28 of 33 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Captive Bride-of Frankenstein, July 2, 2005
Can you give less than one star?
I dunno, maybe I'm lacking in the romance gene, but I just couldn't get into this book. Somehow rape, beatings, threats and fear just don't seem to be the stuff of this woman's dreams. Philip needs to do time, and the woman (what was her name again? She was such a wimpy non-entity that it now escapes me)needs therapy and a restraining order.
Some of the reviewers state that this sort of thing was acceptable in the 70's. I was around then (yes, children, way, WAY back then) and I can tell you that treating a woman like dirt and actually enslaving her was no more acceptable then than it is now.Let's not romanticise violence, and excuse abuse towards a woman by calling it love.
Unless you're the kind of woman who trolls for dates at a maximum-security institution, I'd give this one a miss. To say the least.
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17 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Captive Bride, August 7, 2001
This was one of the worst books I have ever read. There wasn't one redeeming quality about Philip! What a creep! As if any woman would want to be with him! He treated Christina abominably and she loves him! He spanks her and constantly threatens to beat her! And then when she does get away from him, he threatens to take her child? Please!!! I couldn't wait till the book was over. Johanna has improved sooooo much since this book! Please don't waste your time, and if you do, don't judge her work by this terrible book!
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25 of 31 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
A Captive Bore, July 3, 2004
I love Johanna Lindsey novels and have read them all, but I must admit that "Captive Bride" really sucked. In fact, it is worse than "A Pirate's Love," which is pretty damn terrible, but at least "Pirate" is so terrible it's funny. "Captive" didn't even have a spark of wit, intentional or otherwise.
So what is wrong with "Captive Bride"?
1. For starters, it took me a week to read it. A week! In contrast, I read JL's superb "When Love Awaits" in 3 hours. I even read "A Pirate's Love" in 2 days, and I thought that was pushing it. But a week?!? The first few chapters of "Captive" are VERY boring. Most of it is spent on stupid dialogue like Christina asking the servants for a bath or in dumb topics like brushing her hair or getting dressed. Nothing of interest happens until Philip steals her in the middle of the night and drags her halfway across Egypt to be his love slave.
2. All the characters are wooden, with perhaps the exception of Tommy, who surprised me by screaming like a baby in the end. JL can't even keep her characterization straight. For instance: one second, Philip claims he won't marry, the next he's proposing the moment he meets Christina. Hmmmm. And WHY does Christina weep over the old sheik's death? I didn't notice anything worthy about him. After all, he was all for Christina being kidnapped. And she likes him????
3. "Captive" is a first novel. That's not to say all first novels suck. But I'd hazard a guess that if someone tried getting this published today, they'd be laughed at - if the editor ever made it past reading the first three sentences.
I strongly urge you to NOT read "Captive" unless you are dead set on curing insomnia. If you are new to Lindsey novels, then I would suggest you read "Savage Thunder," "Once A Princess," "Defy Not the Heart," or "A Heart So Wild." Or, if you need a good Arab romp, read Lindsey's "Silver Angel," about an Englishwoman sold into a harem. You won't regret it.
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