PIRATE'S PASSIONATE SLAVE by Robin Gideon

Publisher: Zebra, 7/1991
Setting: Carribean, 1817
Time span: A few months
Hero: Lord Derek Leiceter York
Heroine: Lauren Masters
Bodice Ripper? Not really
Grade/Rating: B-/3.5 stars

SYNOPSIS:  Lauren Masters was both terrified and furious when a gang of white-slave traders seized her ship. The Virginia vixen swore to fight the cruel rake who carried her off to his cabin...until she saw that Derek York was no ordinary privateer. In his silk shirt and elegant waistcoat, York claimed to be an aristocrat on a secret mission. But when he shed his expensive attire, he became a golden pirate whose muscled masculinity and exquisite loving completely enslaved her senses. Now Lauren had to decide whether her virile captor meant to protect her... or seduce-then sell-her tempting flesh!

Lord Derek, heir apparent to the House of York, had infiltrated this gang of pirates for one reason-to find and rescue his abducted sister. He wasn't in the flesh peddling business, yet when he saw the beautiful ebony-haired Lauren, Derek was consumed by a desire to possess her. At first he imprisoned her in his cabin for her own protection, but soon he was making her his willing slave, roaming her luscious curves and plundering her silken flesh. And when she finally begged him to take her to the frothy peaks of rapture, he knew she'd be forever his...PIRATE'S PASSIONATE SLAVE

MY THOUGHTS: The heroine, Lauren, who's got black hair and brown eyes, in on a ship in the Caribbean, on her way to settle some family business stuff for her parents, who are in Virginia, USA. The ship she's on, Miss Malaki, is taken over by another ship, The Unholy One. The hero, Derek, is captain. He's not really a pirate but is pretending to be one so that he can find his sister, who was abducted a month before when her ship was attacked by pirates.

Derek forces Lauren to stay in his cabin, to keep her away from all the crew members. She hates him instantly but he's attracted to her. He ties her hands together to keep her from struggling and, I believe, rapes her. He repeatedly tells her that he's not going to rape her and that he's there to protect her all the while attempting to have sex with her when she, clearly, doesn't want him to. She stops fighting him and gives in though, still clearly, not wanting it. From the next day and until the end of the story, they have consentual sex all the time.

I didn't care for this novel at all. I'd waited four months to read it and was so disappointed. From the time the hero and heroine meet at the beginning, the entire story is about the two of them trying to find his abducted sister, Amanda. Lots of drama ensues and Lauren gets abducted too. With just a couple of pages left, Derek and Lauren's family find her and they all live happily ever after.

Boring as hell. I don't recommend this and I'm not sure if I'd read another one by this author.

Eight Days in Darkness: The True Story of the Abduction, Rape, and Rescue of Anita Wooldridge by Angela Roegner and Anita Wooldridge

Pub. Date: April 2010 
Publisher: Synergy
Genre: NonFiction/true crime
Rating: C/3 Stars

SYNOPSIS: On June 25, 1998, Anita Wooldridge (21) was taken from her parents' home in broad daylight by a convicted rapist. For eight terrifying days, Anita was savagely beaten and raped by her captor, (Victor Thomas Steel) who locked her in a metal storage cabinet for hours at a time. With only a steadfast faith in God to comfort her, Anita refused to give up hope that she would be found. Eight Days in Darkness chronicles the shocking events of Anita's kidnapping, including her transport across state lines, and the impressive efforts of local authorities and FBI agents which led to her rescue and the dramatic capture and conviction of her abductor. Anita's story is still used today as a case study for prospective FBI agents, and Eight Days in Darkness paints a portrait of the real-life battle between good and evil.

MY THOUGHTS: I was really bored by this book. I didn't find it particularly interesting. Every page was the same as the one before it. I'm very disappointed that the author didn't explore the childhood of the rapist, Victor 'Tom' Steel. Any well written true crime/biography/autobiography/memoir will have a through account of the perpetrators upbringing. We learned nothing much about Tom's childhood, except that his father was abusive and that he has two siblings.

Tom had previously been imprisoned for ten years for raping another woman, long before he met Anita. But that couldn't have been his first taste of crime. Most sex criminals have a history of voyeurism, stalking, obscene phone calls, something but we never learned of any because the author didn't explore his past enough or interview him.

His mother was quite a character. I wanted to know more about her but was told nothing at all. What a disappointment. I found her to be the most interesting person in the book.

I received this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

LOVE'S AVENGING HEART by Patricia Matthews

PUBLISHER: Pinnacle, 1976

SETTINGS: Virginia, July 1717
TIMELINE: 3-4 years
HEROINE: Hannah McCambridge, 16
HERO: Michael Verner, 22-ish
BODICE RIPPER? Yes
GRADE: B/4 stars

SYNOPSIS: Love's dream...
Hannah wondered if her daydreams and nightly fantasies would ever come true. A captive, near-slave to Silas Quint, her brutal stepfather, she lived in squalor, suffering the indignities of poverty and shame. She knew only that she must escape, that must come first. Then to find the man and the lover who'd fulfill her dreams.

Hannah's sordid life with Quint was soon replaced by long hours toiling as an innkeeper's bar maiden -- literally sold into servitude by her stepfather! It was but the beginning of a wild and tumultuous new phase of life that would test Hannah's very soul. Her fiery red hair, voluptuous body, and impudently beautiful face would attract men -- men of wealth, men of nothing but strength and lust -- and she would have to learn to survive amidst their passions and furies.

After all, she was only a wench, a body to be owned, used or bartered. But Hannah would do more than survive, she would win. She would overcome the sadistic beatings, the rapes, the treachery, the crushing humiliation of her circumstances. She would discover the all-consuming raptures of passion when love came to free her questing heart.

MY THOUGHTS: Hannah goes through hell during the first part of the book. Her stepfather leads her, with a rope around her neck, to an inn called The Cup and Horn. He's forcing her to become an indentured servant for the next five years, until she's twenty-one. The man who buys her is the owner of the inn, Amos Stritch. He's fifty, fat and bald. Amos bought her to 'warm his bed' and because she was a virgin. She's to work at the inn too. He rapes her and beats her several times.

She meets a sixty-three year old Englishman named Malcolm Verner. He's owner of a plantation called Malvern, which is assume the word is a combination of his first and last name. He's wealthy because he grows tobacco. He's got a young son, Michael, whom he assumes is dead. He buys Hannah's indenture papers from Silas and gives them to her; he frees her but she chooses to say at Malvern and continue on as his housekeeper. Malcolm asks her to marry him and she agrees. She's now seventeen.

The rest of the book is a bit boring to me. There is some interesting information about Hannah being octoroon, meaning she's 1/8 African. Her father is 1/4 African. There's some blackmail toward her involving that. Malcome dies and his dead son reappears. He and Hannah begin a sexual relationship, resulting in a pregnancy. She flees to Boston and opens up an inn and had a lover. The plague strikes and kills thousands. Michael finds her and they, and their daughter, Michele, move back to Virginia and they get their happily-ever-after.

I didn't like that Michael was only 22 ish or the secret mission he was on to kill the pirate known as Blackbeard. I also didn't like the plague stuff either. The book wasn't quite as good as I was hoping but it was alright.

There's a sequel to this and is about both Hannah and her adult daughter, Dancer of Dreams.

ONLY WITH YOUR LOVE by Lisa Kleypas

PUBLISHER: Avon, October 1992
BODICE RIPPER? Yes, mild
MY GRADE: C

SYNOPSIS: The newlywed bride of a Creole aristocrat, Celia Vallerand prays for deliverance from the bloodthirsty brigands who abducted her from a New Orleans-bound schooner. Though she believes her beloved husband slain and despairs for her own life, the shy French beauty fears above all the dashing privateer who pays a king's ransom to claim her ... and boldly risks capture to possess her.

The most notorious pirate of the open seas, he is called "the Griffin"--a rugged and powerful renegade who arouses within Celia desires as dangerous as they are irresistible. But the magnificent adventurer is a man trapped in a perilous deception--and he guards a shocking secret that could deny him the love of the gossamer-haired enchantress who stirs his manly passions and enslaves his heart.

MY THOUGHTS: This takes place in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States in 1817 ten years after the previous book in the series. The heroine, Celia, is twenty-four. She has blond hair and brown eyes. The hero is Justin Vallerand and he has dark hair and blue eyes and is twenty-five. His identical twin brother, Philippe, is her husband.
 
Sadly, I only liked the first quarter of the book, which was the first 100 pages. So many things, so much action, took place during the beginning that I felt like there was nothing left for the rest of the story. Once Celia moved in with her in-laws the book became very boring to me.
 
Her in-laws were the hero and heroine of the previous book, Only In Your Arms, which was rewritten as When Strangers Marry. Starting when Celia moved in with them, they were featured throughout the entire novel. I don't think that was fair to the readers. They had their own book and ended up with another one. I didn't care for it.
 
Justin wasn't as alpha as I'd have expected him to be, judging by his personality in the previous book. There was a 'forced seduction' scene with Celia early on but other than that I don't think his personality was all that bad. I'd have preferred for him to have been more aggressive in nature. Celia was a bit feisty and was a good match for him. Truth be told, I didn't care too much for either of them.
 
I thought there was too much hanging out at the plantation, since that's where most of the novel took place. I found it mostly boring and some things, like when someone was impersonating another, to be a bit silly and unoriginal. I consider this to be a very mild bodice ripper.