These Golden Pleasures in Bodice Ripper Readers Anonymous

Jul 16, 2010 Vivisection rated it it was amazing

Shelves: guilty-pleasures, historical-romance, smutty-reads, golden-age-of-bodice-rippers

This is how smut was meant to be written. A heroine so beautiful every man wants to have her, admire her, seduce her; so dynamic she becomes legend. Locales that spread across the globe--Kansas, Maryland, California, Alaska, Singapore. Plot twists and class struggles--blackmail, servants seduced by the wealthy, women making a living in a man's world, reputations made and lost, old money versus new, duty to an unloved husband and the need to follow one's heart. No manners, society, or marriageabl ...more

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Apr 02, 2010 Wendy, Lady Evelyn Quince rated it liked it

Shelves: xx2010xx-read, 3-stars-and-a-half, historical-fiction, read-in-2010s, romance, historical-romance, epic, bodice-ripper, own, love-boat

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. This 512 page epic starts out wonderfully, but then falters in the middle and is rushed at the end. Roxanne is in San Francisco on the eve of the great earthquake of 1906. She has to choose between the two men who will decide her fate, one of them her true love.

The story goes back to when Roxanne was a 15 year old girl in Kansas, and the drama of her life unfolds. As is usual in a Valerie Sherwood, the heroine's first sexual experience is not with the hero. She has a fling with Buck, her best f This 512 page epic starts out wonderfully, but then falters in the middle and is rushed at the end. Roxanne is in San Francisco on the eve of the great earthquake of 1906. She has to choose between the two men who will decide her fate, one of them her true love.

The story goes back to when Roxanne was a 15 year old girl in Kansas, and the drama of her life unfolds. As is usual in a Valerie Sherwood, the heroine's first sexual experience is not with the hero. She has a fling with Buck, her best friend's fiance. Circumstances force her out of Kansas and Roxanne goes to Maryland, where she finds work as a maid for the wealthy Coulter family. She is romanced by two brothers: cynical, business-minded Gavin and handsome, carefree Rhodes who sails ships. This is where the book gets cooking! The tension is hot...and then a stupid misunderstanding leads to a long separation. I lament the fact that Sherwood didn't do more with the brothers. She had a great set up and just let it fizzle.

After they both betray her, Roxanne marries sad, pathetic Denby. This is where the book draaagggsss. She spends about 150 pages married to him, moving from Georgia to Washington to Alaska as they run out of money and opportunities. She has a brief affair with Case, a dark, mysterious gambler, and then has a common-law marriage with dull, boring Leighton, whom the author constantly calls a golden giant. I kept picturing him as a hulking Brock Lesnar type and that's not sexy to me. We're told that Leighton is a real nice guy, but he leaves Roxanne stranded in Asia and returns to his ailing wife in the States!

Then Roxanne has four or five other lovers because she has to support herself somehow. But Rhodes some back for revenge and you think...ok, now it's on, but they're quickly separated and it's back to Gavin in San Francisco.

I don't mind romances where the heroine has more than one lover, as long as the love story between the H/h is well developed, or the other men in the book are exciting. While the scenes with Rhodes and Roxanne are hot, they're all too brief. There was very little true romance, but the history is wonderfully detailed, as one would expect in a Valerie Sherwood novel. There is one scene in particular, where Denby, a glove-maker/salesman, puts leather gloves on Roxanne that is written so beautifully. But good/authentic history was not enough for me in this one.

This was a rare deviation for Sherwood from her Cavalier/Georgian era books, so perhaps that's why I didn't like it as much as her other works.

Roxanne is a strong, unique heroine and the book is at its best whenever she's with the brothers. It's unfortunate that it's not front and center in this epic saga.

I'd give this book three stars and a half or C+. Oh well, they can't all be keepers! ...more

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Jul 02, 2009 Jena rated it really liked it

This is not a romance novel per say, its more of a romantic/fiction saga. A very good one. Heroine is raped a few times, marries someone she doesnt love...at the end of the book, she ends up with the love of her life but of course its a journey getting there. You won't be bored reading this. Highly recommend it.

Steam: very steamy. Rated R ...more

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