ALYX by Lolah Burford with Author Photo

PUBLISHER: Signet, 1977
GENRE: Historical Fiction
SETTING: Jamaica, 1790s

TIMESPAN: about 4 years
HEROINE: Alyx de Vere
HERO: Simon
GRADE: A+
DATES READ: 1/04, 5/04, 11/06, 10/07, 1/22

SYNOPSIS: They were enslaved in a place where lust knew no bounds-and only love was forbidden… They were two white slaves thrown together in the darkness of the breeding hut. She, Alyx de Vere, a virginal, sixteen-year-old beauty carried off to nightmare captivity on a Caribbean sugar plantation. He, Simon, handsome, young, once heir to a noble title. He felt no desire for this anonymous woman who was forced upon him. And she knew only fearful hatred for this stranger who was about to violate her youthful innocence.

But as night after night of tremulous, fevered mating passed, something forbidden grew between these two desire-damned lovers-a rapturous passion that drove them to dare any peril to free each other from this savage world of bondage and brutal submission. And it was then that Alyx and Simon swore that no power-even death itself-would ever overcome their eternal bond of flaming, all-conquering love…

SPOILER SUMMARY: This is the story of 27-year-old Simon and 16-year-old Alyx de Vere, both British. Simon was sold at auction to August, owner of a plantation in Jamaica, 10 years earlier when he was 17. This story takes place in late 1790s Jamaica.

Here's how Simon ended up in Jamaica. Simon was in line to inherit his fathers estates and all that came along with it when his father was injured in a horse riding accident. Simon's jealous uncle Phillip came up with a horrible plan; to kidnap and ship Simon off to a place far away for life so that he would be next in line to inherit his brother's title and estate. But there was one little problem; what to do with Simon?

Simon's father was out riding one day while Simon was away at school. His father fell off the horse as went into a coma. Uncle Phillip put his plan into action. He went to see Simon at school, told him his father was hurt and his mother sent him to come get him and bring him home. Later that night, Phillip gave Simon some drugged coffee, which made Simon sick, then he passed out. He was taken to his own room to recover.

When he awoke, he was bound and gagged. Phillip was standing beside him, he removed Simon's gag and forced him to drink more drugged rum. Simon and Phillip then traveled by carriage. Phillip told him they were traveling 'towards' Simon's father's. The carriage was then attacked by men who kidnapped Simon for ransom, Phillip watching all the while.

Simon awoke on a bed, bound in a hut, being taken care of by some men for about a week. He was blindfolded one day, put into the floor of a carriage and covered by a rug, so as not to be seen by anyone. After traveling for awhile, the carriage stopped, multiple gunshots were fired and the men who helped Phillip with Simon were killed. Simon knew Phillip did it because he heard his voice. Phillip then forced Simon to swallow some kind of powder.

He was later put on a ship with other captives, they sailed to Jamaica and he was put on an auction block naked, examined by a man who ended up buying him. That man was Simon's master, August. Simon was sold under the name Aston Smith.

Simon was forced to share August's bed for five years. When Simon would resist, he'd get whipped. After five years, Simon stopped sharing August's bed but the rapes continued. Soon after Simon stopped sharing his masters bed, he became one of four *studs*. The studs were to get the female slaves, both black and white, pregnant. After they'd gotten one pregnant, they were given a one month break. Studs were treated better than other slaves.

After being a stud for five years, Alyx arrived. She was sent to Jamaica because she'd gotten caught stealing Simon's uncle Phillip's horse. One of her friends dared her to do it just for fun, so she did it then got caught. She'd been there a few months when she'd been put into the breeding hut with Simon. August put those two together until Alyx got pregnant because August wanted those two to have a son that August and his wife could raise as their own, since they couldn't have their own children.

So Simon and Alyx met in the breeding hut. That's how the book opens. They were in total darkness every time so they couldn't see each other at all. The reason for that is so that if they pass by each other, they won't recognize each other and won't know who they're pregnant by or who has fathered who's child.

Just about every night, Simon and Alyx were put in the hut together. They talked and got to know each other. Alyx told Simon how she came to be there and Simon told her his story.

Alyx knew she was pregnant and even threw up once while they were together. She hid the dirty sheet under the bed because she knew if anyone knew she was pregnant, she wouldn't see Simon again. After a short time it was discovered that she was pregnant so she didn't see Simon for a long time. Though they didn't know what the other looked like, since they'd only been together in total darkness, Alyx recognized Simon one day while they were working. Alyx dropped her bucket of water, Simon looked at her but continued on, she whispered his name and in that moment he knew she was Alyx, since she's the only one who knows his real name. They talked, he felt her stomach and saw that she was pregnant. They made plans to meet by the fountain later, they met and had sex and were caught by August's wife. She wanted to have him castrated, whipped and hung. After he was whipped and was about to be hanged, August arrived and saved Simon.

They made plans to escape the plantation together. They met, Simon has his master's keys, they met the priest who married them, then as they were boarding a ship that Simon had arranged for earlier. As they were boarding it, gunshots rang out and August and his men shot the captain and another man, and made Alyx and Simon return home. Simon was whipped 200 times.

He was then put to work in a field with a man who'd had his tongue cut out. He was also raped by the man from time to time. He then became 'stud' to Alyx again. They were told not to talk to each other, so they didn't. Then he didn't see her again for three years. One day someone came to the hut Simon lived in and told him his master wanted to see him. When he got there, August told him he'd checked out his story about being an earl and that Simon had been telling the truth. He tore up Simon's 'paper of purchase', introduced him to his son and daughter, then Alyx and allowed them both to sail home to England. They were finally free; Simon, after 13 years, Alyx, after 3.

When Simon arrived at his mother's home after a few months of sailing, she was surprised to see him but didn't seem happy. He told her that Phillip had abducted him but she didn't belive him. All of them then traveled to see Phillip, who was very sick and in bed. He told Phillip that he and his family was going to have to find some place to live, since they were living in Simon's house. Neither one mentioned the kidnapping.

On the way home, a rider came up to the carriage and told Simon that his uncle wanted to see him. Simon returned alone to the house. When Simon went into the bedroom, Phillip asked Simon if he knew what Phillip had done to him and Simon said yes. Phillip said that he wasn't sorry for what he'd done and that he'd do it all over again if he could.

Simon wrote up a statement saying that Phillip was retracting his statement about Alyx stealing his horse then got Phillip to sign it. He was going to use that to have the charges against Alyx dropped. Next, he asked Phillip if he ever wondered about him or regretted what he'd done and Phillip said 'no'. Simon went home, told Alyx she could leave him if she wanted, since they hadn't been getting along much during the whole voyage back home to England. She said she wanted to stay with him; that's how the book ended.

MY THOUGHTS: I absolutely love this book. It's a top favorite of mine. It fits the criteria of romance (hero and heroine have a relationship throughout with a happily ever after) but I don't see it as one though some do, so I'll catagorize it as one. It's the darkest and most disturbing book I've ever read. I've read it five times in exactly 18 years and it only cost $1.

Both main characters have terrible lives on the plantation. Alyx is put with a 'stud', Simon, for the sole purpose of getting pregnant. Their owner, August, wants their male offspring to raise as his own son so he can inherit everything when August dies. Simon and Alyx are put together in a breeding hut every night in total darkness never seeing what the other looks like. Though they're not to speak to each other at all, they do and form a bond. When Simon isn't on stud duty he's being raped often by August, or servicing his wife, who's name we never learn. August occasionally likes to strangle Simon until he passes out before raping him, sometimes drugging him first. He has him whipped too whenever he feels like it. August's wife is serviced too by Simon. When she sees Simon and Alyx speaking to each other outside of the hut (they somehow figure out who the other is though they've never actually seen each other), she gets incredibly jealous and wants to castrate him. They call him by the fake name he gave them, Aston:

"I hope you die hard, Aston," she whispered, viciousness in her voice over him already like the whip, and he winced under it. "Your neck is strong and I hope it will not break, and you strangle slowly. I hope you take a long time to die, and that you know all the time that it is happening, and that you pray for death before you get it, Aston. I will watch you, Aston, all the while it is happening to you, I will watch your face, Aston, and not let them cover it so that I can see you while you are suffering."

Once Alyx gets pregnant, Simon starts planning their escape but it doesn't go smoothly once the plan's set in motion. That's exciting to read, and tension-filled. I like Alyx. She's mild in personality. This should have been called "Simon" because he's the star of the show. Because they're forced to have sex with each other, they're raping each other. There's a scene near the end, page 292, when they're free and Simon does rape Alyx:

"He was angered at her too then, and he made it his affair, quickly and roughly, forcing her, then he was sorry. She was shaking with angry sobs." 

The ending isn't satisfying, it's too short, and I don't like Simon's mother at all. I doubt anyone does. I don't feel her reaction to seeing him again is a normal one, but then again this is fiction. My only complaint is that the ending needed to be expanded, the book is only 312 pages, and this book definitely needed a sequel. 

The author's note at the end of the book tells us who the character Simon was based on. It says, "In the eighteenth century, the Sixth Earl of Anglesey (uncle Phillip) "is notorious as having procured the kidnapping and bondage in America of his nephew, James Annesley, rightful Lord Altham". If you want to read more about the real event that inspired the character Simon, click here.

Alyx's character was based on a true case of a 14 year old girl who stole a horse and was 'condemned to transportation' to Australia and ended up married to the ship's captain.

Lolah died in 2002. Below is an image of her, taken from the back of the hardcover edition of her book Vice Avenged (see my review). Image came from the internet.

VICE AVENGED by Lolah Burford With Author Image

PUBLISHER: MacMillan, 1971, hardcover
Fawcett Paperback, 1972, pictured here
GENRE: Historical Fiction
AUTHOR'S BOOKLIST: link
MY GRADE: A

FROM PUBLISHER: In 18th-century England young men gathered in private clubs to devise mischievous and exciting schemes to while away their idle hours. So it was with Bysshe, the young Marquis of Gore and his friends. They were bored, very bored. What they wanted was a delicious new game--a shocking, sensational, dangerously different was to spice up their long days. And together they thought up an ingenious idea. One of them would ravish a virgin of good family, an innocent maiden to be chosen by lot. Only a game, they said. And so it was until the plan backfired. Suddenly the game had become a sadistic round of violence and vengeance.

This is the authors first book and is dedicated to author GEORGETTE HEYER. I love how in the 'author's note' before the story begins the author herself says, "Here is an eighteenth-century fairy tale, frankly unserious, frankly unrealistic, for a realistic, serious Age." Love it!

SPOILER SUMMARY: This is a bizarre tale, only 224 pages long but what a tale it is! It takes place in England in the 1700s but no specific year is given. Bysshe, Marquis of Gore, is somewhere around 26 years old. He and three of his friends are bored, bored, bored one night while sitting around in a gaming 'hell'. Viscount Lisle says to them that he'd like to do something that there's "some risk to", and something that ladies wouldn't care to wisper about in their salons. Then he said that he thinks they should 'seduce the quality', an unmarried girl.Each of the four men drew names. Byshee drew the name Cressida "Cressy" Daviot, twenty-two, someone he knew. The next night, May 1st, after leaving his parents home, he went to her home, guessed at which window was hers, climbed up a rope ladder he'd brought, climbed into her room and put a mask on.He went over to her bed, tied a cloth over her mouth and tied her hands and legs together, threatened to hit her with his fist if she made a sound, carried her over his shoulder and out the window, taking the ladder with him to his carriage. They traveled to nearby hills, layed her down on bearskin rugs and said this horrible thing to her:

"You will wonder why I have brought you here" he said in a level voice, "and I will tell you. I intend to rape you. You are miles alway from any house, or any road, or anyone who could hear you, scream you never so loud or long. Do you understand me? There is no one, absolutely no one who can hear you who will come to your aid- and there is nothing, absolutely nothing, that can prevent my doing to you exactly what I fully mean to do. I have brought you here to do it, and never doubt I shall. Put all hopes of that aside."

He took her back home, changed her nightgown, kept the dirty one and cut off a lock of her hair (like a serial killer would do) as proof of what he'd done. Charles, one of Byshee's friends recognized the nightgown (yeah, right!) as belonging to his cousin, who's several times removed from the family. Charles felt bad about what happened so he sent a note to Cressy's father informing him of what happened.

Her father read the note the next day and told her twin brothers about what happened. They came up with a plan.... Cressy's father invited Byshee to a party at their home and had someone bring him into another room. Her father and brothers were waiting with weapons when Byshee came into the room. They gagged him and her father told him they knew what happened, didn't say how they knew, and that he was making Byshee marry her. (WTF?! Who want's their daughter to marry a rapist, I ask you?) Byshee refused then agreed after being threatened with a beating. Byshee was still denying he'd raped her so he wouldn't sign a paper saying he'd done it, but he did sign some other legal papers.

They brought Cressy in to see Byshee, she didn't recognize him, they told her he wanted to marry her but she refused and left the room. Her father told her who Byshee was and what he'd done and that he's making her marry him. Byshee is being held captive there and beaten every day until he signs the paper saying he raped her. But Cressy doesn't know a thing about the beatings. Byshee breaks down one day, tells her he's being held against his will and that they should marry right away. The entire family travel to France. (Why?)

After the wedding, the two of them traveled to Italy, where they spent three months. When they finally got back home, Byshee started using opium, which was 'fashionable' at the time.

One day at the club, Byshee confronted Charles and told him he knew he'd told Cressy's father about what he'd done. Charles denied it, called Byshee a liar, so they dueled and Charles got shot in the chest by Byshee but survived. Charles then told Byshee that Cressy was his cousin and that's why he'd told on him. Charles is about 20 years old.

Cressy's brothers and father kidnapped Byshee, put him on Cressy's brother Kit's yacht and spent six hours traveling to France. Once there, they locked him in a room with a window, chair and table. He cried. He was kept there about a week then was moved to a large one room apartment and was held prisioner there for months. The money for the apartment ran out, he was moved to a small room again and was kept there until about eight months later when he was set free.

He wandered around, came to a home, asked the people if he could bathe and shave and ended up staying there, helping to work the land. About seven months later, he sent Cressy a letter asking her to send his valet to him. Cressy and Byshee's father traveled with the valet to France. He did not tell her that he was there because her father kidnapped him. Cressy just thought he left of his own free will TWO YEARS before.

They left to go back to England. Byshee still didn't tell her about her father kidnapping him. Byshee finally confessed to Cressy that he was the one who raped her, and that it had been part of a bet, "a vile, foolish, brutal, stupid bet. But how I won!" During his two year absence, Cressy gave birth to a  boy.

And they all lived happily ever after!

I read somewhere on the internet years ago (in an obit that I can't find) that Lolah died in 2002. Below is an image of her, taken from the back of the hardcover edition of her book Vice Avenged.

Here's some info on her.

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.

STILL MISSING by Chevy Stevens

You can read about this book at Amazon.com. It's Chevy Steven's first novel and was published by St. Martin's Press in July 2010.

MY THOUGHTS: 32 year old Annie, who's a Realtor, was abducted while alone at an open-house. The story is about being abducted by a stranger and how she suffered at his hands for a year. From the get-go I did not like Annie at all. She seems more like an angry, foul-mouthed, crude teenager than a woman in her 30s. I despise the word freak simply because I think it sounds stupid and she always referred to her abductor as The Freak  (real name Simon Rousseau) throughout the entire book. She also kept referring to the police station later in the book as the cop shop. That really annoyed me.


I didn't care for the abductor either and found him to be a bit unbelievable and unpredictable when it came to violence. I don't understand what the whole point of the baby plot was either. Include a baby just to kill it off a month later? I've read a lot of true crime and have watched a lot of true crime on television (and still do on a weekly basis) and I've never, ever heard of a kidnap victim getting away in the abductors own vehicle. That just seemed a bit silly to me.

I was very bored up until almost 2/3 of the way through when her abductor got what he deserved and Annie escaped. Too bad she couldn't have done the deed sooner so that the book could have ended sooner. Right after that incident, I was back to being bored and unhappy with the story. She went to the police station, in the abductors own van, and told them everything. She's back home, out jogging with her dog one day and is almost abducted again. I think before that happened, earlier after she first came home after the abduction, someone tried to break in her home while she was out. Can you say overkill?

Then it's revealed who's behind the kidnapping and it was just too much for a reader to stand. Just not plausible at all.

Needless to say, I did not care for this book at all. I didn't find it to be exciting or suspenseful at all. I won't be trying this author again.


This book was sent to me by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

THE COURTESAN by Julia Justiss

PUBLISHER: HQN (Harlequin), 2005
GENRE: Historical Romance
SETTING: England
MY GRADE: D/F

SYNOPSIS: After years of dangerous fighting on the Peninsula, Captain Jack Carrington has returned home to take up family duties and find himself a wife. But his life is thrown into turmoil when he views a fencing lesson unlike any other. The talented student is no student at all, but a beautiful young woman, and the most infamous courtesan in all of London -- Lady Belle.

Who is the mysterious Belle? A jaded cyprian seeking her next protector? A kind friend helping those in need? Or a mistress of sensual delights that tempt a man to madness? Eager to uncover the true woman behind the facade, Jack wagers he can win a kiss from Belle if he bests her at fencing. And though Belle is a woman he can neither afford to keep nor dare to marry, he's willing to risk it all to win her to his bed.



It was mentioned on a romance forum/message board that the heroine was raped in this. That caught my attention because I had no idea that authors were still putting rape in novels. I didn't know it was 'allowed', for lack of a better word. So I got the book, started reading it sometime in 2006 and quickly got bored with it. I traded the book without having gotten very far in it and later regretted it. Three years later I got it again and just now reread it. Here's what goes on in it.

SPOILER SUMMARY: The story takes place in England in the 1800s. Belle, 22ish, blonde, blue eyed, is a courtesan (prostitute to noblemen) and her lover died less than a month before. The hero, Jack, see's her fencing with someone and discovers that she's a woman, not a man like he assumed. He's intrigued by her and later ends up in a fencing match with her. Belle accidently stabs him with the foil and it pierces his lung. He's in bad shape and is taken to Belle's home to recover. Here's where the story gets very, very boring. Jack is there for quite awhile recovering and that's about it. Nothing goes on between him and Belle. They're attracted to one another but Belle is determined to never be a man's 'whore', as she calls it, again.

While Jack is recovering there, Belle finds this young teenager named Jane working in a brothel. She kidnaps her, basically, and brings her to stay/work at her home. Once while traveling, their carriage is attacked and they think it's someone that the brothel owner has sent to get Jane back. They're right but they aren't harmed and Jane isn't mentioned much after that.

Near the end of Jack's recovery, completely out of the blue, Belle tried to seduce Jack but he was having none of it. He could tell Belle wasn't really interested in seducing him but was interested in him, in getting to know him better. I guess she thought the only way to express that was to offer him sex. Sometime after that, Jack told her he wanted to marry her. She told him it wouldn't be acceptable for him to marry an ex-prostitute and refused him. When Jack was almost well, he agreed to stay another week. During that week, they had sex for the first time. He then left her home when he was healed from the stab wound. They went their seperate ways and their lives got back to normal.

Here's where I feel the author didn't know where to go with the story so she just threw a piece of nonsense into the mix. Jack met his younger sister's friend, Kitty. He thought Kitty looked a whole lot like Belle. Kitty told him the story of how her older sister Constance (Belle) and mother died almost seven years ago, when she was about thirteen. They were buried at the inn where they'd all been staying and Kitty went to live with a relative. That sounded similar to the story Belle had told him about how she became a prostitute. She told him her mother died and was buried and her younger sister was planning to live with a relative. Belle, while at the inn, had met some much older, married man who offered to let him stay with him and his wife. I guess Belle knew she was going to have a sexual relationship with him. She didn't want her sister to know so she didn't tell her that. Belle later finds out that the man she was to live with told her sister that she had died right after the mother and was buried beside her out on the inn's property. He even paid to have a tombstone put there. Jack then travelled to the inn to check out Kitty's story and was told that no, the sister, Constance, didn't really die. That's when Jack knew Belle and Constance were the same person.

After that discovery, Belle was at home and Lord Rupert, a man who has lusted after her, paid her an unwelcome visit. He punched her in the head or face and knocked her unconscious. While passed out, he raped her and tied her to the bed. She woke up, they arugued, he told her all her servants were in another building on the property. He left her alone in the bedroom and out of the clear blue sky came her young male employee right down the chimney to rescue her! He pulled out a knife and cut her wrists loose. Right then, Jack appeared. He'd been going there to check on her. He hadn't seen her since he went back home after he'd recovered. Rupert came into the room and he and Belle started fencing, I kid you not. Of course, she beat him. Jack made Rupert promise to leave the country and never return.

While out somewhere at some party, Jack reunited Belle with her sister Kitty. Later, Belle finally agreed to marry him. That's how the story ended.

MY THOUGHTS: I must say this was one of the slowest and most boring books that I've ever read. Words can't really describe how let down I feel. The first two thirds or so was just Jack recovering from his wound at Belle's. To me, that just wasn't believable. There was no reason at all for Jack to have been taken to Belle's when he could have gone to a friend, or family members, home to recover. Why would you stay at a known prostitute's home? And adding Jane to the story was pointless simply because it did noting for it. Jane wasn't mentioned much after she came to live with Belle. And the stuff with Kitty thinking her sister dead, well, it just wasn't needed. I do think the rape was thrown in just for shock value and the strange thing was, it wasn't shocking at all.

She could have had the rape take place midway though the story and the rest could have been Jack helping Belle 'recover' and them falling in love with each other.

I won't be trying this author again. Overall, I was terribly disappointed with the story. It could have been such a great love story; man falling for ex fallen woman and all that pretty stuff. This wasn't a bodice ripper though it did have one bodice ripper-like scene near the the end, with the rape.

TENDER TORMENT by Jane Archer

PUBLISHING INFO: Pinnacle, May 1978
SETTING: America
GENRE: Historical Romance
BODICE RIPPER? Yes!
MY GRADE: C

FROM PUBLISHER:  INNOCENCE DESTROYED ... SLEEPING PASSIONS AWAKENED, STIRRED, SET ABLAZE ... IN A MAJESTIC TALE OF ROMANTIC ADVENTURE!

ALEXANDRA, a woman no man could tame; a woman who used what she had to get what she wanted.

Ravaged brutally by a man determined to claim her and her fortune as his own, Alexandra Clarke flees the safety of her home, embarking on a journey that will see her tossed upon the turbulent seas of disgrace and shame -- and treachery.

From the luxury of a New York townhouse to the lush shores of the Caribbean; from the rot and decay of a dying Southern plantation to the arid expanse of Texas, Alexandra recklessly pushes on, ever seeking escape. But there is one man from whom there is no escape. Jake Jarmon -- a man bold in his hunger for her, unrelenting in his quest to control. Jake Jarmon -- only he can satisfy the fiery demands of her body; only he can hurt her with the cold rage of his temper.

Theirs is a proud battle of the wills as they struggle viciously to deny their love; a love that burns with the hot flame of desire; a love that soars with the rapture of their need.

MY THOUGHTS: This was awful. Here's the bodice ripper parts, in a nutshell:

The heroine is 20 year old Alexandra. She has red-gold hair and green eyes. She was punched in the face and raped by a man who wanted to marry her, raped again on the ship, almost gang raped and jumped overboard to escape, raped yet again by three sailors, raped by the bouncer at the saloon, was drugged (by the female saloon owner and ex lover of the hero) and raped again by the heroes brother (hero just happened to witness the sex but didn't know she was being raped; thought it was consentual), raped several times by the hero (but always ended up liking it in the end), almost raped by his halfbrother(?).

Even though I didn't like this, I do want to read another by this author.

THE CONQUEROR by Brenda Joyce

PUBLISHER: Dell, 9/1990
GENRE: Fiction/Historical Romance
SETTING: England, 1079
SERIES: deWarenne Dynasty, #1
BODICE RIPPER? Yes
MY GRADE: C

FROM PUBLISHER: Like a pagan god, Rolfe the relentless rode into Castle Aelfgar to claim it and the Lady Alice as his prize. Lauded for his bravery in France, in England he was the hated enemy. Once ensconced in his new domain, Rolfe became determined to tame the Saxon beauty Ceirdre, Alice's illegitimate sister, whose spirit and sensuality made him risk treason to have this woman of fire - and not Lady Alice - in his bed...

With her bronze hair and silken skin, Ceirdre seemed a wood nymph eluding the wickedly handsome knight who pursued her. Mysterious and seductive, she was no lady but a spy for the rebel cause of her noble half rothers. Refusing to bow to this arrogant warrior who ignited her forbidden passion, Ceirdre was swept into a dangerous liaison tied to the fate of England and the fate of kings....Yet with his kisses on her lips, his skillful hands on her body, she would have to struggle not to surrender to...The Conqueror.

MY THOUGHTS: I found most of the characters likeable, like Ceidre and Rolfe, Guy and some others whom I can’t think of at the moment, but I just didn’t care for Rolfe’s wife and Ceidre’s half-sister, Alice. Alice did have every right to be jealous of Ceidre but I just didn’t see how she added to the story. I’m not bothered by much in bodice rippers but I was a little disturbed by Alice liking pain, like when Rolfe smacked her and she became sexually aroused by it. I think the characters stayed true to their personalities, especially Rolfe who was a true bodice ripper alpha male. Alice is the only one who became more dangerous.

My favorite scene is right at the beginning when Rolfe encounters Ceidre for the first time. They meet in true bodice ripper fashion! That would have to be the most bodice ripper-like scene, the near-rape right at the beginning.

I thought the plotline was weak. There wasn’t much substance to it. The only interesting thing about the whole book was the hot sex scenes and man, were there plenty.

I felt sorry for Ceidre for falling for a brute like Rolfe. Near the end, after she was imprisoned for treason and found out she was pregnant, she became a bit obsessed with Rolfe, IMO. I don’t understand why she didn’t want him to know she was pregnant, since she loved him so much.

I found it really unbelievable that Ceidre and Guy never consummated their marriage. There was no reason not to. And Rolfe and Alice didn’t consummate theirs right away either. Makes no sense to me.

So, if you’re new to the ‘bodice ripper’ genre and aren’t bothered by violence in romance, by all means read this. If you don’t like to read about rape in romance novels, please skip this one completely because its got rape and other physical abuse.