I found The Caged Tiger by Penny Jordon randomly and thought its premise seemed interesting. It’s a Mills & Boons novel; I don’t remember when was the last time I read one of the books from this genre of romance. The story is a second-chance romance between Davina and Ruy, a Spanish aristocrat.
Davina and Ruy have a whirlwind romance. They meet and fall in love in a matter of days and soon, get married. Davina is not accepted by Ruy’s mother in their family, because she doesn’t have a similar aristocratic lineage to Ruy. After the first few days, their marriage is strained because Davina finds out the truth behind their marriage, and she distances herself from Ruy. On the day of the delivery of their child, Davina is in the hospital while Ruy is with another woman. This is the last straw for Davina; she leaves with the child, going back to the UK.
Years later, Davina is back in the house of her husband because he summons her, and also, the weather will be good for her son. Ruy is completely changed. An accident that has confined him in a wheelchair and made him very bitter towards everyone, especially Davina. It is revealed then that the summons was from the mother-in-law and not Ruy. The story is a second-chance romance. Ruy and Davina are still married and now, back in close proximity. This time her son gets to meet his father for the first time, and they get to be a family.
The premise of a second chance romance is what intrigued me about the book. The characters are interesting and have strong personalities. Both are bad communicators. It is clear after the first few chapters that there is some misinformation and a different story to their separation. Ruy has a completely different idea of what went down, and Davina has hers; both believe these separate narratives. There are clearly things unsaid between them, and every time they come close to actually discussing things, they don’t. It seems purposely left like that, which bothered me a little bit.
I thought that there was a lot of backstory about how Davina and Ruy met and what went wrong between them. But that part is just glossed over. It is explained so briefly, and some gaps needed to be filled for me to care more about Davina and Ruy getting back together again. These characters are extremely bad communicators. Their problems would have been solved sooner if they were just open with each other or tried to understand where the other person was coming from. It was slightly frustrating.
The Caged Tige by Penny Jordan is a second-chance spicy romance. It has interesting characters, and I liked the setting of it. Ruy and Davina’s romance is passionate, wild and unpredictable. I liked how their overall story unfolded. It keeps you interested. I liked the story as a one-time read. I felt like it missed the mark for me.
*Click on the book cover above to get a copy.
Books and blues 