THE DEVIL'S LOVE by Lane Harris

PUBLISHER: Dell, 2/1981
SETTING: Caribbean & France, 1768
GENRE: Historical Romance
BODICE RIPPER? Yes
MY GRADE: C

SYNOPSIS: Untamed, unpredictable, utterly captivating, Christina was determined to live free as the wind--yet was fatally bound to the one man whose passion could imprison her forever.

A handsome privateer, the banished son of a Scottish earl, Kade roamed the seas, thriving on danger and the intrigue of a turbulent age. From her lush Caribbean paradise. Christina fled to the dazzling salons of Paris. But Kade had vowed to pursue her across the world... to make her see that at the end of her perilous journey lay the ecstasy they were powerless to resist and a glorious destiny forged by...The Devil's Love.

MY THOUGHTS: This story spans about three years. Christina Evrion is the heroine and is seventeen when it starts. She has blonde hair and light blue eyes. Kade Renault is the hero and his age wasn't given but I'm assuming he's in his thirties. There's usually a big age gap between hero and heroine in these old books. He has black hair and blue eyes.

Christina is a strange heroine. I think French is her native tongue. Until the end she never really even liked Kade and wanted a divorce. They'd met briefly once. Christina's father died and she couldn't inherit her money until she married. She had a terrible relationship with her stepmother, Hilda, and needed to get away from her and live on her own. Christina needed to marry to claim her inheritance so she asked Kade to marry her. She assumed he was going to die within a few days because he'd been captured by the Spanish. They married and much to her horror, he didn't die. She wanted to get a divorce but he didn't want to.

I liked Kade alright but Christina seemed slightly arrogant to me. When they were together I was just uninterested because nothing really happened between them. During the story they lived apart most of the time. He did cheat on her once with her childhood nemesis, Carlotta, while Christina was in France for over a year visiting relatives.

Really the only interesting part of the whole story took place during the last 100 pages or so when she was in France. Her male cousin, Dominique (curly blond hair and green eyes) is a very interesting character, in my opinion. He masquerades as a highwayman, robbing and murdering people. She's staying at his parents's home with him and his sisters. He becomes obsessed with her and ends up drugging and raping her. He also uses women terribly and when he gets yet another one, named Gabrielle, pregnant and wants nothing to do with her, she goes off the deep end and does something terrible...to them both.

The most boring part of the story is near the beginning over a chapter was devoted to how her Scottish father came to live in the Caribbean and how he met her deceased mother. I couldn't have cared less about their backstory.

There was some typical bodice ripper violence near the end when Kade traveled to France to be with Christina. He smacked her once and another time, spanked her. He's clearly physically and verbally abusive (calls her a cold bitch often) but I don't think the title suits him at all.

I'm disappointed with this book but did really like the last part and all the things involving Dominique. Sadly, this isn't a keeper.

I AM JENNIE by Jennie Ketcham, Former Adult Actor Penny Flame

Pub. Info: Gallery Books, 7/2012, Hardcover
Genre: Memoir/Autobiography
My Grade: A-

From Publisher: Drunk and high, holed up in a hotel room with a beautiful blonde she barely knew, Jennie Ketcham was thirty-six hours away from entering rehab. Her on-camera alter ego, Penny Flame, was a rising star. Her personal life, however, had been getting worse for years and finally hit an all-time low.

Guys are gonna want one thing from you. To Jennie’s young ears, her father’s advice meant one thing: You can use your sexuality to control men. Life was imploding around her: her parents’ divorce, their spiraling addictions, her deteriorating relationships with them. She lost her virginity at thirteen and began a game of initiating boys her age into manhood. For the fleeting moments she spent in bed with them, she got to be the center of attention.

Eventually, Jennie found porn—that enticing world of immediate gratification, endless drugs, and seemingly endless money—and became Penny Flame. Divorced from her feelings, tempted into a lifestyle she couldn’t afford, financially or emotionally, she entered Sex Rehab with Dr. Drew to boost her career. But when Dr. Drew and his staff insisted she go by her real name, the once indestructible walls she had built around herself began to burn down.

Two stories make up this direct and disarming memoir: that of a troubled girl desperately fleeing intimacy and herself, and that of a woman courageously breaking down emotional barriers to build a new life. Many will recognize Jennie’s struggles: confusing sex with self-worth, addiction with love, detachment with strength. Ultimately, I Am Jennie is a tale of a woman who considers herself a work in progress but who finally understands that the only person she can truly afford to be is herself.

MY THOUGHTS: I was excited to see that Jennie had written a book. I'd first heard of her when she was on VH1's Sex Rehab with Dr. Drew, then its spinoff, Sober House. I've since seen one of her films (great scene in Reform School Girls, by the way!).

I really appreciate when adult actors tell us their stories. I don't understand what lead Jennie into becoming a promiscuous teenager or drug abuser. I never felt like her home life was bad and would like to understand that better. I don't see how her parents unhappy marriage could have sent her down a dangerous path.

She never discussed when she realized she was bisexual, how she felt about it nor did she mention if she ever discussed with a therapist being raped on a train. She also didn't mention if she thought doing porn was having some impact on her drug use.

The best part of the book was near the end when she met with an ex-boyfriend to apologize to him for her behavior while they were dating. That part really touched me. The funniest part was when she was talking with fellow actor and agent (?) Ben English and answered him in a faux British accent to mimic his.

The comment from her father in the synopsis about guys only wanting one thing from her isn't in full context. He said it to her because she was dressed in a short skirt when she was twelve or thirteen. He was letting her know that if she dressed like that, boys would only want one thing.

She's very honest and explicit and seems to have a great personality. The book was an interesting read and I'd recommend it to anyone who has a interest in the adult films. I happen to enjoy watching porn (I have plenty of it) but I'm happy she got out of the industry since she felt it wasn't the place for her any longer. According to her blog, Becoming Jennie, she seems to be doing fine and I wish her the best.

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

THE OFFER by Catherine Coulter

PUBLISHER: Topaz, 1997
ORIGINAL PUB: Signet, 1981/88 under title An Honorable Offer
SETTING: England, 1814
GENRE: Historical Romance
BODICE RIPPER? No
MY GRADE: C

FROM PUBLISHER:  Lovely young Sabrina Eversleigh, granddaughter of the esteemed Earl of Monmouth first learned of the disreputable desires of men when her dissolute brother-in-law attempted to force himself upon her.

Thus when Sabrina met Phillip Mercerault, it came as no surprise to tier that this handsome, dashing Viscount kept a mistress in London and showed no shame about the many conquests and liaisons of his notorious love life.

Sabrina was sure that with so many women to serve his needs, Phillip would be quite satisfied to accept her wealth and leave her person alone if she became his wife. But two things Sabrina did not count on in her cold calculations: the heat of her own blood and the hunger of her heart...

MY THOUGHTS: This story started out pretty interesting. Sabrina is just eighteen. She has red hair and violet eyes. Her older sister, Elizabeth, twenty-three, is a jealous, nasty person, as is her twenty-seven year old husband, Trevor. Elizabeth is a bit controlled by him but because of her personality I can't feel sorry for her. She's a horrible person. She's so blinded by her jealousy of Sabrina that she truly doesn't care that she was almost raped by Trevor and insisted that Sabrina was lying.

After Sabrina and the hero, twenty-six year old Phillip, meet, the story got a bit boring and stayed that way until the end. I don't like or dislike Phillip. He's not alpha or beta, just somewhere inbetween. After they married he did continue to see his mistress but that didn't bother me. Something's lacking with this character that I just can't put my finger on. They got along really well for most of the story. There wasn't much conflict between them and that's something I need. I hate when hero and heroine get along too well. Boring.

One character that I did like was Sabrina's aunt, Lady Barresford. She's so unlikable. When Sabrina went to live with her and told about the attempted rape she called her a liar and said she tried to seduce Trevor. Such a nasty bitch, that woman is. She has no reason at all to think that of Sabrina. She even tried to get her hands of Sabrina's inheritance!

Teresa Elliott was a semi-interesting character. She's loved Phillip for a while and was really jealous and angry when he married Sabrina. I really though she was going to try and harm Sabrina but she never bothered her. To be honest, that's the main reason I finished reading this book.

I wasn't too happy with this story and even though Catherine is one of my top favorite authors, I won't be keeping this.