Untamed

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY 1 MAR 1993

Lowell ( Only His ) opens her medieval trilogy with a fanciful but banal story of Lady Margaret, who marries the Norman knight Dominic le Sabre in the hope that he can protect her Saxon home, Blackthorne Keep, during troubled times. In marrying him, she defies the dying wish of John of Cumbriland, who raised her: that she wed his illegitimate son, Duncan of Maxwell. Meg and Dominic are surrounded by threats: Duncan is poised to disrupt the wedding; Eadith, Meg's attendant, hates the Normans, who killed ``her husband, father, brothers, and uncles'' (women relatives seem of no concern); Meg's powerful home-brewed medicine has been stolen and her ``Glendruid'' psychic powers indicate impending danger. Lowell's clumsy tale appears to glorify a system that ranks females as less valuable than males. Dominic seeks a male heir, but Meg's eccentric Glendruid reproductive system may deny him his wish: Glendruid women are not known for producing sons. If Dominic gives Meg ``great pleasure'' in bed, he will earn himself a daughter, but it takes ``great love'' to produce a son. Major ad/promo.