THE PRINCE OF EDEN by Marilyn Harris

PUBLISHER: Putnam, 1978
GENRE: Historical Fiction
SETTING: England
SERIES: Eden, book 2
MY GRADE: C

SYNOPSIS:  Edward Eden, a noble and passionate man of the people pursued a course decreed by his bastard heritage.

Heir to the vast wealth but not the title of Lord Thomas Eden's estate, he rose to become the most splendid libertine in all London...and fell into the iron grip of a sinister addiction.

Dashing conqueror of hearts more, willing then wise, he drank freely, recklessly from the waters of passion...only to lose himself body and soul to the one woman whose intoxicating thirst he was -- and forbidden -- to quench.

Her world was forgotten, his destiny sealed, a dynasty dammed, in one silent hour of lose.

SPOILER SUMMARY: This is the second in the series. It begins about 36 years after the first book ended. Edward is about 42. He ends up getting addicted to laudanum in the novel. In the beginning of the book, Edward meets a girl at Newgate prison named Elizabeth. He'd go there to bring the inmates treats and stuff. Elizabeth is a teenager, I think, and helps Edward and his friend run a school for poor kids. Edward and Elizabeth are never together romantically.

Edwards younger bother James is not a bastard like Edward so James is to inherit the title and lands and all that. Harriet is to marry James and she and Edward begin an affair. She gets pregnant by Edward, no one but her parents and a nurse know. She's kept prisoner in her home until after the baby is born. It's born and given away.

Coincidentally, Edward and Elizabeth are at an inn and they see the baby, and they don't know it's actually Edward's and Harriet's, being branded with the word 'bastard' by some man so they kidnap it and Edward raises the boy as his own. I just checked my book and the son is named John. About 15 years later,  when John is 15, Edward dies in some accident with a piece of equipment and John goes to Eden to live with his father's relatives. Neither he nor Harriet know that he is her son. That's how that book ends. I think his mother Marianne, from the first book, dies in this one.

This series is pure fiction, not romance. This book was boring. But I know with book three this series will take a disturbing turn.

Here is the reading order for the series:

•This Other Eden
•The Prince of Eden
•The Eden Passion
•The Women of Eden
•Eden Rising
•American Eden
•Eden and Honor

THIS OTHER EDEN by Marilyn Harris

PUBLISHING INFO: Putnam, 1977
GENRE: Historical Fiction
SETTING: England, 1790
SERIES: Eden, book 1
MY GRADE: C

SYNOPSIS: The secret of the entire world is whispered here at Eden....

Since time out of memory, Eden Castle had ridden the storm-swept Devon cliffs like a ghostly figurehead On a ship of the damned.

He was the last Lord of Eden Castle, Thomas Eden, a man of brooding desire and sudden passion ...

She was his servant girl, Marianne Locke, the fiery young beauty who would rather submit to the cruel kiss of the whip than suffer the lust of a man she did not love...

From the wild Devonshire coast to the glittering literary salons of London, the tumultuous union of these two proud people Hazed a raging tempest of enduring love.

SPOILER SUMMARY: In the first book, 'This Other Eden', it's 1790 and the heroine, Marianne is 16 and is whipped by 40 year old Thomas Eden. I can't remember why. Two months later she goes to stay with her older sister Jane and her boyfriend, William Pitch. Thomas Eden wants to rape Marianne and Jane offers to help him set it up by giving him a key to Marianne's room. Thomas goes into the room, Marianne is naked getting ready for bed, she screams, causes a commotion, everyone comes running into the room and William Pitch shoots Thomas. Jane confesses to Marianne her role in the near-rape. Later, Marianne and Thomas get married but she later finds out that it was not legal. Marianne gives birth to Edward (from the second book in the series).

Marianne leaves Thomas. He feels guilty for having her whipped so he has someone whip him 40 times. Marianne nurses Thomas back to health that day and they get married and end up having a second son. By this time she is about 26 years old that's how the book ends.

MY THOUGHTS: I'll admit that the synopsis makes this sound really interesting but it was just boring and longer than it needed to be. It wasn't as dark as I was hoping it would be.

This is the reading order of the series:

• This Other Eden
• The Prince of Eden
• The Eden Passion
• The Women of Eden
• Eden Rising
• American Eden
• Eden and Honor

VIOLET FIRE by Brenda Joyce

PUBLISHER: Avon, 5/1989
GENRE: Fiction/Historical Romance
SETTING: Mississippi, USA 1875
SERIES: Bragg Saga, #3
PURCHASE: link
MY GRADE: C

SYNOPSIS: Impassioned suffragette Grace O'Rourke made a startling first impression on golden-boy Rathe Bragg when she crashed a society party wielding a six-shooter and spouting feminist slogans from atop the grand piano. And from that moment the sparks between them never stopped flying.

Soon, the irrepressible Grace had outraged the entire town of Natchez with her radical ideas -- infuriating Rathe most of all. Yet he was obsessed with taming the vibrant, stubborn, passionate lass ... and making her his mistress. But despite her shocking attraction to the virile rogue, Grace firmly rejected his scandalous proposition. And for Rathe, of course, "no" was the ultimate challenge!

MY THOUGHTS: This book is about one of Derek and Miranda Bragg's son, Rathe and takes place in 1875. He's about 30 with blue eyes and golden hair. He's from Texas but lives in Mississippi. The heroine is 27 year old Grace O'Rourke. She has red hair and violet eyes. She's tall and thin. She's from New York but has travelled to Nachez, Mississippi because she's gotten a job as a governess to Louisa Barclay's two little daughters.

Grace is a school teacher and a women's rights activist. She meets Rathe briefly in the prologue, which takes place in New York. She meets him again two years later, in chapter one, because he's Louisa's lover, and he's there visiting her at her plantation home when Grace arrives to begin her job.

Rathe is attracted to Grace right away and soon recognizes her as the woman from New York two years before. Rathe and Grace don't get along at all. He gives Grace a ride home one night and Louisa gets very jealous and fires Grace. Grace is on her way to visit her friend Allen Kennedy and runs into Rathe again. He overhears Grace telling Allen that she's almost out of money. Rathe then decides to make her his paid mistress.

The rest of the book is just plain boring. Grace is desperate for money and finally gives in and becomes his mistress. They love each other, he wants to marry her but she'd rather be his mistress because that way, she's still her own woman and can do as she pleases without having to answer to a husband. She wants to continue trying to teach school to young black children even though some people, including the sheriff, are trying to run her out of town. She leaves Rathe, with the help of his ex mistress Louisa. The sheriff rips her necklace off of her when he see's her at Louisa's. Later, the new church is burned down and there is a burned body there wearing her necklace. Rathe assumes that the dead body is Grace and is upset, obviously. He travels home to Texas to visit his parents and sister Storm and her family. While they're all out somewhere, he see's Grace. He rushes over to her and they decide right there to get married.

In the epilogue, it's over four years later and they have a four year old daughter named Lucy. She has her own book, one of my top favorites, The Fires of Paradise.

I've read this book at least three times since I first bought it in 1995. I didn't like it too much the first time and I still don't like it at all.

The Bragg series is to be read in this order:

Innocent Fire- This is the story of Nick's parents.

Firestorm- The story of Nick's sister Storm.

Violet Fire- Story of Nick's brother Rathe.

Dark Fires- Nicholas Bragg.

The Darkest Heart- The story of Shoz's (from The Fires of Paradise) parents.

The Fires of Paradise- Nick's brother Rathe's daughter Lucy's story.

Scandalous Love- Nick's oldest daughter Nicole's story.

Secrets- Nick's youngest daughter Regina's story. Her husbands name is Slade Delanza.

After Innocence- The story of Slade's youngest brother Edward and his wife Sophie.

DARK FIRES by Brenda Joyce

PUBLISHER: Dell, 6/1991
GENRE: Fiction/Historical Romance
SETTING: England/New York, USA
SERIES: Bragg Saga, #4
PURCHASE: link
MY GRADE: C

DATES READ: 2003, 2010

SYNOPSIS: "He murdered his wife," they whispered. Nicholas Bragg, Earl of Dragmore, was notorious--even after a British court found him innocent. Now they called him Lord of Darkness, as much for his rakish good looks as for his black reputation.

She was an innocent at passion's gate. Arriving uninvited at the massive stone manor, she shivered with terror--and excitement. Jane Barclay was his ward. Her sunny, innocent nature was in violent contrast to his hot temper. He was wild, explosive, an uncouth Texas rakehell--exactly the wrong kind of man for an English beauty to tame.

Together they would be swept into the dark storm of their passionate destiny...and wild, all-consuming love.

SPOILER SUMMARY: The hero is Nicholas Bragg, 33, from Texas but living in England for 10 years. He has silver eyes, black hair and a dark complexion. His wife died in a house fire and Nick was accused of setting the fire but was later aquited. Everyone still thinks he did it and therefore has no friends but one. He has a five year old son.

His ward is seventeen year old Jane Barclay, platinum blonde hair, blue eyes. Nick is widowed and Jane, his dead wife's cousin, comes to live with him when her guardian can't afford her anymore. Jane's parents both died years before. Her mother was a famous actress and Jane has done some acting too.

Nick doesn't want her to stay there so he's pretty rude to her. He's also very attracted to her but doesn't act on it because Jane is so young, just seventeen. Nick is also very jealous of her and his best friend Jon Lindley. They get along great and flirt with each other.

Jane ends up falling in love with him and climbs into bed with him one night. While he's asleep, they have sex. He wakes up to find her in his bed and he is furious! Later she tells him she loves him. He tells her she doesn't know what love is, they get into an argument and she flees to London, pregnant, to stay with an old male friend of hers. She leaves a letter telling Nick where she's going but he doesn't contact her nor does she tell him she's pregnant. Nick sends her male friend money to help support Jane but the man never tells Jane this.

Nick, somehow, finds out that Jane has a baby, Nicole, and is told that she is his. The rest of the novel is pretty boring. Jane and Nick end up back together and get married. He tells her that he is the product of rape. His French mother was kidnapped and raped by an Indian, resulting in a pregnancy.

Out of nowhere, Nick's dead wife shows up. She tells him she's the one who started the fire. She and her lover fled to America, where she's been living. She's only returned because she's grown bored with the man and has run out of money. So she thinks she can return home, tell everyone she'd forgotten her memory, and continue on as if nothing ever happened.

Jane assumes Nick is going to stay with his wife so she and their friend Jon travel to New York to visit with Nick's younger brother Rathe. Nick doesn't know where she's gone. Rathe's story is in the book 'Violet Fire.' Rathe and his wife Grace think that Jane and Jon are lovers but Jane confides in Grace that she is in love, and has a child and one on the way, with her brother-in-law Nick. Rathe tells Nick that Jane is there so he travels to New York from England. Jane tells Nick that she will be his mistress but he tells her that he's in the process of divorcing his wife. So that's what happens. They then travel to Texas to visit his parents, whom Nick hasn't seen since he moved to England ten years before.

And they live happily ever after!
__

MY THOUGHTS: I've read this book twice now and I still don't like it very much. I think Jane is very weak and uninteresting. There's no fire in her. Nick is very, very angry and violent. He cusses all the time and is a big fan of the F-word. He's very jealous. Right before he came to England ten years before, he found out that the man he thought was his father, Derek, wasn't, and that his mom was raped and the rapist is his father. So he's really angry that the truth was kept from him. He was in love with his first wife but she hated him. Then when she found out that he was part American Indian, she really hated him and their son, Chad. Though there is no violence toward the heroine, I consider this book to be a bodice ripper because of the way the hero acts.

This is the order of the Bragg series:

Innocent Fire- This is the story of Nick's parents.

Firestorm- The story of Nick's sister Storm.

Violet Fire- Story of Nick's brother Rathe.

Dark Fires- Nicholas Bragg.

The Darkest Heart- The story of Shoz's (from The Fires of Paradise) parents.

The Fires of Paradise- Nick's brother Rathe's daughter Lucy's story.

Scandalous Love- Nick's oldest daughter Nicole's story.

Secrets- Nick's youngest daugher Regina's story. Her husbands name is Slade Delanza.

After Innocence- The story of Slade's youngest brother Edward and his wife Sophie.

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.

A ROSE AT MIDNIGHT by Anne Stuart

PUBLISHER: Avon, 2/1993
GENRE: Fiction/Historical Romance
SETTING: England/France, 1803
PURCHASE: link
MY GRADE: F

FROM PUBLISHER: Once a daughter of the aristocracy, lovely Ghislaine "Gilly" de Lorgny lives for the destruction of Nicholas Blackthorne—the notorious rake she holds responsible for the cruel loss of her virtue, family and fortune. Now that the rogue has reentered her life, she seizes the opportunity to enact a poisonous revenge—but is abducted by the dashing villain before the deed can be done.

Held prisoner in a secluded hunting lodge, she steels herself to resist the sensuous punishment her captor has promised—only to be betrayed by a heart that aches with desire for the handsome, tormented blackguard. For only in her enemy's arms will Gilly know the exquisite passion that can heal all wounds...and the rapture of a love powerful enough to restore a fallen woman's honor and a scoundrel's nobility.

SPOILER SUMMARY: This is about Ghislaine 'Gilly' de Lorgny, 28-ish, French, brown hair, brown eyes and fair skin. The hero is Nicholas Blackthorne, 35, dark hair, blue eyes, English. Gilly is working as the cook for Nicholas' cousin Ellen, who lives at Nicholas's home. Nicholas discovers Gilly working there. They'd known each other thirteen years before. Ghislaine wants to murder Nicholas because she feels he's responsible for her parents deaths by hanging. So when he arrives, she poisons his food and he becomes violently sick for three days. Nicholas's valet Taverner 'Tavvy' tells him he thinks Ghislaine poisoned him but Nicholas doesn't believe him. So days later when he's well, Ghislaine poisons his rum and his milk. She delivers his food to him and he eats it right in front of him. When he says he's going to give the milk, which he thinks may be poisoned, to her dog, she tells him not to. He then asks her why she's trying to kill him and she tells him it's because he killed her parents.

Nicholas comes up with a stupid plan to kidnap her and take her to Scotland. Nicholas recently wounded someone in a duel so he also wants to get away while the scandal dies down, not knowing that the wounded man, Jason, has died. So the two of them and his valet Tavvey travel to Scotland and hid out in his run down hunting lodge.

Ghislaine's employer and Nicholas's cousin Ellen and her brothers friend Antony 'Tony' Wilton-Greening chase after them! Tony wants to marry Ellen but she doesn't know it. So the entire novel is them chasing after Ghislaine and Nicholas. Ellen and Tony finally get to Nicholas's lodge but they've already fled to Holland. While there, Ellen and her kidnapper Nicholas begin to have feelings for each other. She tells him that she became a prostitute at the age of seventeen. Someone named Malviver sold her to a brothel and she'd only had sex with TWO men all those years. That, to me, is totally unbelievable. Years later she saw Malviver and when he asked her for oral sex, she stabbed and killed him... or so she thought. Nicholas LAUGHED when she told him that.

Back to the present, she and Nicholas were at a party and they ran into a man who she'd had sex with years before named Wrexham. When she last saw him, she'd smashed him in the head with a chamber pot. He told Nicholas she was a slut, thinking she was still a prostitute, and later Nicholas ended up killing him in a duel just for that comment. When he tells Ghilslaine that, she tells him that she loves him and they have sex. While all this is going on, Ellen and Tony have decided to get married.

Ellen and Ghislaine go to France and Tony and Nicholas go to England. Out of nowhere, Malviver shows up to kidnap Ghislaine. So they're on their way somewhere and out of the blue, again!, Tony appears and he and Nicholas chase after Ghislaine. Tony ends up stabbing Malviver to death.

The epilogue has Ghislaine and Nicholas rebuilding his lodge in Scotland and she's pregnant.
____

MY THOUGHTS: This book was about nothing at all except Ellen and Tony chasing after Ghislaine and Nicholas, then catching up with them at the end. Seriously, that was it. Boring, boring, boring. And one really absurd part was when they were still in Scotland and not getting along, they had a picnic outside! I still don't know why Nicholas kidnapped her in the first place. I didn't like Ellen or Tony and I don't like them being featured throughout the entire book, begining to end. This really was a book about two couples, both of which I cared nothing about. I just thought this was a stupid book and I honestly can't figure out how it got published. I give it two thumbs down.

Bodice Ripper Novelists- Men Masquerading as Women

I know of a few 'female' historical romance authors who wrote in the 70s and 80s who are really men. Below is information on them. If anyone has a photo of someone I've got listed but have no photo for, please contact me.

Jennifer Wilde, aka Tom Huff

Loves Tender Fury (1976)

• Dare to Love (1978)
• Love Me, Marietta (1981)
• Once More, Miranda (1983)
• When Love Commands (1984)
• Angel in Scarlet (1986)
• The Slipper (1987)
• They Call Her Dana (1989)
• Falconridge (1990)
• Betrayal at Blackcrest (1991)
• Come to Castlemoor (1991)
• Whisper in the Darkness (1991)
• Room Beneath the Stairs (1992)
• The Lady of Lyon House (1992)
• Midnight at Mallyncourt (1992)
• Susannah, Beware (1992) aka Nine Buck's Row
• Stranger by the Lake (1993)
• Jamintha (1994)

Christina Savage aka Kerry Newcomb and Frank Schaefer

• Love`s Wildest Fires (1977)
• Dawn Wind (1980)
• Tempest (1982)
• Hearts of Fire (1984)

Shana Carrol aka Kerry Newcomb and Frank Schaefer

• Raven   1978
• Live For Love   1984
• Paxon Pride  1984
• Yellow Rose  1984
• Rebels in Love  1984

Elizabeth Bright, aka Tim Myers

Reap the Wiild Harvest (1979)
Desire's Legacy (1981)
A Lasting Splendor (1981)
Passion's Heirs (1981)
Destiny's Thunder (1983)
A Heritage of Passion (1983)
The Virginians (1984)

Emma Blair, aka Iain Blair

Hester Dark GF 1989-09
The Blackbird's Tale GF 1991-08
A Most Determined Woman GF 1994-05
The Princess of Poor Street GF 1994-05
Street Song GF 1994-05May-1994
When Dreams Come True GF 1994-05
Nellie Wildchild GF 1996-07
Half Hidden GF 1997-04
This Side of Heaven GF 1997-04
Where No Man Cries GF 1997-08
Jessie Gray GF 1997-12
Flower of Scotland GF 1998-03
An Apple from Eden GF 1999-01
Maggie Jordan GF 1999-08
Goodnight, Sweet Prince GF 2000-01
Wild Strawberries GF 2000-11
Forget-Me-Not GF 2001-10
Moonlit Eyes GF 2002-01
Finding Happiness GF 2003-02
Twilight Time GF 2004-01Jan
Little White Lies GF 2005-03
Sweethearts GF 2007-11


Christina Nicholson, aka Christopher Nicole (born 1930)
Christopher Nicole Bio Link

• Power and the Passion (1977)
• The Savage Sands (1978)
• Queen of Paris (1979)

Pamela South, aka Donald Bain

• Daughter of the South

Lee Jackson, aka Donald Bain

The Eagel and the Serpant  (1982)

Stephanie Blake, aka Jack Pearl (cousin to author Donald Bain)

Callie Knight (1970)
Daughter of Destiny (1977)
Flowers of Fire (1977)
Blaze of Passion (1978)
So Wicked My Desire (1979)
Secret Sins (1980)
Wicked Is My Flesh (1980)
Scarlet Kisses (1981)
Unholy Desires (1981)
A Glorious Passion (1982)
Fires of the Heart (1982)
Bride of the Wind (1984)
Texas Lily (1987)
This World Is Mine (1988)
The Devil in My Heart (1990)

Petra Leigh, aka Peter Ling (obituary)
Garnet   1978
Rosewood   1979
Coral   1979

Peter O'Donnell, aka Madeleine Brent (obituary)

• Tregaron's Daughter (1971)
• Moonraker's Bride (1973)
• Stranger at Wildings (1975)
• Merlin's Keep (1977)
• The Capricorn Stone (1979)
• The Long Masquerade (1981)
• Heritage of Shadows (1983)
• Stormswift (1984)
• Golden Urchin (1987)

Robert Vaughan is Paula Fairman (and 41 others!)

ONLY IN YOUR ARMS by Lisa Kleypas, original version of ‘When Strangers Marry.’

PUBLISHER: Avon, 4/1992
GENRE: Historical Romance
SERIES: Vallerands, #1
MY GRADE: C

FROM PUBLISHER: Fleeing an impending marriage with a man she loathes, Lysette Kersaint is nevertheless forced to marry someone equally unappealing--notorious master duelist Maximilien Vallerand--who awakens her desires in surprising new ways.

BOOK COMPARISON: In 2002, the Lisa Kleypas novel ‘When Strangers Marry’ came out. It was actually a rewritten version of her 1992 Avon novel ‘Only In Your Arms’. A few changes were made.

One change in the rewrite (When Strangers Marry) is a scene where the heroine Lysette doesn’t want to have sex on her wedding night. That was OK with the hero Max. She asks him if he’s going to visit his quadroon mistress that night and he says ‘yes.’ Then there is a little over two pages of dialog between the hero and his mistress. In the REWRITE, Lysette does not ask Max if he’s going to see his mistress but instead asks him if he’s going out. He tells her yes and the part where he visits his mistress is completely removed from the story.

Another change is during a scene in the original version (Only In Your Arms) when Lysette, Max and his twin sons are eating stolen watermellon. When she and Max are alone, she mentions his dead wife Corinne. That angers Max and he grabs Lysette by the shoulders, lifts her off the ground and tells her to never mention Corinne’s name again. In the rewrite, the part where she mentions Corinne never happens.

The last change that was made was a scene in the original version where Lysette tells Bernard, Max’s brother, who murdered Max’s wife, Corinne, that someone is out to murder him because he murdered Corinne years before. Lysette tells Bernard to hide in their warehouse. Max meets him there and tells him to leave on a ship and to never, ever come back or he’d kill him.

In the rewritten version it was Lysette, NOT Max who goes to the warehouse to see Bernard. She gives him money and tells him she’d just spoken to a captain of a ship that’s about to leave. She wants Bernard to be on that ship.

THE LOVER by Nicole Jordan- Old version vs. New

In 2004, Ballantine reissued the 1997 Avon historical romance novel ‘The Lover.’ The reissued ISBN is 0804119856. The ISBN for the original version is 0380785609.

One controversial scene was changed from the original version. In that scene, the hero, Niall, cheats on the heroine and she actually sees it happen. In the rewrite, when the heroine comes upon the hero with the woman and he’s about to cheat with, he doesn’t cheat, right at the last possible minute. That’s the only difference between the two versions. In my opinion, if you want to read the book, read the original. There is no need to also read the rewrite just to see what the differences were.

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.