PASSION by Lisa Valdez

PUBLISHER: Berkley, July 2005
SETTING: England, 1851
HEROINE: Passion Dare
HERO: Mark Hawkemore
PART OF SERIES? Yes, book one of three
GRADE: A

SYNOPSIS: A woman called Passion. A man who would make her true to her name. In her second year of mourning, lovely young widow Passion Elizabeth Dare never dreamed she would be with a man again–and certainly not a complete stranger. But amidst the crowds of London’s Crystal Palace, Passion finds herself discreetly, yet insistently, pursued by a sensual gentleman who awakens her long-supressed desires. After a loveless marriage of restrained propriety, Passion abandons herself to true bliss for the first time.

Intoxicated by his encounter with the beautiful stranger, Mark Randolph Hawkmore, Earl of Langley, cannot wait to see her again. As a series of rapturous rendezvous follows, he and his mystery lover find something rare and wonderful blossoming between them. But a blackmail scheme against the Earl threatens to destroy everything. As a scandal brews, each will have to choose between duty and desire…their love for their families–and their love for each other.

MY THOUGHTS: Based on the extremely graphic sex, I'd give this book five stars. I liked the blackmail plot too so for that, I'd give it four stars. I liked all the main characters, including Mark's cold mother and Charlotte's scheming mother Abigail.

Passion was supposed to be so in love with Mark but I never once felt it. Even when she was crying her eyes out to him, I never once felt it was believable. An example of why I don't think she was that into him is when she'd told him that after her two months of visiting her aunt were up and she had to go back home, their affair had to end. He was upset at hearing that and like me, didn't understand why it had to end. They could have continued to see each other discreetly. That right there told me she wasn't too into him. Matt was clearly obsessed with Passion, right from the start. I really liked his intensity when it came to Passion. She didn't seem to feel the same way about him to me. But they had their happily-ever-after, so I guess she did love him.

Though this wasn't the greatest book ever written, it held my interest and had likeable characters. I never once got bored with it.

MY RECKLESS SURRENDER by Anna Campbell

PUBLISHER: Avon, 5/2010
GENRE: Historical Romance
MY GRADE: B-

SYNOPSIS: A well-practiced rake, weary of easy conquests and empty pleasures, Tarquin Vale, Earl of Ashcroft, knows women—and his every instinct warns him to beware of this one. Diana Carrick's brazen overtures have thrown the haunted, sinfully handsome lord completely off his guard. Why, the exquisite temptress stated outright that she wishes to be his lover. But it is neither Diana's boldness nor her beauty that intrigues him so—it is the innocence he senses behind her worldly mask.

Intent upon the seduction that will finally free her, Diana has set her sights on the notorious Ashcroft—never dreaming that there is much more to the enigmatic rogue than sin and deviltry. His kiss is bewitching, his caress intoxicating—and even the dangerous secret Diana must protect cannot shield her from Ashcroft's dark allure.

SPOILER SUMMARY: There isn't a whole lot going on in this novel. The heroine is 28 year old Diana Carrick, blond hair, blue eyes. She's widowed and childless. The hero is Tarquin Vale, 32 years old, dark hair, green eyes. The story begins in England in 1827. The heroine schemes with her father's boss, Edgar Fanshawe, the Marquess of Burnley, to get pregnant by Tarquin, his son. Tarquin doesn't know that Edgar is his father until the end of the story. The plan is for her to get pregnant by Tarquin, NOT tell him, marry the dying, elderly Edgar, and become heir to his fortune and estates. Edgar had lost his two sons and their families in a fire awhile back. Diana agrees to his plan so that her child, when it's old enough, will inherit everything. Right at the beginning, Diana goes to see Tarquin and flat out tells him she wants to be his lover. He tells her no but then changes his mind.

From here on out, the story is mostly just sex and then a little more sex thrown in. Toward the end of the novel, Diana is ending the affair and Tarquin has her followed so he can know where she lives. He goes in to see her and the deception is revealed and he find out Edgar is his real father. They go their seperate ways when Diana won't agree to marry Tarquin. Diana is pregnant so she and Edgar get married. Diana and Edgar are at the altar, literally, and Tarquin shows up and she decides to not marry Edgar. She and Tarquin get married and raise their daughter. In the epilogue, the child is eighteen months old.

MY THOUGHTS: I'd read on a few romance forums when this book came out that more than a few people didn't like this at all. They didn't like how greedy Diana was. She was willing to have sex with someone she didn't know at all just to gain a fortune. I didn't have a problem with that. What did bother me is that despite the fact that what Diana did was terrible, with her using Tarquin to get pregnant, she didn't come across as greedy or nasty in any way. She did seem a bit cold and unemotional to me.

This is certainly no great love story but I did like it for the 'adult' content. The 'c' word that rhymes with rock was used a lot but that's the only sexual slang that was used, much to my suprise. I did/do like the plotline with her trying to get pregnant without the heroes knowledge and marry someone else while pregnant but I feel as though more could have happened during the whole middle of the book. It really was just them having sex all the time from very early on. I didn't think she'd not marry Edgar. I thought she'd marry him as planned, he'd die soon afterward and she'd then contact Tarquin and they'd get married and he'd inherit what should have been his in the first place but that didn't happen.

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.

MIDNIGHT LADY by Rosemary Rogers

PUBLISHER: Avon, 11/1997
GENRE: Fiction/Historical Romance
MY GRADE: B-

SYNOPSIS: Kyla Van Vleet has journeyed from India with proof of her right to share in the late Duke of Wolverton's estate and repay the many kindnesses of the stepfather who raised her. But this ravishing young woman hasn't counted on the cold cunning of the Duke's acknowledged heirs--or the disarming gaze of the brash American who is next in line for the title.

The charming but arrogant new Duke is Brett Banning, and to him Kyla is a gypsyish hoyden bent on besmirching the family name. But there is something about his commanding boldness that draws Kyla ever closer to a maelstrom of unbridled desire, even if her pounding heart leads her into the bedchamber of His Grace's country estate. Now this willful lady must gather her courage and dignity to command her own destiny. For the gossips of London keep no secrets, and a passion that blazes at midnight can either warm two hearts for a lifetime. . . or consume everything it touches.

MY THOUGHTS: I enjoyed this book more towards the beginning than I did the last part of it. The hero, Brett Banning, was totally alpha, very forceful and the heroine, Kyla, was a bit feisty, like I like. I'm a little surprised she gave in to being Brett's mistress so darn quickly. I don't think the HEA (happily ever after) was believable and it didn't happen until the last few pages. The story didn't get bogged down with history like some of her books can. It was a pretty simply, easy-to-follow plot. I don't buy the coincidence that the man Kyla was to marry just happened to the man who stole Brett's important papers.

So overall, I liked this book OK and I'd grade it maybe a very low B-. Though there was no abuse toward the heroine by anyone, I do consider this a bodice ripper because the hero was so strong and arrogant and he just had to have the heroine...and told her so!

This book was published in 1997 but it seemed so much like an older book. In fact, while I wasn't very far into the story, I kept going to the front of the book to check the publication date because I was sure this was an 80s book.

The rest of Rosemary's novels are:

• Sweet Savage Love  1974
• The Wildest Heart   1974
• Dark Fires  1975
• Wicked Loving Lies  1976
• The Crowd Pleasers (contemporary) 1978
• The Insiders (contemporary) 1979
• Lost Love, Last Love  1980
• Love Play (contemporary) 1981
• Surrender to Love  1982
• The Wanton  1985
• Bound by Desire  1985
• The Tea Planter's Bride  1995
• A Dangerous Man  1996
• Midnight Lady  1987
• All I Desire  1998
• In Your Arms  2000
• Savage Desire 2000
• A Reckless Encounter  2001
• An Honorable Man 2002
• Return to Me  2003
• Jewel of My Heart  2004
• Sapphire  2005
• A Daring Passion  2007
• Scandalous Deception  2008
• Bound By Love  2009
• Scoundrel's Honor  2010

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.
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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.