56 of 66 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
A brief summary, June 12, 2001
The book starts with Bettina finding out of her betrothal. Soon after she is on a ship headed to her betrothed. The ship is attacked by pirates and she and her maid are taken prisoners on the pirate ship. Bettina is immediately brought to the Captain's cabin. The Captain is, of course, our "hero" Tristan. Tristan tells Bettina that they have taken many of her ship hostage and they will be slowly tortured to death unless she submits to him without physically fighting him....
Towards the end of the book, Tristan is fighting with the man who raped his mother and murdered his parents. When this man points out their similarities Tristan responds "I may have raped her,(Bettina) but I did not kill her husband in order to have her, nor did I share her with my crew or kill her afterward. I kept her, and she will bear my child and become my wife." Don't sentiments like that just make you all warm and gushy inside?
This is really a book I would have been much happier not reading. I've read other Lindsey book and enjoyed them. Now I'm hesitant to pick one up with her name on the cover. It surprises me that anyone would think that women want to read about a girl being continually raped and sexually assaulted as fun entertainment.
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26 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Is Rape Really So Different in the 1600's?, April 13, 2008
To each his or her own, for those that liked 'A Pirate's Love'. But what I will never understand is this argument that because this story didn't occur in the here and now, readers should just 'go with the flow' and accept that part of the 'romance' of this book, was rape.
Is rape really any different in any century?
The story is about this poor, pretty 19 year old named Bettina Verlaine, who has been ordered by an uncaring father to marry a man named Compte Pierre Lambert. He owns a sugar plantation in the Caribbean. Bettina has to go by a ship the Compte has paid for, and she is to take her nanny, a woman named Madeline or 'Maddy'.
Bettina makes the mistake of drying her wet hair on deck. The fact that she wanted to do this at all causes some upheaval on the ship, since the captain doesn't want his men lusting after Bettina.
Well, Bettina is almost raped by some crew guy on the ship. He is punished by being whipped. THEN the ship is captured by pirates, specifically because the pirate captain saw her from afar and has decided he wants her for himself. And his name is Tristan Matisse and he's 26.
Every reader is going to get something different out of this story. Bettina and Maddy are kidnapped. Maddy is just locked up in another room. Bettina is the one that had to bear the brunt of everything. Meaning Tristan tells her to submit so he won't 'have to rape her'. Bettina knows good and well, especially in the year 1667, that if she 'submits', that means she'll become his whore. And she's not interested in that becoming her path in life. So she fights him.
What she gets in return are bruised wrists(she's held down everytime), painful penetrations, guff from a rape free Maddy, who tells her to submit because Tristan is handsome, a lot of physical grappling with this slob, who doesn't wipe down after each rape...a lot of incessant prattling from Tristan...etc..etc..etc..also, stressed out Bettina is always trying to get him to assault her quickly, so that he gets no pleasure. Because in her mind, if he thinks she likes it, he'll be on her morning, noon and night. If it's not good for him, maybe he'll leave her in peace.
Bettina tries to run off twice and fails, since she's still not really interested in living as some obsessed pirate's mistress. So by now, she discovers that Pierre isn't interested in marrying her, her mother(who was captured by Tristan and can prance around Tristan's house rape free as well) agrees with Maddy and thinks she should just give in. And to make matters worse, she is now pregnant with her rapist's baby and is trapped by her circumstances.
Then from page 286-287, Bettina falls in love with him.
This story needed another hero. Someone else to save Bettina from Tristan. Someone that could have taught her the difference between lovemaking and rape. And someone that wouldn't have held what happened to her at the hands of a pirate, against her. Who WOULD have been nice, is dashing hero Clayton from Judith McNaight's 'Whitney, My Love'. But we're talking about two different periods...different people. But he would've made Bettina a great husband and first lover.
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26 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
This Pirate Needs A Heavy Yardarm Smacked Into His Head, November 10, 2002
I was seduced into reading this...this foray into the unpredicatable world of romance fiction by the promise that it was the worst novel ever written. The worst? Not quite. I think Johanna Lindsey could write a state driver's manual in such a way that it would be enjoyable. But this is the story of an irritating little girl who is forced to have sexual intercourse without her consent (that is, rape) with this pirate who needed a ship to keep his ego afloat--but somehow by the last page, they are forever and a day in love.
At least the Lindsey driver's manual would be plausible.
The plot is thrown together cliche by cliche, held together with bubble gum, and easily blown over by the slightest breeze. I mean we've got childhood trauma, childhood trauma II, the wise and gentle nursemaid, the lust for a woman (little girl) because she's the most beautiful creature ever created and nevermind her sour demeanor, the wise sidekick, the nefarious fiance, everything but a petulant pet. I think there's a theme here--Bettina will give her heart to a man she has never met. Unfortunately, this happens only after she's had to give over a lot of other things to Tristan, every man's varsity pirate. Don't mind the characters as there really aren't any--they have as much depth as the print on the page.
On to the big issue--can a woman fall in love with a man who continually raped her? I suppose one could argue that it was the manifestation of fate with a timing somewhat odd to human readers. Maybe one could argue that Bettina was somehow sexually repressed and needed to be taken by Tristan to attain her true womanhood. But please, these arguments are out on a limb. Tristan's treatment of Bettina as nothing but a body to relieve his lust upon is disgusting. Since this isn't the disgusting genre, I'm left to conclude that Lindsey wandered astray with this particular work.
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