Smart Bitches, Trashy Books

This book sounds INSANE. I must know what happens next!!!!

Great review!

Oh wow - when I first looked I thought it said A+ rating. 

I kept waiting for Cassie’s Dream Sequence/ nightmare to end and Lord Uncle McRapey to wake up as a pet monkey or something.

yick.

I read this book when it came out way back when - it was the boat issue that rang in my head and then the rape scenes.  You made it further than I did - this book got tossed.

Great review!

LOL what’s sad is, I saw the A+ rating and thought “she’s being cute, maybe?  like it’s the best of the worst??”

I’m too askeered to assume around here.

I will never understand the appeal of these books.  And I read a Coulter recently and loved it… which shocked me, from my memory of her early stuff.

It’s a crap shoot, I spose.

Haha, this was the first romance I ever read! Luckily, it didn’t scar me too badly.

Tina - I hope we see some more reviews from you! I’m glad I’ve stayed far from this work, it sounds plum horrible.

As a very wise review on Amazon said, you never know when you open a Coulter book whether you’re getting a sweet pusscat or a ravenous tiger!

she is seemingly incapable of following up on these questions, even in her own head, before she is—OH LOOK!  SHINY!

Hee hee hee.  *snicker* 

If I admit that I really liked this one when I first read it will I have to turn in my Smart Bitch status?  In my defense I was about 15.  What can I say, at that age having an orgasm induced by someone else really did seem magical.  And he bought her purty clothes.

Oh wow, I had the same reaction to Coulter’s historicals. I read her contemporary books first and really liked them. Then I went and read some of her older stuff. There was a great cacophony of wall-book interaction. And then book-UBS interaction. I was horrified (this was when I was an impressionable teen) that anyone would ever believe that women treated that way would fall in love with the men who did it. There was so much skirt-over-head action, you start wondering how any of them see to get around. Now I don’t buy any of her books without seeing reviews first.

A heroine named Cassie, a hero named Edward…doesn’t that sound like a familiar name…

if you want more torture, there’s also a sequal. LOL.  It’s like a novella though with two different stories. It’s a sequal about Anthony and Cassie’s children getting hitched together with Edward’s kids. I think it’s a little better than Devil’s Embrace. It’s called Devil’s Daughter.
If i were you, i’d skip to the end of the book because it’s just THAT hilarious.

Bwahahaha - I’ve read part of this book. I still have it in case of the apocolypse and I run out of other things to read. The moment I put it down was after the 2nd rape. I felt dirty after reading and Cassie was TSTL! I wanted to smack her!

Then, of course, there was the whole cream thing. Ewww, this was the first Coulter novel I’d read and didn’t know this was s.o.p.

Damn, there goes the plot for my next book.

I really was expecting the reviewer’s husband to post there at the end explaining that Tina’s head had just exploded all over their living room.

Funny review, cracked me up.

I’d like to read a review by Tina of a book she did like!  Great fun!

Thanks for the hilarious barf-review. ;)

What I find disturbing is not that it was published in the 1980’s (okay, I’m disturbed, but not dwelling), but that it’s been RE-published. 

Why-oh-why?  Who is reading this and thinking, “Thank God, this was re-released!  I’d must read another Coulter posthaste?”  Or even another romance?

I was talking to some other writers on Saturday, and Coulter’s name came up as someone who hires other writers to write additional stories under her name.  (We weren’t being snarky, just talking about consistency in writing.)  I’m not sure how to apply this little thought to this re-issue situation…. but I keep trying. ;)

But back to having a point…. My main peeve here is in having an editor, marketing department, and big-ass publisher thinking that this book is the answer to the un-voiced reading public’s quest for a fine reading experience.

Barf.

-Diane

I find myself strangely compelled to begin looking for this book in my local UBS.

I’m one of those people who needs to experience the horror for myself.

And here my first thought was “I wonder what textbooks and essays she plag—I mean *borrowed* from?”

Wouldn’t it be funny if she used this?

Tina, this review was absolutely hilarious! (AND informative) I hope we get to read more guest reviews from you.

Disregard the last comment—my nap-addled brain somehow conflated Catherine Coulter and Cassie Edwards (which would explain why I was thinking “Huh, I thought Edwards only did Noble Savage Amerindian stuff.”)

Ah! Saved! I was *this close* to buying this when hanging around the grocery store this morning before helping at my kids’ school. I ended up with a Nora re-release instead. Close call!

LOL, D
you have to finish reading this.  I remember reading this book sometime in college b/t 1998-2001.  The rape scenes are not over (if I recall correctly).  I wont spoil any more of it for you since I can tell *snicker* that you are enjoying this book.  Let us know when you get to the end.

But how do you really feel?

I have the strange feeling that I read this or something similar many, many years ago.

OMG Maritza…I read this in college too and I remember feeling sorry for the heroine. Coulter also has another historical where the heroine get put through the wringer to the extent that a happy ending would have required valium and years of thereapy. I wish I could remeber the name of that book… Sorry for the rambling but, Tina, I do recommend finishing the book… not because it gets better but it is abit like a trainwreck.

There’s another Coulter romance that starts a whole family series ... Sherbrooke Bride I think?  Much rapage of the heroine and this on top of sexual abuse as a kid.

Okay, this is an insanely entertaining review. 

I will probably not read this book, but I sure have gotten a great deal of pleasure out of it.

Oh, I can so relate to the “just gotta get this off my chest” syndrome!  I’ve sat down and banged out reviews for horse-apple books, too, just to vent. 

Feels good, no?

Great review, Tina!  I thoroughly enjoyed it although I’ll be avoiding this book like the plague.

I agree that this was a fabulously entertaining review—it ALMOST makes it worth having dreck like this re-issued, to have a Smart Bitch like Tina do such a number on it.

And if you do finish it, Tina, please add a P.S.

Ugh.  Some books really shouldn’t be resurrected.  What horrible characters and stupid plot.  I saw this at my grocery store but passed on it in favor of Kabul Beauty School.  Soooo glad I did.

However, your review rocks!  Hope to see many more from you, Tina.  Very entertaining.

That was great, Tina. The exclamations points underscore the hum and crackle of your outrage. And if I say your review is “shiny,” I mean in the cool, Joss Whedon-Firefly way. Thank you!

I just reread a bunch of Coulter’s viking books that I had enjoyed (in the naughty HEE HEE OMG SEX way teenagers oftne do) and came to the conclusion after four heroines are deflowered in the “I was totally gonna make sure you had a good time BUT I CANNOT RESIST” (and then he falls asleep) while she says, “Ow, wait, what?”  that Coulter herself had some issues she needed to work through.

darlynne - yay firefly!! :-)

Hilarious review - almost has me wanting to read the awfulness for myself but sadly my local library doesn’t have a copy. It does have one of the sequels but they couldn’t guarantee me horrible rapist heroes and TSTL heroines so I probably won’t bother.

My first teenage tee-hee-there’s-sex-in-that-thar-book was Angélique, borrowed from my sister’s friend’s mother and covered in brown paper by the mother lest anyone see what she was reading! There was a general theme of love and great sex and then it was ruined by our heroine getting raped by some bastard but getting off on it simply because of the “repetition of the gestures of love for which her body was so marvellously fashioned”. Blecccch. A sentence that has stayed with me for 15 years. And then the next day she goes to Confession because she cheated on her husband with the rapist and she enjoyed it. So wrong. So very very wrong.

This is why I don’t read romances written before 1992.

Loved your review!
Catherine Coulter is one of those authors I used to read and thought I liked - until much later when I went back and tried reading some of them again and recoiled in horror thinking “Eeek - I LIKED that?”
And more than one of her “heroes(?)” has had to use lubricant to enter the heroines hallowed halls.
Mind you some of her books I still remember fondly, but one to avoid at all costs is Fire Song *shudder*

LMAO!

Tina must do more reviews.  I will be more than happy to send her more old school Coulter historical romances. :D

Ugh.  Just finished reading this.  I was off sick from work, and may need an extra day to recover just because of this book! Count me among those that loved Coulter when she was younger.  Now that I’m going back and re-reading them, I wonder what I was thinking!

You know, since Sarah posted my review today, I’ve been compulsively checking the remarks to see what you all would have to say in response.  I wasn’t feeling well most of the day but still went to work because of the whole, “if I don’t go today and get what needs to be done, done, then I’ll have to do it tomorrow and I won’t get what I have to do tomorrow done, etc etc” thing.  Seeing what everyone has said has just made my day a helluva lot better!

I really was expecting the reviewer’s husband to post there at the end explaining that Tina’s head had just exploded all over their living room.

You should have seen what I edited out of the version that Sarah posted.  When I first emailed her, I included some of the remarks he made in response to the plot synopsis.  Unfortunately, when I let him read what I’d sent her, he was embarrassed, so I took it out.

you have to finish reading this.

To be honest, the biggest reason why I haven’t picked it back up again is because I’m 90% certain I know exactly what is going to happen from this point.  To all of you that have managed to finish this book (and I admire your threshold for pain), tell me if I’m right…

I left off with Cassie having just agreed to marry Anthony because she’s pregnant and can now never return to Edward.  The former mistress is using her diabolical villain-sex power to manipulate the half-brother, telling him that it isn’t right that he lose his place as the Earl’s heir, which will happen if Anthony marries Cassie and has a legitimate baby with her.  Now, this is my prediction:
Half-brother charms Cassie and lures her away somehow.  He then sells her to the Arabic pirate/slaver.  She, thinking she will never see Anthony again, realizes just how much she loves him.  Somehow, she avoids rape until Anthony rescues her, they marry, and all is right in their icky little world.  In the meantime, the half-brother is redeemed somehow (probably by helping with the rescue) and the former mistress meets some nasty demise.  How close am I?

And if I say your review is “shiny,” I mean in the cool, Joss Whedon-Firefly way. Thank you!

I agree with Harlequin, darlynne—yay Firefly! 

Again, thanks, everyone, for all of your kind remarks.

then41?  I’m still 41, thank you.

~Tina

I vaguely remember reading that book as a teenager, but it’s been a long while and I don’t remember the end (fortunately). I used to love Coulter—back in the days when the heroines always fell in love with the guy right after a date rape, and that made it all okay. Luke and Laura syndrome, anyone? Yuck. I stopped reading her in college when it finally occurred to me that 1. date rape was NOT a seduction technique, and 2. the villain was always the father figure / older brother who raised her / uncle / whatever. The fact that the “villain” was sometimes also the “hero” (as in this case) just made it that much worse.

Great review, btw.

I read this book! At one point, I had all of Coulter’s historicals neatly (worshipfully, even- this was before I read Julia Quinn and reevaluated my reading standards) arranged on my bookshelf, and I remember haaaating this book like I had never hated a book before. And I’m not even that picky.

Devil’s Daughter was just as bad.

Oh- also, Sherbrooke Bride didn’t have any childhood sexual abuse, nor, I believe, was there rapage (of the herione, anyway. Who had enormous fun bags that are commented on in every. book. in. the. Sherbrooke. series. Even when she’s a grandmother, her lovely lady lumps are both pulling small planets out of their orbits and somehow still perky and luscious. (It’s to make up for the fact that she’s not pretty.)

Night Fire had some really heinous sexual abuse in it, though. And there was another that I can’t remember that was pretty appalling.

Also- reading at CC’s website, do you know she says that Cassie and Lord Rapey Rapist are her very favorite characters EVER? Yikes.

And, Yay! Firefly.

This is the same Catherine Coulter who wrote ROSEHAVEN, about which I remember only about two things:

1. The only likeable character was the hero’s pet marten.

2. At one point they milked a billygoat.

comes64 —- Somebody read ahead, counting.

Oh Tina, you naive darling. There is so much more horror contained in the ending of the book than you’ve even begun to imagine. I’m talking major trauma. Your ending is sunshine and lollipops compared to how the book actually goes.

Seriously, I’ve read this book twice (once when I was about 15 and then again when I was around 20) and I will never fail to be horrified at some of the things that happen towards the end of the story.

Pleeeeeez, SOMEONE tell me how it ends!?!?!  I can’t possibly bring myself to read it, but I’ve heard too much now to stop without the true, horrific finale.

Tina, you are an excellent reviewer!

I love Coulter too, but have never read this one.  Because of you, I must now read it!  (Mind you, just to see if it really is all that bad.)  I’m sure it is, but I still gotta read it!

I agree with SonomaLass!

Oh Tina, you naive darling. There is so much more horror contained in the ending of the book than you’ve even begun to imagine. I’m talking major trauma. Your ending is sunshine and lollipops compared to how the book actually goes.

I omitted the part where Anthony has to fight the Dread Pirate Arabi to the death while Cassie whines and shudders in an utterly useless fashion.

Seriously, you wouldn’t want to be responsible for my hysterical blindness, brought on when I attempt to actually plow through to the end of this wallbanger, now would you?  How does it end?

eye19—see, even the spam foiler is trying to warn you of the consequences.

Ok, I’ll say it: In addition to being raped by the psycho stalker hero, the heroine is also gang raped later in the book. I have no idea how it ends though, since I stopped reading after that. If it gets worse, I really don’t think I want to know.

They de-clinched the cover!

Never buy de-clinched it makes the cheese go rancid. If your gonna read 80’s Romance must have clinch cover.

Really entertaining review.

Is there an online Hall-of-Shame for TSTL characters?

I remember reading that book in high school and thinking that it was really dumb. I didn’t pick up a CC book again until I saw her mysteries in the supermarket. Those are all right.

Of her FBI stories, the only ones I find completely satisfying are THE MAZE and THE TARGET.  The others tend to fall apart at the end, plotwise.

What Sara N. said. My fingertips itch just remembering: at the end, I was so stunned, I could only sit too slack-jawed and brain-broken to claw my eyes out. It wasn’t that long ago, either.

As to why I submitted myself to the torture. You know how something is so horribly traumatic, you can’t look away? I remember thinking, “This can’t be happening…” Unfortunately, it did.

Continuing from anon, (close your eyes anon!) ... it does get worse from there.

Excellent review, though, Tina! The laughter has soothed my scars ;)

near85 ... nearly 85 incidents of horror? ;)

Seriously, what was up with romances in the 80s?  I mean so many of them were so messed up and this was over a decade into the women’s movement!  Someone should do a psychological study.

I think this book OBVIOUSLY needs a different ending.  Let’s have a competition.  Here’s mine:

Cassie finds a copy of Mary Wollstonecraft’s VINDICATION OF THE RIGHTS OF WOMEN and gets her consciousness raised instead of her skirts, for a change.  She tells Nasty Rapist Uncle that she will NEVER marry him no matter how often he rapes her.

In revenge, to deprive her of her favorite element, he takes her to South Dakota and imprisons her in a small cabin.  She is able to attract a family of black-footed ferrets who enter through a hole in the floorboards and make friends with her.  Eventually she acquires a whole army of ferrets, which she trains for battle.  When Nasty Rapist Uncle returns to see if she’s ready to yield, her faithful band of ferrets attack him and his men and gnaw off all their dangly bits.  She steals his Arab stallion and flees, to the sound of men screaming and ferrets munching.

Eventually she reaches Nantucket, disguises herself as a man, and takes a job on a whaling ship under the name of “Ishmael.”

HEA all round—villains foiled, ferrets fed, heroine not only free but finds herself in a much better book!

plant15—what they do with the bodies after the ferrets are done with them

I also loved Coulter’s historicals in the 1980’s, but gave them up when I got tired of the heroes spanking the heroines.

I enjoyed her FBI books for a while, until I got the one where the hero accidentally rescues a child from kidnappers.  He immediately decides that she must have a bad mother - how else would the child get kidnapped.  He doesn’t report the kidnapping and keeps child - because they have bonded.  Even after the mother shows up, the child regards him as her primary protector.

I found the whole thing way too creepy.

Wow, I was happily reading along, waiting for Edward to come save Cassie from Lord Creepy Uncle when Tina wrote, “If he were the villain, I could live with this, but this guy is the hero??” Holy shitmonkeys!!!! Lord Creepy Uncle is the hero? What kind of crap is that?

That’s it. You have discovered the book that still gives me nightmares. I wanted to hack the uncle’s manly parts with a rusty saw and douse what remained with vinegar afterwards.

This book enraged me so much I wanted to take it outside and set it on fire afterwards. Sadly, I couldn’t, as it was a library book.

Luckily, our library got rid of it a few months later (because it had been read so often it was falling apart- now that really makes me afraid!), and I slipped a warning into the book for anyone who thought it might be a good read.

I still want to scrub my brain out with copious quantities of bleach and a wire bristled brush to stop the pain of remembering how shitty the book was.

Early 80s romances apparently are ALL like that, or at least the ones I have read.  Judith McNaught’s WHITNEY, MY LOVE has a 18-year-old TSTL ‘heroine’ and a 35-year-old arrogent, abusive asshole ‘hero’.  He doesn’t bother courting her, just buys her from her father for 50,000 pounds.  After they have been married for a bit, he gets angry at her for some reason ( thinks she’s been flirting maybe) so he drags her out of a ballroom, flings her down on the nearest level surface, and rapes her.  Naturally, she ‘understands’.  This is considered by some to be a classic romance!  Other people think the title should be changed to WITLESS, MY LOVE.  Either way, it, too, has recently been reprinted.  I found it at the public library, in paperback. Oh, and McNaught was so proud of it that she named her own children Whitney and Clayton, after the characters.  I hope they didn’t require years of therapy.

I love your ending, Talpianna!  Much better, from what I have discerned from here and from reading the reviews on amazon.com, than the actual ending of this book.

Speaking of the reviews on amazon, just in case anyone is interested, I can only assume that Coulter aged Cassie a year for the reprint, given the number of people there that refer to her as being 17.  And one reviewer stated that when she finished the book, she was so overcome with it’s “dark beauty”, she had to immediately re-read it.  Then she berated everyone that objected to the book for not taking it in context of the time it was set.  (Apparently, the abduction and rape of young heiresses by half-Italian, pseudo-uncle Earls was commonplace during the Napoleanic era.  Who knew?)

pay77—I’d pay at least $.77 (or even $7.70) to replace this book’s ending with yours. :)

//(Apparently, the abduction and rape of young heiresses by half-Italian, pseudo-uncle Earls was commonplace during the Napoleanic era.  Who knew?)//

Too funny.

Come on, is there anyone who hasn’t wiped the ending from their brains?

I agree, tell the ending! I keep checking in, waiting to find out how this thing ends, somebody tell us!!!!

Great review. The book sounds *horrifying*.

Now I know where all of those idiot fanficcers who write stories where heroine is raped (either by hero or by someone else) and it is a great transformative experience get their inspiration.

(Hah! Botword: men58. B/c women enjoy being raped by 58-year-old men. Or 58 men. Or any horrifying combination of those letters and numbers.)

okay, after some of you mentioned the reviews on amazon, I went and checked them out. OMG, awful!I think I shall go take a bath now because just reading the review made me feel really dirty.

here’s the link:
http://www.amazon.com/review/product/0451223314/ref=cm_cr_pr_link_2?_encoding=UTF8&filterBy=addOneStar&pageNumber=2

Look for the 4th review down by DogEat"God”

Here’s one that caught my eye:

It seems you either love this book or hate it. I guess it depends on what you see as in depth real passionate love and to what lengths one is willing to go to achieve this love. Anthony was willing to do almost anything - yes he did perhaps go beyond the rights of man with her first taking of Cassie’s virginity. However - I guess I can forgive that one lapse for what comes after - and Anthony is just the epitomy of the strong, sensual passionate man that I would have loved to have met in my life. He is just so gentle and loving to Cassie - you can feel instantly the love he feels for her. I think this is because he truly does understand her - he loves her fiesty nature, her love of adventure and she meets his passion with one of her own. Yes, Cassie thinks she loves her soldier Edward - who right from the first just seemed to tame and too staid a man for one like Cassie. She would have been bored to death with him!! Anthony and Cassie’s whirlwind love affair will totally pull at your heart - at times your heart will break -

At times, your eyes will blead and your throat will retch…

“Blead” is not a misspelling.  It’s a typo caused by the bleeding eyes and retching.  At least that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

I can’t remember if I read this particular novel, but in my teens I remember a lot of romance novels where scenes of the young heroine (always a virgin!!) being forced by the older “hero” (who’s always well experienced) were standard fare. The silly female starts off by saying “no, no, no” and ends with “yes, yes, yes” and then she falls in “true love” with the bastard. Isn’t this called Stockholm Syndrome or something?? I usually ploughed through to the grubby end and then felt extremely dirty and angry afterwards.

Thank goodness tastes have changed (at least I hope they have!).

And honestly, she was bought off with a boat??!! Geeze…

Great review, Tina!  I really got a kick out of reading it.

As for the book itself, I’d like to kick it all the way to China.  Then go ahead and shoot both leads:  him for being a sicko rapist and her for being TSTL to the power of 10!  Neither must be allowed to pollute the gene pool and contaminate future generations.

I will stay far, far, far away from any CC books in the future.

I know I read this but the details are obscured by the 1000s of other historicals I read in the ‘80s.  Still, I have, more recently, tried to read Coulter’s historical novels and come away feeling just eh.  I lose interest in the characters.  Maybe I’ll check one of her contemporaries out of the library to see if I enjoy them better.

Ok, I’ll say it: In addition to being raped by the psycho stalker hero, the heroine is also gang raped later in the book.

Dude, I so didn’t remember that part.  I remembered her sailing and the see through shift and. . . er.  Gang raped? 

Perversely, I am tempted to go find a copy and try to re-read this. Only if I can find it for under a buck though.

The Eighties revival ends here!

“Ok, I’ll say it: In addition to being raped by the psycho stalker hero, the heroine is also gang raped later in the book.”

I know, I was disgusted when I read that.  Not only did Cassie “come” (Ha, unintentional pun) to love her rapist, but why not throw in an actual gang rape to show that Edward’s rape was out of love, so I guess not rape…?? Seriously messed up.  & unless I’m confusing my trashy 80’s romances, I’m pretty sure Cassie ends up sleeping with Anthony too & they both realize they’re just not meant to be!  So Edward by default! Woo..

After reading this review, I went to my “stash” of books in boxes and found it.  I’d never read it, but had it and saved it.  So, of course, I had to read it now!

Yes!  He rapes her!  And ties her hands to the bed while doing so!  And she is sobbing (tears running down her face) the whole time! 

And he tells her it “had to be done”. 

What a hero!  Not!!!!!!

talpianna, I think I love you. Will you have my ferret babies?

talpianna, I had to muffle my laughter at your ending.  LOVE it.

Just because it’s a trainwreck idea that won’t leave my brain - Is Cassie still pregnant when she gets gang-raped?

And yanno, I had fond memories of a Catherine Coulter book. I’m thinking that those are false memories of someone else’s work, now.

Well, all this talk lured me into doing something that the book could not.  I picked it up again during lunch.  I’m now up to page 260 or so and yes, she was pregnant when she was brutally gang-raped.  She was savaged so badly during the rape (and beaten and kicked before and smacked around during) that she lost the baby. 

I think Annie was right.  I think the scene was put in to show that what Anthony has been doing repeatedly (up to and including the initial rape that took her virginity) was not really rape because he didn’t beat the crap out of her and/or literally rip her up.  Well, if you don’t include the “light” whipping on the boat that upset him so horribly to administer and the slap in the face later when she was “hysterical” about being pregnant and having to marry him, that is.  Because she didn’t sustain any lasting damage from either of those things, they aren’t really physical assaults and since the sex wasn’t so horrific that it induced psychological and physical trauma that required medication like the gang rape did, it’s not really rape.

still72—I’m still convinced that he should be fed to sharks.  I just think that there are 5 other people that need to attend the luncheon.

Doesn’t it make you wonder when CC says these two are her all-time favorite characters?  Hell, with everything she does to poor little Cassie (who may be dumb, but doesn’t deserve all of this), you’d think CC hated her with a burning hot passion and wanted her to suffer until she wished for death.

appeared14—given the plot, do we really want to go there?

Yvonne wrote:  talpianna, I think I love you. Will you have my ferret babies?

It’s a tempting offer, but in my human form I already have grandferrets—the offspring of my adoptee, Clover the Cutest Ferret.

And in my online avatar, I am a Mole, so not likely to birth ferrets.  Which would probably eat me when they grow up, anyway.

ways99—Let me count the ways to destroy this book…

Whose Law is it that any book with a swastika on the cover is bound to be bad?  I think we need a rule that any book with a character or author whose name is any variation of Cassie or Edward(s) is bound to be awful and should be destroyed without reading.  Of course, this is going to cost us the Iliad and a few Greek tragedies; but think of the upside…

doubt32 —I doubt if that many people will agree with me.

And people wonder why, in these modern times, there are still women who can’t seem to understand what abuse is?  Or rape? 

I often wondered if the many, many young girls who were told to shut up, or told they were liars, or told they were whores in my own era (I graduated HS in the 80s) by their own mothers were victims of the subcultural subliminal.

I just gotta say I feel icky just reading the review. I can’t imagine actually reading the book. Ick. Rape and gang rape and a miscarriage. That is not what I call romance.

Thank you for letting us all know what lurks behind the shiny cover.

As horrifying as these stories are, I did read them in the 80’s, and because while my first venture into sex was willing, it wasn’t all that great, it was easier to go with the romance idea of forced sex back then. (Of course we all bought the Laura/Luke relationship, too, on General Hospital. Apparently the 80’s were a big time for believing that women often fall in love with their rapists. What the ****?)

What upsets me the most is that these authors are re-releasing this stuff. They didn’t make enough money off of the first release of this morally bankrupt garbage? Did they say to themselves, “Hey, I need to make x-amount of money this year, but cannot write another new word. I know let’s re-release “dated novel I” which was barely tolerable when it was first published, but I’ll re-work it slightly and make it all better….” NOT!

I vaguely recall this book from its first incarnation. I also used to read Barbara Cartland, but I’m not going to pick up any of her books again either. The time and place for this is past. No matter what these books originally provided for me back in my late teens, I have moved on. I just wish the authors and the publishers would, too.

Sounds like almost every Rosemary Rogers book I’ve ever read. She had a propensity for gang rape too.

“I was totally gonna make sure you had a good time BUT I CANNOT RESIST” (and then he falls asleep) while she says, “Ow, wait, what?”

This just sounds so personally familiar to me… but was she asleep at the time, too? 

This book… wow.  Horrors galore.  Can’t wait for the PS post!

Even when she’s a grandmother, her lovely lady lumps are both pulling small planets out of their orbits and somehow still perky and luscious.

Laughing. My. ASS. Off!!!

Okay, just finished reading the comment thread (posted that one midway through) and now feel physically ill.  Raped and beat her until she miscarried, had to get sewn up on the inside, etc… dear lord, someone pass a bucket.  This is hideous.

And the reviewers DEFENDING it make me even sicker.  Especially the one who said some variation of, “The bad rape scene was the one with 4 guys, but the Earl, he just ‘forced’ her and that wasn’t so bad.”  THE HELL YOU SAY.

I am revolted, disgusted… words fail me.  I’d thought about picking this up for the trainwreck value, but no frickin way.  I cried with joy when I held my friend’s 9 hour old son today, a perfect, warm, cuddly bundle.  Reading this review is seriously harshing my sweet-baby-buzz.

So I probably shouldn’t mention this is my all-time favorite romance ever?

Reading this review is seriously harshing my sweet-baby-buzz.

Honestly, I didn’t realize it got this bad because I hadn’t read that far when I wrote the initial guest review.

Sorry, y’all.

I just re-read this

And the reviewers DEFENDING it make me even sicker.  Especially the one who said some variation of, “The bad rape scene was the one with 4 guys, but the Earl, he just ‘forced’ her and that wasn’t so bad.” THE HELL YOU SAY.

and I was trying to figure out who in this thread that was.  And then I thought, I wonder if she took my second paragraph…

I think Annie was right.  I think the scene was put in to show that what Anthony has been doing repeatedly (up to and including the initial rape that took her virginity) was not really rape because he didn’t beat the crap out of her and/or literally rip her up.

as “defense” of what was in this book.  No, that was me being sarcastic, like with the review.  In re-reading that, however, I can see where someone could misconstrue it, not hearing the tone that I hear in my head as I type.

If you weren’t referring to this, then I apologize for being paranoid, but I just wanted to make it clear that I in no way condone what anyone did in this book (including re-publishing it).  The characters, with only the exception of Edward and Cassie’s brother thus far, are almost uniformly horrible.  The men, in particular, are either condesending-dismissive-rapist-assholes, viciously-violent-rapist-assholes, or just completely ineffectual.  As I said at the end of the comment I’m referring to in this one, I still think the “hero” and the other 4 should all die horribly.

I just finished reading it.  I kept thinking somehow this hero was going to redeem himself.  But even near the end, I wanted to slap him. 

And Edward (the one she was supposed to marry, then was kidnapped by the hero a day before the wedding) seemed so much more honorable and “hero” material. 

Oh yes, I forgot.  Edward wasn’t good in bed. 

Yes, that’s right.  In addition to being gang raped.  She slept with both the Creep Uncle Hero and Edward! 

Okay, yes, I’ve slept with more than one man.  But we are talking historical romance here.  Those heroines (according to me) are only supposed to be with one man!

Definitely not one of my favorites.  Still, I did read the whole thing (beginning yesterday and just finishing up this evening).  So it did hold my interest and I didn’t fling it aside.

I enjoyed Coulter’s Legacy series and I still pick up her Sherbrooke books.

Devil’s Embrace marks the ONLY time I have ever started a series and not picked up the next book(s). I kept reading DE because I assumed there had to be some sort of redemption before it ended. Boy, was I wrong. I couldn’t stomach the idea of any more of the story so I never picked up the second one.

In retrospect, there are a lot of seriously screwed up sexual encounters in Coulter’s work.

I can actually say that I read the original and it sounds pretty close to the revised edition.  Trust me, you wouldn’t want to read the sequel either (Devil’s Daughter).  It has a little revenge from the son of an ex-mistress who was sold into white slavery (I think) or something by kidnapping the daughter of Anthony and Cassie.

After reading some of those Amazon reviews, I’m feeling a little despair for the human race.

“It’s okay that he raped her b/c he really loved her, and he just wanted to show her.”

“He was really respectful! He didn’t force her to marry him—he wanted to wait until she was ready!” (But not, apparently, enough to NOT rape her.)

“When she slept with her fiance it was almost as disgusting as the gang-rape.”

The first one is the worst, though. It’s okay that he raped her b/c he loved her? The HELL? And more than once person actually says this?

Well, ladies, if (God forbid) you’re ever raped, just remember—he was probably just really in love with you, so it’s okay. (Oh, and if you happen to have an orgasm from it, which does happen, unfortunately, I guess that means it wasn’t rape, since you “enjoyed it.”) Ah, the wisdom of Amazon.

I read this book when I was about 14 and it burned a hole in my brain. I’d forgotten the title and author, and was this close to asking for the Help a Bitch Out reminder. I couldn’t think of a good reason other than it was driving me crazy. You guys are so good, I didn’t even have to ask.

I read a Coulter book from the 80s a few years ago… I think I still have it somewhere, though I’ve steadfastly blocked the title out of my memory. Traumatic experiences and all that. I just remember that the whole book (past, maybe, the first 30 pages) made me want to hurl all over the place. Only my lack of matches (and lack of a mode of transportation to buy matches/refusal to waste anymore money on the piece of filth) saved it from a fiery death.

Now that I think of it, I should’ve just tossed it in the fireplace.

Oh my god, I totally read this book in my teens. Back then I had no real standards for romance; I just wanted a hero and heroine to have some drama and learn they couldn’t live without each other, and I’d read any romance I could lay my hands on. But I distinctly remember being horrified by this book, even with my non-existent standards. I think it may have been this book, in fact, that clued me in that hey, there are good romances and there are downright dreadful romances.

The “hero” is the most despicable character I’ve ever come across in a romance. It’s not just the fact that he kidnaps her and rapes her repeatedly. It’s that he does all this because he was obsessed with her MOTHER and therefore in his twisted mind has to possess the daughter, which is his link to the mother, etc. It is so beyond creepy I can’t even tell you. He doesn’t rape Cassie because he loves her; he does it because he’s still freakily attached to her mom. That I was supposed to support and cheer on this ghastly hero, as well as believe that the heroine could actually fall in love with him, I found downright insulting.

I had completely forgotten the author and title of this book, as well as how it ended. Back then I pretty much read everything cover-to-cover no matter what, so either I wiped it from my memory or truly didn’t finish it. If you ever make it to the end, Tina, I’d love to hear just how bad it gets and your reaction - that was a great review!

And yeah, the first time he rapes her and takes her virginity, he’s tied her hands to the bedposts with scarves or whatever and she’s crying the whole time. That’s the thing I remember most clearly from this book, and that is not romantic. At all.

Just want to comment on the re-releasing of books, and the thought that this is the writer’s decision.

It’s usually not. Unless the rights have reverted back to the writer, this is a publisher decision.

Sometimes it may be a mutual decision, but very often, the writer has no control.

This book sounds like it could rival the all worst romance I ever read for sheer offensiveness and awful hero characters.

The one I read was called ‘At First Glance’ or something similar, which was meant to be very clever because the heroine was blind. Except the hero can’t stand the fact that she’s visually impaired, and, because it bugs HIM so much (she’s fine with it), he decides her condition is caused is primarily psychological, so imprisons her and forces the poor woman to undergo numerous painful seizures/psychotic episodes for a week until she remembers the trauma that made her lose her sight.
Oh yeah and he buys her from a brothel and rapes her too, but that’s fine because she was drugged at the time and supposedly enjoyed it.

But then of course, she settles down and becomes a compliant baby machine by the end of the book, whilst he never even has to apologise for brutalising her. Shame of it was, I really liked her as a character. Anyone else noticed the phenomenon of the heroine not only giving birth by the end of the book, but always having a male child?

bugger - ‘all TIME worst’ romance, I mean.

My words is clearly 92 - clearly I should edit more diligently after having 2 glasses of wine.

Everyone is judging this book simply as a work of fiction, and yes, as reading for pleasure, it sounds perfectly outrageous.

However, in terms of social history, this kind of thing is absolutely fascinating, and well worth studying.  Not only were there women in the 1980s who enjoyed reading this kind of tale:  there still are, even though I have the impression that the extremes have moved out of historical fiction and into the increasingly popular areas of fantasy fiction. 

The act of receiving information and processing it in one’s brain is vastly complex and above all, highly selective and interpretative. I have said to those who enjoy vampire fantasies, ‘how can you stand the idea of the bloodsucking?’, and have been told that these readers often do not think about it ‘literally’.  There is a mental redaction that makes it ‘not real’ as it would be if I were to read it.  In the same way, many women were, and are, able to perceive forced sex in a curiously edited fashion when it is a sexual fantasy.  It isn’t, to them, anything like the same as a real rape would be.

No doubt professional psychologists have terms for all these things, but I invite all of you, here, to think of some sexual fantasy that turns you on when you read or imagine it, but would be wholly unacceptable to you in real life.  I should be surprised if most people can’t think of even one.

I am not defending the book in question (I haven’t read it, and have no wish to do so):  I am merely trying to point out that we all mentally edit what we read all the time, and literal perceptions are rare.