Customer Reviews

Dark Summer Dawn (Harlequin Presents)

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I read this book when it first issued and read it again recently. Let's just say it has not aged well.

I don't think Harlequin would publish a book like this today. Both hero and heroine are twisted and in need of some serious therapy. Dane, our hero,were this real life instead of fairly sleezy fiction, would have earned himself a stint in jail and a bit of social censure.

Lisa is 10 and Dane is 24(yes, 24) when their parents marry. Largely due to a great gap is social standing, Dane looks down on Lisa from the day they met(when she was a 10 year old little girl). He believes she is a bad influence on his younger sister and that Lisa is loose and giving it up to all and sundry.

His distain does not prevent him from giving his step-sister make out music for her 17th birthday(what a perv), making out with her or when she is 18,raping her when he thinks she is giving it up to someone else. And it is rape. He threw her down, tore off her clothes and used her body until she passed out. This was done in the family home where they both lived.

Lisa told no one in the family about the attack, but left home and stayed away for years because she was afraid of Dane(our hero). Eventually, she went home for a family occassion. Of course, Dane was there, scornig her while trying to get into her pants.

Inexplicably, they eventually have a consensual sexual relationship and "fall in love".

This book was tough to swallow and often made me uncomfortable. The hero did not appear to like the heroine as a person. His interest appeared to be exclusively sexual. When he was not trying to bed her, he was harshly insulting her.

The heroine seemed like she made herself sexually available to him so he would stop verbally abusing her. It was kind of sad. A therapist could have a field day with the characters in this book.

This one is a guilty pleasure, since it is completely politically incorrect. Lisa is not exactly a strong female in this, and Dane is a misogynistic jerk, but for some reason, I have re-read this dimestore romance novel many times. Must be the chemistry between the two.
Dane is Lisa's much older step-brother. He thinks she is a slut, and a bad example for his younger sister. Of course, Lisa is innocent and it is Dane's younger sister who sleeps around. For various contrived reasons, Lisa never tells Dane the truth, so he thinks the worst of her.