This HaBO comes from Christin, who is looking for this romance. Warning for the description below (abuse, SA, pregnancy loss, etc.):
The story takes place in the UK. He kidnaps her, assaults her, then sends the bloody evidence to her father. Over the course of her captivity with him they fall in love-ish (she’s in love, he’s still unable to connect to his big-boy feelings like so many brooding heroes of the 80s) but something happens and he thinks she’s betrayed him. He locks her in the attic after some kind of physical confrontation and she proceeds to pretty much starve and go mad and lose the pregnancy neither of them knew she had. He finds out that she didn’t betray him, and in remorse has her nursed back to health, said healing assisted by a kitten at one point. He sends her away/returns her, or her father rescues her or something. Later, her father captures him and is in the process of having him castrated as payback, but it’s only a partial gelding — just the one ball, not both.
So, the latter parts of the book are a bit fuzzy for me. I think she actually got pregnant by him again before she escaped or was sent away, because I vaguely remember a reconciliation scene where he finds her in a garden with a little boy who has his eyes. So, he’s a truly shitty hero, but it turns out that her father is even worse, and I think she is the one who rescues him from gelding and death by stopping her father.
This book was a bit odd not just for its darker tone but because the hero isn’t much older than she is. I think she’s 18, but he’s only like 22 or something when he kidnaps her. Oh, and the hero’s name might have been Christian.
I’d describe the cover, but they all kind of looked the same in that era and there might have been different versions. The one I read had the couple on some rocks next to a stormy sea and the hero had a face kind of like Bill Bixby — no flowing Fabio locks or anything.
Fingers crossed that somebody will know this title!
Can we find this one?
What the what?? I hope someone finds this, because I’ve gotta know what book it is.
Personally, I would have gelded him myself.
Well, this sounds fascinating…
Definitely team father on this one lol
geld the villain
Stormfire by Christine Monson maybe
I think Rebecca F has it, based on the wild Reddit review I just read!
It’s been a loooong time since I read it, but that description reminds me of Vice Avenged by Lola Burford which is definitely not an actual romance. It is well written though, and fascinated me when I read it.
Following
Following— I need a problematic bonkers 80s in my life
I looked up Christine Monson on Fictiondb.com and the cover is exactly as described (sea, night, big rock, and Bill Bixby lookalike male). The description given by FDB is a bit kinder to the male.
Yuck. I don’t think I would even want to read that book.
Yes!!! It is Stormfire by Christine Monson. Turns out the hero’s name is Sean, not Christian, so clearly my memory is imperfect, but glad it was enough to ping someone else’s knowledge. Thanks to Rebecca and all!