Bodice Ripper Review {#3}: Prisoner of My Desire by Johanna Lindsey & International Giveaway

Title: Prisoner of My Desire

Author: Johanna Lindsey

Setting: 1152 England
Series: No
Length: 425 pages
1st Published: Dec.1, 1991 by Avon
Available as an ebook?: Yes

CAPTIVE OF LOVE

Spirited Rowena Belleme must produce an heir--or incur the dangerous wrath of a ruthless stepbrother, who stands to forfeit his ill-gotten wealth. And the magnificent Warrick deChaville is the perfect choice to sire her child--though it means imprisoning the handsome knight...and forcing him to bend to her amorous whims.

SLAVE OF PASSION

Vowing to resist but betrayed by his own virility, noble Warrick is intoxicated by Rowena's sapphire eyes and voluptuous beauty. Yet all the while he plans a fitting revenge--eagerly awaiting the time when his sensuous captor becomes his helpless captive ... and is made to suffer the same rapturous torment and exquisite ecstasy that he himself has endured.

Setting: 1152 England

 
After reading my first Johanna Lindsey novel last month, I knew that I needed to pick up another Bodice Ripper that's been sitting on my TBR: Prisoner of My Desire. This novel wars for top spot as my favorite BR (The Wolf and the Dove). It has everything I thoroughly enjoy (and a couple things that I don't) in a great bodice ripper: great protagonists, a very sexy alpha hero, and adventurous plot that completely sucked me in!

One of the aspects that I enjoyed about Prisoner of My Desire was that both protagonists were victims of circumstance, manipulations, and used as pawns to garner advancement of another -- not just one of them, which seemed to level the revenge playing field so-to-speak. However, I must follow this up with the blatant and not surprising fact -- considering this *is* an early nineties bodice ripper -- that the heroine is by far the greater victim than the hero.

Lady Rowena's father has been murdered, an abusive, selfish and power hungry stepbrother has taken over the castle in which she and her mother live, and are now left at the sliver of mercy and cruel domination of Gilbert. Gilbert's plan is to use his beautiful, young stepsister (who he himself secretly desires for his own) by holding the life of her mother over her head until she plays her forced part by securing neighboring land in wedding and becoming pregnant by a very old and despicable Lord. However, events lead Gilbert to have to find another man to get his stepsister with child. After kidnapping the handsome Warrick deChaville, he is left chained to a bed and made to give himself to the unknown Lady who visits him for a few nights in a row.

Warrick vows that when -- or if -- he escapes his confinement, he will make the Lady Rowena pay for her transgressions. Little does he know who she truly is, or that she is both being used as well as regrets her role in hurting and raping Warrick. Additionally, just as Warrick does not know her true identity, neither does she know his. For if she or her brother ever did, Warrick would not have made it out of captivity alive.


Using Warricks words, this is a "like for like" type of plot line. The hero feels nothing but hatred towards the woman sent to rape him and "steal" his child (something that I shamefully admit that I never thought about before Lindsey spelled it out in this book). His wish is to "repay" the heroine with a taste of her own medicine -- but in a very seductive way. The biggest aspect that the hero hated during his time of being routinely raped was his body's response. It is because of this Warrick sets out to forcefully seduce Rowena so that she feels as helpless as he did.

The only problem is that along the way, forced seduction doesn't become unwelcome by either Warrick or Rowena. While Rowena remains in servant status  during her new found captivity by Warrick, and now heavy with his child, a deep attraction starts to develop. In Rowena, Warrick finds a strong, intelligent woman who doesn't fear him like all the others. And in Warrick, Rowena finds a handsome man in need of finding love and a strong, protective (in a weird way) warrior knight.

Both internal and external conflicts drive the story. Rowena's brother still plans on taking Warrick down, and the issues stemming from the kidnapping of Warrick provide for a little bit of trust issues between him and Rowena, and a whole lot of resentment and irritation that both the protagonists can't help but feel when facing the fact that they are falling in love with one another.

Another aspect I enjoyed was the fact that the hero and heroine were strong, intelligent and capable of feeling affection -- even if it was never freely admitted until the very end. What I didn't especially enjoy was the fact that it took until nearly the very last page for love to be truly admitted *and* accepted. I guess it wouldn't be a bodice ripper if they confessed their undying love at the beginning though, huh?! :) Despite all the fronting, I enjoyed getting sucked into this oddly developed and revealing romance, constantly wondering when the two of them would just admit how much they loved one another, stop accusing each of other of new wrong-doings, and for Warrick to stop threatening to take her child away once she has it. Geez! 

As far as I'm concerned, the person everyone should have really been mad at was let off far too easy at the very end. 

The bottom line is that it was apparent that both Warrick and Rowena began to desire and deeply care for one another, but each felt as though they needed to remain mad at one another due to all the circumstances surrounding their meeting and the wrongs they both felt and dealt. Even though I really enjoyed this story, it's not to say that I shouldn't state that it has a couple  of bodice-ripper-y qualities, such as info dump at the beginning and plenty of ups-and-downs and low blows provided by the hero and heroine. But, love does prevail and I definitely "felt" it unraveling throughout this story! I have a feeling that when time permits, I'll be revisiting this story again! :)


Prisoner of My Desire really made me a fan of Johanna Lindsey and I've since added many more books by her to my TBR list, one of which you may see again next month! :)

Giveaway Details:

This post is part of the Bodice Ripper Revival, a fairly new monthly event here on my blog and at Diana's blog, Book of Secrets!

For a chance to win a copy of either Prisoner of My Desire or the book Diana will review on Sunday, The Wolf of Haskell Hall, please leave a comment with your e-mail address on this or both posts. If you leave a comment on both reviews, you will get two entries!

If the winner's choice of book is Prisoner of My Desire, it will be shipped from The Book Depository (winner will receive the most recent edition of the book), so the contest is open internationally. However, since The Wolf of Haskell Hall is out of print, if that is the winner's choice they will receive a eGift Card instead. The winner will be randomly drawn and notified via email. The contest is open until Monday, 9/26/2011, at 11:59 pm EST. Good luck!