Reviews for Rise of an Eagle

The average rating for Rise of an Eagle based on 2 reviews is 2 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2017-06-07 00:00:00 Brian Spoczynski Rise of an eagle???!!! The whole book is about the heroine being browbeaten by the hero, his relatives, and her own family, friends and employees into accepting that her role as a woman should be confined to feminine pursuits in the kitchen, planning parties, or redecorating ye olde homestead, while real men take charge of men stuff i.e. running the cattle station, making the business deals, giving orders, etc. Now, personally, I don't have any problem with traditional gender roles, in fiction or in real life, as long as that's what both parties want and it makes them happy. But I was really sickened here by the fact that she didn't want that, she had all the education and personal attributes to become a first rate ranch woman, but chip by chip, the people around her destroyed her self-esteem and drive until she literally gave up. At the end, we are left with a marriage of convenience with a VERY DUBIOUS commitment by the hero, who seems to have no problem whatsoever sampling the lady buffet (at one point, he has three women in nightgowns stalking him at night and he takes it all as a bit of a joke). His first love is his career, his second responsibility is his beloved mom and sisters, and the heroine comes in probably between mistress number 6 and 7, and only because she has some shares in the family business and will presumably birth the heir and the spare. Barf!

Review # 2 was written on 2020-08-03 00:00:00 Neil Phelps I found this fascinating � not as a romance (it hardly exists) � but as a study of the Venus/Mars paradox that was so popular in the 1990�s The heroine has been raised by her autocratic grandfather to take over all of his outback holdings when he dies. His son is dead and he is semi-estranged from his stepbrother�s family (to which the hero belongs). His idea of training the heroine is to cut her off from her mother, send her to a snobby boarding school where she learns the feminine arts of piano, ballet, interior decorating etc. . On her holidays she�s at the station, playing jackeroo. Heroine rides well and has passed all the physically exhausting �tests� her grandfather set for her. She thinks she has the respect of the men on the station and that it will be an easy transition for her to take over. Instead, she finds that her grandfather has named the hero as his heir and the heroine has received half the house/mansion and a small percent of the land. She also discovers that the men feared for her safety and resented not being able to protect her. They like her and acknowledge her courage, but they don�t respect her skills � at all. Heroine is extremely angry at this betrayal by her grandfather and having to completely re-calibrate her life. Her emotions leap off the page. I was fascinated with this very accurate portrayal of impotent rage. Since heroine was raised as a �man,� she doesn�t hide her anger. No one knows what to do with her. Hero�s family sympathizes, offers diversions to Sydney for shopping, etc. . . The author doesn�t know what to do with her, either. She boxes the heroine into a corner and leaves her there until she changes her mind about wanting to be a hands-on station owner. The world of men (Mars) is too dangerous for her. After a near death experience with an untamed stallion(ha!), the author coaxes her over to the civilized land of Venus. She allows the heroine to explore the beauty of the city and material things. She gives her a project (completely renovating the family mansion) that draws her into the world of women. Of course, these women compete with each other � Venus is full of OWs. But heroine prevails � as all of MWs heroines do. The hero is her prize for channeling her energy away from anger into acceptance. It�s depressing as hell if the reader was invested in the heroine running her own station. Since none of the grandfather�s �training� really prepared her for running a business with many moving parts, I wasn�t heartbroken. Hero can have that headache. But I didn�t feel that heroine�s �reward� really fit her personality or made up for all the betrayal in her life. (Her mother was HORRIBLE). The hero�s �love� was certainly not enough of a prize for all of the trials and tribulations heroine went through, either. While I don�t agree with MW�s resolution for the heroine (I would have packed her off to university so she could learn about business or agriculture or economics or climate change or geology � all useful skills for huge Outback holdings), I do appreciate how she let the heroine express her anger. But then we�re back to the resolution problems. Heroine�s anger dissipated � it was never resolved. And that anger will probably haunt her later on in life.