Temptation and Torment

This is the first book I've read by Clea Cordell but it will not be the last. Cordell has created in Lord Rakka a fascinating and complex romantic hero who has achieved immortality, though not through the usual means of vampirism. His immortality, however, comes at a great price and he spends centuries seeking companionship before seeming to have found it at last, in the innocent, intelligent and beautiful daughter of a medieval cloth-merchant (or "mercer"), named Garnetta. Commendably, Cordell enhances the medieval ambience of her story by utilizing some medieval terminology rather than the modern equivalents (all quite easy for the modern reader to follow) and frequently endows her characters with views that would also be appropriate to the time period, but not to the extent that a modern reader of light literature such as this would have difficulty identifying with the characters. In certain respects this book reminded me of Tanith Lee's "Vivia", although the plots were completely different. Fans of hers, as well as those of Anne Rice's and Tom Holland's fiction would probably enjoy this book as well. I gave it 4 stars rather than 5 only because I reserve 5 stars for works of serious literature, to which this novel, though evocative, fun and erotic, doesn't aspire.