Customer Reviews

The Duke's Captive

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

This book is about a man bent on revenge.5 years earlier he had been kidnapped,tortured and drugged for 5 weeks.He mistakingly believes that one person escaped justice for his ordeal.This sick and cruel man devoid of any consience or humanity begins a campaign to terrorize her.This comes to a head when he takes her captive ties her up and sexually tortures and rapes her.To make it worse the book played the rapist fantasy that the victim enjoyed the rape.As it turns out not only had his victim not been guilty but had nursed him during his ordeal.She had also been the reason he had been rescued. When he finds this out he then goes to her and still being his arrogant self, announces she will be his wife without asking her.Of course she will marry him.What garbage.In the beginning I felt pity for the torture the Duke suffered.By the end of the book however, I was sorry he had gotten out alive.

-0 stars!!! WARNING--SPOILERS!!!! SPOILERS!!!!

I was fooled by the attractive cover of this book and the first few pages which appeared interesting. This had to be one of the most poorly plotted books I've ever read, with lots of loose ends and tangents about erotic paintings and other stuff that was inadequately developed and made little sense. I made myself finish it, because I thought it had to get better (IOW, no published romance could be this bad). Alas, I was mistaken, as each chapter got worse. I can say without reservation that The Duke's Captive was absolutely one of the worse romance books I have ever read, and I have read thousands.

Ian and Viola are our hero/heroine. Five years prior to the start of our tale, Viola's two sisters kidnapped Ian, who was then the Earl of Stamford. Viola's sisters are safe because one killed herself and the other is imprisoned for her crime, but Ian who is now a Duke, has plans to ruin Viola for her part in his nightmare. Viola left the area and married, had a child, is conveniently widowed, now out of mourning and a much sought-after painter. She is also TSTL and some piece of work and Ian is not much better. I wouldn't want to have dinner with either of them, but Ian at least had an excuse--even a soap-opera doctor could tell that he suffered from severe post-traumatic stress disorder from a 5-week long kidnapping during which he was drugged out of his mind, chained in a dungeon and nearly starved to death, by Viola's evil sisters. Although Viola didn't help kidnap Ian, I can't absolve Viola of responsibility. She should have tried harder to free him sooner, instead of moaning about her lot in life. She wasn't chained and starved. And the gender prejudice of having sex with an ailing, captive man!! If the roles were reversed, no one would hesitate to label Ian as a rapist and Viola his victim. It appears that we are expected to view her actions as providing comfort to Ian because he supposedly begged her and because he's a man so she can't possibly have molested or raped him.

I've never disliked a character in a romance as much as Viola. I can't believe that the author had Viola pat herself on the back and make smug self-serving statements about feeding him every 2-3 days, lovingly fondling (let's call it tending) to an ill, semi-conscious man, before eventually figuring out how to have him rescued. I mean how long was this kidnapping supposed to go on? Viola expressed more sorrow about herself and her sisters than the incredibly horrific things that happened to Ian. To tie this sweet story up with a bow, let's add a little love-child to the story!! Of course, besides beginning to fall in love/lust with Viola, Ian gives up all thoughts of revenge when he accidentally finds out he has a little Mini-Me.

I guess love conquers all, but by the end of the book, I just wanted these two awful people to live unhappily ever after (separately) and a refund of my money. Oh, if only the spine didn't have that slightly noticeable crease in it, I could still return it!

(2.5 stars rounded up for unusual plot.) I have to give Ms Ashworth credit for attempting an adult and thought-provoking theme, with a more original plotline than most recent romances have. But I read romances for the "romantic-ness" of them and this one was disquieting, unsettling and downright uncomfortable for me. Hero Ian Wentworth, the Duke of Chatwin, is the brother of Ivy Wentworth (now married and the Marchioness of Rye), who was the heroine of A NOTORIOUS PROPOSITION. I believe it was in that book that Ian was drugged and taken prisoner by a madwoman and her sister and chained in the tunnels of Winter Garden (Rye's home). A third sister who was not directly involved in the abduction did her best to see to his comfort during his imprisonment.

Now, in THE DUKE'S CAPTIVE, it is 5 years later. The two sisters directly involved in his abduction, continuous drugging and torture have received their just punishment, but Ian is looking for revenge on the third sister, who he is convinced was in on the whole plot. That sister is Viola, Lady Cheshire, widowed, the mother of a young son, and a well-known portrait painter of the ton. Ian meets her at a party, pretends not to recognize her and engages her to paint his portrait. His plan for revenge is now underway.

During his capture, Ian was under the influence of drugs constantly and has foggy recollections of someone arousing him sexually and bringing him to climax while he is drugged and chained. Now this, IMO, is rape. He believes this someone was Viola. Most of the book is an uncomfortable lead-up to his emotional and sexual domination of her and a love scene which, IMO, is also rape. The last 30 pages of the book try to explain all this as being love between H and H and, I will admit, helped me to feel slightly better about the first 330 pages but, still, I found this story to be an uncomfortable read.

This story starts off with an intriguing proposition. Ian is seeking revenge after a horrific ordeal in which he was chained up, drugged and sexually abused. He sees Viola as responsible and sets out to punish her. The scene is set...dark and erotic which is exciting but it disintegrates into a mish-mash of melodramatic scenes that hover on the edge of rape and sexual domination. I could have coped with the strong stuff if I had felt a connection with either of the main characters but I didn't. I didn't like Ian because his actions were little less than rape. I didn't like Viola because I felt she was weak and easily manipulated. The story was poorly constructed with a number of loose ends and plot devices that made little sense. Adele Ashworth has written some wonderful books but this is not one of them.

A brief plot summary: Ian was held captive for five weeks and chained in a dungeon by Viola's two sisters. Viola went to see him every 2-3 days, and giving him food and sponge baths. She is very attracted to him and ends up fondling and eventually having sex with him while he is too drugged to know what's happening. She assisted in his escape in some vague and indirect way, apparently afraid of her sisters and getting in trouble. Now her sisters have both gotten their just deserts but, to Ian's fury, Viola was absolved of all responsibility in the kidnapping. He can't remember much from his captivity except vague memories of Viola sexually caressing him, and he's enraged by her violation of him while he was in a drugged stupor. So he vows to take revenge on her, tracks her down in London where she (recently widowed) is living with her young son as a painter, pretends not to recognize her, and commissions a portrait so that he can use the time alone to psychologically torture her. Along the way he finds out that she is a notorious painter of erotic art and uses the information to blackmail her; and when he finds out her son is actually his, he threatens to expose her and take the child away. The story comes to a climax (if you will) when Ian kidnaps Viola and takes her into the country to sexually torture her, all the while supposedly battling soft and gentle feelings of love. Needless to say, it all works out in the end, if rather abruptly.

Anyone who reads a lot of these has to acknowledge that seduction, reluctance, and even non-consent are par for the course in the world of romance novels. Many readers (myself included) enjoy some of these elements because they create a sense of attraction so irresistible that it contradicts rational desires. But, as many reviewers here have said, this book seems to have trouble drawing a line in the sand between acceptable sexual coercion and straight up rape. For me, Ian's anger was justified-- I can't imagine a romance in which a man takes repeated sexual advantage of a woman too drugged to tell her elbow from a doorknob ending with forgiveness and understanding because, in her incoherent state, she "begged" him. Apparently the reversal of gender roles makes all this acceptable. The excuses Viola made for her role in the kidnapping and captivity seemed incredibly thin and unbelievable; she had no right to be so self-satisfied with herself about it. Honestly, her inclusion as an "innocent" accomplice to the kidnapping seemed a contrived and flimsy way of explaining Ian's motivations when he acted out the highly fetishized bondage/"rape" scene later in the book.

As far as the characters were concerned, neither personality will be anything you haven't seen before. The dialogue tended to be heavy and angsty, in keeping with the overall tone of the book. I was inclined to sympathize with Ian in the beginning because of what he'd been through, but his cruelty and manipulativeness (constantly mortifying, blackmailing and emotionally abusing Viola) lost him most of his sympathy points. For Viola's part, until she could offer a credible explanation as to why she allowed a man's captivity to go on for five weeks as she visited him only sparingly to feed and sexually abuse him, I wasn't really going to like her much. She also creeped me out a little bit with all the talk of masturbating to a painting she had made of Ian in chains.

Despite all of these complaints, the book was decently written and did attempt something relatively original in its plot. If you enjoy the captivity and coercion elements of this story, you'd probably enjoy Johanna Lindsey's "Surrender My Love," which bears several similarities to this one, as well as just about any other Lindsey or Coulter book from the so-called "Rapin' 70s" (the era of the alpha alpha alpha male). So, in conclusion: I think non-consent/reluctance can work in a romance novel, but it takes some extra work-- and here, unfortunately, the attempts just felt kind of disturbing.

I was so disappointed in this book. I could not believe what was written. This is a story about a man who is set out to ruin a woman who has a young child. That, in itself, is disturbing. But then you learn what Viola did and, my ***, she deserved to be in prison, not living the good life. What she did to him was deplorable, & today, would be considered rape. I am sorry, but there is no romance in being with a man who is chained to the wall, starved, and delirious. What's the difference between that & the 'date rape' drug of today? It was sick and then she PAINTED these scenes? How could it get worse? Oh-he forgives her and can see her point of view?!?! What?!!? If she was a good person, she would have let him go when he was captive or at least told someone. She was in no way a victim of her sisters and this book is sickening.

As other readers stated, this book involved some dark, gritty, difficult material. That being said, I thought it was a good read. It was frustrating to not know exactly what had happened to Ian most of the book, but that was eventually resolved. It did show how some people can connect under extremely tough circumstances including imprisonment, torture etc., although the extent of his memory loss was disturbing at times, especially in relation to Viola. It appeared to me that the memory loss included some symptoms of PTSD and was not all related to the drugging, hence his ability to remember as the book goes on. Viola does try to do the right thing given very tough circumstances of her own. I gave it points for getting me more emotionally involved than most romances and for her daring to write such an unusual plot.

Ian Wentworth was kidnapped by three sister - one committed suicide, one was sent to prison and the other married a peer and now is out of morning... He plans to make Viola pay for her crime. Ian does not remember all the events of the kidnapping and the story is slowing unfolded each time he meets with Viola. Excellent book , great characters , Late Night - Ignore the bad reviews and give this one a chance!

If you enjoy this genre I would also suggest;Desires of a Perfect Lady, Married by Morning (Hathaways, Book 4) and Sex and the Single Earl.

After reading all of the varied reviews, which went from the disturbed to the elated, I almost didn't read this book. However, I am glad that I did. For whatever it is worth, I did not get the feeling of 'rape' that many of the other reviewers did. Maybe it was because I was prepared for what was to come. There was only one scene in which that term could have been loosely applied, and it did not detract from the flow of the story what-so-ever. I thought the story line was creative, certainly something that I have not seen in any other recent historical romance (and I read ALOT)! I thought that the characters were well developed, perhaps the male lead a little more than the female. And of course, as any romance reader would like, there is a HEA. So, don't be discouraged by all of the other unfavorable reviews, read the book for yourself and post your two cents as well! I recommend it!

If you like revenge themed plots and characters that never answers questions but respond in innuendos and half truths you will love this book. Adele Ashworth is a very good writer but she has the ability to frustrate me at times. She will start her books with a very intriguing scenario, in this case our H was once held captive in a dungeon, mistreated and drugged with vague memories of his time there. All he can recall with certainty is he was sexual abused and our h was a witness to his shame. The book starts 5 yrs after his release and now he is seeking revenge on the last person not punished for the crime . This should have been an interesting read and at times it was but instead it became frustrating. The H/h never answered direct questions when ask by the other which caused a big misunderstanding that lasted the entire book. To add insult to injury the big misunderstanding was not all that big when you find out the answers to all our H questions was available to him if only certain people had talked to him 5 yrs ago immediately after his release. The tool the H use regarding the h paintings for revenge was extremely lame. The author most have known it was unbelievable because she has one of the characters respond with the statement "this is preposterous", when the H tries to explain why the h is not a good candidate as a wife. One more thing, how do you fall in love with a drugged semi-conscious delirious smelly man?

Stolen Charms and Winter Garden are my 2 favorite books by AS, if you have not read them I recommend you give them a try.