Shanna

I read this book when I was 19 years old, still a virgin and naive as all heck.  I had no idea that it contained intimate love scenes.  I was so shocked when I got to the first one...LOL  It was written very well and I was not in the least offended.  I loved reading this book and found it hard to put down.  It was the very first romance novel I ever read.  I read it that one time and have not read it since.  So I am giving it 5 stars based on what I thought and felt about the book when I was 19. 

I am much older now, and I have a feeling that Shanna would not affect me as it did when I was 19 even though I think I could still enjoy the story.  Shanna who is basically a good person is also a very spoiled brat.  I don't think I could stomach Shanna today.  The hero Roark Beauchamp (pronounced Bee-chum) is a dream.  He is just about everything a woman could want in a man and strikingly handsome to boot.  As a 19 year old it never occurred to me that the hero deserved someone better than a spoiled rich brat.   A lot of females reading Shanna today cannot stand her and it is easy to understand why.  The only flaw that I could detect in Roark is that his love for Shanna seemed to be primarily based on the fact that she is extraordinarily beautiful which is shallow.  Somehow through Shanna's bad behavior Roark can see that she is really a wonderful person. 

After reading Shanna I read every book that Kathleen Woodiwiss wrote up until my mid twenties. I could not stomach "bodice ripper" novels today, but Kathleen Woodiwiss will always have a special place in my heart for putting me on the path to romance novels.  I love them, I am proud to admit that I read them and always will.  

5 Stars

I just may read Shanna again and see how I would rate it now as a woman over 40..