Callista

by Cordia Byers

Her family tricked her into a betrothal with an evil old man. There was nothing to do but run....

The first thing Callista did was disguise herself as a boy; which was not easy with her long raven locks and voluptuous body. But she managed to get herself hired as a cabin boy aboard a ship bound for America.

Her secret was safe until she fell ill and the captain discovered she was a lovely young woman. He become obsessed with her. Finally he seduced her.

This was the beginning of a strange love affair in which Callista found herself equally obsessed.

Genres: Historical Romance, Romance, Historical

352 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published July 12, 1983

About the author

Catherine Blair (a.k.a. Cordia Byers) grew up in Texas, were she spent her high school years writing romances for her friends. She received her Ph.D. in neuroscience from Cornell University and currently studies opiate addiction. No one else thinks that the pun between "heroin addiction" and "heroine addiction" is as funny as she does. Catherine is a member of the Romance Writers of America and lives with her husband in San Diego, California.

Reviews

[Lauren · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read: 11/24/22

This was an okay Bodice-ripper! Not the author's best but not the worst.

[Jewel]

DNF @ page 110

I could have pushed myself to read through to the end of the story, the writing isn't bad at all, but I'm just so bored.

This is the third bodice ripper I've read this year where the main emotional issue is that the hero stupidly hates all women because a woman betrayed him when he was young and more idealistic. This is one of my least favorite tropes and I have no idea why it's so common in old historical romances. Somehow it's the heroine's job to redeem her entire gender in the male lead's eyes, which I find unbearably annoying. The only author who does this trope even slightly well is Francine Rivers.

[Shellie · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 to 4.5 stars. I read this among several other bodice ripper’s this month for Regan Walker’s monthly theme blog. Last month I read Stormfire, which hit both the Irish theme for March and the upcoming April bodice ripper month. Although not as long or as good as the classic bodice ripper Stormfire this was pretty good. I read this book in less than 24 hours as it was such a page turner! This was my second book by Cordia Byers, the 1st was Devon, which was great. I have 6 more of her books, among them are The Black Angel, which is the sequel to Devon, and Pirate Royale. I really look forward to reading them all!

[Missy]

Read up to ch.4

[Dawn Livingston · Rating 1 out of 5]

I half remembered this book about a woman who disguises herself as a cabin boy. After some research I came across the name and author and researched some more. As soon as I saw the cover of the book I knew I'd read it before and got the impression that I liked it and it was the book I was searching for.

I found it on eBay. I have to admit I felt a thrill to hold the book in my hands again, looking at the cover. Fortunately I only paid a few dollars for it. I read this book 20+ years ago and maybe I wasn't as discerning back then, I was a lot younger and I was much more into romances back then.

"What they felt was passion,
What they had was love,
but they didn't know it."

It's okay if you gagged a little. I did after I read the book then reread the cover.

The book is very clichéd with all the things you read about and don't like about romance novels; heroes/heroines that make inexplicable and stupid decisions, characters that are just plain stupid, everyone's in love with the heroine, two-dimensional characters (all of them), token native American as the noble savage. And then she suddenly goes from hating the hero to realizing she's in love with him. What?! *sigh*

I only kept reading because I was hoping it would get better.

Maybe all romances of that time were clichéd and therefore samey? Older romances were more samey because there wasn't as much variety? Romances seem to be a bit more varied than they used to. After all, we have amish romance, supernatural, inspirational, historical, suspense, etc. This book is an old romance that hasn't held up well at all and I'm not even sure it was well regarded or popular back then. It does have one thing in common with some of the romances I've seen lately. It seems heroes have become more like the villains they fight i.e. more violent, more likely to harm the woman they supposedly are in love with. In this book the hero slaps the heroine bloody and continues until he knocks her out. I don't know what I thought of it then but I really don't like it now.

So, don't read this book. Not if you're bored, not if you like romances, not if you like ships, sailing, cabin boys, native Americans, Scotland, Savannah (as in Georgia). It was published in the 80's and should stay there. I know there are much better romances aplenty wherever you find romances (book store, eBay, library, Amazon, etc.). I know because I've read some of them.

[WhiskeyintheJar · Rating 1 out of 5]

*This is a #TBRChallenge review, there will be spoilers, I don't spoil everything but enough, because I treat these reviews as a bookclub discussion.

This month's TBRChallenge was “Back in my Day” and since I'm perpetually behind, I just dove into my garage sale box of books and looked for a publishing date that matched my birth year. I paid for my laziness. Let me save everyone some time, don't read this book, don't even feel you have to read my review, just click away and waste/save your time elsewhere.
But, since I'm an informed decision reviewer who personalizes what worked and didn't work (ALL OF IT) for her personally, for inquiring minds.....

There had been no one to protect her, and there would be no one.

That quote is patently false, men come out of the woodwork for this empty vessel of a female main character.
Anyway, our “young breasts” (I deserve something! for how many times I had to read these two words together) FMC is currently working to escape her Aunt Nesseilda (this name might be the only thing I liked) after her aunt betroths her to Lord Condor, an evil man old enough to be her grandfather. There was also the beating she took from her cousin Edwin when she refused to marry. In what starts off as the first of cliches/tropes (although 1983 so maybe more fresh?) Callista decides to hie off to the docks to pose as a cabin boy and get passage back to her home, Tallanton, in Scotland. She was with her aunt because her dad abandoned her after mother died and went off to search for fortune.

“You won't escape, Callista, until I decide to let you go.”

On the docks, Callista ends up with a man named Rawlings, they get drunk together and as first mate, he hires her to be cabin boy on his ship. Like me, Callista pays for just jumping in and the ship is going to America, not Scotland. The Captain, Corbin Wolfram is a woman hating, mommy issues from her leaving his dad for a Lord Condor (don't get exited for this plot weaving, it doesn't come into play until last 10%), psycho. We get the elements of her having to wash his back scene and her falling ill for him to realize she's a woman. From there he rapes her (I don't think dub-con can be rightfully argued here), Rawlings and Wolfram fight because Rawlings has, obviously fallen in love with her, Rawlings gets swept out to sea (I seriously almost laughed at how abrupt this was), a hurricane shipwrecks them, they boat to Georgia.

Callista at this time has those “confusing” feelings of maybe she likes Wolfram, they sex on the beach, they fight, he leaves her, she now gets rescued by a Native American, Brave Fox, he falls in love with her, Wolfram finds her, Brave Fox leaves her to him, Wolfram beats her unconscious, they get to Savannah where a deal is struck that she'll be his mistress for six months.

Callista also has “visions” and she “saw” her dad mining for gold. It's 1820s Georgia, Gold Rush!, so obviously he's going to be around. Things are seemingly going on track for Callista and Wolfram until he brings back a woman to be her lady's maid that he couldn't get it up for because his head was full of Callista and Callista gets jealous and breaks her promise to stay and leaves. She meets up with John Ross, who she met at a dinner with Wolfram and his business associates. Ross gets the hots for her! He takes her along with a Jim, a Scot who has fatherly feelings for her, to the gold panning area to try and find her dad. She bangs Ross trying to get over Wolfram.

She meets up with her dad! Ross leaves for some reason but says will be back. Historically the 40 acre lottery is going on and guess who wins the lottery for Callista's dad's plot of land? But she's prego with the woman hating/beating/raping Wolfram. She at first plans on giving up baby after born but falls in love with it and Wolfram again when he shows up to take her dad's land. They talk, Wolfram says he'll sell the land to her dad but comes back beaten up because daddy mad. Callista goes out there to talk to her dad and finds him dead with his wife. She collapses.

Brave Fox comes back into the picture to rescue her but her baby is stillborn. Brave Fox leaves the picture again. When Callista goes to check on her stepbros, she sees Wolfram and loses her shit calling him a murderer. He cries over the loss of their baby and leaves.

“Callista, can you ever forgive me for the misery I have put you through?”

“FUCK NO.” You'd think this would be the answer given here, but it wasn't. Scot Jim comes back into the picture along with Ross to take Callista and her stepbros home to Tallanton in Scotland. Jim is a big ole' softy and he books passage on Wolfram's ship to get these two love birds back together, Callista believed him when he said Wolfram didn't kill her parents. On the ship Callista and Wolfram admit their love for one another (?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????), making Ross angry.

Evil old man Condor comes back into the picture when Ross kidnaps Callista and her stepbros, Ross turns out to be Reaper, a man we saw Condor hire to find Callista (spoiler: he murdered her parents). Condor gets Callista to tell Wolfram she won't marry him. There's a shoot out between Reaper, Wolfram, and Condor. Callista and Wolfram live happily ever after with an epilogue that has Callista saying “Welcome home, my beloved.” to Wolfram when they make it to Tallanton (Screaming into the abyss)

This was full of racism, physical and emotional abuse, sexual assault (the random trauma dump of the lady's maid talking about how her older brothers raped her?!?), and hopped from one over used romance genre element after the other. Callista was not a fully formed character and came off airy as one man after the other moved her from one situation to another. Because of the rape and beatings, it's not like I really wanted Callista and Wolfram to spend time together but they hardly do, there is no development to their romance (I feel sick even typing that word to describe anything between them). Numerous povs and side characters that felt empty and made situations feel dangling as some plot threads seemed to want to weave together but didn't quite come off cohesive and abruptly ended. Recycle this one, don't waste time reading it.
*I almost forgot, John C. Calhoun, as vice president makes an extremely random quick appearance, in case that's a clincher for anyone

[Chrisangel · Rating 1 out of 5]

This will give you some idea: h boards H's ship disguised as a cabin boy (gee, sounds a bit familiar, ad nauseum) and ends up giving captain a bath; secret's out, captain H beds unwilling (but eventually responsive) h, first mat takes liking to h but gets washed overboard in storm; H and h stranded, have sex, fight and go separate ways, h gets help from native and enjoys snuggling up to him at night, H finds her, thinks they hooked up, more fighting; back at his home, H decides he likes h's body enough that he wants her for his temporary mistress' h agrees for six months, then they'll go their separate ways; they argue a lot (sometimes violently: she kicks and scratches, he hits hard) and have sex that she pretends not to respond to, then he turns the tables and plays her game; h runs away, H finds her and b rings her back, reminding her of six months bargain; H visits prostitute, decides to take her away from her sordid life and hires her to be h's maid; h resents this, as she suspects H and maid of hooking up and knows maid wants h for herself; h gets back at H by flirting with his business partners, then decides to forget the six months and runs away with one of the men, has sex with him while pregnant with H's baby....,

AND THAT'S WHEN MY STOMACH TURNED! If there's one thing (among others) in these Bod Rips that nauseates me is when h has a guy pump his stuff inside her while her womb is occupied by H's baby. GROSS!!! That's when I stopped reading, but considering how ridiculousthe story had been so far, I doubt I missed much.

[Tapa in lovezone · Rating 3 out of 5]

This author has something in her writing that keeps me glued. The two books I read by this author are both toxic relationships.
Lots of angst.
Hh are physically attracted to each other.
Lots of om drama. Some mild ow drama.
Unsafe as both of them try to sleep with op to forget each other.
There’s no love confession until the end. They keep on hating each other.

This was toxic but I was gripped.

[Kimxy Chan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I always wanted to read this from now on...and I really enjoy reading this...ofc...😊🌹

[Regan Walker · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 and ½ Stars! Suspenseful Bodice Ripper set in 19th Century Georgia

Set in the mid 1800s aboard a ship and then in Georgia, this tells the story of Callista Drummond and the English aristocrat, now sea captain, Corbin Wolfram Gainsbough (the latter name only showing up briefly).

When her aunt betroths her to the old and cruel Lord Condor to save their fortunes, being the half Scot, half gypsy that she is, Callista Drummond decides to find her way back home in Scotland and to her father’s Keep, Tantallon. Disguising herself as a lad, she gets lucky and is befriended by the first mate of the ship Peregrine captained by the stern Corbin Wolfram. She hires on as a cabin boy, but forgot to ask where they were sailing. Instead of Scotland, the ship is headed to Savannah, Georgia.

You might as well know up front this is a bodice ripper and Corbin Wolfram is basically a bastard for most of the book, forcing a seduction (since she was an innocent, some would call it rape), then dumping her on his first mate, then beating her, then forcing her to be his whore “for six months.” (No mention is made of what happens should she become pregnant). So, right there I’m thinking, to redeem himself, this guy is going to have to grovel big time.

Of course, she could have left him at any time but she “gave him her word” and it takes her a while to figure out one should not make promises to such a man. When she finally does leave him, she heads to the Georgia gold fields led by a vision she had of her father digging in red earth in America.

Byers tells the tale well, as she always does, and kept me turning pages late into the night. So, for all the negative things I said about the hero, it is a page turner. Callista is, in most ways, a courageous and clever girl. You want her to succeed (and you want Corbin to drop into the sea, no matter he had a difficult childhood or his mother wasn’t perfect or a certain Lord Condor destroyed his family—yes, there is that coincidence). If you don’t like it when the hero sleeps with other women, you’ll like it even less when the heroine sleeps with another man. Just know this is a bit different.

The storms at sea are vividly portrayed and there are some wonderful secondary characters. All in all, if you like bodice rippers, this is a good one.