Release date: April 1972
Series: Birmingham #1
Pages: 430
Genre: Historical romance
Doomed to a life of unending toil, Heather Simmons fears for her innocence — until a shocking, desperate act forces her to flee... and to seek refuge in the arms of a virile and dangerous stranger.
A lusty adventurer married to the sea, Captain Brandon Birmingham courts scorn and peril when he abducts the beautiful fugitive from the tumultuous London dockside. But no power on Earth can compel him to relinquish his exquisite prize. For he is determined to make the sapphire-eyed lovely his woman... and to carry her off to far, uncharted realms of sensuous, passionate love.
This is one of the books I am unable to rate because I don't know exactly where to put it. While this was surprisingly well written; in such a way that really had my interest, it also has things in it that I did not enjoy at all. I was intrigued by what this story was all about because I've heard so many people rave about it and because this is the book from which the 'modern' historical romance books were born.
I have to say that the start of this book wasn't promising. I liked the writing right away, but at around page 50, things started to get downhill with the story. The reason? Brandon. I kept in mind that I was reading a historical book (and I did read quite a lot of books in this genre in my life and I've never faced this dilemma before).
For the sake of the story, I could probably understand and forgive Brandon for doing what he did to Heather the first time they met because, yes, different time and place and him not knowing who she was could be a good excuse. But ... three times?! After she struggled, said no, wanted him to stop and cried ... He raped her three times, not minding her struggles. Even after he saw he took her virginity and she was in pain.
I continued reading on, but I didn't finish this book completely. I read enough to form an opinion that it wasn't my cup of tea because I couldn't get past Brandon and his weird, aggressive personality.
In my eyes, he did not have many redeeming qualities later in the book because even after Heather and he became married, he kept thinking about taking her with force (and getting turned on by his thoughts!) and, even at the end, he was all about I don't care, you're my wife and I'm taking you if you want to or not.
Yes, this all happened at a different time while things like this were completely normal, but I seriously did not enjoy this book as much I wanted to. The story itself wasn't anything interesting and it quickly started to bore me.
Kathleen Erin Hogg was born on June 3, 1939, in Alexandria, Louisiana, she was the youngest of eight siblings by Gladys (Coker) and Charles Wingrove Hogg, a disabled World War I veteran. She long relished creating original narratives, and by age 6 was telling herself stories at night to help herself fall asleep. At age 16, she met U.S. Air Force Second Lieutenant Ross Eugene Woodiwiss at a dance, and they married the following year. She wrote her first book in longhand while living at a military outpost in Japan.
She is credited with the invention of the modern historical romance novel: In 1972 she released The Flame and the Flower, an instant New York Times bestseller that created a literary precedent. The novel revolutionized mainstream publishing, featuring an epic historical romance with a strong heroine and impassioned sex scenes. The Flame and the Flower was rejected by agents and hardcover publishers, who deemed it as "too long" at 600 pages. Rather than follow the advice of the rejection letters and rewrite the novel, she instead submitted it to paperback publishers. The first publisher on her list, Avon, quickly purchased the novel and arranged an initial 500,000 print run. The novel sold over 2.3 million copies in its first four years of publication.
The success of The Flame and the Flower prompted a new style of writing romance, concentrating primarily on historical fiction tracking the monogamous relationship between a helpless heroines and the hero who rescued her, even if he had been the one to place her in danger. The romance novels which followed in her example featured longer plots, more controversial situations and characters, and more intimate and steamy sex scenes.
She was an avid horse rider who at one time lived in a large home on 55 acres (220,000 m2) in Minnesota. After her husband's death in 1996, she moved back to Louisiana. She died in a hospital on July 6, 2007 in Princeton, Minnesota, aged 68, from cancer. She was survived by two sons, Sean and Heath, their wives, and numerous grandchildren. Her third son, Dorren, predeceased her.
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