The Particulars: Historical western romance, Harlequin Historical #1287, Book 1 in trilogy, 2016, out of print, available in digital
Why Was It In Wendy's TBR?: It's a historical western and it's a Harlequin Historical. That was enough
The Review: I've enjoyed Harper St. George's books in the past so having more than one languishing in the TBR, it fit this month's challenge theme. I also was in the mood for a western. What could possibly go wrong? Turns out, quite a bit. This book is a hot mess of old school tropes that were annoying "back then" and have only aged to be more annoying.
Emmaline Drake is the stepdaughter of an outlaw. She works in a saloon. She was born in a brothel. She lives with said outlaw step-daddy who constantly brings members of his gang around the house. So yes, of course she has some education because Mom was a schoolteacher before a whore and naturally she's still somehow, miraculously, a virgin.
Hunter Jameson has a wealthy father who is never around and a socialite mother who took herself back to Boston the minute she could. So of course when the half-brother he never knew he had shows up one day Hunter decides to ride with him and his gang. But don't worry - they're somehow not "bad outlaws." Anyway, the fly in the ointment is that Emmaline's step-daddy has taken the half-brother's half-brother (got that?) hostage. So the gang decides to take Emmaline hostage and do a swap.
What Hunter doesn't know is that Emmaline is desperate to get back to the rundown farm where she lives because she has two younger half-sisters. Before she can Hunter and his gang kidnap her, take her to a shack, hang her hands above her head tied to rafters with her feet barely touching the floor to demand answers. Instead this idiot child starts getting tingly in her girly bits.
Of course the attraction is a two way street and of course the Stockholm Syndrome shows up in record time. Eventually Emmaline drugs Hunter with some sleeping powders she keeps secreted in a locket she wears and heads to the brothel where her mother worked. The madam tries to talk her out of it, but Emmaline decides she's going to auction off her virginity to the highest bidder, take the money, collect her sisters, and run as far and as fast as she can. Naturally Hunter catches up to her at the convenient moment when oily dudes are bidding on her charms. Use your imagination, but if you've read more than one romance novel you know what happens next.
Hunter has the temerity to be angry with Emmaline that she ran away. For the first time the girl actually shows some gumption and basically tells him, "Hey, moron - you kidnapped me. The whole running away thing surprises you why exactly?!" But in case you're under the illusion that she snaps out of her Stockholm Syndrome and this gumption sticks? Of course not.
Even the night they'd met he'd been such a contradiction. When he'd released her from hanging from the rafters, he'd made sure that the rope at her wrists was loose enough that she wasn't chafed. He'd never harmed her, never really even frightened her. He wasn't evil.
Well give the man a damn cookie /end sarcasm.
The whole thing is a mess of sloppy power dynamics and characters mucking around on the wrong side of the law. None of it worked. Well, except for that madam at the brothel. That women is amazing, and even dresses down Hunter with a fantastic speech about privilege, power and what it means to be a women operating in a man's world. She's the heroine in book 3 and Lord help me, I want to read her book. Yes, even feeling the way I did about this one.
Final Grade = D
4 comments:
::head tilting all the way down::
I mean. Suspension play is a thing, but I cannot see even the most enthusiastic kinkster getting tingly during a real kidnapping and interrogation. (This is the kind of shit that gives BDSM a bad rep--CONSENT, ffs, it's a. thing.)
Add the many half siblings, and I'm done here.
(I hope you do read the one where the brothel madame is the heroine, because I would love to know if it's good)
After striking out several months in a row, I read two books that fit the criteria from my TBR pile this month. Neither was a standout, but I'll give ANYTHING BUT VANILLA. . . by Liz Fielding the edge. It was part of (the last?) in a series about 3 sisters with an eccentric mother and an ice cream truck business. This one is about the no-nonsense all business one. This one didn't quite have the same sparkle as the others and as is typical of Liz Fielding, but it wasn't bad. It may have suffered by a long spell between me reading them and my tastes changing. This was also a jump to the sadly defunct Kiss line which seems like it would be a good fit for this author, but I think it doesn't quite land.
Fair warning, there are repeated jokey comments about 'dusky maidens' that I found kind of cringy but could let go. YMMV, as always.
oh my - this one sounds like a mess I'll avoid. I had success with my TBR Challenge reads the last three months but fallen short on the blogging due to traveling all summer. I think I'll combine them in one post so I can catch up quicker. LOL
AL: My mind immediately went to BDSM - but between this being an HH and the whole kidnapping thing I just....no. So much no. I really am intrigued by the madam but it doesn't look like I have the book in my TBR, which is a minor shock. Looks like I can get it from the library though - which, one of these days LOL
Jill: Fielding is usually good for a "meet cute" and I have several of hers in the TBR, although not this series I don't think? Off to check because ICE CREAM!
Dorine: I should have DNF'ed this one and gone with something else but, once again, I wait until the last minute and wanted to meet my own deadline LOL. I've enjoyed St. George in the past, namely her Viking books. But this one was a no-go.
Post a Comment