Stormfire [Paperback]

Christine Monson (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 568 pages
• Publisher: Avon Books (June 1, 1984)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 038087668X
• ISBN-13: 978-0380876686
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.1 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (30 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #191,561 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

77 of 83 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Repulsed even an avid Bodice Ripper fan (Spoilers), October 4, 2006

By 

ShellyS (Hollis, New York United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Stormfire (Paperback)

About the book..."Abducted on her way to boarding school, a terrified Catherine Enderly was brought from England to the coast of Ireland, the prisoner of the angry and powerful young Sean Culhane - a man sworn to vengeance against her family".

I admit I love "Bodice Ripper" books with extreme Alpha males! But this book was such a turn off that I couldn't even finish it! After throwing it against the wall, I quickly looked through my collection for a sweet romance story to stop myself from throwing up!!!

Sean is really brutal! At first meeting, he rapes our virgin heroine was such cruelty that she nearly faints. Because of the time period of the story, I don't mind a little bit of force in the beginning as long as the women secretly enjoys it and starts responding...or at least their "traitorous" body does...but the heroine only feels pain and he rapes her a number of time in the same fashion. When Catherine never responded and he still kept going, and only felt PAIN and NOTHING else, then where is the chemistry/sexual tension in that?

He also beats her brutally for no reason and starves her. At one point in the book after she "betrays" (and I use this term loosely since she owed this animal nothing) him, he decides to give her to a room full of men to do what they want with her. He rips her dress, exposing her breasts and LEAVES her in the room full of men to rape her without a second thought! Luckily one of the secondary characters saves her before they do. That was so disgusting and made me want him to die!!!

And at the beginning the heroine is likable but soon becomes fickle & annoying. She vows at the beginning of the book she wouldn't marry a man without loving him first. Her mother did that and she didn't want to do the same. But then she ends up marring Sean's half brother whom she doesn't love for her own silly reasons. He also ends up raping her after she decides the marriage was a mistake. So not only does the heroine have another sexual partner but one that rapes her too?? Yes I know, very romantic so far, swoon worthy {roll eyes}.

The book had the premises of being a good story but sucked because of the hero's brutality and Catherine's stupidity sometimes!

76 of 86 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An epic romance from the early 80s, April 7, 2006

By 

J. Bergin (North Carolina) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Stormfire (Paperback)

This is one of those books that you'll either really like, or really hate. It's an old romance, from the early 80s, and reads like one -- so much of what transpires between the hero and heroine is "dated" by today's standards and would instantly qualify the book for "wallbanger" status by many readers. I read this book the first time back in the 80s and fell in love with it then, so I think that's why I have fond feelings for it still. I'm not sure that a person reading it for the first time today would be so forgiving of certain aspects of the story.

The story is plot-rich -- this romance is like many from the early 80s and quite epic in scope, taking us from England to Ireland to France and Napoleon's court. But what drives the story are the characters of Sean Culhane and his beloved "Kit", Catherine Enderly. More than anything else, this is a story about the redemptive power of love. If you're willing to buy into this premise -- that love DOES conquer all...eventually -- then this story may be for you. But be warned that there are numerous plot devices taboo among today's romances: rape, enslavement, brutal abuse, and adultery.

Sean Culhane arranges for the abduction of 17-year-old Catherine Enderly, an English countess. His motivation is vengeance; he has a score to settle with Catherine's father. Catherine is spoiled and indulged -- which Sean despises -- but also intelligent and courageous -- which he reluctantly respects. Still, the very first scene between the two of them is oh-my-god brutal, so be prepared. Catherine is imprisoned and forced into a life of destitution and enslavement, with Sean always trying to break her spirit through means physical or mental, and yet at every turn he is thwarted by Catherine's indomitability. Against his will, he begins to admire her courage and begins to see her less as her father's daughter and more as her own person. Vengeance turns to lust, and lust turns to something akin to love, but still Catherine resists him. The more he continues to try to force her...to force her affection for him...the more she resists giving him what he wants, even though she DOES begin to love him as well, and her continued denial hurts her as much as him.

An act of betrayal, the finer details of which elude Sean for quite a while, leads Catherine to marry Sean's brother, Liam, a man forever in his younger brother's longer shadow and resentful of it. Catherine is recaptured, and re-imprisoned, and Sean's love turns to hate. An injury to Catherine aggravates another pre-existing condition -- one unknown to Sean -- and sends Catherine into a type of madness. When Sean realizes the extent of his own culpability, he devotes himself completely to her recovery.

Things progress in similar fashion for much of the book, as Sean and Catherine are brought together by their fierce love and devotion to one another, but then separated by Fate, time and again. When they are finally united at the very end of the book, it's incredibly poignant: a hard-won triumph, out of the ashes of great tragedy.

As I said, this most definitely is not the book for everyone, but if you have a fondness for meaty historicals you may enjoy Stormfire. They really don't publish historical romances like this anymore, and part of me wishes they did. Not many of today's author's would take the chances that Monson did here, although at the time she wrote the book, perhaps the risk was not so great. Certainly this type of romance seemed fairly standard for that period. I know that there are many readers who would be so put off by Sean's violence, they'd be unable to find any good in him whatsoever. How do you make a sympathetic character out of someone who seems so despicable? But I think the author does a very good job at painting the complexities of Sean's personality. Is this the type of man I'd like to know in real-life? No, not necessarily. But that doesn't mean I can't appreciate who he is within the pages of this book. He and Catherine are memorable characters and I have sustained my memory of and affection for this book for twenty years or so -- which is more than I can say for many of today's romances which are largely forgotten the moment the last sentence is read.

88 of 103 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars junk, August 18, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Stormfire (Paperback)

I hated this story. I was so excited about reading it after reading the glowing reviews by the others. I searched it out and bought it through auction. I sat down to read it eagerly and was completely disgusted. He not only hits her so hard she is bruised and bleeding, but he rapes her BRUTALLY; not once, but MANY MANY times. He never feels remorse; he doesn't question his motives, or regret hitting someone weaker than himself. Gamely, I tried to continue reading with the hope that it would get better (again, based on the wonderful reviews). It only gets worse. He starves her to the point that she faints and is ill for several days, he makes her work like a slave, he threatens to give her to his men for gang rape, etc, etc. Then to my horror, she finds herself fighting mentally to keep from responding to his advances and begins to care for him. I was insulted that the author would make her so stupid and weak minded. It is NOT healthy to love an abusive man. I'm sorry, but I just cannot understand that. Then, to add insult to injury, the maid who's the authority over Katherine has the nerve to try and use reverse psychology on Katherine. "Of course", she says, "not just anyone can love him. It will take a strong, loving, caring woman to change him." Katherine's main concern should be getting away from a monster, not trying to "change" him. I could not finish the book. I was terribly angry and I cannot read a story that makes me want to reach in the book and kick the hero in his privates and slap the heroines face. I just couldn't imagine how their love could be considered healthy. Granted, I did not finish the book, so maybe at some point Sean changed and was remorseful, etc. I simply did not care for him enough to hope he'd change and become a happy person. His actions were too atrocious to be forgiven in my opinion.