Veils of Silk [Paperback]

What follows is their marriage, and journey through India to tie up loose ends. This novel has a lot of historical detail about India, the culture, and political problems along the Khyber Pass.
Laura and Ian find themselves in some Indian intrigue, as well as deciphering the coded secrets of the bible Pytor left behind. During this time, Ian finds his impotence was only temporary and now is in a bind. He is attracted to Laura but feels guilty about breaking his promise. Overall, the way they both come to terms with the sexuality issue is interesting and becomes romantic as they do fall in love.

One of MJP strongest suits is that she addresses issues atypical in the romance industry, such as depression and impotence. She is unafraid to push the boundaries of historical romance fiction. In my opinion, this puts her in class that is a cut above the usual.

Overall, this novel is very enjoyable. However, be prepared for lots of secondary Indian politics and intrigue.

Lara, now calling herself Laura, has just watched her stepfather die when Ian finds her. She is alone in the world, and also, he notices, wary of physical contact with men. One legacy of the Black Well, however, is that it has made Ian impotent; so he offers her what he believes will be a safe, affectionate, but passionless marriage. Laura, who likes Ian and feels safe with him, accepts.

Of course, Ian's disability isn't permanent, so at a later stage they have to deal with the consequences, and Laura has to confront her memories and fears. Ian also has his demons, which haunt his nightmares and sometimes make him difficult to live with. Gradually, over a period of a few months and in the course of their journey across India, these two tortured souls heal each other.

But the romantic/emotional plot isn't all there is to this book, which is why I've rated it less than the five stars I normally give Putney. Again, she has a strong dramatic plot - and I generally prefer her books without them - but she's also chosen to locate the book in colonial India. That, for a start, would have put me off buying the book had it been written by anyone other than Putney; as it was, it was difficult for me to empathise with Ian's feelings as far as that part of the plot was concerned, since my sympathies were with those who would prefer to overthrow British rule!

At one stage I did find myself getting somewhat frustrated with the emotional plot, since it seemed as if any time Laura made a step forward Ian would regress a stage, and vice versa! However, in the end that aspect of the book was satisfying.

I did wonder about Ian's mother: after all, she's the woman who was pestering the British Consul in Constantinople for months on end in Silk and Secrets, trying to get someone to find out whether her son was alive or not; and it was she who sent Ross to find Ian. In neither Silk and Secrets nor this book did we see or hear about Ian's reunion with his mother! And what about the British government, which effectively left him to die?

In relation to the series, I was disappointed not to see more of the characters from earlier books in each successive one; all we get is a brief epilogue at the end of each, which isn't enough for characters we've grown fond of. Putney did better in her Fallen Angels series, allowing other characters to reappear in more substantial roles.

The most amazing thing about this novel is the main characters. Both are flawed individuals whose flaws first seem to fit together beautifully (so they embark on a marriage built around those "flaws"), but as the story unfolds, this fit disintegrates, leaving them with the challenge of addressing their individual demons and coming together, or blowing apart in a maelstrom of hurt and anger. The heroine alternately embraces and rejects her own struggle, in an entirely plausible way, and eventually takes ahold of herself and steps up to the challenge posed by her marriage. The hero, meanwhile, is fighting his own battles against the results of being traumatized (as a minor character in the earlier novel _Silk_and_Secrets_, which I also recommend). In the end, these characters come together as healed lovers, whose healing grew out of their courage.

And it's all believably set in 19th century India. The place and time are evoked beautifully, and the action of the plot is firmly grounded in history. In some ways, the plot is a little over-wrought, but then, so was British India at that time.

This book stands up to rereading wonderfully.