Squee from the Keeper Shelf is a feature wherein we share why we love the books we love, specifically the stories which are permanent residents of our Keeper shelves. Despite flaws, despite changes in age and perspective, despite the passage of time, we love particular books beyond reason, and the only thing better than re-reading them is telling other people about them. At length.
If you’d like to submit your reasons for loving and keeping a particular book for Squee from the Keeper Shelf, please email Sarah!
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My favourite romance novels of all time are the four books of Jude Deveraux’s Velvet series: Velvet Promise, Highland Velvet, Velvet Song and Velvet Angel. I first read them when I was about fourteen, and the impact of these books on my reading, my writing, and probably my love life cannot be overstated. My friends and I sat in our boarding school dorm and devoured—lived, breathed, slept, dreamed, ate up—these books and their one-for-each-of-us heroes: Gavin, Stephen, Raine, and Miles. The names still dredge up a sigh of contentment, of nostalgia for a simpler life when we could dream of meeting boys who would miraculously be just like them (spoiler alert: I married Raine).
All these years later, I have found that every hero of every romance novel fits one or a blend of two of these brothers. The hero of my first manuscript is Gavin mixed with Miles; book 2’s guy is Raine. Book 4’s is Stephen. Not because I’m copying these books, but because Ms. Deveraux gave us heroes with different strengths and flaws which make for good stories no matter what era you set them in. It’s like getting a lesson in character arcs and having a rollicking good time while you’re at it.
That’s not to say that, like 99% of Eighties romances, there aren’t serious issues with the plots these four gents and their feisty, abundantly-haired heroines get into. I’ll get to that. But Ms. Deveraux gave me a blueprint not only for how a woman should be treated (yeah, like I said, I’ll get to that), but the emotions that a good romance should evoke in a reader. I’ll be applying those rules for the rest of my life. The heroines in these books are strong-willed women who wield power in their own way. While they sometimes have to submit to the mores of the time, they figure out ways to turn them to their advantage, and generally take very little shit from the heroes. The heroes are… well, let’s get to that.
In Velvet Promise, Judith, who has been brought up to become a prioress, is forced to marry Gavin Montgomery instead. Gavin is your basic alpha male. You’d be forgiven for thinking his name is Hawk because that’s what she describes him as most often. Gavin runs the family property (and this is the best bit) badly, although he runs around like a headless chicken (hawk?) trying his best, poor lamb. Judith is used to running her awful father’s lands and so comes in and instantly makes Gavin’s life better. But first he hits her and then he rapes her. Sigh. I know. Eighties, right? He’s all kinds of sorry in a macho ‘I could have done better than that her first time’ way the next morning, but there’s no getting away from the fact that he’s a total asshole at this point in the story.
BUT. (Okay, there’s never a ‘but’ where rape is concerned, but I’m going to ask you to go with it for now.) We are given so much of Gavin’s background that all his missteps, and there are many, are kinda sorta understandable (okay, not the rape part, but stay with me). He’s been left with almost no female company his whole life, except for the manipulative and godawful Alice, who has become his version of what the perfect woman is. We know Alice is a money-grubbing harpy who’ll have people killed to get her way, but to Gavin she’s a simpering miss who wells up in big pretty tears whenever he gets close to figuring out who she really is. She didn’t even show any signs of pain the first time they had sex. She swore it was her first time. It thoroughly wasn’t. Alice likes rough, violent sex and the power she can wield through it. She is the benchmark of comparison by which the intelligent, upstanding, red-haired Judith is judged and found wanting. Even when Gavin acknowledges that Judith kicks butt, he’s all confused because he thinks he’s in love with Alice.
All kinds of dreadful medieval things happen here, including, as someone on Amazon pointed out, a lot more rape (but not by Gavin again). I honestly don’t think it’s put there to titillate, or to imply that it’s a good basis for a relationship and the woman will always forgive you. I read these books at a very tender age, and the lesson I learned is, Gavin deserves a kick in the nuts, and this is never an acceptable way to treat a woman.
Eventually, Judith loses a baby because of Alice and Gavin learns what real love, and real grief, is. He realizes his mistake and is genuinely lovely to Judith. Alice can’t stand it, goes nuts and nearly kills Judith, scarring herself in the process. It’s a great book about redemption, though Gavin is remarkably stupid at first.
Highland Velvet is about Stephen, the blond one. He is sent by the king to marry Bronwyn MacArran, who unusually has been made laird of her clan. This is the Hot Scot plot with a twist—she’s the hot scot and she schools him in so many ways it’s just… delightful. Stephen goes from being the arrogant Englishman, off to teach the heathen Scots the correct way to go about their business, to being a man proud of his wife’s power, and ready to be her helpmate in any way she needs. He embraces her clan, and her culture, body and soul. Plus he’s got awesome legs in that plaid.
But more awful things happen to people in their families, partly coordinated by Alice, who is still scarred and still nuts. She married into the Chatworth family and because of her actions, and those of her brother-in-law, the families become deadly enemies. Raine, the third brother, retaliates against the Chatworths and is declared an outlaw (because you would be, wouldn’t you).
In Velvet Song, we meet Alyx, a wonderfully ordinary heroine, except that she has incredible hair and a remarkable singing voice. But she is forced to pretend to be a boy and goes into Raine’s outlaw camp to seek shelter as his squire. You can imagine the hilarity that ensues. Alyx is an inveterate snob and thinks herself above the people Raine is helping in the camp (though she is merchant class and also yells at Raine for the extravagance of the rich). Raine—built like a brick privy, think sexy Hagrid without the beard—is a voice for the poor and teaches Alyx their value. They make love when he’s in a fever and all that his-huge-sweaty-body-on-her-slim-boyish-but-not-too-boyish-one is great stuff. Then when he wakes up he pretends he doesn’t remember and orders her around for another few minutes before she figures it out. It’s fantastic.
A woman who has lusted after Raine for ever, and caught him once, is jealous of Alyx and contrives to have her thrown out of the camp for stealing. No one defends Alyx because they know she looks down on them. Raine is about to leave with her, which would leave him open to arrest as soon as he leaves the forest (oh, yeah, Robin Hood anyone? You UK peeps will remember Robin of Sherwood was on TV at about this time and, I’m just sayin’, Michael Praed. Le Sigh.) So Alyx kisses another guy (her only friend) in front of Raine and pretends she never loved him so he won’t leave with her. “‘Have I been a fool?’” he says, and we all weep.
She and her friend leave and end up as minstrels at the house of the Chatworths. Alyx is heavily pregnant and has been helping out the poor people she meets on the road. See? Satisfying character arc! At the Chatworths a bad guy recognizes Alyx and kidnaps her to get Raine out in the open; at the same time they kidnap Elizabeth Chatworth, beautiful sister-in-law of crazy Alice, and decide it would be a great lark to deliver her to Miles, the last brother, whom I used to wish REALLY HARD was real.
Alyx is nearly burned at the stake, Raine’s gang rescue her, but oh noes, he hates her because she tricked him. Eventually she sends their daughter to him and that breaks the ice, and it’s all good, but let’s move on because Miles.
The Velvet Angel in question is Elizabeth, who is delivered to Miles naked in a rug. Elizabeth is pathologically afraid of men, and with good reason. Her psychotic brother, whom Alice married, would place bets with his friends on which of them could take her virginity, so she learned long ago how to fight them off, literally.
Miles, to make it all interesting, is the Pied Piper for women. As the story points out several times, no woman has ever said no to him: “Even newborn girls clung to him.” Okay, so get it? He’s a chick magnet. And Elizabeth is his polar opposite. His reputation has also exaggerated his prowess, so she believes he has an army of bastard children, and since she loves children, she hates him even more. In fact, he has four, whose backgrounds we are told so we don’t believe he’s an asshole. Also, medieval, so, no birth control! What’s a man to do??!
Miles sets out to break through Elizabeth’s fear and it’s a splendid third of the book where his actions and those of his men, who aren’t assholes either, teach her that some men can be trusted. Of course, he’s hot as molasses in July and when Elizabeth gets drunk one day, off they go. Now, you could, and perhaps should, have a problem with all the times Miles was touching her, holding her on his horse, kissing her (she wipes it away each time) and generally getting in her personal space without permission. But… if he’d sat on the other side of the room and made his points with flowcharts it wouldn’t have been quite the same story. When they do come together (*snigger*) her release of all that fear and pain is superb.
But of course that can’t be the end of the story. Elizabeth’s slightly-less-awful brother (although whether you forgive him for what he did in Book 2 is up for discussion) comes for her and she leaves with him so he won’t kill Miles. Miles thinks this is a bad idea, to put it mildly.
One of the things that makes this more than a run-of-the-mill romance is that Elizabeth’s choices are not clearcut. She has Miles, yes, but her brother has a whole other side to the story, and she doesn’t know who to believe for a while. The plot jumps the shark here a little, but the misunderstandings and reconciliations are well laid out. In the end, the women band together and save Miles from Alice’s last and most trumped-up scheme. It’s all wrapped up with a lovely bow and the promise of future books. Which I didn’t read because after Miles, there was nowhere else for me to go.
And there you have it. Four men, four women, four stories, infinite permutations. Gavin is the alpha male who needs to be schooled. Stephen, the thoughtful beta who will fight to the death for those he considers his people. Raine is the educated mountain man looking for beauty in art. And Miles is the strong, silent type whom you just can’t resist once he turns his eyes on you. I give you the Montgomery brothers. You are welcome.
The Velvet Montgomery series comes from Kimberly Ash’s Keeper Shelf! Kimberley Ash is a writer, mom, and British ex-pat, who has lived in and loved New Jersey for twenty years. When not cleaning up after her two big white furry dogs, she writes contemporary romance and women’s fiction, and contemplates ex-pat life. You can find her on her website, and on Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest.
The Velvet Montgomery series are on her keeper shelf because they are the benchmark for emotional trauma and hotness factor against which all other romances are compared. Also, if she hasn’t mentioned it yet, Miles.
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Oh god, Velvet Angel. The first romance novel I ever read, having found and “repurposed” it from my absent elder cousin’s bookshelf. There is so much wrong with it, so much, but boy did it stay with me!
I ended up reading Velvet Promise and Highland Velvet as well, and yes, they do have a lot of (typical 80s romance) problems. You touched on all the rape, and though you didn’t name it outright, you talked a lot about the “awful other woman” trope that runs rampant in this series. Also, there’s a lot of magic wang here. In short, romance novel clichés abound – there’s something here for everyone! (And I mean that in the kindest, most nostalgically loving way!)
Great squee! Almost makes we want to re-read them and maybe even read Velvet Song (I was never a fan of the “girl dresses up as boy” trope).
I read a lot of JD back in my early romance reading days (A Knight in Shining Armor was one of my gateway books) but I don’t recall reading these. Suddenly I find myself in the mood for some Old Skool crazysauce!
OMG! OMG! OMG! THESE BOOKS!! Everything you said, Kim. I started with The Black Lyon, which I blame for the phrase “You’re the Black Lyon all over.” popping into my head whenever an especially hairy person is seen.
And then came his descendants, the Montgomery brothers. Le sigh. It has been decades since I last read them, and yet so many things still stick in my brain: Stephen flipping up his plaid to show Brownwyn’s men what he’s not wearing under it. That Raine is described as a broadsword compared to Miles’ epee. So every time a character is describe one way or the other they pop into my brain. Miles and Elizabeth and the tarts. THE TARTS! Elizabeth and all the children. And Gavin… oh, the feels.
Yes, they are creatures of the time period. They are old skool with all the problems that entails in terms of agency & consent (although, if memory serves, Gavin is the only one who egregiously crosses that line). It was the convention of the day in a time period where women enjoying their sexuality still had deep dark implications, but the audience was still asking for sexual content. And I’ll say, IMO, on a world where women STILL aren’t allowed the agency of their own bodies, where girls are married off to men old enough to be their fathers, or grandfathers, where women’s genitalia are mutilated in the name of cultural mores, where women are raped as a way to shame their families and then killed so their family can save face, those old skool books aren’t nearly as offensive as real life. We may have come a long way in romance fiction, but as a species, not so much.
And some day all you 20 somethings are going to have to explain all the 1st person narrative New Adult books out there. And the god awful BDSM craze.
The later Montgomery books take place in the American West up into contemporary times. It’s actually interesting to see how a writer with such a long career evolved over time.
What a fabulous and fun review!
Those four books are my “go to” when I need to read something fun and hot all at once. I’ve read and reread them and rereread them and repeat!
I can’t stop gushing about MY brothers to anyone who will listen and force read them to my friends!
Those four books are my first memories of all night reading and probably made me a fan of historical romance to which I’m still faithful more than twenty years later.
And Raine is the one for me ^_^
SO.MUCH.SQUEE. I loved these books so hard, I literally wore the covers off. My first-born is named Stephen because of Highland Velvet (even though everyone in my family assumed he was named for St. Stephen – hah!). Wonderful, wonderful review.
These 4 books are the reason that Jude Deveraux (Up until Knight in Shining Armor) is my favourite of all romance writers. And I’ve been reading romance for a good… 45+ years. Stephen is and always will be my hero. He’s the reason I have a big soft spot for Highland romances. I would love, love, LOVE to own these books in hardcover but sadly, I don’t think they were ever published in HC.
And I do agree with Kimberly when she says that the books taught her how women should be treated and how the heroines were all strong and intelligent women. And in the end, well, they won the day. 🙂
Oh… my all-time favourites of all romances.
A tattered copy of Highland Velvet was on my keeper shelf for years. I married a dark-haired Stephen. Beta heroes are still my Kryptonite. I’m not a female Scottish laird, but I lead a team in a male-dominated industry. Being a young woman in the early 80s, the strong, brave heroines, like Bronwyn or Bertrice Small’s Skye O’Malley, of these Old Skool romances became part of my subconcious. I was much braver in my career than my mother ever was. There was sometimes a lack of consent in the Old Skool stories, but, alas, the heroine always responded to the magic wanker.
Thanks, Kimberly and all, for a trip down memory lane!
I’ve read these books and they are what put me off ever reading anything by this person ever again. First of all, there is no research into history. Secondly, they are just ridiculously written.
I read all of the Velvets several times, for some reason “Song” was my favorite. I’ve been tempted to go back to them, but I’m afraid the Old Skool crazysauce would be too much for me now and I want to retain my enjoyable nostalgia about them.
I remember, even at the time, feeling that the male attitudes presented were probably not too far off being historically accurate, and the purple prose worked for me as “how do we have fun and sexytimes and HEA in this miserable, violent, nasty, and brutish milieu.”
Better books by her: Sweet Liar and Twin of Ice.
I have both of those in my home library but while I enjoyed them very much, they don’t hold that same place in my heart as the original Montgomery quartet. 🙂
Back in the day, I really went for these, and I had all 4 on my keeper shelf. The first one I read, and my favorite was “Highland Velvet”, and Gavin was my least favorite. Was there ever a man who was such a poor judge of character? But it had a lot of castle porn, which I love. By which I mean, the heroine comes in and whips the place into shape. I could read about stillrooms and how to provision a castle for a siege all day. Plus if the heroine adds some greens to their diet, I won’t have to imagine their teeth falling out from scurvy.
I somehow never read the first book in this series but read the rest and loved them!!! Rains was my favorite too. But I did love Twin of Ice better! I still reread that one.
I think I read almost all of the Montgomery books, not just these 4… for me, I can look back with nostalgia, but I am in such a different place in my reading now that I think I would probably DNF the Miles and Gavin books for sure, and probably even the Raine one. Still, teenaged me in the late 80s/early 90s read all of them. From the library. Some in hardcover!
As far as heroines go, Alyx was my FAVOURITE and one of the main reasons that “disguised as squire/servitor/assistant” is one of my catnip tropes – even with the power imbalance issues this can imply.
@TOMKE i loved sweet liar!
I’m amused by the couple named Raine and Alex. It reminds me of the main couple in Celeste De Blasis Swan Trilogy: Rane who would remind people who commented on his name that it was R-a-n-e not R-a-i-n and Alex. It was set in a different time period, and dressing as a boy wasn’t really a main part of the plot, but the female main character would dress up in her brother’s clothes to go horseback riding.
I suppose this sort of strong-heroine story comes from the view that men “in their natural state” don’t know how to treat their partner right (certainly feminists today would say that nearly all men have A LOT of patriarchal conditioning to overcome), but that they can make acceptable husbands if their wife schools them.
I’ve read two of these 80s books myself. One was by Julie Garwood I think, and I didn’t like it; the hero didn’t do nearly enough atoning for how he rode roughshod over the heroine’s consent, in fact he didn’t apologize, he just proved he loved the heroine and therefore she forgave him; and he didn’t change very much (a little). I will take you guys’ word that the Velvet books are better!
The other was Lord of Scoundrels which I love, in spite of recognizing that it falls into the problematic pattern of distribution of emotional labor that I talk about in my next paragraph. The heroine there certainly does a huge amount of work figuring out her cantankerous husband’s ways and working around them. But it’s enjoyable because of being well written and because the heroine is simply so good at what she does (she’s the boss!); and more importantly, the hero does recognize (some part of) what he’s done wrong and he does change quite a lot.
One way that feminism now would differ is in the recognition that there is such a thing as emotional labor, and women are expected to do a disproportionate amount. How much teaching one’s husband, and compensating for him, and managing him, is it acceptable to do? Not only do modern romance novels generally I think a feminist romance novel ought to acknowledge that a man needs to work on his own problems even if he doesn’t start out realizing that he needs to do so…
Oh, how I loved and reread these books countless times in high school and college! I started with Highland Velvet, and found the others eventually. Stephen and Miles were my favorite heroes, and I loved all the heroines with the possible exception of Alyx. The whole dressing-as-a-boy thing is a miss for me.
This series got me to introduce a friend of mine to JD, and she thanks me to this day, nearly 35 years later. I don’t know that I want to go back and read them now. I would hate to tarnish the memories. But thank you so much for this squee-filled review!
Jude Deveraux was part of my 80’s romance writers Holy Trinity: Beatrice Small, Jude Deveraux, and Johanna Lindsey. BTW, this is my all time (for now) SBTB most favoritest (because, not enough superlatives in the WORLD) post EVER: http://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/2013/06/barbie-the-raider-the-washboard-and-me/
Behold The Raider Barbie collection!