ALYX by Lolah Burford with Author Photo

PUBLISHER: Signet, 1977
GENRE: Historical Fiction
SETTING: Jamaica, 1790s

TIMESPAN: about 4 years
HEROINE: Alyx de Vere
HERO: Simon
GRADE: A+
DATES READ: 1/04, 5/04, 11/06, 10/07, 1/22

SYNOPSIS: They were enslaved in a place where lust knew no bounds-and only love was forbidden… They were two white slaves thrown together in the darkness of the breeding hut. She, Alyx de Vere, a virginal, sixteen-year-old beauty carried off to nightmare captivity on a Caribbean sugar plantation. He, Simon, handsome, young, once heir to a noble title. He felt no desire for this anonymous woman who was forced upon him. And she knew only fearful hatred for this stranger who was about to violate her youthful innocence.

But as night after night of tremulous, fevered mating passed, something forbidden grew between these two desire-damned lovers-a rapturous passion that drove them to dare any peril to free each other from this savage world of bondage and brutal submission. And it was then that Alyx and Simon swore that no power-even death itself-would ever overcome their eternal bond of flaming, all-conquering love…

SPOILER SUMMARY: This is the story of 27-year-old Simon and 16-year-old Alyx de Vere, both British. Simon was sold at auction to August, owner of a plantation in Jamaica, 10 years earlier when he was 17. This story takes place in late 1790s Jamaica.

Here's how Simon ended up in Jamaica. Simon was in line to inherit his fathers estates and all that came along with it when his father was injured in a horse riding accident. Simon's jealous uncle Phillip came up with a horrible plan; to kidnap and ship Simon off to a place far away for life so that he would be next in line to inherit his brother's title and estate. But there was one little problem; what to do with Simon?

Simon's father was out riding one day while Simon was away at school. His father fell off the horse as went into a coma. Uncle Phillip put his plan into action. He went to see Simon at school, told him his father was hurt and his mother sent him to come get him and bring him home. Later that night, Phillip gave Simon some drugged coffee, which made Simon sick, then he passed out. He was taken to his own room to recover.

When he awoke, he was bound and gagged. Phillip was standing beside him, he removed Simon's gag and forced him to drink more drugged rum. Simon and Phillip then traveled by carriage. Phillip told him they were traveling 'towards' Simon's father's. The carriage was then attacked by men who kidnapped Simon for ransom, Phillip watching all the while.

Simon awoke on a bed, bound in a hut, being taken care of by some men for about a week. He was blindfolded one day, put into the floor of a carriage and covered by a rug, so as not to be seen by anyone. After traveling for awhile, the carriage stopped, multiple gunshots were fired and the men who helped Phillip with Simon were killed. Simon knew Phillip did it because he heard his voice. Phillip then forced Simon to swallow some kind of powder.

He was later put on a ship with other captives, they sailed to Jamaica and he was put on an auction block naked, examined by a man who ended up buying him. That man was Simon's master, August. Simon was sold under the name Aston Smith.

Simon was forced to share August's bed for five years. When Simon would resist, he'd get whipped. After five years, Simon stopped sharing August's bed but the rapes continued. Soon after Simon stopped sharing his masters bed, he became one of four *studs*. The studs were to get the female slaves, both black and white, pregnant. After they'd gotten one pregnant, they were given a one month break. Studs were treated better than other slaves.

After being a stud for five years, Alyx arrived. She was sent to Jamaica because she'd gotten caught stealing Simon's uncle Phillip's horse. One of her friends dared her to do it just for fun, so she did it then got caught. She'd been there a few months when she'd been put into the breeding hut with Simon. August put those two together until Alyx got pregnant because August wanted those two to have a son that August and his wife could raise as their own, since they couldn't have their own children.

So Simon and Alyx met in the breeding hut. That's how the book opens. They were in total darkness every time so they couldn't see each other at all. The reason for that is so that if they pass by each other, they won't recognize each other and won't know who they're pregnant by or who has fathered who's child.

Just about every night, Simon and Alyx were put in the hut together. They talked and got to know each other. Alyx told Simon how she came to be there and Simon told her his story.

Alyx knew she was pregnant and even threw up once while they were together. She hid the dirty sheet under the bed because she knew if anyone knew she was pregnant, she wouldn't see Simon again. After a short time it was discovered that she was pregnant so she didn't see Simon for a long time. Though they didn't know what the other looked like, since they'd only been together in total darkness, Alyx recognized Simon one day while they were working. Alyx dropped her bucket of water, Simon looked at her but continued on, she whispered his name and in that moment he knew she was Alyx, since she's the only one who knows his real name. They talked, he felt her stomach and saw that she was pregnant. They made plans to meet by the fountain later, they met and had sex and were caught by August's wife. She wanted to have him castrated, whipped and hung. After he was whipped and was about to be hanged, August arrived and saved Simon.

They made plans to escape the plantation together. They met, Simon has his master's keys, they met the priest who married them, then as they were boarding a ship that Simon had arranged for earlier. As they were boarding it, gunshots rang out and August and his men shot the captain and another man, and made Alyx and Simon return home. Simon was whipped 200 times.

He was then put to work in a field with a man who'd had his tongue cut out. He was also raped by the man from time to time. He then became 'stud' to Alyx again. They were told not to talk to each other, so they didn't. Then he didn't see her again for three years. One day someone came to the hut Simon lived in and told him his master wanted to see him. When he got there, August told him he'd checked out his story about being an earl and that Simon had been telling the truth. He tore up Simon's 'paper of purchase', introduced him to his son and daughter, then Alyx and allowed them both to sail home to England. They were finally free; Simon, after 13 years, Alyx, after 3.

When Simon arrived at his mother's home after a few months of sailing, she was surprised to see him but didn't seem happy. He told her that Phillip had abducted him but she didn't belive him. All of them then traveled to see Phillip, who was very sick and in bed. He told Phillip that he and his family was going to have to find some place to live, since they were living in Simon's house. Neither one mentioned the kidnapping.

On the way home, a rider came up to the carriage and told Simon that his uncle wanted to see him. Simon returned alone to the house. When Simon went into the bedroom, Phillip asked Simon if he knew what Phillip had done to him and Simon said yes. Phillip said that he wasn't sorry for what he'd done and that he'd do it all over again if he could.

Simon wrote up a statement saying that Phillip was retracting his statement about Alyx stealing his horse then got Phillip to sign it. He was going to use that to have the charges against Alyx dropped. Next, he asked Phillip if he ever wondered about him or regretted what he'd done and Phillip said 'no'. Simon went home, told Alyx she could leave him if she wanted, since they hadn't been getting along much during the whole voyage back home to England. She said she wanted to stay with him; that's how the book ended.

MY THOUGHTS: I absolutely love this book. It's a top favorite of mine. It fits the criteria of romance (hero and heroine have a relationship throughout with a happily ever after) but I don't see it as one though some do, so I'll catagorize it as one. It's the darkest and most disturbing book I've ever read. I've read it five times in exactly 18 years and it only cost $1.

Both main characters have terrible lives on the plantation. Alyx is put with a 'stud', Simon, for the sole purpose of getting pregnant. Their owner, August, wants their male offspring to raise as his own son so he can inherit everything when August dies. Simon and Alyx are put together in a breeding hut every night in total darkness never seeing what the other looks like. Though they're not to speak to each other at all, they do and form a bond. When Simon isn't on stud duty he's being raped often by August, or servicing his wife, who's name we never learn. August occasionally likes to strangle Simon until he passes out before raping him, sometimes drugging him first. He has him whipped too whenever he feels like it. August's wife is serviced too by Simon. When she sees Simon and Alyx speaking to each other outside of the hut (they somehow figure out who the other is though they've never actually seen each other), she gets incredibly jealous and wants to castrate him. They call him by the fake name he gave them, Aston:

"I hope you die hard, Aston," she whispered, viciousness in her voice over him already like the whip, and he winced under it. "Your neck is strong and I hope it will not break, and you strangle slowly. I hope you take a long time to die, and that you know all the time that it is happening, and that you pray for death before you get it, Aston. I will watch you, Aston, all the while it is happening to you, I will watch your face, Aston, and not let them cover it so that I can see you while you are suffering."

Once Alyx gets pregnant, Simon starts planning their escape but it doesn't go smoothly once the plan's set in motion. That's exciting to read, and tension-filled. I like Alyx. She's mild in personality. This should have been called "Simon" because he's the star of the show. Because they're forced to have sex with each other, they're raping each other. There's a scene near the end, page 292, when they're free and Simon does rape Alyx:

"He was angered at her too then, and he made it his affair, quickly and roughly, forcing her, then he was sorry. She was shaking with angry sobs." 

The ending isn't satisfying, it's too short, and I don't like Simon's mother at all. I doubt anyone does. I don't feel her reaction to seeing him again is a normal one, but then again this is fiction. My only complaint is that the ending needed to be expanded, the book is only 312 pages, and this book definitely needed a sequel. 

The author's note at the end of the book tells us who the character Simon was based on. It says, "In the eighteenth century, the Sixth Earl of Anglesey (uncle Phillip) "is notorious as having procured the kidnapping and bondage in America of his nephew, James Annesley, rightful Lord Altham". If you want to read more about the real event that inspired the character Simon, click here.

Alyx's character was based on a true case of a 14 year old girl who stole a horse and was 'condemned to transportation' to Australia and ended up married to the ship's captain.

Lolah died in 2002. Below is an image of her, taken from the back of the hardcover edition of her book Vice Avenged (see my review). Image came from the internet.

A PIRATE'S LOVE by Johanna Lindsey

PUBLISHER: Avon, 10/1978

GENRE: Fiction/Historical Romance
SETTING: France/Caribbean, 1667

RAPE: Yes
MY GRADE: A-

SYNOPSIS: With languid tropical breezes caressing her breathtakingly beautiful face, Bettina Verlaine stood before the mast, sailing westward to fulfill a promise her heart never made - marriage to a Count her eyes had never beheld.

Then in a moment of swashbuckling courage, the pirate Tristan swept her away and the spell of his passion was cast over her heart forever.

But many days - and fiery nights - must pass before their love could flower into that fragile blossom a woman gives to only one man.

MY THOUGHTS: This is set in France and the Caribbean during 1667 and spans about one year. It's the author's second novel.

Bettina Verlaine is 19 with white-blonde hair and color-changing dark green and dark blue eyes. She's angry because she's being shipped off to the Caribbean, Saint Martin, to marry a man she doesn't know, Comte Pierre de Lambert. 

Captain Tristan Matisse is 26 with light brown hair and pale blue eyes. He's French but passes himself off as English. He's on his way home to the Caribbean on his ship "Spirited Lady", somehow spies Bettina on her ship "Windsong" and seizes it because he just has to have her. He forces her to submit to his repeated rapes in exchange for the lives of the men on her ship. She's captive on his ship for about two weeks so I assume she's raped every night though only eight are mentioned. She hates his guts and plans to murder him and even tries once. As a child Tristan witnessed a woman be gang raped so you have to assume that messed his mind up and is why he had no qualms about raping Bettina. I really needed to see some groveling from him but didn't get to. He's on a mission to murder the rapist too which is odd since he's a rapist himself. His mission comes to a head at the end.

I like most things about this book except that her mother's in it for the duration. The woman is sickening. She thinks Bettina should be grateful for being alive and really doesn't seem to care that her daughter's raped all the time. She has her own happily ever after with a man from her past.

Bettina's feisty as hell and I like her a lot. She holds her own. She even punched Tristan twice. Right before she leaves for Saint Martin she learns a secret from her mother regarding her father. That secret comes back around near the very end of the story and frankly I could have done without it as it did nothing for the storyline. It was put in the story just to give her mother a bit of storyline. There's a throwaway character in the last part named Gabby Drayton who makes an appearance then is gone as quickly as she came. Her purpose was to make Bettina jealous.

MY LORD MONLEIGH by Jan Cox Speas

PUBLISHER: Bobbs-Merrill, 1956
RESSUED: Avon, 1978
GENRE: Historical Romance
SETTING: Scotland, 17th century
MY GRADE: C

SYNOPSIS: Scotland was a land divided. The rightful Simon Stuart had been driven into exile in France, his country ruled by the dour Presbyterians who had ridden into power on the coattails of Oliver Cromwell's rise to power in England. All who opposed them were rebels and outlaws, to be hunted down and branded as traitors. And the man with the highest price on his head was Monleigh.

Anne Lindsay met him first on the windswept moors, though when first she saw him she had no idea who he might be. She knew only that he was handsome and that he did something to her heart, that here was the one man who could bring warmth and happiness into a life seemingly forever chilled by the bleakness of her early childhood. . .

MY THOUGHTS: I was disappointed in this. I finally bought it for $13 after searching for several years then horded it for another 4.5 years before reading it. I can't understand why only one person on Goodreads has mentioned the rape. I know it happened but I was seriously doubting it until I got to a review that mentioned it. It was written in such a weird way that left me really confused. The story was too condensed and felt shorter than 297 pages. If I hadn't read on Word Wenches blog I'd not have known this took place in the 17th century. I had no sense of the timespan but someone said it was no more than a month. I don't know how old Simon is or anything about his background except what really happened to his wife. I only know he's got dark hair and gray eyes.

I like bad characters so I liked Margaret Clennon (and Walter) but I was also hoping something bad would happen to her as punishment for being a nasty person. I really like the dark and drab tone of the book and that Anne seems depressed. You don't get that much in historical romance so it was a nice change.

Rape scene is here. You can read the book for free at Archive.org.

The 1978 Avon reissue, pictured on the right, has a beautiful cover. The pages are edged in red too.

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.

MIDNIGHT FIRES by Andrea Layton

PUBLISHER: Playboy Paperbacks, 1/1979
GENRE: Fiction/Historical Romance
SETTING: New York & Massachusetts, USA 1770's
BODICE RIPPER: Yes
RAPE: Multiple
PURCHASE: link
MY GRADE: D

SYNOPSIS: Ravished by a cruel, merciless stranger...loved by the passionate man she might never see again...Carolyn Salford flees the brutal wilderness for aristocratic Boston and the arms of her fiancé. Stalked by danger, vulnerable to the turbulent desires tormenting her, she is haunted by the memory of a man she dare not love but cannot forget.

SPOILER SUMMARY: Carolyn is eighteen years old. She and her family are traveling from New York to Boston, but they're travelling separately. Along the way she runs into George Nelson, a man two years older than her, who's in love with her. He rapes her once then it turns consentual. She goes on her merry way and is kidnapped and raped several times by some random Frenchman named Jean Lemelle. He gets what he's had coming to him and she's once again on her way. Not much else happens until the last fifty pages, when she meets up with her fiancé, William. William only wants to marry her because of the fortune she's to inherit soon from her British mothers family. He rapes her several times, including once anally, and holds her prisoner in his home and verbally abuses her constantly. He's keeping her drugged with laudanum and they set sail on a ship bound for London. She thinks he plans to killer her once they're married. She escapes, meets back up with George, who she's now in love with, and they get married.

MY THOUGHTS: This is truly one of the most boring books I've ever read. Luckily it was barely over 300 pages. The first 150 pages or so was Carolyn traveling, mostly by herself via horseback, to Boston. The plot was mostly talk of war and I got so sick of it. The only interesting part was the last fifty-some pages or so, when William came on the scene. William's a character I'd have liked to have known more about. Not even his age was given.

CAPTAIN'S WOMAN by Saliee O'Brien

PUBLISHER: Pocket Books, December 1979
SETTING: 1714 England/Bahamas/Cuba
TIMESPAN: Six years
NARRATION: First Person
HEROINE: Mary Read
HERO: Captain Roger Courtney
BODICE RIPPER: Yes
RAPED HEROINE? Yes
MY GRADE: B

SYNOPSIS: SHE WAS DISGUISED AS A BOY- Forced to flee England to escape her lecherous kinsmen, she was a stowaway on a pirate ship, with a secret as dangerous as her life.

BUT SHE WAS ALWAYS A WOMAN!- She served her Captain, a man cold as ice. But her love couldn't touch him, for he had a secret as mysterious as his stormy past.

CAPTAIN'S WOMAN- A novel of flaming passion, a woman's enduring love and the storms that beset it.

MY THOUGHTS/SPOILERS: This is one crazy story. The heroine, Mary, is nineteen and living at her deceased grandmother's home, which is now being run by the grandmother's male relative. Mary is using the name George Read because she's been living the last five years of her life as a boy. Her mother died and she went to live with the grandmother....who really believes she's male. When she was little, her mother dressed her as a boy and took her to visit her grandmother. The grandmother didn't like boys so that's the reason for the disguise.

Sir Cecil, who's thirty and married, is bisexual. He's been at Hunter House since the grandmother died two months before. He takes a liking to 'George', who is not a blood relative. He catches him undressing one day and discovers that George is really a woman. He rapes Mary and tells her she's to be his secretary and that they're to continue their sexual relationship. She told him no and told his wife that she was really a woman. Cecil had Mary arrested for being an impostor and she was taken away by two men. On the way to Newgate Prison, they raped her outside of the carriage. She got away from them, naked, hid and then returned to the spot she was raped and put all her clothes, and wig, on. She found a ship called The Hague and snuck onto it and hid.

A guy named Karl van Buskirk found her and believed her to be male due to her disguise. Somehow he found she was female and she agreed to have sex with him if he kept her secret and tried to find her a job on the ship. He introduced her to Captain Roger Courtney, who's got auburn hair and blue eyes. She, disguised as George, became his cabin boy. A crewman came into the room once and saw that she was a woman and agreed to keep it secret. Word got out to some that she was female and she got raped by a crewman. Soon after, the same day, she and Captain Roger where in his cabin. He raped her. When the penetration began she actually held him tighter to her. She thought this about the incident, "He held me tightly, shuddering and I knew that, though he had raped me, it was actually I who had conquered him."

All sorts of crazy nonsense takes place for the rest of the novel, far too much to get into. I got real bored after about a third of the way through it and couldn't wait to finish it. Way too much manly sea stuff and fighting for my liking.

Karl is thrown overboard and is presumed dead until he shows up years later. Mary ends up in Cuba married to a Cuban man named Pablo Gómez. She'd met him previously. She finds out from her maid that he's been raping and beating her. The maid takes her to a dungeon where Pablo currently has four girls chained up and hanging from the ceiling. During this time, Captain Roger Courtney shows up. She still loves him and agrees to sail away with him, even though the's still married to Pablo, to his home in England, where he's a Lord and no longer a pirate. That's how the story ends.

It's totally implausible that a feminine woman could live several years dressed as a man and have no one know it. How stupid do authors think we, the readers, are? And this whole time, there was no mention of Mary ever getting pregnant. The stuff with the dungeon could have been interesting if the author hadn't thrown that in out of the blue during the last few pages.

This is one over-the-top story. It's only 296 pages and too much action is packed into it. I got this book in September 2009 and have finally read it. I was impressed with the craziness of it but my excitement died shortly after I started reading it.

DEVIL'S DESIRE by Laurie McBain

PUBLISHER: Avon, 1975
REISSUED: Sourcebooks, 11/2010
GENRE: Historical Romance
SETTING: England
AUTHOR IMAGE: link
MY GRADE: D

SYNOPSIS: Women mean but one thing to Lord Alex Trevegne, whose jet black hair, golden gypsy eyes, and arrogant ways have earned him the name "Devil," until circumstances -and passion-conspire to bind him to the beautiful Lady Elysia Demarice. Fleeing the brutality of an aging and spiteful aunt, Elysia encounters Alex at an inn. When the two are discovered in a compromising situation by a guest with a grudge against the "Devil," they are forced to marry. Alex is determined to leave his bride and their marriage of "inconvenience" behind at his isolated estate in Cornwall but soon discovers the innocent Elysia awakens emotions he believed himself incapable of feeling. In a rousing, unforgettable saga that sweeps across the valleys and peaks of human destiny, the stormy alliance of beautiful young Elysia and Alex plumbs the depths of raw human emotion -- lust, jealousy and hate -- for though Alex has married Elysia, he cannot possess her in flesh or spirit. Out of the turbulence of their clashing wills comes one of the greatest love stories ever written, as their twin passions mingle at last, in a rippling tide of liquid fire!

SPOILER REVIEW: This was awful. I don't know what year this story took place or how old Alex and Elysia are. I'm going to assume this was the 1800's, possibly 1700's. Elysia's parents and brother died two years before and she's been living with her abusive and mentally ill aunt since. Her aunt is her mother's step-sister and she's extremely jealous of her, has been since they were little. After being locked into her bedroom, Elysia can't take it anymore and runs away by jumping out the window. She ends up at an inn called Wayfare's Rest and that's where she meets Alex. We never hear from Aunt Agatha again.

There's a villain, Jason Bellingham, who's out to get Alex. He hates him for not allowing him to marry his ward, Catherine, but Jason doesn't let his hatred for Alex show. They're at the inn together and Jason comes up with a plan to drug both Alex and Elysia so he can put them in bed together so Alex will have to marry her due to a presumed scandal. His plan worked but also backfired on him, as Alex and Elysia were fine with marrying each other. That part bugged me greatly. Neither of them were angry about what happened. The marriage happened too early on in the story, about a third of the way. They married and got along for awhile then Alex turned into a jealous, abusive ass. He once grabbed her by the arm and later shook her by both arms two different times and told her he'd hit her in the face if he wasn't a 'gentleman'. It was said too many times that he had 'hawk-like features'.

The story got worse. Another crazy nut, Mrs. Blackmore, was out to kill Elysia and tried to twice. She's jealous because her teen daughter, Louisa, can't marry Alex because he's now married to Elysia. While laying there injured in the woods, her 'dead' bother Ian showed up after being presumed dead for two years. Adding him to the story was so unnecessary. All it did was add a bunch of BS to a story that wasn't good anyway. Adding Alex's brother Peter to the story was a waste too. There were too many jealous, mentally unstable people in this book; Abusive aunt Agatha, Jason, Mrs. Blackstone, and Alex's ex-mistress, Mariana Woodley. I was enjoying the story until Alex and Elysia were OK with getting married. The only parts l liked were those involving Jason. I'd hoped he would be out to sabotage their marriage but it wasn't to be. He did his evil deed and was done away with. He could have gotten together with Alex's ex-mistress and done some real damage.

 I absolutely hate the new cover. Elysia's supposed to have red-gold hair, not auburn. On the original cover her hair color is right but it's not curly like stated in the book.

TEARS OF GOLD by Laurie McBain

PUBLISHER: Avon, April 1979
REISSUED: Sourcebooks, August 1, 2011
SETTING: Louisana & California, 1850
TIME SPAN: A year or so
BODICE RIPPER? No
PART OF SERIES? No
RAPE? No
GRADE: C

SYNOPSIS: To many, she has a perfect life-freedom to travel the world, expensive gifts from wealthy men. Consummate actress though she is, she can never make herself believe the love is real. One more job. That's all she needs to ensure her family's financial future. And California is just teeming with gold. There, her daring impersonation will fool everyone...except one man.

The wealthy Creole's dreams are haunted by her laughing golden eyes. He will not rest until he has his vengeance for what the temptress did to his nephew, no matter how far he as to go to find her. But once he meets Mara in the flesh, he sees through her façade of rigid control and begins a new pursuit...one that will make her abandon everything to desire-this time to stay.

MY THOUGHTS: This didn't live up to my expectations in any way. Mara, 20, and her older brother Brendan, 26, involved themselves in an odd charade that didn't make much sense to me. When the hero, Nicholas, 35ish, discovered it, his reaction should have been more explosive than it was.

This wasn't much of a love story. The main couple didn't meet until over 100 pages in. They didn't spend too much time together until about the last third of the story. I never sensed an emotional connection between them. Yes, they were attracted to each other and it was evident with Nicholas but Mara, she always seemed indifferent toward Nicholas. They admitted their love for one another at one point but I was left feeling cold about it. They never seemed like a true couple to me.

I didn't care for Mara's brother Brendan at all. The story could have done without him. He was prominently featured throughout most of the story. I found him to be very annoying and I didn't like this personality or he way he spoke. I did like his six year old son, Paddy, a lot. Brendan and Paddy's mother are married yet estranged from one another. She's a pretty evil woman and you'll get to read about her should you ever read this book.

I wasn't particularly interested in the heroes family and he sure had a lot of it. One male relative in particular is pretty evil. Nicholas wasn't as exciting a hero as I'd have liked for him to have been. He wasn't alpha enough for me. Mara, she was OK as a heroine but nothing special. I liked that she was helping her brother raise Paddy and Paddy saw her as his mother.

Overall, this was a pretty boring story that was filled with unmemorable characters. It could have been 150 pages shorter too.

I received this book from the publisher in 2011 in exchange for an honest review.

THE REBEL BRIDE by Catherine Coulter

PUBLISHER Signet, 12/1979
REISSUED: Topaz, 1994/2006 Signet with expanded content
SETTING: England, 1800s
HEROINE: Katherine Brandon
HERO: Julian St. Clair
RAPE? Yes, by husband
GRADE: A++

SYNOPSIS: Clearly young Lady Katharine Brandon was a beauty, with her rich auburn hair, striking green eyes, flawless face and form. But a beauty was one thing Katharine clearly had no interest in being.

She dressed in a young man's breeches, practiced dueling with pistol and rapier, gambled with cards, defied her father's commands and evaded all suitors.

Imagine Katharine's surprise when the fabulously wealthy, notoriously pleasure-loving , Julien St. Clair, Earl of March, demanded her as his wife. Imagine her dismay when her father asked and received his price for yielding her to this man. But no one in all of English society could ever imagine what could happen when a lord who would not be denied and a woman who refused to be mastered turned marriage into a game in which it took far more than love to conquer all ....

SPOILER SUMMARY: Julian is taken with Katherine, whom he calls Kate, from the first time he meets her, having a mock duel with her brother, Harry. She's his neighbor. They develope a friendship with each other. Her home is rundown and she dresses in outdated clothing and Julian decides to offer her marriage. He talks with her father first and despises the man instantly. He visits Katherine at home and proposes to her in front of her father. She turns him down. She's lived with a physically abusive father her whole life and doesn't want much to do with a man. Right after Julian leaves, her father beats her severely and she can't walk. Julian gets wind of it and threatens to kill her father if he ever lays a hand on Katherine again.

Katherine does marry Julian but she's very unhappy about it and they have a marriage in name only. This is where the bodice ripper part come into play. Julian comes up with this terrible plan to abduct his own wife, to teach her about passion. Katherine is out riding in the park one day and Julian, on his horse and wearing a mask and using a fake German accent, snatches her off her horse and takes her to a cabin. He blindfolds her right away and rapes her. He then drugs her, takes her to their home and tells everyone that he found her passed on in the park where she's apparently fallen off her horse.

Katherine, not knowing that her own husband raped her, can't tell him what really happened to her. She ends up getting pregnant and comes up with a plan of her own. To fool Julian into thinking the baby is his, she decides to begin a sexual relationship with him so that she can later pretend that he's the father of the child.

Eventually Julian tells her what happened and their relationship sours even more. She has a miscarriage when she falls off her horse and things worsen. They work things out eventually and Julian helps her remember that she was raped in the woods by several men when she was little. They have their happily ever after.

MY THOUGHTS: This is one of the best books I've ever read and I'm proud to have a personally autographed copy. I first read the expanded, reissued 1994 version in 1995 when I purchased it at a grocery store. I've since read the original version and can't tell the difference even though there's an almost 100 page difference. The abduction plot is exactly the same. Catherine doesn't remove any violence from the original Signet Regency's when they come back into print.

I'd only been reading romance for no more than 2 1/2 years when I read this and its left one hell of an impression on me. I have the original Signet Regency, that's a little under 300 pages. I got rid of my original 1994 paperback when I decided to replace it with a new hardcover. I think this is a pretty unique story, and a true gem, that outshines all the garbage that's being published today.

I sent a copy of the original 1979 Signet Regency paperback to the author to sign for me. I can't remember what year but it was probably around 2008. Here's a photo of the page she signed.

LOVE'S AVENGING HEART by Patricia Matthews

PUBLISHER: Pinnacle, 1976
SETTING: Virginia, July 1717
TIMELINE: 3-4 years
HEROINE: Hannah McCambridge, 16
HERO: Michael Verner, 22-ish
BODICE RIPPER? Hell to the Yes
RAPE? Yes
MY GRADE: B

SYNOPSIS: Hannah wondered if her daydreams and nightly fantasies would ever come true. A captive, near-slave to Silas Quint, her brutal stepfather, she lived in squalor, suffering the indignities of poverty and shame. She knew only that she must escape, that must come first. Then to find the man and the lover who'd fulfill her dreams.

Hannah's sordid life with Quint was soon replaced by long hours toiling as an innkeeper's bar maiden -- literally sold into servitude by her stepfather! It was but the beginning of a wild and tumultuous new phase of life that would test Hannah's very soul. Her fiery red hair, voluptuous body, and impudently beautiful face would attract men -- men of wealth, men of nothing but strength and lust -- and she would have to learn to survive amidst their passions and furies.

After all, she was only a wench, a body to be owned, used or bartered. But Hannah would do more than survive, she would win. She would overcome the sadistic beatings, the rapes, the treachery, the crushing humiliation of her circumstances. She would discover the all-consuming raptures of passion when love came to free her questing heart.

MY THOUGHTS: Hannah goes through hell during the first part of the book. Her stepfather leads her, with a rope around her neck, to an inn called The Cup and Horn. He's forcing her to become an indentured servant for the next five years, until she's twenty-one. The man who buys her is the owner of the inn, Amos Stritch. He's fifty, fat and bald. Amos bought her to 'warm his bed' and because she was a virgin. She's to work at the inn too. He rapes her and beats her several times.

She meets a sixty-three year old Englishman named Malcolm Verner. He's owner of a plantation called Malvern, which is assume the word is a combination of his first and last name. He's wealthy because he grows tobacco. He's got a young son, Michael, whom he assumes is dead. He buys Hannah's indenture papers from Silas and gives them to her; he frees her but she chooses to say at Malvern and continue on as his housekeeper. Malcolm asks her to marry him and she agrees. She's now seventeen.

The rest of the book is a bit boring to me. There is some interesting information about Hannah being octoroon, meaning she's 1/8 African. Her father is 1/4 African. There's some blackmail toward her involving that. Malcome dies and his dead son reappears. He and Hannah begin a sexual relationship, resulting in a pregnancy. She flees to Boston and opens up an inn and had a lover. The plague strikes and kills thousands. Michael finds her and they, and their daughter, Michele, move back to Virginia and they get their happily-ever-after.

I didn't like that Michael was only 22-ish or the secret mission he was on to kill the pirate known as Blackbeard. I also didn't like the plague stuff either. The book wasn't quite as good as I was hoping but it was alright.

There's a sequel to this and is about both Hannah and her adult daughter, Dancer of Dreams.

THIS OTHER EDEN by Marilyn Harris

PUBLISHER: 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.

You can see my review for the second book in this series, The Prince of Eden, here. It's definitely not romance.

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

TENDER TORMENT by Jane Archer

PUBLISHER: Pinnacle, May 1978
SETTING: America
GENRE: Historical Romance
BODICE RIPPER? Yes!
RAPE: Excessive amount
MY GRADE: C

SYNOPSIS: 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(?).