Rant
Genre: Historical: American, Western, Romance
Sarah asked us to think about throwback series, and I knew immediately that I wanted to discuss the Orphan Train Series by Linda Lael Miller. I remembered them VERY FONDLY from my early teenagerhood (early 1990s) and wondered how well they would hold up.
I was pretty sure the answer was going to be in the realm of “not great” but it turns out, no, it’s all the way over in “VERY VERY BADLY.”
In the mid-1800s, three little girls, Caroline, Emma, and Lily, were sent by their mother (at the behest of her soldier lover) on the Orphan Train out west. The Orphan Trains were an attempt at coping with overcrowded orphanages in the eastern cities: kids would be loaded on a train, and the train would stop in Western towns where people would look over the available children and take them. Sometimes this worked out for the kids. Sometimes it did not. In the case of our three romance heroines, it was a mixed bag, as they were adopted separately, and all three of them are focused on finding their sisters again as adult.
In the first book, Lily is in Washington state, where she is working towards her dream of getting a homestead of her own. She’s the youngest, and when she was lost in the city as a little girl, her older sister told her to stay put, and Lily thinks the best way for her to do that is to get a homestead. If she plants roots and sends out letters asking about her sisters to every town in the West, eventually her sisters will find her.
Caleb Halliday is the major and hero (in all the Old Skool meanings of the word) and he sees Lily while she’s working at a hotel dining room and goes, “Ah, yes, I would like this woman as my mistress (because I am Real Man Who Does Not Marry).” Lily is not interested in marriage or in mistressing, and also, due to her being sent from her home and her mother because of a soldier, SHE REALLY FUCKING DOESN’T LIKE SOLDIERS.
But he courts her with a determination borne of men that don’t hear “no” and talks about how much fun it will be to “tame” her and there’s even a point where he’s literally an inch from spanking her and only stops because someone walks into the house. They eventually fuck, a lot, all over the place, inside, outside, upstairs, downstairs, in many a chamber. They have an incredibly exhausting relationship where sometimes he wants to get married, and she doesn’t, and sometimes she wants to get married, and he doesn’t. Why all of these swings in mood? Unclear.
This isn’t even getting into the laundress/prostitute subplot.
Caleb has a sad sad backstory wherein he grew up in Pennsylvania, and he fought in the Civil War on the side of the Union, and his older brother fought on the side of the Confederates, “Because a man doesn’t like the government telling him what to do.” Yeah, like “don’t own slaves.” (Like many a post-Civil War western where the Civil War is a backstory plot point, the issue of slavery doesn’t come up. At all.) Caleb and his brother met again on the battlefield in Gettysburg, where the brother was wounded and begged Caleb to kill him so that he wouldn’t be taken to a prison (to be fair, the prisons for enemy combatants on both sides were horrific). Caleb did not kill his brother, his brother went to a prison and survived, and he told Caleb he would never forgive him. Caleb never went home again, and instead stayed in the army and went out west.
There were a lot of things I remembered very clearly about this book. I remembered Lily telling Caleb when they banged the first time that he was the first, and that it was important for her to do so. I also remembered that they had QUITE a lot of sex. I did not remember the “brother versus brother” aspect, nor quite how much back and forth “I want to marry you!” “Well, I do NOT want to marry you!” “Okay but now I DO want to marry you!” “Tough luck, now you are the last person on earth I could be prevailed upon to marry!” there was. I don’t think I was as completely annoyed with these two people and their horrid courtship as I am now. Between then and now, books evolved, our standards for expected behavior evolved, and my tolerance for douchebaggery absolutely eroded into nothingness.
This story does not hold up. At all. I don’t know why these two people like each other. Their entire relationship is based on sex and on Lily saying, “I am going to do this thing!” and Caleb going ,”Oh, aren’t you ADORABLE. But no. I will not allow you to do this thing.” And then they fight and then they fuck. Lily always is angry that she wants to fuck, because she doesn’t want to want it. I’m game for a good hatefuck, but this was just full of so many consent issues. Lily would say she doesn’t want to have sex, but Caleb would just KNOW that she really did. How did he know? Magic dick, I guess. But, as was usual in these Old Skool offerings, a no is negated by punishing kisses and wet bloomers.
(I read this pre-Kavanaugh, which I feel like is going to be a line of demarcation for a while. If post-Kavanaugh me had read this, I suspect that my Kindle and my walls would have taken some damage.)
Originally, when I was going to revisit this series, I was thinking I would get one of the books I didn’t have a copy of back in the day, but then the cover copy remind me that the hero of Caroline and the Raider was a former Confederate soldier, and I wasn’t willing to put up with what I’m pretty sure would be a “Well, you know, it was about FREEDOM” justification in a hero. I also remember being pretty damn annoyed by Emma in Emma and the Outlaw, so I didn’t really want to read her book.
I wonder if I liked this book as an impressionable teenager because it wasn’t as easy to get a new book as it is now. God, I had to put on PANTS and LEAVE THE HOUSE. The E-Reader Revolution definitely helped me learn to put down a book I wasn’t enjoying. I will not be revisiting Caroline or Emma. Life is too short. Life is too short for any of y’all to read this, unless you want a pretty solid example of what the industry was publishing in the 1990s.
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I definitely think the easy access to ebooks has made me less tolerant of shitty books. It used to be hard for me, as a shy, embarrassed kid/teenager, to get ahold of romance books in the first place, so I kind of just settled for what I could get. Now, I have a better idea of what I will and will not tolerate in a book, thank god.
There’s an old saying: You never read the same book twice, because you’re always a different person every time you reread it. This is especially true for women have been reading voraciously since their pre-teen years and have been aware of the political/social climate for much of that time (I would assume that description covers a good 99% of the Bitchery at least). For example, I read GONE WITH THE WIND regularly for about 20 years, starting when I was 13. Then one day, (I’m ashamed to say I was already in my mid-thirties and considered myself fairly progressive) I asked myself why I was reading what amounted to racist Confederate propaganda with appalling sexual politics thrown in (Rhett rapes Scarlett—and, of course, she loves it!). I couldn’t reread GWTW now if you paid me. Same with all those old skool bodice rippers I consumed en masse from 1975 until the late 1980s. We’re always different people when we read something—all you can do is acknowledge the toxicity of some of what you read in the past—and move on. (I know all those boss/employee romances I’ve read in the last ten years are not going to hold up very well on a reread now.)
I think I read Caroline’s book back in the day out of one of those ‘fill a bag for $1’ library sales, and I had pretty much the same reaction as I did to ‘And One Rode West’. The Civil War is not just a Tragic Backstory! AUGH.
i read a few of her books waaay back when, and had to stop. the last one I read by her made me so mad i threw the book against the wall, never to read her stuff again.
I think I quit Linda Lael Miller during one book–I can’t remember the title, the book’s cover was red-and-gold and autumnal-looking–where the hero rescues a girl who’s about to be hanged, marries her out of pity, promptly has sex with her, and is just *appalled* because she was a virgin and he assumed he was marrying some shameless hussy he could have do the housework and bang without any kind of emotional connection. But because he took her virginity (and she liked it!), now he has feeeeeelings. I recall (gently) throwing the library paperback across the room.
Started reading her in the 00’s and did so for a few years before stopping. Can’t say her writing ever engendered within me a desire to throw her books against walls but it was all rather meh to me. It was about this time that I discovered that breaking up with authors needn’t be difficult or drawn out.
I read all of the books in this series back in the day, but remember absolutely nothing about any of them.
But I do commiserate with you over the pitfalls of revisiting cherished old favorites, discovering that something that once gave me such joy is now changed by my own different perspective, and only being able to say, “What were you thinking?” And the “you” is ambiguous. Sometimes I’m angry/disappointed at the author, sometimes at myself. (Sometimes just sad.) But, as @DiscoDollyDeb points out, that’s pretty much the nature of the beast when we get older and, hopefully, wiser.
All that said, I confess that there are *many* highly problematic books (and other media) that remain on my keeper shelf despite their issues. I can view them critically, acknowledge the issues, and accept that my lens has changed without needing to purge them from my life and experience entirely. And I’m OK with that, too.
Smart bitches, trashy books: Come for the (awesome!) book reviews, stay for the comment sections!
Thank you, @DiscoDollyDeb, for your eloquent and insightful comment. It was a pleasure to read!
I looooved that series back in the day. The day being pre-social media and pre-eBook, etc. etc. I imagine I’d be ranting right alongside you if I tried to re-read them now!
I read (and LOVED) her books when I was in my late 20s/early 30s. Then I went on romance novel hiatus for 10+ years, and when I came back she had taken all of the sex out of her writing. I found her stuff to be extremely boring after that and quit reading her. But the Orphan Train books are on my shelf, just can’t seem to let them go (although all the rest of my LLM collection went to HalfPrice Books). Back in the day I was really interested in and amused by reading thorny, contentious relationships as she wrote them (and as most romance authors wrote at that time), but now in my 50s I find myself to be more of a calm and collected “Mary Balogh” type of reader. But back in the day, LLM was one of my favs.
…is there some Orphan Train series that’s YA, because I read that but it was definitely NOT THIS. Like, more scrappy tween orphans, no sexing.
Agree with some others, used to read her all the time, and definitely still have the Orphan Train series, but she just got more boring, and finally stopped buying her new books. If I get the urge now, luckily my library has a great romance section.
But when I first saw the tag line for the post, I thought you were talking about the Avon True Romance young adult series, and was immediately like “IF THEY RUIN THAT FOR ME, I WILL BE ARGHARGH FURIOUS!” As that was my jumping off point into romance. (which I’m sure hasn’t held up either, but still some things you just don’t want to know as adult you)
Thank you for the rant. I needed that today. Truly.
Also, I reread Gone With the Wind (hadn’t read it since I was 13 and thought it was ‘romantic’). Horrendous. So horrible. So racist and utterly without consent and some more racist on top of that and Ithrew it in the GARBAGE because I did not want to give it away thus inflicting it on another reader. UGH!
Earlier this year, I re-read a book in which the hero was a southern Civil War vet and was so upset with myself for liking a man who fought for his right to own another person. The heroine also had this problem. Then, it came out that he fought for the Union and was ostracized by his family for it. The author was from Texas, so I had really started to worry about reading anything else by her again. Thankfully, I didn’t have to break up with an author or go into therapy over my cognitive dissonance because I liked a Confederate hero.
@DiscoDebDolly, there is rape in Gone With the Wind? I never wanted to read a pro-Confederacy novel, but I’m really surprised to find out that Rhett is a rapist. Ugh.
I’m yet another person who was raised up on Miller and then came back to her and went ‘nope!’
Believe it or not, the contemps she wrote for Harlequin are even worse with their domineering, asshole heroes.
@Scifigirl1986: Yes, there is a scene in GWTW where Rhett rapes Scarlett. The scene is extremely problematic for a number of reasons. Rhett and Scarlett have been married for several years, but have not shared a bedroom (or bed) since their daughter was born because Scarlett doesn’t want anymore children. Scarlett has always been in love with (but has never slept with) Ashley, a married man. Rhett knew Scarlett loved another man, but wanted to marry her anyway—and did. After a big party for Ashley, Rhett gets drunk, says some horrible things to Scarlett, and then carries her upstairs and rapes her. The next morning Scarlett revels in what happened. It seemed romantic (and sorta bodice-ripperish) when I was in my teens. Now…not so much.
I read GWTW and even watched the movie once. I don’t feel the need to read/watch it again. I prefer to look at is a historical anachronism of a time that was not good. I wonder how some Johana Lindsey books would hold up now? Are there any that don’t have alpha-hole issues? She was the first romance author I read in the early 90s and I think I prefer to remember her books through a misty haze.
@Scifigirl1986 It’s in the movie too. It’s the scene where he sweeps her up the stairs. The line “I’ll be the only man in your bed tonight” may have been in there?
@Ms. M, I’ve never seen Gone with the Wind. I’ve never even had the inclination to watch it, especially after I heard that the black actors weren’t invited to the premiere. It was bad enough that it took place in the Civil War South, but the way they were treated was just too much.
These books sound exactly like 50 Shades of Grey. Do they become popular every decade or so? Like with vampires? (The only difference is that vampires can change, whereas these rapey romances stay the same, often with the ‘lovers’ becoming more bland and unlikable, regressive).
@Angie: I read many an Old Skool Lindsey, as she’s my mom’s favorite author and was basically my entree into romance. (I first read *Gentle Rogue* in stolen snatches on sick days so my mom wouldn’t catch me reading beyond what she considered my level.) There are definitely consent issues all over the place in her earlier works, especially the Viking and medieval books, and some of the Westerns. I haven’t reread most of her work in a long time; partly my tastes changed overall and partly I cringe remembering some of the plot elements. To be fair, though, her recent work might be very different. I’ve only sporadically read her more recent stuff and can’t remember anything problematic – but I also don’t remember much in general.
This is exactly why I think I’m going to weed out some of the old books on my laden keeper shelves without rereading them again.
@DiscoDollyDeb and others:
The article I’m about to post seems to dismiss those who read romance novels and believe in romance, but it is otherwise insightful on Margaret Mitchell’s first marriage which may have inspired her to write that relationship the way she did. https://carolyngage.weebly.com/blog/tara-and-other-lies
And here’s another interesting one discussing those on whom the characters may have been based https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2844005/Racy-past-woman-created-Scarlett-Margaret-Mitchell-beauty-husband-raped-Gone-Wind-s-heroine-based-herself.html
Thanks for the review! E-readers are forever! It’s so great to know that there are always more books out there and you don’t have to read what you don’t want to read!
And thanks for the links in the comments!
Didn’t she also write the weird time-traveling vampire series? ( I wouldn’t have read this one because of the western theme, but I definitely read the crazy vampire books.)
I have checked and she IS the one who wrote the series about the weird time-traveling vampires! They’re crazy and you should totally subject yourself to them for my amusement. (Heaven knows I’m not going to do it again.)
Or you can just read the one-star goodreads review of the first one, I guess, but somehow that seems like cheating: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1941095261
I remember snitching my Mom’s copies of LLM books and loving them. She collected them all over 30 years and I inherited her set when she passed.
And man am I torn. The books don’t hold up for me either. Willow and Banner O’Brien were the SHIT wheb I was 14….now not so much.
I just reread The Legacy the other day, and cannot for the life of me understand the appeal. Asshole hero and spoiled heroine…he knocks up someone else while they’re dating (but technically before) and the conflict is maybe five pages…
Many good points. I read a lot of Western historical romance novels and if they take place during or after the Civil War, and if the hero fought for the Confederacy, slavery is never mentioned. The reasons are for the honor of the South, the US government has no right to tell the South what to do, etc., etc.
Ebooks have also saved me from reading beyond my tolerance level. Now, if I get annoyed with the author, hero or heroine, and it’s looking like the H&h will continue to behave like jerks, I stop reading and move on to something else. There’s lots of good books out there, no need to waste my time.
I am also encouraged how aware we are becoming of sexism, misogyny, and the treatment of women, even in romance novels. The changes of this awareness during the last 30 years gives me hope.