Guest Review: Having Patience by Debra Glass

Throughout their long engagement, James Camplyon, Earl of Somerset, has fantasized about Patience Hadley Mims’ silken skin and voluptuous curves. He expects his witty, beautiful bride to be timid on their wedding night. But Patience is far more than shy. She is terrified!

James presents his reluctant bride with a box of risque novels, ordering her to choose a passage each night for them to act out. Despite her fears, Patience thinks being bound and blindfolded will undo the hard-learned lessons of a lifetime. But she doesn’t count on her husband’s patient resolve to strip away the dark secrets threatening to prevent her from giving herself to him completely.

This is the first novella I have read by this author and I have to say that as a historical romance it was somewhat impressive. I am always just a little disappointed that writers do not expand their plots and story development and that this particular publisher features novellas more than the longer works. However, Ms Glass certainly puts a great deal of story into this shortened form.

I is well known historically that 19th century women came to the marriage bed with almost no real useful informaton about the intimacies between husband and wife, and if they knew anything at all, the information was fraught with the prevailing cultural opinion that there was no joy to be had in the sexual act. Most were not even informed as to the physical nature of that act–some even believing that women became pregnant if their husband’s kissed them. Patience wasn’t quite that ignorant, but because of her mother’s death when she was 4 years old, and having only a spinster governess to instruct her, she was truly unprepared for the loving attentions of her husband. She was fortunate, possibly not even knowing, that her husband wanted her to experience true joy and authentic intimacy in their marriage, so Patience’s terror of sex was a puzzle and a great frustration to him, not only physically but endangering the future of their relationship.

I came to appreciate James’ creativity in addressing Patience’s phobia. Of course, he was unaware, as was her father, that her terror stemmed from her brother’s accidental death from falling down the stairs, and her mother’s subsequent early labor which resulted in not only her death, but the death of her unborn child. Patience was made the brunt of this happening by this same governess. Nasty and unprincipled lady!! And so she became afraid, to the point of emotional shut-down, of all loving relationships, believing that anyone she loved would die in a terrible way. Her response to bondage was, in truth, a self-punishment for the damage she had caused in the death of her brother and mother. Only in mild BDSM could she find any genuine passion.

I don’t know why people project their own anger on to others, especially innocent children, and this story is really about the fall-out from such projection and the ripple effect on the lives not connected with the original incident. It is also about the power of genuine love to overcome adverse circumstances, a love that will not rest until all barriers between lovers are resolved and desolved.

I liked these characters and enjoyed seeing the progress of their journey of discovery. I liked James’ determination to relieve Patience of her deep fears. I truly appreciated the way this story brought all the various threads together into a really lovely romance that I think is well told and has true literary merit. I look forward to reading other works by this author. I give this novella a rating of 4 out of 5.

This book is available from Ellora’s Cave. You can buy it here in e-format.

You can read more from Judith at Dr. J’s Book Place.