Patience

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Synopsis

The revelation of Matthew Hawkmore's illegitimate parentage has thrown his whole world into chaos. The woman he thought loved him ended their engagement as soon as she found out, but her father is not content to simply let that be the end of it. Instead, he's vowed to ruin Matthew financially by spreading the lie that Matthew knew about his father's low-born identity all along and kept it a secret. With his business foundering and him being the focus of society's gossip, Matthew is beginning to plan his revenge when he steals a kiss from his beautiful new sister-in-law, Patience. From the moment their lips meet, he senses a submissive side to her that is extremely arousing to him. That's something he's more than willing to explore with her and help her fulfill, but he's vowed to keep his heart locked up tight. However, he didn't count on Patience being everything he's been searching for in a woman and someone who inspires him to be a better man, but to get her to agree to be more than just lovers, he'll first have to overcome her strong desire for independence.

After the death of her mother when she was ten, vicar's daughter Patience Dare felt lost as the middle child, so her whole life became dedicated to her music. She has just been accepted as the student of a lauded cello master and is looking forward to furthering her studies until she shares a searing kiss with Matthew. Having been deeply attracted to him since they first met, she cannot resist when he begins to whisper of sweet, erotic pleasures they could share. Intrigued and having no intention of ever marrying, Patience agrees to temporarily become lovers. At first she's both confused and enthralled by the things he does with her, but before long, she knows she doesn't want to share those things with anyone else. Her music still beckons, though, and when Patience learns of Matthew's quest for vengeance and how things have taken a dark turn, it could drive her away.

Review

Patience is an erotic historical romance that is the second book in Lisa Valdez's Passion Quartet. It features the middle Dare sister, Patience, and Matthew, the brother of Mark, the hero of the first book. When we left these two at the end of Passion, Matthew had just discovered that the man who raised him wasn't his father and that he is, in fact, illegitimate. Now this revelation has begun to affect his acceptance in society, and his fiancee, Rosalind, a woman he thought he was in love with and who loved him in return, has just broken their engagement. Matthew is extremely angry with her and especially with her father, Lord Benchley, who has been spreading the lie that Matthew knew about his parentage and tried to pass himself off as something he wasn't. Not content to simply end the betrothal, the man has actively set out to financially ruin Matthew by influencing others into not selling him coal for his railroad. While Matthew is trying to find dirt on Benchley to end his crusade, he begins to romantically pursue his new sister-in-law, Patience, who he'd been deeply attracted to from their first meeting. Matthew is a dominant who senses Patience's submissive side, so he seduces her with promises that he can give her the singular pleasures she seeks. Although he agrees not to take her virginity until she agrees, the pair set out on an erotic exploration of dominance and submission that leaves Matthew convinced that Patience is the only woman for him. She, however, is committed to her music and never intended to marry, so it takes a while for him to persuade her to his way of thinking. Although just as he has finally secured Patience's agreement to wed, Matthew's quest for revenge takes a dark turn after Benchley does something unforgivable, but in spite of that, Patience cannot abide Matthew's plans for the other man.

Matthew has always been close to his older brother, Mark. He grew up believing that he was the second son of an earl, but was stunned to learn that his mother had an affair with their gardener who was actually his biological father. He spent most of the previous book mooning over Rosalind, although in hindsight I'm not sure why he thought he loved her, as I doubt she ever would have been open to or could have satisfied his dominant side. In any case, when the truth of his parentage came out, she dumped him, although later, in a futile attempt to win him back, she said it was only at her father's insistence. This killed any affection he had for her and set him on a path of vengeance against Benchley, who is trying to ruin him. Meanwhile, Matthew is finding it increasingly difficult to resist Patience as she's been living in the same house. He finally decides to pursue her by giving her erotic pleasures the likes of which she never thought possible. But when he realizes that no other woman but Patience with ever do for him and that he wants to marry her, he must first overcome her objections to marriage, and later learn to become a better man in order to truly win her heart. Doms in erotic romances can be hit and miss with me, and Matthew ended up somewhere in between. When he showed kindness and exhibited pride in Patience I liked him, but more often than not, he was a little too intense and forceful for my liking (I'll get into this a little more in a moment). I also felt like he tried to take away Patience's autonomy by writing a letter to her music master demanding that he drop her as a student. He'd mentioned the guy was a lecher, but rather than doing it to protect Patience, instead his action was born out of selfishness in not wanting her to be away from him. This briefly comes back to bite him, but later it's just swept under the rug. In this and other ways, he sometimes came off as controlling rather than a genuine dominant who should be looking out for his partner's best interests.

After the death of her mother when she was ten years old, Patience felt lost as the middle child. Her older sister, Passion, became the mother figure of the family, while her little sister, Primrose, was so young she needed a lot of attention. All this left Patience with nothing except her beloved cello. She has poured everything she has into learning to play it perfectly, but a cruel music master destroyed her faith in herself. Now she has the opportunity to study with a different master, someone of great renown, but just as she's about to start her lessons, she begins her relationship with Matthew. He's someone she's been attracted to since they met, so when he begins to whisper of erotic pleasures he can provide, she cannot resist even though she insists upon maintaining her virginity at first. The things he does to her both confuse her as to why she would enjoy them, but also enthrall her into wanting more and more. But despite her growing feelings for Matthew, Patience's first love is music and she's never intended to marry. She's determined to continue her cello studies until he persuades her to stay. But when she learns that in his quest for vengeance he lied to her, it drives her away. Patience is a sweet, kind person toward everyone, which drew me to her. She's experienced her own hurts in life that were also relatable, as were her submissive tendencies. What I had a hard time with, though, is that going by her enjoyment of harsh spankings and other pain, she appears to be a fairly serious masochist, which as someone with a low pain threshold, I just couldn't relate to at all.

That brings me to the BDSM elements of the story, which just weren't really my cuppa. In the beginning it wasn't too bad, but Matthew's dominance is pretty intense, which made me like their sexual interactions less and less as the story went on. Early on he raised my eyebrows on several occasions with his he-man BS, particularly when he tells Patience he alone knows what will please her, and that she'll do whatever he says to please him because pleasing him will please her. [insert eye roll] This is different than I've seen the D/s relationship portrayed in most other BDSM romances I've read, which have presented it as more egalitarian, with both parties having some power. The sub usually has power through their safe words, and while Matthew does give Patience a phrase to use if she needs to, she doesn't opt to do so until their eleventh hour breakup and it's not even in a sexual context. Not to mention, Matthew practically discourages her from using it by saying it's only there to make her feel more comfortable and not really intended to be used. Huh? It seems like this would make a sub think twice about using the words even if it did become too much, out of concern she might displease her dom, which creates a situation ripe for abuse.

This takes me to some of the other issues I had. I typically have no problem with a little spanking in my erotic romances, but Matthew is into intense spankings that go on and on and sometimes seemingly have no purpose as they aren't really being used to heighten pleasure in the moment or for discipline (eg. he spanks her harshly when she's having trouble verbally conveying what's bothering her emotionally). Even when the spanking is for punishment, the intensity of it doesn't seem to fit the "crime," giving it more the feel of domestic discipline, of which I'm not a fan. I still maybe could have made allowances for some of these things, but the author really lost me when she dragged religion and "biblical submission" into it. I'm not offended by religion in general (I am a spiritual person), but I've seen this type of rhetoric misused over and over to subjugate and abuse women and simply can't stomach it. After this came up, I just wasn't enjoying the story as much. I also wasn't a fan of the deflowering scene. Early in their relationship, Matthew had said that when he did take Patience's virginity, he'd do it slowly, but when the time came, he basically says he can't wait and then takes her roughly (he's said to be very well-endowed, barely does anything to get her ready and then pounds into her over and over), which made me wince in pain on her behalf. Of course throughout all of the things I had trouble with, Patience eats it up and wants more, so I guess there's at least something to be said for it all being consensual.

While I didn't like Patience as much as Passion, that's not to say that I didn't like it at all. Early in the story, I thought it was going to be another winner. I wasn't finding Matthew's dominance as off-putting as I did later after the "biblical submission" thing came up. While he was pretty intense, I was trying to make allowances for differences in writing styles and interpretations of BDSM relationships, so the beginning of their romance was pretty good for me. I also liked the underlying plot about Matthew trying to come to terms with his illegitimacy and his efforts to keep his business running in the face of society's censure and his former betrothed's father trying to ruin him. Patience's backstory and her feelings of abandonment, along with her former music master's treatment of her was interesting, too. Overall, I thought the book was pretty well-written with the possible exception of the language (ie. descriptions of body parts and sexual activity) often being over the top purple prose. The story ended very well, too, which was a plus. Having a positive ending pushed my liking of it a bit higher, which made me toy with giving it four stars, but ultimately the lack of enough genuinely romantic moments, along with the issues I had with Matthew and the BDSM aspects were a little too much to overcome. Therefore I didn't feel it was quite worthy of the higher rating and bumped it down into the okay range. Given the lower ratings, it seems that there's a fair bit of controversy surrounding this book, and whether a reader enjoys it or not will likely depend heavily on whether they can handle the things I've discussed here. In spite of this misstep, I'm still open to reading more from this author. However, at this time, there is only one other unrelated novella that she published before she seemed to completely drop off the radar. I haven't seen anything from her in years, so I have no idea if the Passion Quartet will ever be completed.

Note: This book contains explicit language and sexual content, including a D/s relationship, intense spankings, and a little light bondage, all of which could be objectionable to sensitive readers.

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Lisa Valdez