The Valcourt Heiress

I know that Catherine Coulter is a New York Times best-selling author, and the opening of the book was promising.  She did have me partway through her latest, The Valcourt Heiress (#64) until Ms. Coulter brought in the element of witchery.  She had a good, semi-believable medieval story going to that point.  As far as I was concerned, though, I basically lost interest as the rest of her plot dissolved into ridiculous silliness. 

I really enjoy well done historical fiction.  It should not have to rely on fantasy when the author runs out of other ideas.  Nor did she use the fantasy to bring the book to a satisfying conclusion.  The plot just sort of piddled out with untied threads all over the place, a device that I think personally is used solely to justify yet another sequel.  Contrast  A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness (see my previous post) which combines both well-researched historical with a first rate fantasy with gripping effect to this lack luster effort.

None of the characters are well-developed in The Valcourt Heiress.  Garron, as the hero is pretty one-dimensional.  His revenge is supposedly motivated by the slaughter of the people at Wareham, his brother's castle, by the mysterious Black Demon.  Frankly, when the Black Demon is finally revealed, no one seems particularly terrified by him, and why would they be?  He is a whining, pathetic loser who does not seem capable of the kind of destruction he is claimed to have caused.  You can't even believe he's capable of pulling the wings off flies, let alone getting a kick out of torturing children.  Nor is Garron intelligent, which he keeps claiming about Merry, the heroine.  Her best developed feature is her tiny braids hidden amongst the glorious, fat red plaits of hair.  Give me a break!  Her hair certainly gets more play than anything else, probably because there isn't much else to this over-wrought heiress.

If I were you, I'd skip this book and move onto something a lot more fun with a much more thoughtful conclusion.  If you're looking for romance, Nora Roberts' Bride Quartet would be a much better place to start.