GOLDEN ROSES by Patricia Hagan

PUBLISHER: Avon, 9/1983
GENRE: Historical Romance
SETTING: Mexico & USA, 1871

RAPE? Yes, twice

BODICE RIPPER? Yes

BACK COVER: link
MY GRADE: B-

SYNOPSIS: With her dear father dead, Amber Forrest was alone in a foreign land, at the mercy of a cruel, domineering stepbrother who vowed he would bend her to his will and make her his bride.

Forced to fight for her destiny, Amber faced bravely the ravishing storm of two men's passions, her gentleness torn between the vicious stepbrother whose pleasure was her pain...and the rugged American whose tender violence was love.

MY THOUGHTS: The timespan is unclear but it's got to be a least a few months. Most of this takes place in Mexico but starts out with Amber traveling there from Louisiana. She's nineteen and ages aren't given for any of the other characters. We only know that Amber's stepbrother Valdis is eleven years older than his half-sister Maretta. 

Amber's incredibly strong and backs down from no one, male or female, no matter the situation. That makes her not believable at times. She's alone in this world and is fighting to be free from Valdis. The bizarre thing is that Cord Hayden, an American man who she meets in Mexico is trying to help her escape Valdis and take her back to America but she doesn't want his help and doesn't want to go back. Neither makes a lick of sense. Why would she want to stay in a foreign country with no money to her name (Valdis stole her cash) when she's got someone willing to help her?

Cord is partially a good guy. He's from Pennsylvania and fought in the Civil War. He's in Mexico because of a bad incident, a horrible criminal betrayal with an ex-lover named Christine that has turned him against love. Here's what he had to say about her, "Yes, he had loved her, had planned to marry her, and all the time she was a two-timing slut with no more scruples than a worn-out old whore." Another reason I love these older books is because of that quote. You don't get those in newer historical romances. He and Amber are in love with each other but that doesn't happen until after the man Amber's in love with, Armond, is no longer in the picture. He's one of three men who are lusting after her. If we weren't told Amber and Cord love each other, we'd have never known it or felt it. They get along fine except for Amber not wanting him to take her back to America. They're supposedly in love yet never really want to be around each other. They had sex once. Another time Cord has sex with Amber from behind while she's sleeping, which makes it rape. She was angry with him when she woke up and realized what happened. The author failed as far as their love story goes but I do like him.

Valdis is madly obsessed with Amber from the first time he laid eyes on her when he picked her up from the train station. He holds her prisoner in his home (and his stepmother!) and won't give her any freedom. He wants to marry her but she hates him. He forced Allegra, his stepmother from the time he was ten, to give him her property at some point in the past, so the house and everything is his. He's beat her up and even raped her. She's a shell of a person and he keeps her locked in her room. The entire household is scared of him, and everyone in town is too. Amber escapes him many times but he keeps finding her. Except for one time when he smacks Amber and another time he grabs her by the throat, he doesn't harm her physically, which is not fitting with his character. You can sense from the start that he's cruel and will abuse the heck out of her, but strangely, he doesn't. He once told her that after he was finished with her he'd rip her heart out and eat it.

His half-sister, Maretta, hates Amber because the man Maretta wants to marry, Armond, is in love with her and she him. She turns villainous and gets revenge. 

Dolita is the house maid in charge of caring for Amber. While on the run with Amber, a friend of Valdis' rapes her but it's only told, not detailed.

The story becomes a bit boring during the last 160 pages or so. It consists of Amber being on the run from Valdis. He finds her, she escapes, Cord finds her and helps her some, then Valdis finds them, they escape him and so on. Cord meets up with his old military friend, Major Powell and they go on an expedition in Arizona. 

I like the tone of the book, I like the characters Valdis, Maretta, and Cord. It just dragged a lot with Amber being on the run for over 1/3 of the book.