Gail Link’s WOLF’S EMBRACE – Stockholm syndrome Irish Style

This was a difficult book to review. On the positive side, the story was well-written, fast paced and held my attention. The hero was strong and noble (for the most part) and the heroine (at least initially) was strong and independent. But as the plot moved along there were developments that were inconsistent with her character and frankly, not believable.

 

It begins in Ireland in 1476 as Sybelle Fitzgerald, daughter of the English Earl of Derran and royal sheriff in York, is preparing for a servant’s wedding at the small castle in Ireland Sybelle’s father gave her on her last birthday. Rolf O’Dalaigh, the Irish Earl of Killroone, has a grudge against Sybelle’s father: he believes the English earl abducted Rolf’s young ward and has taken her virtue. So Rolf intends to take Sybelle’s.

 

OK, I was following the story of Rolf’s revenge just fine…and Sybelle’s abduction by Rolf was believable. But then Rolf rapes her (not a forced seduction; a rape). I expected Sybelle, a high spirited, independent and intelligent young woman of 20 years, to be angry, to plot revenge, to design an escape. But no. She claims to want to leave, but she acts like she is there to stay, becoming the hostess of Rolf’s castle, learning all about “his people,” and willingly going to his bed, even initiating lovemaking. This notwithstanding he sometimes treated her like his slave. I kept waiting for her to get a spine. She never did. The only explanation I could come up with for such a change in her character is the Stockholm syndrome (the phenomenon in which hostages express empathy and positive feelings towards their captors, even defending them—which she did).

 

For two months Sybelle plays the chatelaine, joining in dinners, going hawking with Rolf, entertaining guests, etc. Pathetic. Then, after two months she decides it’s time to leave (now that she’s pregnant, of course). A woman in the castle whose been in her confidence tells Sybelle the babe is proof the ancient ones meant for her and Rolf to be together. I’m sorry, but the only thing her pregnancy was proof of was his rape.

 

Link writes well and tells a good story, and perhaps others might not have the problem with the “Stockholm syndrome”. I just wish Link didn’t engage in such bizarre plot developments to try and make it interesting.