Slave/prisoner heroine wins battle of wills with her captor

[Carissa]

AGE: A or NA
GENRE: Any Romance. Fantasy, Historical, Contemporary etc.
WRITTEN: 1990-present

PLOT: Heroine is a slave or prisoner who wins the battle of wills with her captor. Hero may or may not be the captor.

I am always intrigued by captive stories but it always angers me when the heroine just gives in to her captor. I don't care how she does it but it would be great if the heroine won the battle of wills with her captor e.g won't obey even if punished, refuses to speak even if she obeys or even if she obeys she lets her captor know that even if he can force her body to do things he can never force her mind to accept/respect him. Basically the heroine retains her pride and does not become won over by her captor's handsomeness and does not let her arousal for him make her give in. I know Stockholm syndrome exists but I think rape victims would be insulted by the way a lot of stories imply that if the rapist is good looking then it's forgivable or is 'dubious consent' instead of rape.

Sorry for the half discription half rant

Thanks for reading.

I would be grateful for suggestions.

- C -

[Amelia]

This suggestion won’t exactly meet most of your specifications, but when I read your request, this immediately came to mind and I felt like I needed to share it, so...

Have you read “The Hidden Hand, or Capitola the Madcap” by E.D.E.N. Southworth? (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...)
It was actually published in 1859 (I know, I know—way before your request, but hear me out). The heroine is a street-urchin-turned-bored-heiress with this utterly unquenchable spirit of adventure. She survives multiple kidnapping and assault attempts, evades a forced marriage to a villain hoping to seize her fortune, fights a duel against a grown man, and rescues a damsel in distress. She’s clever and sassy and pragmatic. I read it in college several years ago, and it’s one of my favorite books. I laughed so hard at some of the situations. The novel was published serially, so the chapters are each solid on their own, with good cliffhangers leading to the next. It’s an often-overlooked classic of American literature—excluded from the academic cannon as “sensationalist trash” because it was written by a woman about a woman whose primary goal in life is not to be an “angel of the hearth” (*eye roll*).

So it’s not exactly what you were asking for, but it’s not exactly NOT what you’re asking for either. Good news is that it’s public domain so you can get the ebook for free on Amazon or Project Gutenberg, so you lose nothing but a little time if you read a chapter and hate it.

[Carissa]

Amelia wrote: "This suggestion won’t exactly meet most of your specifications, but when I read your request, this immediately came to mind and I felt like I needed to share it, so...

Have you read “The Hidden Ha..."

Thank you for the recommendation, I'll check it out.

[Katherine]

Could it be The Color Purple? It doesn’t exactly fit your description of the book but it’s quite similar...

[Carissa]

Katherine wrote: "Could it be The Color Purple? It doesn’t exactly fit your description of the book but it’s quite similar..."

Thanks

[Carissa]

I have recently found a book that answers my own request, so if anyone is interested here it is:

Captive Of The Horde King

The cover makes it look like a book with more smut than plot line (sorry to the cover artist) but I was very pleasantly surprised.