers physical evidence of her innocence. The man is self-derisive and desperately in love with the heroine, which in conjunction with a series of events leads him to be cold, aloof, and intensely passionate in turns, making cryptic statements of feeling and intent that confuse the heroine and delight the reader. At the end of the novel, main male character (whose name usually starts with R), makes a flowery, soul-driven statement of love; this is often rejected by the heroine, who questions his motive. Then she is usually driven to admit her love and/or marry him by some forceful scheme on the part of the hero, usually with the help of a few faithful companions, sometimes even with the help of the one who fought him for her hand, since he can see that they are truly in love and accepts it manfully. The novels are usually set in New Orleans or somewhere else in Louisiana, though Spain, France, and islands such as Cuba and the Caribbean islands often play a role. There is always some high-class Eighteenth-Century living. There is usually at least one ship scene and pirate altercation. There is always at least one intense fight scene brought on by the jealousy and possessiveness of the virile hero. There is always sex, sometimes nearly immediately, often initially by force.

Now, this constant repeat of the same formula is only a problem if you don't like the formula -- I happen to love it. It has exactly what I want: it features a dark, brooding hero, whose coldness intensifies to conceal his one weakness (love for the heroine); drawn out angst; pirates; New Orleans; abductions. What's not to like, over and over again?

N.B. - It was very difficult to find a picture of the book with this cover, but since I read this version and always make a point of finding the cover I'm familiar with, I spent some time tracking it down. I eventually had the bright idea to check e-bay, and lifted the picture from there. Blake's older covers seem to be disappearing, which is a shame, since I think that the discrete flowers that are replacing the original racy embraces are insincere cop-outs. Women shouldn't be ashamed to be seen reading a novel with lovers gyrating on the front.
/rant