TEST
No doubt some of you are wondering why so many of us keep buying Susan Johnson’s books year after year. For me, at any rate, Forbidden is one of the most powerful reasons. After all, anyone who could write such an intelligent, lush, erotic, and three-dimensional love story once could certainly do it again.
The third in Johnson’s four-book Braddock-Black series centering on a wealthy, part Native American family, Forbidden is easily the best of an incredible series, though Silver Flame follows a close second.
I love this book for many reasons. The hero and heroine are fabulous, the love scenes truly erotic, and the book itself is enormously well researched, making even the complexities of French divorce law at the end of the 19th century interesting.
Daisy Braddock-Black, one of only fifty female lawyers in America, is smart, capable, sexually liberated (maybe not historically accurate, but you just have to go for it here), and very unwillingly persuaded to leave her Montana home to conduct important family business in France. But staying with a family friend in Paris is decidedly not where she wants to be; Daisy has little tolerance for the foibles of Parisian society, and most especially that famous rogue, Etienne, the Duc de Vec.
To Daisy, Etienne epitomizes everything she despises about society. In the eyes of the brash and hard-working American woman, Etienne is a spoiled, enormously wealthy, polo-obsessed, promiscuous dilettante who wastes his enormous gifts relentlessly pursuing pleasure after pleasure. So, when she finds herself drawn to the sexy nobleman and his very quick wit, she is, not surprisingly, far from happy with herself.
What Daisy doesn’t know is that there is far more to Etienne than she suspects. Not only is he a devoted father to his two grown children, his young grandson is the light of his life. And, since he is also a crackerjack businessman (railroads, no less) and a lavish supporter of many charities, Etienne doesn’t even remotely resemble the useless society darling Daisy believes him to be.
Daisy and Etienne soon embark on a torrid affair – which, since Daisy’s time in Paris is limited and because love is something Etienne has never truly felt for a woman, is exactly what both of them believe it to be. But soon enough, love intrudes upon the reluctant (and surprised) couple, leaving the nobleman from the very top of Parisian society and the Native American woman from the wilds of Montana with the knowledge that nothing less than marriage and a lifetime together will do.
But the problem – and a major obstacle it is – is that Etienne is already married. As a young man, the Duc did the duty expected of any scion of a powerful family in that time and place when he married a young lady from an equally powerful family. His marriage was a loveless, dynastic one, with he and his wife living separately for many years. But, nevertheless, a marriage it is, and since divorce is a scandal the Duchess de Vec will not even consider, Etienne is forced to battle for an end to the marriage from a wife who will do anything to stop it.
The biggest flaw of Forbidden is that it is long, with the last quarter of the book being especially meandering. Equally, the characterization of the current Duchess de Vec is almost painfully that of a stereotypical romance novel villainess. But the rest of the book is so wonderful – and the characters of Daisy and Etienne so fascinating – that these are small quibbles. Susan Johnson did an enormous amount of research into the complexities of French law and it adds a substance to the book that takes it more than out of the common way.
The real strength of Forbidden is its unabashed eroticism. As someone who recently glommed the Judy Cuevas books, there is a real similarity to those classic stories in ways that are almost difficult to explain. Yes, they take place at roughly the same time and in roughly the same place, but, truthfully, the similarity is more of a feeling. Maybe it’s the enormous joy in sexuality that all those books convey. Maybe it’s the intelligence and maturity of the characters. And, maybe, just maybe, it’s simply fine writing.
After more than ten years, Forbidden is, happily, still in print. When Susan Johnson is good, she is nothing less than one of the best. If you love erotic romance, I strongly suggest that you give this one a try.
Grade: A
Book Type: American Historical Romance
Sensuality: Burning
Review Date: 17/10/02
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.
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I would elevate this book into the pantheon of best romance writing containing a more compact but still impactful love affair akin to Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander oeuvre. Both H and h are well rounded attractive characters on their own and as a pair radiate magnetism. Etienne Martel, Duc de Vec in a dynastic marriage with a rejecting wife became a rake extraordinaire whom women desire and continue to desire after he has ended their relationship on polite terms, distant but not cruel. He doesn’t love but is a dream lover. At age 39 his love is reserved for his now adult son and daughter and a toddler grandson whom he adores. He plays hard (polo) and works efficiently at his business interests, increasing the family fortune beyond what he inherited as elevated French nobility. Daisy Black is American “royalty” from a family and Native tribe with enormous wealth from mining interests in Montana. At a mature 30 years of age she has overcome prejudice to become a rare female and even rarer Native lawyer in order to look after her tribe’s interests. She travels to France to do legal business for her French sister-in-law. Daisy has a low opinion of the Duc based on his womanizing reputation and is dismissive on their first brief meeting. He is similarly less than entranced, thinking her too brusque in manner though beautiful. Yet when alone mulling it over, each is drawn to the other despite the less than ideal start. They got under each other’s skin. He decides she’s a challenge he will bring to his bed and she puzzles at why she had a strong urge to touch him as he was bowing to her. Through his friendship with Daisy’s host, Etienne arranges to be her dinner partner and their long conversation/negotiation is priceless, particularly as the reader is made aware of what each is thinking behind their actual words. Prickly moments are smoothed over and both start to feel confident in their ability to charm without being vulnerable. Daisy rejects a proposition to move from a meeting of the minds to a physical relationship on the basis that being married he is not as available as she would require. He accepts gracefully but has other ideas. And when he maneuvers another meeting, Daisy has rethought her position and is very co-operative with what both imagine will be a pleasant but brief interlude. However, the spark between them lights a fuse that burns fast and hot and their attraction roars into something bigger, much to their surprise. Two very guarded people from dissimilar backgrounds find what they had previously observed in others but never experienced themselves – love, the kind willing to surmount all obstacles. The obstacles are not some lame romance trope but real – an uncooperative wife wielding cumbersome French jurisprudence against divorce and the fact that Etienne and Daisy are deeply committed to lives that are a world apart geographically and culturally. There are both external stresses and inner angst about how or even whether these can be resolved bringing the couple both highs and lows, separations and reunions with one final twist at the end. Throughout it all, Daisy and Etienne are completely believable as first reluctant, then attracted and finally deeply committed lovers. She comes to realize that her first impression was incorrect and there’s so much in Etienne to admire while he is so moved by his only experience of mutual love that he can’t go back to the previous emptiness of his well-ordered life and wants to reinvent himself going forward. The eroticism level is high. Minor characters are brilliantly drawn in a few strokes – Daisy’s host couple, Etienne’s son and daughter, his bourgeois lawyer, even the Duc’s most loyal servant. The background tapestry on which they move is lushly filled in, every detail authentic – dress, architecture, food, even vegetation, from the manicured gardens of Paris to Montana’s plains. Some people who want their romances fast and furious complain the book is too long but I enjoyed spending so much time in the company of two such attractive characters and their fully realized worlds. Ms. Johnson was in the prime of her career when she wrote this. It’s hard to believe her more recent novels are by the same author as they comprise erotic scenes strung together in slapdash fashion instead of Forbidden’s dense and intriguing narrative punctuated by love scenes that advance the relationship and are integral to the story. As a… Read more »
Thank you for this review. The only F I’ve ever given is to Susan Johnson’s Seductive As Flame so I’m interested to know if you liked that book as well. And she writes as C. C. Gibbs–have you read any of those?
Hi Dabney,
I did read “Seductive as Flame” though I had to look it up to remind myself and that was a bad sign as good books are memorable. I found it sloppily written and neither main character appealed (nor was I tempted to follow any of the leads to books about the other male characters).
I would rather reread “Forbidden” with its clever dialogue and writing in general than any of Johnson’s modern oeuvre. Flimsily connected erotic scenes between unattractive personalities or where there’s a power imbalance come across more like porn than romance. Apparently there is a market for this “streamlined” approach and it can be churned out quickly unlike the hundreds of hours of careful research that were clearly done for “Forbidden”, then distilled into the kind of good writing that few expect to find in the romance genre. I decided to underline clever turns of phrase and my copy is marked throughout.
I was not aware of the additional pseudonym C.C. Gibbs but will certainly have a look now though I’m pessimistic about finding any gold nuggets having been disappointed more than once in what’s been published under Johnson in this century. Do you have any specific book to recommend?
Since I like protagonists who behave intelligently whatever their age and who respect each other but still generate heat, then I also enjoy Eloisa James’ “A Duke of Her Own” the culmination of a series with a fascinating repeating character who finally meets his match.
One can’t go by author alone. They have to keep remixing elements of the romance formula, catering to different tastes to enlarge their readership. Anytime I find a book I deem superior, the same author will eventually write a book that’s a major disappointment but may get a high rating from others. Different strokes for different folks.