Review of Rhiannon by Roberta Gellis

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RHIANNON by Roberta Gellis is number five in the classic medieval romance series the Roselynde Chronicles. The series follows the Roselynde family through three generations and the political entanglements they find themselves into while falling in love at the same time. As of this post I’ve only read RHIANNON without any prior knowledge of the series and I enjoyed it enough that I plan to read the rest of the series. However, I can’t say this story is for everyone since it is rather old (originally published in 1981) and so it doesn’t exactly read like a modern historical. For instance, while the hero and heroine get plenty of screen time their romance is secondary to the political plot that frames their story and they spend a lot of time apart. The writing is also a bit on the purple prosey side, but I thought it was charming rather than annoying and even absolutely beautiful at points.

Despite the time period it was written in though, I found it way ahead of its time (for the most part) and absolutely adored the characters, especially the hero and the heroine. The heroine is the titular Rhiannon, an introvert from Wales with a wild, independent streak. She might also be a witch although she won’t admit it due the era in which the story is set. However, she does have well-written empathetic tendencies and the ability to calm animals with a touch. Furthermore she has an awesome cat named Math; I’ll talk about him a little more later. Her only issue is that she’s afraid of mushy feelings like love because somehow that will take away her freedom.

The hero, on the other hand is a man named Simon who falls in love with her at first sight. He’s the typical manly man who loves battle and has slept with a bunch of other women and because of that is great in bed. I wouldn’t call him an alpha hero though , because he knows that Rhiannon is afraid of losing her freedom and tries his best to respect her boundaries while he pursues her, which is one of the many things that made this book special to me, even with its flaws. One of the biggest being the entire interior conflict that separates them being Rhiannon’s fear of losing her independence and therefore refusing to marry Simon even though that would benefit everyone, including herself. What I found interesting about this conflict though was the fact that in most romance novels it’s the hero with that issue, not the heroine, keep in mind this book was written during the “bodice ripper” era. As a result I didn’t let it bother too much, at least until the end when this issue was dragged out way to long before finally being resolved. For now I’d like to talk about Rhiannon’s awesome cat I mentioned earlier.

Math was another element of this book that I absolutely adored. I’m a cat person, so any book that features a cat as a mascot-typed character will get my attention. What I loved about Math in particular is that he never stops acting a cat, while still being a loyal companion for Rhiannon; he even helps save her a couple times in the book.

The first group of supporting characters includes Simon’s family, they were developed just enough so that they served a little more of a purpose than making cameos and being sequel bait , but still left me wanting to get to know them better in their own story. The second groups are a bunch of historical figures such as “Mad King Henry” and various members of his court such as the duke of Winchester. The last group includes some minor villains who are dealt with almost as quickly as they appear and Rhiannon’s family. At the start of the books I liked her parents (who live separately by the way, which is interesting and kind of contributes to Rhiannon’s issues ) almost as much as Simon’s family , but Gellis unintentionally made them kind of manipulative towards the end, especially Rhiannon’s dad. Which leads to what I think is this book’s weakest point, the ending. If you don’t want to be spoiled skip the next two paragraphs.

The last few chapters were incredibly tropey and a little bit out of character on both Rhiannon’s part and the part of her dad. The final chapters start with the book’s final battle. Simon goes off to fight in it right after Rhiannon essentially breaks up with him and then her angsts for several chapters. Her parents, particularly her dad take a turn for the manipulative. For the sake of his relations with King Henry he puts a lot of pressure on Rhiannon to marry Simon and even thinks to himself that he will do it “by hook or by crook”. I don’t think Gellis intended him to come off that way, but unfortunately he does, even after earlier in the book when he promised himself he wouldn’t pressure Rhiannon into anything. This is justified by him claiming that he’s using his words to get her to pressure herself into marriage, but again it doesn’t come off that way.

After talking to her dad she goes to her mom and gets more pressure put on her to marry Simon, but at least her mom does use the pressure to help Rhiannon talk through the problems that caused her commitment issues, so it isn’t as bad. Once she does get past them, Rhiannon immediately grabs the distress ball by running off to the battlefield to immediately tell Simon her feelings, with two weak guards and her cat as her only protection. Inevitably her and her guards are captured by the opposing side and Math has to rescue her. This particular scene wouldn’t have annoyed me so much if she hadn’t avoided a similar situation earlier by being clever and acting before she thinks.

Despite the lackluster ending, I loved this book. The characters are well fleshed out, the plot is interesting, and Simon and Rhiannon are an adorable couple, plus there’s a cat. I highly recommend picking this one up. I give it a Good certification and I fully intend to read the rest of the series.