THE FLAME AND THE FLOWER by Kathleen E. Woodiwiss

PUBLISHER: Avon, 4/1972
GENRE: Fiction/Historical Romance
SETTING: England & South Carolina, USA
WIKI: link
PURCHASE: link
MY GRADE: C

SYNOPSIS: Doomed to a life of unending toil, Heather Simmons fears for her innocence — until a shocking, desperate act forces her to flee... and to seek refuge in the arms of a virile and dangerous stranger. A lusty adventurer married to the sea, Captain Brandon Birmingham courts scorn and peril when he abducts the beautiful fugitive from the tumultuous London dockside. But no power on Earth can compel him to relinquish his exquisite prize. For he is determined to make the sapphire-eyed lovely his woman... and to carry her off to far, uncharted realms of sensuous, passionate love.

MY THOUGHTS: Heather is petite, with black hair and dark blue eyes. She's one month from her eighteenth birthday when the story begins in England in June 1799. Her parents are dead. I enjoyed the beginning with Heather living with her verbally abusive aunt Fanny and uncle John Simmons. John is Heather's fathers brother. She goes to stay with Fanny's brother William Court and that's when her life takes a different course. She's left to wander around outside, ends up near the waterfront at night and her life, which just got worse that night, worsens even more when she meets the hero. 

Brandon Birmingham is thirty-five with curly black hair, green eyes, and a beard. He's captain of his own ship. His British parents died in America and left him a plantation and land. He has a younger brother, Jeff, who was left a warehouse and money. Brandon's your typical arrogant bodice ripper hero. He raped Heather twice and once the next morning and made no apologies and showed no remorse. He even laughed at her struggling at one point. He says of another character toward the end of the book that they deserve death for attempting to rape Heather yet he did rape her himself months before.

Heather hates Brandon for over half the book for what he's done and Brandon is angered by her. Even after they've married they don't get along for a good portion of it. They're attracted to each other but for no reason Brandon stays away from Heather and they never attempt to have sex with each other. His borderline hatred for her is do to sexual frustration which comes out as anger. Then all of a sudden they get along and act as a normal married couple.

Louisa Wells is a thirty-two year old blonde woman who Brandon's to marry. She's made out to be a slut. He's marrying her to get her land and she's marrying him for financial support. He does her wrong by marrying Heather while in England without letting her know via letter so Louisa wants revenge. Not a whole lot goes on with her but she definitely adds to the plot line and I like her character. He ends up buying her land from her, which he could have just done in the first place and not plan to marry her to gain it.

The beginning of the book was very good and the last eighty-four pages were too but all the story in-between was quite boring. The story spans about eighteen months. The first half takes place in England and the second half, in the USA. The story went from R-rated to PG then back to R-rated. I like the happenings at the end that involved a minor character from early in the story, one you'd never expect to see again.

Heather gives birth to a son named Beau. He gets his own story in the 1998 novel The Elusive Flame, published twenty-six years after this one. Brandon's brother Jeff has his own story in A Season Beyond a Kiss, published twenty-eight years after The Flame and the Flower. Though that book was published two years after the one about Beau, it's considered the second in the series and Beau's, the third. Though a likable character, I have no interest in reading about Jeff.

Here's a nice article on the novel.