RISEN GLORY by Susan Elizabeth Phillips (Original version of Just Imagine)

PUBLISHER: Dell, 11/1984
GENRE: Fiction/Historical Romance
SETTING: South Carolina & New York, USA
BODICE RIPPER? Yes, mild
RAPE? Yes, digital penetration
PURCHASE: link
AUTHOR SITE: link
MY GRADE: C

SYNOPSIS: Determined to reclaim the magnificent Risen Glory plantation wrongfully inherited by Baron Cain, her Yankee stepbrother, Kit Weston finds Baron in New York and their love-hate relationship is tested by a stormy marriage.

This book was rewritten as Just Imagine.

MY THOUGHTS: I went from really liking this to wanting it to end as soon as possible. It takes place from 1865-1869. Kit's very likable- she's feisty and a smartmouth with lots of fire and spirit...just the type of heroine I prefer. She's aged sixteen through twenty during the story.

Cain's had a rough life and is getting by on his earnings from gambling. He's twenty-eight. He and Kit clash for most of the story and when they're together I don't feel chemistry. They don't get together until she's back in SC when she's nineteen, after three years away at finishing school. He's pretty verbally abusive and smacks her once. He rapes her once too with his finger while trying to see if she's the virgin she claims to be.

Characters I don't like: Most of them. I don't understand the character of Flora Van Ness at all. She had the makings of a rival for Cain's attention, a villain actually, but the author dropped the ball on that.

I don't like Kit's housekeeper, Saphronia. She's only a couple years older than Kit and they've grown up in the same house together. She's described as a gold-digging light-skinned black woman who's out to snag herself a wealthy white man. I really see no purpose to having her in the story.

Miss Dolly is Kit's chaperone that she had in New York and who's with her in South Carolina. Very annoying older woman who's another character that serves no purpose other than to add filler to the story.

The two main characters are the only ones I liked at all but this story just wasn't good. The story went nowhere after Kit returned home and I got bored with it.

FROM AUTHOR'S WEBSITE: "JUST IMAGINE is a reissue of RISEN GLORY, which has been out of print for many years. It’s not your ordinary reissue, however, which is why we changed the title. I made substantial revisions—fleshing out the characters of Kit Weston (a total scamp) and Baron Cain (his name says it all), as well as adding new scenes. The book has a special “Dear Reader” letter at the beginning that explains why I decided to polish up the original."