Customer Reviews

Hellion

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

If you're not familiar with Bertrice Small's books and are likely to be offended by graphic [love] scenes, this is not the book for you. Don't say I didn't warn you. Personally, I generally enjoy Small's books because of the way she really tries to interweave her plot with actual history and because she creates such vivid and strong characters. Believe me, there are no shrinking violets in this book. Here, Hugh, the male lead, is ordered to marry Isabelle by the king. In the beginning of the book, Belle is more of a spoiled brat than a hellion. Hugh is an unusual but likable hero. He isn't handsome, but he is kind and loyal. Through a lot of plot twists, Hugh loses his memory and is more or less enslaved by a sorceress. Belle comes to rescue him but becomes equally enslaved to the sorceress' brother. Belle fairly willingly becomes his [love] slave while Hugh is busy with the sister. Things only get weirder from there. One of the things I liked best about the book was that once Hugh and Belle get away from the kinky duo, they don't automatically blissfully reunite. They actually have a lot of emotional baggage to work through - a nice realistic touch as opposed to the pat romance novel ending.

Isabelle of Langston has no intentions of marrying Hugh Fauconier, even though the king decrees it. Known as "Belle from Hell," she is a strong-willed woman determined to have her way in all things. But Hugh wants Langston and Belle. He woos her with gentle intensity until she willingly gives her heart and her body to him. Their passion is as powerful as their love and Belle discovers that marriage to Hugh is everything she could ever want. Dark forces seek to separate the lovers when Hugh is enchanted by a sorceress who wants him for her own. Though Hugh and Belle's love is strong, the sex magic of Vivienne d'Bretagne is stronger. Hugh forgets his past-- forgets Belle-- and becomes Vivienne's lover. Belle's search for her missing husband leads her to the castle of the d'Bretagnes. Masquerading as a young man, Belle's identity is discovered by Vivienne's brother Guy. He wants Belle for his own plaything and weaves his web of magic to ensure that she will stay by his side. Unlike Hugh, Belle must endure Guy's passion with her memory intact. Her heart cries out for her beloved Hugh while Guy takes her to new heights of ecstasy. Caught up in the dark desires of their captors, Hugh and Belle must find a way to break free of the spell that enslaves them. For Belle, the torture of giving her body to another man is only a shadow of the pain she feels at seeing her husband with another woman. Determined to win her husband back, Belle plays her part to perfection. But when Hugh discovers what lengths his wife has gone to in order to save him, will he be able to forgive her? Intensely erotic scenes and language have become hallmarks of Bertrice Small's fiction and Hellion is no exception. The story is lush, passionate and often explicit in its descriptions of lovemaking. An unusual menage a trois scene may surprise some readers, but fans of Bertrice Small have come to expect excellence from her and they will not be disappointed in Hellion.Hellion is Bertrice Small at her very best! Her fans will be lining up to buy this one! Magnificent! Once again, Bertrice Small proves herself to be the reigning queen of romance! Erotica, romance, love and lust! Hellion is the perfect book to keep you warm on a cold winter's night! Some authors push the boundaries of romantic fiction to the limits-- Bertrice Small doesn't just push the limits, she reinvents them!Kristina Wright

hot, hot, hot! and not for the faint of heart! while other reviews about this book go into the storyline..... i'm going to get right to the goodstuff. this is erotica at it's best or romance at it's worst depending on what type you like. this book has everything from straight sex, to oral, anal,double penetration,rape, dildos, bondage and more than implies incest.....this is not your mother's barbra cartland.
the first time i read one of bertrice small's "romance novels." i was shocked,then appalled, then fascinated and more than a little stimulated...... it takes a special talent to blend a historical with a fantasy, create strong and vibrant characters. and oh my gosh! the sex.......everything from belle's tender deflowering by hugh, to her mother's brutal rape on top of a horse,to the threesome between belle,hugh and guy. sure to make more than a few of you ladies wince and squirm in your chair.
i personally loved this book and became a diehard fan of ms. small. but then i enjoyed it for what it is......erotica for women. if i want to read a nice, sweet romance, i'll pick up kathleen woodiweiss or joanna lindsey. but when i'm alone and have nothing better to do, on a cold rainy afternoon, the husband and kids gone....i'll pick up my tattered copy of hellion and read the dog earred pages for the hundreth time.........

Hellion and Love slave are my favorite Bertrice Small novels. The Hellion is a very erotic novel that explores a woman's secret fantasies (mine at least). I didn't find the love scenes trashy or yucky at all. I've read and re-read it so many times and i still find it highly arousing and stimulating. To be loved by 2 men is indeed the best experience there is. Lucky Belle! Her experiences in the novel are to die for.

Others who have read Hellion will probably get the grape reference, but might not understand the apathy part. Very simply, this is a well-written book with a lot of promise, but it bored me to death. I was so numbed by the dullness of the narrative that when the erotic parts came along, I barely even noticed them. "Belle from Hell" is a cute moniker but a little too predictable, and to be honest I don't see where the character lives up to it (although she is indeed a strong woman). The whole king-orders-man-marry-woman thing is too been there, done that, got the t-shirt. Maybe the sport of raising hunting birds is interesting to some, but I suspect the taste of it could have been given without going into such painful detail. When the threads of the novel began spinning in Brittany with knock-offs of mishapen Arthurian characters, I took a deep breath and prepared to be rolling my eyes. What really bothers me is that I wanted to like this book, I really did. But what can I tell you? Eroticism or not, Hellion was one long dull read for me.

I admit, thist story is not for the delicate senses. The sex scenes are very, very erotic and a little racy. I liked the male lead of Hugh. He was very strong and not your typical 'romance book man', what I mean by that is that he was not gorgeous or heart-stopping handsome or cocky. He was a plain and average man with a good heart and soul. He loved Isabelle madly and would do anything for her. The problem I had with Isabelle, or Belle as she is called, is her spoiled and downright uppity attitude towards her mother and Hugh, her husband. In my opinion, Hugh was too good for Belle. But all that aside, the story was about a man named Hugh, a knight who was ordered to marry the lady of Langston Keep to keep the king's brother at bay since his brother Richard of Normandy continued to war with his English brother and King of England, Henry I. Hugh met Belle, or Belle from Hell as they all called her since she was so unruly and rude. Hugh was shocked at first, but soon found himself in love with her and found her spirit making his heart sing. Belle could not believe she had fallen in love with this 'plain-faced' knight. (this is what I meant by her being uppity and rude) She told him even when they married that he was plain and not someone she originally saw herself with, but that she loved him and that's all that mattered. (I myself thought if I were Hugh I would tell her that she was a spoiled brat, but I was not in the story, so...LOL)Anyhow, Hugh was sent away on a mission for the king and soon found himself imprisoned in the clutches of a powerful and evil woman who claimed to be a sorceress named Vivienne. He has forgotten who he is and that he has a wife in England, for he is being held captive in Brittany. Soon Belle goes to find him when he comes up missing for a long time. She finds her beloved enchanted by this sorceress and realizes he does not remember Belle. She is soon also captured by Vivienne's brother Guy, a powerful sorcerer. Belle struggles to free herself and Hugh for the sake of their love that he can't remember...It was an excellent story with many plot twists, but I wasn't convinced Belle truly loved Hugh. I was convinced that he loved her though and found myself wishing he would realize what a brat she was, lol. But in all, it was a 4 star read and I would just warn anyone about the VERY strong sexual content in this story...

I wish that I had read the other reviews before reading this book. It had a boring start and then all of a sudden went into bondage. It was hot, not too descriptive, but the threesome was too much.

This is the first book by this author I have read. I do not think I will read anymore seeing the tone set in this one.

What bothered me about this book wasn't the eroticism (in truth, I found the sex scenes deliciously different for a romance tale), but the complete departure from what I know a Small novel to be. This book wasn't as descriptive, nor did it explore the characters' personalities as much as previous works. Bertrice Small usually goes on and on and on and ON about locations, character details, even matters as simple as royalty parties and fetes. With this novel she seems to just say, "Here's Belle. Here's Hugh. They're married. Uhoh, something happened, let's go find her. (Insert bed scene here.) All over. The end." A little more depth would have been nice. But the erotic scenes were actually not badly crafted. If the story had the depth of The Kadin or Skye O'Malley I think I would have enjoyed this a LOT more.

I love Bertrice Small. After I read my first(being Hellion) I knew I had to buy more. And now after reading six of her books, I have decided to try to collect them all.

Ohmigod! This book was wickedly erotic and deliciously sexy. I absolutely loved it. The escapades between Belle and the too-sexy-for-words Guy d'Bretagne will stay in your mind for days. This was the first Beatrice Small book I read, and I can't wait to get my hands on the others. I have read many romances, and save for a select few, the sameness of the plots can get really tedious. Beatrice Small is not afraid to break all the rules to deliver a story that is completely fresh and unique. Absolutely not to be missed.