Wild Willful Love

Love #3

by Sherwood Valerie

The fiery sequel to Rash Reckless Love

She was once The Buccaneer's Lady but when beautiful, willful Imogene was tricked aboard a ship bound for England, she vowed to forget Captain van Ryker, the man who had filled her life and heart -- only to banish her so cruelly.

Then a shipwreck off the coast of Cornwall returned Imogene to her girlhood home. It was a homecoming without joy, for she found herself on trial for murder. Now, as she faced certain death, she heard again the sweet promise of her Caribbean lord...

Somehow he would come to her again, and together they would soar to the heights of passion they first knew on the golden sands of a distant isle...borne once more on the wings of a Wild Willful Love

Genres: Historical Romance, Romance

574 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1982

Reviews

[Ayesha · Rating 2 out of 5]

Entertaining.

[Jaclyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Melodramatic and ridiculously fun.

Imogene is the most beautiful woman in the world, to the point that her lawyer's main defence at her trial involves how absolutely beautiful and irresistible she is. She has cascading golden curls, brilliant blue eyes, and satiny white breasts that peep from the top of her dress's neckline. Her pirate husband Captain van Ryker is tall, dark and handsome with women and girls swooning over his exploits, and men quaking in fear at his ruthlessness in pillaging. And of course, his one weakness is the beautiful Imogene.

It's all wonderfully, delightfully over-the-top in its use of 1980s romance tropes. The one snag for me, though I acknowledge that this too is a common tool in the genre and time period, is that the main conflict came about from a misunderstanding due to van Ryker deciding to trick Imogene into doing what he wants that in turn is due to Imogene being too stubborn to even consider his proposed plan. Plus, the misunderstanding also happened because these two don't communicate -- Imogene stupidly believes the local trouble-maker/gossip's insinuations about van Ryker cheating on her with a beautiful Frenchwoman, and even more stupidly acts petulant about it instead of just clearing the air, and van Ryker equally stupidly doesn't bother proactively telling Imogene about why he keeps hanging out with the beautiful Frenchwoman. It's the kind of conflict that would make me dock a star if this were a contemporary book, but given how it kinda matches all the other fun over-the-top-ness in this story, I'll give this flaw a pass.

[William · Rating 3 out of 5]

The third book in Sherwood's voluminous "Love" quartet, the novel comes across as one of those instances where "a lot happens." Although well-written, and full of the detail and dialogue that mark Sherwood's work, the novel seems to be treading water between the series' past and its conclusion. Most of the novel concerns itself with a fairly annoying misunderstanding between Imogene and her husband Van Ryker that needlessly complicates the plot and spins out pages, creating inevitable bumps in the road. Granted, although that section allows Sherwood to have fun with a subplot of the overbearing Esthonie Touraille, wife of the governor of Tortuga and her wayward daughters, she spends a fair amount of time trying to force us to care about minor characters who are initially set up to be unsympathetic. The last part of the novel brings Imogene back to her native Scilly Isles, to face the music she left behind in Book 1. While this could provide genuine suspense, its resolution is abrupt. The book is an enjoyable reading experience, but overall is the weakest part of the series.

[Valerie Cornide · Rating 4 out of 5]

Una bella e intrepida joven, Imogene Welles, se enfrenta a un juicio por asesinato. de pie en el estrado, orgullosa y desafiante, recuerda las dulces promesas de su amante, el capitán Van Ryker, un temerario pirata del Caribe, y piensa en cómo hacerle volver