3.5I did really enjoy this book (the Wild Hunt is one of my favorites), but there were a few things that I would have liked to see differently.
While generally I liked Renard, I didn't love him. As opposed to the relationship between Judith and Guyon in the Wild Hunt, I felt that Renard was driven more by a certain part of his anatomy, than his more tender emotions. And consequently, I never got the impression that Eleanor was indispensable to him. It was clear he came to care for her, but I think the only reference to that he loved her, came from the narrator. He never said it to her, and, again, his actions suggested more of a physical attraction to her than emotional. Renard's entire character seemed based around a need for "release" - thus his need for Olwen in the beginning and then subsequently every interaction with Eleanor. Therefore, I thought some of the sex was a little gratuitous and I would have liked to replace some of those scenes with more tender moments.
Regarding Olwen, I never felt that her and Renard's relationship got the right closure. She hurt his pride and as time passed he continued thinking about her every once in a while and had an emotional reaction to that so I felt that something had to happen to end that. But instead she helped him from the wings, which continued this link between them, but was never really resolved, I felt.
Lastly, as I neared the ending of the book, I kept expecting the final "declaration" between Renard and Eleanor to happen, but instead the ending focused more on the political situation of the period than Renard and Eleanor and therefore I was a little disappointed. Don't get me wrong, the historical parts of a book are important and interesting to me, but I kept feeling strung along and waiting for this final resolution and understanding between them that never came. I know this won't bother everyone like it did me - some people will probably be satisfied that things played out between them enough to show how they felt about each other - but I like things to be a little more definitive.
