Prisoner of My Desire

The "hero" treats Rowena horribly throughout, and is generally a disgusting human being. He forces her to work as a servant in his house while she's pregnant with his child. He also has an illegitimate daughter who works as a servant in his house whom he's ignored since birth and treated like nothing. His other daughters, the "lucky" ones, have been looked upon as possessions. He wants a son because, at present, everything will go to *horror* his daughters.

When one of the "lucky" girls is 13, he arranges her marriage to some guy she's never met. When she acts out in an, admittedly, spoiled manner because of her neglect, he brutally belts her in front of the whole household. What a hero. *gags*

This is another of those books where there are two different kinds of readers
1) people who think brutalization of females is romantic, or that it's ok for the guy to hurt her as long as he's sorry afterwards
2)people who are horrified by such actions and think he's disgusting

Figure out what type of person you are and, if you're #2, spare yourself the horror of this book.

I was somewhat confused as I began to read this book - because on the book jacket of my library book, it reads - In all of England there is only one man whom Rowena would have sire her child, Warrick deChaville -a magnificent Knight, whose extraordinary good looks Rowena would have passed onto her son - The lady must take drastic action and so she has the noble warrior taken prisoner intending to force him to bend to her amorous will.....

OK...That really threw me off as I continued to read because it was quite the opposite. Rowena had no idea who Warrick deCheville was when her brother captured him and forced her on him. Her brother wasn't even aware of who he was! But all that aside (once I figured the book jacket was incorrect).....I enjoyed the book, though not the topic of rape.

The heavy, sensual tension was there,...she could feel him staring at her from across the hall but refused to look, etc....!!!

The book was a fast-paced page-turner and I was glad I read it, though the topic was off color for me!

They both acted like they hated each other, and they wanted to hate each other. But, the truth was they desired each other, and love was beginning. Their words and actions were insincere. They were playing mind games with each other of one-upmanship. I was not drawn to this.

I accept dishonesty and insincerity for a variety of reasons, for example: standard romance protocol, discovering someone's true feelings, doing a good deed, plans of revenge, undercover investigations, etc. I do not accept dishonesty and illogical actions when a normal rational person would be honest in that situation. I was frequently frustrated and angry with the insincere and illogical actions of Rowena and Warrick in this story.

Story brief: Evil stepbrother Gilbert wants the Kirburough land, owned by Lyons. Gilbert beats Rowena's mother and holds her hostage, to force Rowena to marry Lyons. Gilbert needs Rowena to get pregnant by Lyons so Gilbert can get ownership of the property. Lyons dies before he consummates the marriage. Gilbert sends his men to find a substitute with the same hair and eye coloring of Lyons. They find Warrick and chain him to the bed. Rowena has sex with him to get pregnant. Warrick escapes, returns to capture Rowena, and sends her to his dungeon. He then has her chained to his bed and does the same to her.

The relationship conflicts were created through miscommunication and inaccurate assumptions. There were many occasions that angered me, but in the interest of saving some writing time, I have chosen two examples, described below.

CAUTION SPOILERS:
When Warrick was chained to the bed and Rowena was first brought to him, Rowena should have told him the truth -- her mother was held prisoner and would be killed if Rowena did not get pregnant by Warrick. Rowena also should have told him she would try to find the key to free him. She did not tell him either of these things. Her reason was that she didn't want to get his hopes up in case she was unable to find the key. He wanted her to remove his gag so he could talk to her, but she wouldn't remove it. By not being honest with him, he thought she was doing this for her own greed, and he hated her. Talk about miscommunication - she wouldn't even take his gag off so she could talk to him. They were both held as prisoners in the same room, and one would think they would at least talk to each other to find a way out of their dilemma.

I was also unhappy that she didn't tell him her real name. There were a number of times when telling Warrick her name would have solved some problems, but she never did, which bothered me. One example was when Warrick was laying siege to Gilbert's castle for 33 days. Rowena could have told him about the secret door, because she used to live there. This would have helped Warrick win the battle sooner and with less risk, but she didn't. Her reasons were not justified.

Sexual language: mild. Number of sex scenes: nine. Setting: 1152 England. Copyright: 1991. Genre: historical romance.

For a list of my reviews of other Johanna Lindsey books, see my 5 star review of "Gentle Rogue" posted 6/14/08.

I intially read this book when it was first published in 1991 and again over the past weekend. This book has withstood the test of time.

It is far superior to most romance novels I have read over the last five years or so. I especially enjoyed the scope and the details of daily life in a medievel keep.

The hero's anger while bound was depicted well. His outrage came through loud and clear, though he could not verbally or physically express it. I can clearly imagine his enraged expression.

The book did not get five stars from me because the heroine acted in silly and inconsistent ways. Despite the fact that Warrick told her not to make excuses for what she had done, she had plenty of opportunities to introduce the topic of her step-brother's cruelty and manipulations. She also had chances to tell him that her step-brother,the hero's greatest enemy, was tresspassing on Warrick's land(you would think she would want the step-brother get his comeuppence for the things he made her do).

Rowena did tell Warrick that a knight was out there(which he aleady knew), but neglected to tell him who it was.

Then she gets mad as HIM for not trusting her and assuming the worst. What is he supposed to think when she consistently withholds vital information(like her identity)for no apparent reason. Rowena came across as a silly twit. No wonder the hero kept making comments about her intelligence.

The step-brother got off to easily at the end. The resolution of his story was told in an almost comic manner. You would think this guy was hero's best friend temporarily gone astray, not the same person who made his step-sister do terrible things(and plotted others) AND gave his step-mother a pretty good beating at the beginning of the book.

Still, the plot, character development, tension, sensuality and the hero were enough to make me put this book on my keeper shelf.

Lindsey has out done herself is this Wonderful Historical Romance. The plot is so unusaul and it has everything you want in a romance novel. Rowena and Warrick are true heroine and Knight, the villians are wonderfully awful because they are so clever and diabolical. You must get this great love story. You won't want to put it down. Five stars without question.