Action: ♠♠♠.♠ / Emotion: ♣♣♣♣.♣ / Romance: ♥♥♥♥ / Sensuous: ♦♦.♦ / Suspense: ♠♠♠.♠
Action: 3.25 / Emotion: 4.75 / Romance: 4 / Sensuous: 2.75 / Suspense: 3.75 / Medieval Flavor: 5 / Humor: 8 / Tears: 6
Having read Autumn's Flame, immediately after finishing book three of the series (Spring's Fury) realized these two stories are happening around the same time frame. Even though reading the books in sequence is preferable, each could stand on its own.
Interestingly enough the prologue of the book introduces a key secondary character, whose actions set into motion several suspenseful aspects of the plot. Reginald of Freyne is a second son and has been serving as his brother's steward for twenty years. It is so easy to understand Reginald's discontent at being treated with disregard and disrespect. Reginald loves and serves Freyne, while his older brother, Aymer, Lord of Freyne, is more concerned about his sexual proclivities than his lands. When Aymer is fatally injured during a boar hunt, Reginald's mind is tempted to consider murder when he hears Lord Gradinton tell Lord Lavendon they must act quickly and with subterfuge to secure Freyne into their keeping. Reginald does not believe he can take orders from his "snot-nosed" nephew (who was following in his father's deviate footsteps), so he begins to plot for his rule of Freyne.
The heroine, Elyssa of Freyne, is a hot-tempered woman who has been married off to two disgusting men and hates being constantly under the rule of man -- any man. She wants control of her own life. Upon Aymer's death, Elyssa struggles to remain free of man's rule -- she petitions the court for custody of her son, Jocelyn. Such custody is unlikely because Jocelyn is now the heir to Freyne, since Theobald (Aymer's elder son) died in a fall from his horse. (The first suspenseful thought on hearing about Theobald's death, was: did Reginald kill his nephew?)
The twists and turns of the plot are introduced in chapter one. {1} Elyssa is trying to keep her weak, intellectual, monastery-bound son, Jocelyn, from being married off to Lord Lavendon's daughter. {2} Baldwin de Gradinton is striving to keep Freyne out of the sheriff's control. {3} Gradinton hates the sheriff because he is the father of his granddaughter (his only living heir) and Gradinton is fighting for custody of the child.
Geoffrey FitzHenry, Lord Coudray, sheriff of the shire, arrives at Freyne to claim wardship of Jocelyn. Geoffrey finds himself in the unhappy position of having to house Elyssa as well because she is with child and he is required to witness the birth of Freyne's heir. He does not want the sharp-tongued woman trying to interfere with his efforts to train Jocelyn as a knight and to keep his daughter, Cecilia, safe from Gradinton. Having already read about Jocelyn (in Spring's Fury), it was interesting to see how Jocelyn came to be Gilliam's squire. Impressed with Domning's skill in telling Jocelyn's story in two separate books without overlap, yet revealing only pertinent details about Jocelyn that related to each FitzHenry's role in his story.
Reginald's plotting became even more complicated. Since he is convinced that Jocelyn is too weak to withstand the training a knight must undertake, he must find a way to cause Elyssa to lose Aymer's second heir. There is one other thing Reginald wants besides Freyne -- Clare as wife. Reginald has fallen in love with Elyssa's poor cousin and companion of ten years, Clare, fourth daughter of William de Romeneye. Clare, likewise, has fallen in love with Reginald and even though he is conflicted, she becomes his tool to try and accomplish his goal of becoming Lord of Freyne.
For two reasons identified more with the secondary, supporting character of Clare, than with the heroine. One: have always played a supporting role to the "life of the party" personalities, having never had a heroine-type, "shine the spotlight on me" disposition. Two: like Clare, am a member of the unhappily-ever-after community. Clare's mini-love story was doomed. Elyssa could not understand why Clare wanted to be married to a man and have a family, but another wallflower could easily see why. For her entire life, Clare has been the over-looked, "no hope for a future" companion. When Reginald vows his love for her, Clare receives her heart's greatest desire. Domning's potent, emotional portrayal of Clare, a destitute medieval woman, was powerful. Clare almost stole the show.
It probably didn't help that at first Elyssa appeared selfish and uncaring compared to Clare. Elyssa's strong, independent character seemed harsh at times, but there was a genuine loving nature underneath. Elyssa's love and kindness reached through to Geoffrey's daughter Cecilia. Cecilia had been mute and unreachable since witnessing her mother, Maud, going mad and trying to kill her father. Geoffrey's greatest fear was that people would label his daughter with Maud's madness so he allowed people to assume he was the devil incarnate. Aristocrats and commoners, alike, would subtly shun Geoffrey because of the scar running down the side of his face and the patch covering his right eye -- injuries resulting from Maud's attack.
Geoffrey could not believe that he was attracted to the outspoken, opinionated Elyssa and even more amazed that she was not appalled by his scars. Elyssa's beloved father (who had died when she was twelve) had a similar warrior's scar running down his face, so Elyssa was used to a damaged visage. Domning portrayed Elyssa as a very sensual woman, who made no apologies for her desire. And even though Elyssa loved the act itself, she fought tooth and nail against falling in love because of her strong stance on wanting to be an independent woman.
Domning made Elyssa seem very lifelike by attributing to her the typically feminine tendency towards vacillation because of her inner conflict. She wanted her independence, yet she desired Geoffrey. She didn't want Geoffrey to pursue her, yet was hurt when he did not. The following passage reveals Geoffrey's remarkable courtship tactic -- why he didn't pursue her:
"You might have run to ground, and I'd never have pried you from your hiding place. Nay, 'twas a siege I planned, willing to sit patiently outside your defenses waiting for you to starve."There was a lot of strong sexual tension throughout the story, but it was not delivered in large doses. However, Domning did a wonderful job with making the sensuality strong, spicy and vivid even though Geoffrey and Elyssa only make love once -- and that one time happened about twenty pages from the end of the book. The scene was amazingly entertaining as Elyssa nearly seduced Geoffrey in full view of the wedding party.
Although Autumn's Flame was not full of rip-roaring action, it was peppered with enough action to keep readers content. Domning wrote an amazingly detailed account of the battle scene during the siege of Freyne. The suspense of how all the loose threads were going to be neatly snipped off or tied by the story's end was the one aspect that keep the reader tied to the story. At times the plot seemed to lag as the day-to-day activities of medieval life were exposed, but found that Domning has done an incredible job of giving the reader a true flavor of medieval life in this series. The conversations, the action, the feelings, all had the tone of twelfth century England.
Finally, liked the family reunion as the four FitzHenry brothers put aside their differences to unite and became a family once again. Have always enjoyed getting to see the characters from the previous books and how their lives have progressed. After having met all of Geoffrey's brothers and their wives and witnessing the love each shared, Elyssa looked at Geoffrey and said:
"They are all like you, every one of your brothers. They cherish their wives." . . . "How can there be four such men in the same family?"Found it interesting that each FitzHenry brother in his book at first strove to make sure he would not love his spouse so that he would not find himself in the same potentially heartbreaking position as their father, Henry, who grieved so at the death of his beloved wife, Ermina. Yet, they all found love with their wives. As Geoffrey explained to Elyssa:
"For that, you must blame my parents. I think none of us were willing to settle for less than the happiness my father found in my mother."Readers who really enjoy medieval romances should read this book. Although wouldn't strongly recommend Autumn's Flame as a stand-alone must read, it definitely is a must read as part of The Graistan Chronicles.
--Vonda M. Reid (Sunday; January 30, 2011 : 10:04 a.m.)
♠ . . . . . . . . . . ♣ . . . . . . . . . . ♥ . . . . . . . . . . ♦ . . . . . . . . . . ♠ . . . . . . . . . . ♣ . . . . . . . . . . ♥ . . . . . . . . . . ♦
Books In The Series: "The Graistan Chronicles"
| # | Date | Book Title | Hero | Heroine |
| 01. | 02-1994 | Winter's Heat | Rannulf FitzHenry, Lord of Graistan | Rowena "Wren" of Benfield |
| 02. | 08-1994 | Summer's Storm | Richard "Temric" FitzHenry, Lord Meynell | Philippa of Lindhurst |
| 03. | 04-1995 | Spring's Fury | Gilliam FitzHenry, Lord Ashby | Nicola "Colette" of Ashby |
| 04. | 11-1995 | Autumn's Flame | Geoffrey FitzHenry, Lord Coudray | Elyssa of Freyne |
| 05. | 12-1996 | A Love For All Seasons | Robert of Blacklea, Grossier of Lynn | Johanna of Stranrudde |
Books Similar to "Autumn's Flame"
| Site | Author | Title | Series |
| 01.ff | Mallory, Margaret . . . . . . . . . . . | Knight of Passion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . | 03. All of The King's Men Trilogy {3}. . . . . . |
| db | {none listed} . . . . . . . . . . . . . . | . . . . | . . . |
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Autumn's Flame Quotations:
139 "I am tired of being strong," . . .
148 . . . A lifetime of doing naught but what was right and good for others, only to be repaid with crumbs and disrespect . . .
164 . . . she'd laid her own fears for her son onto his thin shoulders . . .
179 . . . why must you always worry over the future? Your fears cheat you of ever enjoying the here and now. Let it go. . . .
194 . . . We are too different, you and I. Where I am content to let life's currents take me where they will, you plow through them, charting your own course."
271 . . . I do not know what I want." . . .
320 . . . Knowing he loves me no more is more than I can bear. I cannot understand it, I can only feel it."
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Autumn's Flame Reviews:
| Rated | Posted | Site | Notes, Comments, Etc. |
| 4.00 average | {2 reviews} | Amazon | as of: 02-14-2011 |
| B+ | 04-08-2008 | Aneca's World | |
| 4.06 average | {4 reviews} | Good Reads | as of: 02-14-2011 |
| 4.00 (one) | 02-14-2011 | Shelfari | as of: 02-14-2011 Vonda (Wolf Bear) |
| 3.85 | 02-10-2010 | Wolf Bear Does Books |
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♥ Disclaimer: I purchased this book.
♥ Willing to share Cheat Sheet
♦ in whole or in part
♦ WordPerfect or PDF
♣ Will add your Autumn's Flame review link to table, just ask
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