REVIEW: Lacey by Lorinda Hagen (1977)

I'd love to know what 1950s/60s book this art got cribbed from.

★
After hearing how trainwrecky and crazy Hagen's Bold Blades Flashing was, I went into this one with some expectations. Instead, I got a lame and boring book. Even the very unexpected, HEA-less ending couldn't save it.

Lacey Flagg and her brother Billy are orphans in Hazard, Kentucky. Her dad's store is going under, and the only way Lacey can save it is to sleep with the rich-by-comparison Alex Evans. Of course our virtuous maid will do nothing of the sort. So she and Billy pack up and go to their aunt in Florida, who is in financial straits of her own. She meets up with some smooth-talking soldier, they bump uglies in a buggy, she becomes a nurse or something and talks about suffrage and grrl power. But then tragedy strikes (a fire in the boarding house kills nearly everyone) and Lacey is left alone. When she finds herself in the family way, she latches onto a dead soldier's name and passes herself off as his wife, and finds herself being accepted by her "in-laws" with loving, open arms. Not everyone is charmed by the little faker, and Lacey finds herself being blackmailed by a crazy doctor and tormented by a sullen maid.

What really killed this book was the lack of structure. There was no obvious path. Lacey simply bumbles from one thing to another, and the weird deviations from the plot into musings on God, mental health, lady doctors, and hygiene made it read like some bizarre mishmosh. A totally boring mishmosh. Throw in a bit more God stuff, and it could probably be retooled as a Love Inspired.

I was thinking of giving it 2 stars for the ending, which was so untypical romance (Lacey leaves her baby with the in-laws and walks out of the house, heading for the city to study to be a doctor of mental illnesses), but the lead-up to it was just as lame as everything that had come before, so upon consideration it doesn't deserve a jot of merciful slack.

And the maid saying "Hot diggety dog" (in 1898) was flat-out jarring.

It sucked. It was boring. The cover art blows. The ending wasn't nearly enough to redeem it and so overall it became a meandering mess.

Who'd like my copy?

REVIEW: The Lady Cavaliers by Andrea Lee (1979)

★★★½
Behind the absolutely craptastic cover - which channels some wacky time travel adventure like Gidget Against the Roundheads - is a fairly good multi-generational romance with plenty of bodice ripping moments. However, there were some things that made it somewhat of a slog:

1) It's really two separate books in one volume, and so it had a choppy feel when I reached midpoint and the settings and characters changed.

2) The grammar. Either the author turned in a really badly-done manuscript, or Dell totally fell down on the job of typesetting. There's a bunch of commas out there that need jobs, and this book could have used them. Badly. Likewise, quotation marks are backwards and randomly placed, there are typos galore, and characters change names - Sally becomes Stella, and Hero #2 in the second story is interchangably called Justin and Justice (which turns out to be his alias, but it's not handled consistently).

I was surprised that my usually nitpicky self didn't get driven into an insane reader rage over that. But the story was interesting enough, and the characters were likable (or crazy) enough so that I didn't find myself bored and at loose ends to latch onto something trivial. I ignored the trees and concentrated on the forest.

Both books (I'm splitting them up) have their strengths and weaknesses. I thought the first story, about a Royalist heroine and a Cromwellian officer, had better action scenes and a plot woven into the events of the time. I liked the hero and his love/honor conflict, but didn't much care for the heroine (she was a dummy).

The second story really started off well with a great set-up in the Colonies and an Indian raid that is tied into a plot about revenge, bastardy, legal rights to a manor, and a love triangle between the heroine and her two lovers and the question of who got her preggers. The early chapters in Barbados are stronger than when the story travels to England, and I was disappointed that the Plague and Fire didn't have much flair. This one was more a typical romance than the first. But there were plenty of bodice ripping goodness that put it above run-of-the-mill.

If you come across it, pick it up. You could read far worse. But I wouldn't recommend going out of your way for it.

REVIEW: Where Passion Leads by Lisa Kleypas 1987

Three Stars of Meh - ***
Ahhh Lisa, Lisa, Lisa - yes I did manage to score a ragged old copy of your little skeleton in the closet. The one you would like to forget about, the one you most likely wish everyone else would forget about too. And after finishing up your first endeavor into the writing world I am quite aware of just why you wish it would go away... not only because of the brutal rape opening, the fact that there is no way for you to edit this bad boy to make her more PC but also because, to tell the truth, rape aside, its a pretty mediocre historical romance.

Okay we shall start at the beginning - Rosalie is a young, stupid virgin - daughter of a governess who of course longs for excitement and drama in her life. Well she is about to get it. One night at the theater, a fire starts and her mother and her are separated and she finds herself alone on the naughty streets of London. A natty man chases her down trying to secure her sweet, tender virtue for his evil wiles and she ends up at the feet of Lord Randall Berkeley. He's a rich, spoiled, disillusioned bad boy with mommy issues (of course he looks good - there aren't many romances out there with ugg heroes). She gets knocked out and he claims her for himself after he sees that, hey she is pretty hot. He takes her back to his room and strips her down and throws her on the bed. She doesn't regain consciousness so he just goes to sleep. Morning comes and she awakes, she knows that even though nothing has happened and she isn't to blame, in society's eyes she is ruined and has most likely lost her job. She tries to leave and he coldly stops her, demanding his "reward" of a roll in the hay. This is the part of the brutal rape. She begs, she pleads, she bargains, she cries, she fights and he still coldly rapes her as she lays still under him crying. Of course this is also where all the good stuff pretty much ends. After the deed is done and he realizes that she was a virgin and that he has pretty much screwed her in more ways than one - he gets an attack of a conscious and decides he needs to help and protect her now.

He insists that she accompany him to France on a business trip for her own "protection" and that later he will find a respectable position for her and help her. Having no other choices, she eventually complies and goes along with him. Of course fights, misunderstandings, dark family secrets, secret babies, convenient family ties, the fires of true luv and all that other crap come into play along with pure soap opera villains.

This book was okay and a half way decent read for about half of it - then it just started to drag out unnecessarily and I got bored and had to force myself to finish it. Romance cliches a plenty this one would have been forgotten a long time ago if it wasn't for the rape meeting. And I have to giggle because there is really no way Lisa could re-write it without the rape. There is no other reason he would end up feeling guilty and taking her with him so they could fall in love.

Bodice Ripper Check List
**Rape
**Evil villains
**Secret babies
**Dark family secrets
**Silly plots
**Crazy, lecherous old men
**Heroine near death
**Annoying heroine who denies her feelings and also won't listen to the hero even when it is for her own good
**Suicide - twice
**Secret mistresses

REVIEW: The Silver Devil by Teresa Denys (1978)

(Although Jeanine has already reviewed this one, I enjoyed it more than she did and decided to throw my review up here as well.)

 

★★★★½

I was already predisposed to like this since Denys' The Flesh and the Devil blew me away. She'd had to have really screwed up to make me dislike it. In the end, this book was just as good.

The first person POV of the heroine didn't bug me at all (sometimes it does), and I thought it perfectly complemented the story of an illiterate tavern maid plucked out of her lowly life and station and placed among the glittering and utterly foreign court of the local Duke. She's adrift, uncertain, and scared, and the use of the first person conveyed her journey from innocent girl to entrapped (and enchanted) mistress perfectly. I also thought that it made Domenico just as attractively and terrifyingly mysterious to the reader (well, this one anyway!) as Felicia herself found him to be.

Denys wrote so many beautiful passages capturing Felicia's tormented thoughts and emotions in Domenico's web that it's impossible to quote them all, but suffice to say that the tone was very dark and gothic and evocative of the times without being detailed on the historical end of things. Even though I wasn't told every little thing about 16th century Italy and court etiquette and manners, the settings, characters, and atmosphere of paranoia, decadence, and bloody state rivalries were all very clear. It's one of those "I felt like I was right there" stories.

Also, while I'm not a fan of the hero grovel, I did enjoy this one immensely. Talk about grand gestures. It was just as broad and absolute as the story that came before it was dark and crazy, and the "staginess" of it (if you will) fit in with the melodramatic sweep of the plot and florid characters. Right from the get-go, it seemed like ripe material for an opera and I spent the entire book thinking of it in those terms. Made for a very pleasurable experience and inspired my dream cast.

I'm dinging it a half star for the last quarter of the book where the plot started to slog a bit and I was impatient for Domenico and Felicia to finally come to an open dialogue (for lack of a better term). Their pride really kept the grease from getting in the gears to keep things rolling.

Denys is a very studied writer, one of the very very few where I can see the painstaking care of her craft and not get annoyed at the artificiality of it. The sheer beauty of some of the passages, the way she can paint a scene, convey a glance or caress or whisper have few equals in my reading experience. She can couch the horrific and terrifying in such a way that it seems like a song (because in real life Domenico and Felipe Tristan in "The Flesh and the Devil" would have any sane woman running for the exits or grabbing a gun). She's a master of creating a beautiful blend of people and place and plots to make an intriguing, surreal "romance."
 

REVIEW: The Pagan by Simon Finch (1979)

(I can't believe I didn't post a review of this one back when I read it. While it's more "skeevy exploitation manporn" than pure bodice ripper, there were some elements in it that made me think of the good ol' BRs as I consumed this, wide-eyed with wonder. So, courtesy of some copy pasta from Goodreads....)

★★★★
It's been noted elsewhere on the internets that if you took all the sex-related stuff and historical filler out of this book, the plot would take up a mighty 12 pages. This isn't an exaggeration.

Well, maybe 13 pages.

There is a LOT of smut in this book. It's not sexy IMO, but it was fun in a "Holy shit, did I just read that?!?" way. Not for all tastes, definitely, but if you're not averse to some epic cheesy hardcore man porn (with an undeniable whiff of homoerotica) then there are good moments to be had. I'm sure it has more plot than the average porn movie, but less than what you find on Skinamax at 2am.

The plot is inanely simple: Blond hunk of manmeat Vesuvio is lolling about in the decadent Baths of Nero, being all uptight and faithful to his future bride Miranda, when he receives word that one of his slaves was found murdered alongside the road. He rushes home only to find that Miranda has been abducted. So he sets out to rescue her and the odyssey takes him to Greece, Antioch, and then back to Rome as a slave in a pleasure palace called the Villa Orgiasta (where he catches the eye of young heir-apparent Hadrian). Meanwhile, we are shown a wide array of every depravity and nastiness that the ancient world c. 110 AD has to offer.

Of course, like any good Cecil B. DeMille morality lesson - in this instance, hanging onto the old republican ideals of personal conduct in the face of a decaying empire - we have to be shown all the titillating, naughty stuff. Except in this book, it sometimes felt like you were having your face ground into the secretions. Good thing I'm well nigh unshockable and have a love for the absurdly excessive and excessively absurd.

This review would be a mile long if I were to detail all the sleazy bits, but there were a few that stood out like a turgid phallus for a variety of reasons:

...from the LULZY, like a mime show at the Baths of Nero where a man dressed as Priapus battles a python strapped to his groin...

Some of the crowd cheered for "Priapus" to conquer the python whilst others called instead to the "phallus."

"Go on, get him, you big prick!" one man shouted.

"Wrap yourself across that ugly face!" another urged.

"The throat! The throat! Drive down the throat and suck yourself, Priapus! Suck yourself!"

...to the "Holy shit!", like a nighttime beach orgy to the Thracian goddess Bendis...

Vesuvio remained motionless, watching the horse's black phallus inch faster now from its sheath, rapidly growing in proportion. The girl was stretching herself upwards, using her feet to guide the blunt point of the horse's pizzle into her--

...to "I think this author might be gay or working through some issues", like Vesuvio's plot to "straighten out" a flirty twink aboard his ship using an obliging hooker...

She winked playfully at Vesuvio as Babel clumsily jabbed the crown of his penis toward the roots of Vesuvio's manhood visible from the glistening slit...

She coaxed, "No, ease yourself alongside your golden friend.... Yes, like that.... Yes, let me feel you inch inside me with your friend.... Yes, I can now feel both of you.... Stop! For a moment! Please! Stop! Do not move! Not for a moment...." {more porny stuff here}

Finally, Vesuvio moved again, plunging his manhood into Asiatica's wetness alongside Babel, the two phalluses pressed tightly against one another in the moist grip of the prostitute's warm womanhood.

Vesuvio push, push, pushed his penis alongside that of Babel's. He felt as if the two phalluses were one, as if Asiatica were cohesing their veins, their skin cresting their excitement into one organ of pleasure.

Homoerotic? Oh, a tad. And with DP, too!

As I kept reading, Vesuvio really started to take on all the attributes of the worst doormat BR heroine. He gets abused and degraded six ways from Sunday, sold into slavery, gang-banged for days by an entire crew of leather-bear pirates, and he isn't on top of his game in the whole "vengeance" department. The two baddies - who have smut scenes of their own as well (did you doubt it?) - get their comeuppance at the hands of others in a penultimate chapter where the plot came tumbling out of the Marx Brothers stateroom where it had been locked up for the vast middle of the book. For such a burly superstud, he doesn't even really put up much of a fight at every new obstacle that keeps him from pursuing Miranda. He pretty much closes his eyes and thinks of England.

So Mr. Vesuvio Crunch Buttsteak was pretty underwhelming as a hero, but looking at him like a BR femme who only lasts by dint of primitive will to survive made it work. Who knows what the author intended beyond sprinkling a humpy bangfest with enough research to make it seem mildly legit.

Still, I can't rate it lower than 4 stars. Why? It was fun in its own way and I actually wanted to know how it would end (whether the execution was good or bad), which is more than I can say for some of the boring, shitastic books I've read. This is the second book in a trilogy, and I'll definitely pick up the others...once the horse imagery has faded a bit.

REVIEW: Bittersweet Bondage by Sonya Pelton (1984)

A boobylicious cover cannot mask the monstrous fail.

★
There are some books that are so hopeless, so lame, that they defy reviewing. Well, this is one of them.

In a nutshell, Rosette is drugged and dragged to the hero's home by a servant who doesn't want the hero to know that his sister actually died years ago. So through some fancy Ay-rab teas and hypnosis, Rosette is made to think that she IS the hero's sister. Which makes all those horny feelings she has when she looks at him cause her endless pages of repetitive torment. Likewise, he's fighting off boners because he looks at his luscious sis and wants to do her right then and there. There's something like 150 pages of this where nothing else happens, and Pelton did the impossible: she made the incest device completely and utterly boring.

(Uh oh, looks like I'm reviewing this anyway...)

The plot hinges on the characters' real and fake names, hidden identities, tangled relations, wrongful inheritors, etc. There's a name-a-second ratio and it got so confusing I gave up and didn't care.

The hero also ain't a Sheik. Well, he is officially, but he's whiter than white and he rides around on a horse and wears a burnous/burnoose/whatever, but he didn't seem all that Sheiky.

The sex was dull. The characters were dull. The plot was hopeless.

And the writing...oy! A re-read by the author (or an editor earning their paycheck) would not have been amiss, because then crap like this would have been tidied up:

She began to wonder in this intrigue if Shareef was in on it too.

OK, so it doesn't seem like much, but there were a lot of places where I was clawing for a red pen.

But Pelton did sum up my feelings succinctly when she has Rosette say (after getting dumped-on by a huge swath of Plot Reveal by some character who has three identities):

"I believe I am more confused than ever, Paul."

Read at your peril. Or at least have a pot of coffee and NoDoz handy.

REVIEW: Purity's Passion by Janette Seymour (1977)

When a delicate soul at the Smart Bitches blog posted a review for an old skool BR and the readership had a predictable torches & pitchforks meltdown at its content, the intrepid Wendy, Lady Evelyn Quince read it for herself and found....an awesome, trashy treasure by one Janette Seymour aka IRL Mike Butterworth.

The tale of Purity Jarsy (part I) begins with the the horrors of the French Revolution and ends in France after Napoleon's final defeat. In between we witness the epic tale of Purity, a woman so beautiful many men desire her, they would ravish her, control her and kill for her...in other words, your basic, page-turning bodice ripper. And it's a good one.

Janette Seymour was a deft storyteller, quickly pulling me in with Purity witnessing a beautiful encounter of a couple making love and later she sees the macabre slaughters of the Revolution. Purity is left orphaned and shaken in the aftermath.

Mark "You may kiss me--here" Landless is the object of Purity's devotion. Much older than she, he is her appointed guardian, but he also shares a hidden bond with his ward. Mark is a placeholder, we never see through his perspective. He is a scar-faced blue-eyed soldier who duels for Purity's honor, hurts her cruelly and the finally marries her. Her relationship with Mark is one of the weaker parts of the book, but since there are two sequels there romance will undoubtedly develop further.

Purity has many men before being with her true love, and each experience shapes her uniquely: There is a touching one night romance Purity shares with a soldier doomed to die at sea, and a sweet love affair with wounded Gypsy boxer. And many more. If the hero was more interesting, this might have detracted from the story, but since he wasn't, I just enjoyed the ride and didn't worry about the romance. As Purity says to herself (I'm paraphrasing) "She would come to Mark a complete woman." Other high points include a tawdry girl-school game with a dumb stud, a dominatrix-villainess who wears transparent gowns, and an aging duchess who makes constant fart references.

The story's pacing is a bit un-even, because most of the juicy parts are packed into the first third. But the author is skilled enough to make most of it enjoyable, even if the ending is a bit flat.

Purity's Passion is a romance only because at the end of the book the female protaganist is united with the man she loves. Otherwise, it's a soapy, door-stopper historical epic, typical of 70's and 80's. Readers-mostly women-from all walks of life used to openly enjoy these pulpy paperbacks with kaleidoskopic covers. They were taken to fantastical worlds where the heroines' beauty got men so carried away with mad lust that they'd have her...at any cost! (dun, dun, dun!) Now, not unlike tobacco cigarettes (which I never smoked), bodice rippers are banished to the darkest corners, reviled in public for the unwholesome filth they contain. Like a smoker relegated to puffing away in a cold alley, bodice ripper readers are banished to Romancelandia Siberia. And that's really a shame, because these books are a lot of fun!

4 Stars/B- 


I'm back again. Wendy was spot-on with this one. I recently read it and agree with her 100%. My review is here.

REVIEW: Passion's Paradise by Sonya T. Pelton (1981)

Guest post by Wendy, Lady Evelyn Quince

Passion's Paradise by Sonya T. Pelton is an unbelievably terrible book. The cover warns you; it's dark and dreary, done in deep blues and white, with the wrong hair color for the hero and a ship about to sink in the ocean that shouts: "Disaster looms ahead!"

I got this book in one of those e-bay lots, it was a freebie that the seller was perhaps too embarrassed to mention and only too glad to get rid of, with no back cover (no worries, I printed out the book-blurb and taped it to the back) and garnished with red stamps from Arlenes' Book House & Paperback Exchange in Sweetwater, Texas. Now it lay in my Yankee hands, ready to thrill me with its awfulness.

Capt Ty, or Tyrone, is a pirate, a slaver, a whoremonger, a politician--but I repeat myself. Tyrone captures the ship that bears Angel Sherwood and her family from England to America. His Pa told him there was a special package on board and Ty was to take it. Ty and Pa had an agreement that Ty would marry when Pa found a woman worthy of his son and--who the hell cares, is the plot important? Not to the author, so you shouldn't care either! Random events occur in the book, story-lines are dropped and nothing makes sense.

There is a mysterious murder...is Ty the killer? Who knows? Who cares?

There is another murder. Is Ty the killer? Well, this time yes, but who cares?

Angel runs away from Tyrone like four times in a row but keeps getting caught. The final time she flees, she leaves her severely mentally-unbalanced mother behind, and promises to retrieve her. And of course the only person Angel can trust to look for Mama is Tyrone's evil ex-mistress. Mama goes missing. A year passes by, and Angel is concerned, but she's had so much on her mind that she hasn't had time to search. You see Ty's penis keeps taunting her in those tight pants he wears and a girl can't think straight with that anteater staring at her.

This book is filled with stupid "big misunderstandings" and really random, unnecessary secrets. For 200 pages the big mystery of the book is Angel's first name. There's no reason for her to hide it. I think it's just so the author could have Tyrone call the heroine "My mysterious Angel" without him knowing that was really her name. Lame. Ty's last name is a secret. Who is Ty's father? Is Tyrone married? What is the secret of Cresthaven plantation? Where did Angel's hymen go if she really was a virgin? (It blew up in the fire. Really, it did.)

Don't expect any PC, this book is raw. A Chinese prostitute does her best Mickey Rooney "Breakfast at Tiffany's" impression. Ty has slaves and whips them bloody. He takes what he wants from Angel (her love pudding) and doesn't ask permission. But oh, he's a misunderstood devil. There's depth to Capt. Ty, and a heart that yearns for love. You see he had a rough childhood, because his mother was a slut, or something like that.

Passion's Paradise is such a cliche-ridden calamity. However, it was oddly entertaining, like a terrible movie you watch just to shout inanities at the screen. Plus, I can't hate a book with such craptastic dialogue as:

Ellen (a prostitute): "You know I used to enjoy all kinds of men before Captain Ty came along. That tawny-haired devil made me forget them all, with his lean body and bulging crotch! Shees! I've bedded down with more men than you could ever hope to meet in your lifetime."

Angel: "But not with Captain Ty?"

Ellen: "Bitch. Take your clothes off!"

What a mess. 3 itty-bitty stars/ C-

REVIEW: Alexa by Maggie Osborne (1980)

Pure 5 Stars!!
★★★★★
Holy Crap!! What an intense ride this book was! I think this one may be in the running for how much torture and pain a heroine can take and survive (at times I thought she was a goner for sure)! Ohhh and bloody, graphic, sick and twisted explicit descriptions of not only the plague but also the horrors of the Inquisition. Very intense!!

The Girl - Alexa - selfish, stubborn, sometimes stupid, pig-headed and sometimes unintentionally mean and cold - and I loved her for every bit of it. This is a spunky pain in the ass heroine in the view of Amber from [book:Forever Amber|5368]. Once she gets something in her head - she is going to get it, no matter what. I can so see Blake Lively playing her in a movie - beautiful and can be kind but can also turn into insta-bitch in seconds.


The Men Meat - First - General Diego Cordoba, he is our alpha hero and he is as stubborn and pig headed as Alexa. At the first chance he gets - he rapes her. There's only one man I was picturing as our hot yet asshole general - it would have to be Russell Crowe.

Our second hero is pure beta of softness, sweetness and goodness and sugar plums and fairies - he is the doctor Jamie Rejas. I was seeing Joseph Gordon-Levitt as him. He is just pretty boy sweetness enough to play our good doctor.


The Setup - Alexa has been raised in a harem - when she was five her mother and her were kidnapped by pirates and then sold. Her mother is now one of the sultan's wives and has bared him a son and Alexa is scheduled to be married off to a minor noble man soon. Then Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand take the city. The Sultan flees but can only take a few of his women with him the rest are left to fend for themselves. Alexa's mother leaves with the sultan and she is one of the unlucky - left behind ones. She soon sees what fate will bestow upon her unless she makes a bold move and she flaunts herself before the king and lands a position as one of Isabella's ladies in waiting. She immediately comes to the notice of both of our heroes and the King and also the dreaded Tomas Torquemada the head of the Spanish Inquisition. Who could only be played by Sir Anthony Hopkins.

Alexa spurns the general and decides she wants the doctor even though he is engaged to marry the very sweet and cute, can do no wrong Bianca (who you know is going to get screwed over seriously). For me she was the cute Rachel Bilson.


The Good Stuff - Loved the love triangle of doom and a few of Osborne's twists and turns were totally unexpected and made my jaw drop. I also liked the fact that both our H/h are evil, mean, selfish bastards (they do redeem themselves in the end and all that) but still it was a fun ride while they were being all manipulative. And the gory, bloody details - awesome!! As I got to the end I couldn't stop reading because I had to know what was going to happen next.

My Gripes - Not really any, I don't have any real complaints about this one - it entertained me the whole time.

Bodice Ripper Check List
**Rape
**Torture - every which way you can think of - in detail...
**Black Death
**Heroine near death - a couple of times
**Faithful servant
**Creepy dwarfs
**Creepy dwarfs with huge dongs
**Creepy rapey dwarfs with huge dongs
**Murder and blood shed - of everyone you can think of including babies and children - in detail
**Strange and completely awesome erectile dysfunctions
**Blackmail of a Queen
**Creepy disgusting lecherous King
**Creepy disgusting half mad lecherous King's mistress

REVIEW: Bound by the Heart by Marsha Canham (1984)

★★★★★

Review for the original 1984 edition:
I can see why this gets so many raves. It has adventure, white-knuckle battle scenes, and a very violent and dramatic love triangle that involves rape, adultery, love and hatred and insanity. The characters, historical setting, main plot, and subplots all fit. It was a tightly-written story with a flair in the writing that harkened back to the old swashbuckler flicks of the 40s and 50s.

The story even starts with action, as Summer Cambridge and her young brother Michael are adrift on the flotsam of their storm-wrecked ship in the Caribbean. Enter the hero, privateer Morgan Wade, who pulls them aboard against his better judgment and deals with Summer's immature intractability (and threats of disrupting his ship/kingdom by parading about above deck) by raping her and sending her into spirals of ecstasy. (Need you ask what got changed in Canham's re-edit?)

Complicating things is the fact that Summer's father is a British colonial governor, and he would rather keep his daughter's kidnapping by a pirate wanted by the British Navy on the downlow and away from the gossips. Summer, despite her body's pining for the handsome Morgan, decides to enter the marriage chosen for her and hope for the best. Of course you know that things won't go easy....

I know most reviews are about the hero and heroine, but I have to say that I thought the best character in the entire story was Summer's husband and Morgan's nemesis, Commodore Bennett Winfield. Age of Sail stuff gives me a girl-boner anyway, and "Master and Commander" is, like, one of the best films EVAH, so Winfield's character and Canham's two epic battle scenes had me purring like a kitten. But on a serious note, Winfield was a dynamic villain with a character arc that had me more sad for his downfall at the end of the story than glad that Summer and Morgan get their overdue HEA. It's a no-brainer that the good guys would win, but I wasn't expecting to see the bad guy given so much time in the spotlight. His decline from staid and smart officer into an Ahab was pretty gripping. Too bad more romances didn't have such a well-constructed adversary for the hero and heroine to fight against.

Winfield first appears as a courtly officer who is ambitious and dedicated to his career, but he makes Summer melt with his ardor and refusal to take advantage of her innocence. Blond-haired and blue-eyed with a charming smile, he's the very image of a very proper gentleman and an officer who has a career that can only go one way: up.

Winfield on the outside:


As the story progresses, the internal layers of his character are gradually revealed: his weakness for one woman, his cold calculation, his autocratic streak, his deep years-long resentment of Morgan Wade and his single-minded and destructive obsession with killing him.

Winfield on the inside:
 

I thought that Winfield overshadowed Morgan Wade's character for the first half of the book, and even after Morgan appeared more often in the story, it was Winfield's character that still had my complete interest. After an initial squee over Morgan Wade during the first sea battle, I wasn't feeling much substance to his character and found Winfield the far more nuanced guy. Perhaps the revised edition by Canham makes Morgan's character more substantial in the beginning, and for that reason alone I would consider reading it, although I'm not normally interested in reading books that have been tinkered with to suit political correctness.

At any rate, I highly recommend this to any romance fan who likes plentiful action in their historicals, a dynamic style, and would like to see secondary characters that don't seem like token sidekicks or lame clichés.