TEST
Now here’s a book you can’t judge by its cover, or rather, by its title. Yes, it’s about desire, more like ire and desire. . .
The story starts with a beating, the one of a mother before the eyes of her daughter; the ultimate test of power of a greedy, blood thirsty 12th Century, when women were but chattel, wombs for future destructors, and at best, bargaining chips for political negotiators.
Such is the fate of Rowena and her mother; respectable Ladies who must bend to the will of the step-son who wants an alliance with an old rich Lord, a snickering, dirty old Lord closer in image to the word disgust than desire.
Did I say ire and desire? Wait, it gets worst before it gets better, but well worth the wait.
Rowena naturally balks at having to consummate her wedding night but concentrates on her mother’s life and good health. Her rotten step-brother has told her that, once the deed is done and she is with child, maybe, just maybe, she’ll get her mother back (the same mother who begged her not to give in, who was ready to be beaten to death to spare her child the terrifying ordeal ahead).
Rowena laughs and cries at her fate and knows not what could possibly happen that would be worse.
But finally fate does take a hand in this desperate woman’s life. The old Lord keels over on the “nick” of time. But Gilbert the step-brother has a plan. He’ll find Rowena another donor before anyone suspects the old man has died.
So Warrick de Chaville is abducted. No one knows that he’s a knight nor Lord of Falkhurst nor Gilbert’s sworn enemy. No one knows he is possibly the last man on earth with whom Gilbert would want a forced alliance with, much less someone with whom he’d want to “lend” the body of his luscious step-sister.
Did I mention desire?
They’ll beat the knight senseless until they can chain him to a bed and gag him. Meantime, Rowena, the beautiful but virginal Lady Rowena, must. . . rape him to extract sperm and a son.
I don’t know which was more violent, the mother’s beatings or trying to have sex with a giant whose muffled screams and violent shudders only serve to remind the rapist of the humiliation he feels.
Yes, but then there is desire.
When Rowena realizes she must arouse her foe in order to accomplish the deed despite the compelling and tragic circumstances of their “mating”, she begins to feel attracted to Warrick. Desire, tormenting her and igniting him, forfeiting one life while humiliating another to greater bounds, this desire that permeates her body despite the violence and the pain that still lies ahead for her, astounds her. And hounds her. . .persistently despite her despair, and worst of all, overriding any justification, even the fate of a mother.
“I am glad ’twas you,” are her parting words to him, honest words that will haunt him when all he thinks of is revenge and words that will daunt him when he will use her own chains to bind her to his bed, watching her ire turn into her desire. . .
But blinded for the moment by his fury, he will begin her three day purgatory. He will give her like for like in every sense of the word. The blow to his pride however will last much longer, and he will do what he can to strip her of her own pride, to make a mockery of what was done to him. And through it all, ire is mixed with desire so that something else betrays Warrick other than his desire for Rowena, something just as blinding as fury; something incomprehensible to him that is neither lust nor greed. It is this something that from the very beginning has manifested itself in his contradictory behavior. It is something called. . . love.
And these contradictions appear in his treatment of Rowena. He threatens to beat her for this and that, but never does. When he notices that the peasants’ clothing he makes her wear irritates her skin, he lets her wear better quality attire. And Rowena, who has been used and abused, sees that beneath Warrick’s gruff exterior lies a man who can love as fiercely as he can hate, and that what he hates is what he truly loves. When she decides to act upon this knowledge, Warrick comes to realize that it is no longer revenge he seeks. And what he needs comes with an altogether more different price tag, a more expensive one, aye, it comes with his heart.
Before your very eyes, you see the brute turning himself the lover. You see gruffness becoming gentleness, lust becoming passion, a sexual being becoming sensual, and, what you will enjoy the most I’m sure, is to see the irate and proud Warrick deChaville. . .beg Rowena. So if you truly loath Warrick in the first part of the book as I have, be patient! The irrevocable loss of his heart to Rowena will make up for it.
Victims of circumstance, maybe, prisoners of each other, certainly. You have crafted an excellent story, Ms. Lindsey, one that is not just believable but true, the kind of story I have come to appreciate and value.
If you are looking to feel the story, as I have, try reading it while listening to the hymns of Anuna Omnis by of Celtic Heartbeat. As the angelic voices float around you, so will the gentle violence, the underlying sadness, and the love of Rowena and Warrick.
Grade: A
Book Type: Medieval Romance
Sensuality: Hot
Review Date: 24/06/98
Publication Date: 1991
Recent Comments …
Yep
This sounds delightful! I’m grabbing it, thanks
excellent book: interesting, funny dialogs, deep understanding of each character, interesting secondary characters, and also sexy.
I don’t think anyone expects you to post UK prices – it’s just a shame that such a great sale…
I’m sorry about that. We don’t have any way to post British prices as an American based site.
I have several of her books on my TBR and after reading this am moving them up the pile.
Over the years, AAR has had many a guest reviewer. If we don't know the name of the reviewer, we've placed their reviews under this generic name.
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It’s been quite a while since I read this one, and even then I remember thinking “this couldn’t be written today”
But this: You have crafted an excellent story, Ms. Lindsey, one that is not just believable but true,
The sound you can hear is my chin hitting the floor…
I think the reviewer means emotionally not historically although this story is well placed in its time.
I love this book–it is my favorite Lindsey, really only the Lindsey I care about. It was written in 1991 and Lindsey turned many of the traditional bodice ripper conventions upside down. Warrick is not one of those heroes who belittles and abuses–he’s actually good to Rowena especially given who he thinks she is and what he thinks her motivations are. Her step-brother is truly horrible and smart and much of the conflict between Rowena and Warrick is caused by his machinations.
This book, like Duke and I, isn’t governed by current definitions of consent and as such I can see that if that is important to you, you wouldn’t like this book.
But there’s a reason it’s a 4.5 star read at Amazon and a DIK here and that’s because it’s a well-written, emotionally viable, interesting love story. I stand by this reviewer!
Oh, I wasn’t concerned about accuracy or not, or about issues around consent – honestly, I just found the whole thing rather ridiculous and not at all believable or true. But like I said, it’s been a while since I read it and it’s not a book I’ve ever felt compelled to return to.
Horses for courses and all that.
I never really got into Johanna Lindsey, although when I was first beginning to read romance as a teen I would buy anything whose back blurb sounded interesting from the 25-cent tables at library book sales. So among one or other of these hauls I ended up with two of hers — one was a futuristic sci-fi romance that I think had a heroine with a computer that could talk to her (?? I have no memory of this one besides that one detail), as well as Secret Fire, the one with the hero who was a Russian prince, because for various reasons I figured Russian princes would be catnip for me.
Well.
I came away from that book thinking it was an exercise in masochism on my part just for finishing it. The prince and his entire household were just so relentlessly awful to the heroine, and it wasn’t fun or happy to read about. I feel as though that happened a lot back then — see how much hell the heroine can go through without snapping, in hopes the grovel will make up for it in the end. Maybe some readers found that kind of thing cathartic? I’m glad that I found a lot of other authors around the same time that suited me far better.
I’m afraid Lindsay and a lot of the authors during her heyday seemed to follow that formula of “make the heroine into a tortured martyr and make the hero just unreasonably angry ALL THE TIME”.
By the time of “Prisoner Of My Desire” I had happily moved on to Julie Garwood, Amanda Quick and others who were writing couples that actually liked each other.
Wow. Suggesting people listen to Celtic Hymns during its multiple bondage-laden noncon scenes almost puts the review over the top and into the parody category.
I remember hating this book when it came out. It was kind of a breaking point for me with Lindsay. I was just thinking at the time “Can’t the hero just be nice for a change?” “Cant they both just be nice?”
I’d been reading other romance authors like Krentz/Quick and I think Quick was in the midst of her “S” series, which was so different than this type of work. I know a lot of people really enjoyed this at the time but for me, especially at that age, it was a real turn off.
I probably couldn’t have articulated exactly what I was looking for at the time as well as now but I think I was looking for an emotional connection and some “magic”. I wanted real “romance” not this kind of angsty- revenge and “hate love”. Growing up with Anne of Green Gables and Gil I wanted that kind of love and respect- but with some sexy stuff too because I wasn’t 12 anymore.
With all the different authors coming up and their different offerings (I may have already read Outlander which was a game changer for me by this point) this book was a nail in Lindsay’s coffin for me.
“looks around furtively”
I kinda like this book. Rowena is just SO triumphant.
I haven’t read it since it first came out- so 30 years later my opinion may be different now.
I have never read this book (both it and the review seem absolutely full of mess), but I love your comment and agree, especially:
“Growing up with Anne of Green Gables and Gil I wanted that kind of love and respect- but with some sexy stuff too because I wasn’t 12 anymore.”
I still want to see more of that more often, even with how far the genre has progressed. I want an underlying sweetness without the sweetness being a euphemism for a closed bedroom door. I want to see more authentic chemistry shown and not told! I seek those stories out wherever I can but I still have to wade through a lot of shallow mental lusting and inane excuses for conflict in books I thought were going to be better, far more often than not.
I agree that few authors really capture that unique combination of meeting of the minds plus attraction that equals a certain magic for me.
Two of my favorites are Carla Kelly and Joanna Bourne for that reason. In their best books they really make me believe that the two main characters have that warmth and one in a million connection.
Wow. No.
I read it at the time, and was surprised that somehow, it worked.
Because it was close to unbearable as a storyline, even then.
And I was impressed by the author‘s willingness to try this plot.
Because (as opposed to Daphne) there was never any doubt in anyone’s mind that this was rape. While at the same time, the heroine was directly threatened with serious physical harm, while serious physical harm had been done already to her mother in front of her.
But the story was hard to pull off, and a lot of what was called love in this book seems more like mutual Stockholm Syndrome, looking back.
I would not even try to read it again.
I read this a long time ago and thought it was pretty racy, but now I wouldn’t be able to stop thinking of it as the book where the heroine and hero take turns raping each other. And I wouldn’t be able to outlast that until they finally start treating each other decently. “Mutual Stockholm Syndrome” is a good way to describe it.
The last three paragraphs of this review made me wince. And the entire review made me put this book on the “No Way In Hell” pile.
So, is Rowena’s behavior worse than Daphne’s in The Duke and I?
It’s been quite a while since I read this one – but isn’t Rowena acting under duress and in fear for her life and/or that of her family members? That said, I’m not sure that one type of assault can be more justified than another
Also – I have to say that this is a pretty poor review – it’s basically a plot rehash and little else. Thankfully, our writers have come a long way since this was written!
Rowena–who, like Daphne, knows nothing about sex–is forced by her EVIL step brother to have sex with Warrick. If she doesn’t, he says he’ll kill her mom and he proves he will do so by beating her in front of Rowena. Later, Warrick does to Rowena exactly what she did to him but he does it just for revenge.
Such wonderful examples of the flower of manhood, the pair of them.
Warrick IS the hero…..
I remember feeling bad for Rowena because she is stuck between evil family and a jackass of a guy. I cannot remember all the specifics but doesn’t she have to ask her nanny or someone what to do because she is totally ignorant?
I also recall he doesn’t want to cooperate (obviously) and her just saying what she has been advised to do is enough to get him to…..unwillingly cooperate.
As usual in a lot of Lindsay’s books the heroine isn’t really to blame but she takes the abuse because why not blame her?
Rowena is literally a hostage doing this to save someone else’s life, not even her own so I really don’t think of assigning blame with her.
Me neither. Rowena is not the problem in this book!
All rape is equally bad. Period.