Dark Rider (Paperback)

~ (Author)
Key Phrases: Iris Johansen, Lady Carradine, Lani Lani (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Cassie Deville rips off her own bodice at the start of this new romance by the author of Midnight Warrior. When Jared Danemount, Duke of Morland, meets the bare-breasted, sarong-swathed heroine on the beach in Regency-era Hawaii, he thinks she's just another Polynesian maiden. He doesn't know, as he tries to ride her wild stallion, Kapu, and gazes hungrily at her pectorals, that she is the daughter of his sworn enemy, Charles Deville, an artist who betrayed Jared's father during the Terror. Cassie offers herself as Jared's sexual hostage if he will take her, Kapu and Lani, Charles's Polynesian mistress, back to Europe with him so that she can try to save her father's life. Although, in a bit of role reversal, Cassie goes nightly to Jared's cabin aboard ship, she will not spend the night or give her heart. Johansen, who specializes in hot talk and steamy sexual politics, is less skilled once her lovers disembark. In unimposing Regency set pieces, Cassie makes friends with Jared's French ward, Josette; she shocks British high society with a low-cut red dress; she tries to save Jared's life as he stalks the cruel French villain. In a disjointed way, Johansen has provided sex talk for grown-ups and other scenes for adolescents.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

Taken from France as a young child, Cassandra Deville has grown up wild and free in the South Seas. She spent her childhood following her artist father from island to island as her father crossed the seas, in constant fear that his mortal enemy would find and kill him. One day, when Cassie is on the brink of womanhood, the unthinkable happens. Jared Danemount, her father's sworn enemy, sails into the harbor with a retinue of sailors, ready to drag her father back to face his execution in France. Jared is enchanted with the bare breasted beauty he meets on the deserted beach. He's stunned to find that she is the daughter of the man he has sailed from England to capture. His desire for the beauty turns to rage when she drugs and binds him, allowing her father to escape back to France. Cassie knows that her father is on his way to France in a desperate attempt to clear his name. She strikes a bargain with Jared. She will sail to France as his hostage with the understanding that he will have his way with her. A battle of wills ensues that carries them across the seas to Jared's castle, where both find the true meaning of love and honor.Ms. Johansen draws her characters with passion and tenderness! A passionate, headstrong heroine you can cheer for! An entertaining voyage to the lush South Seas! This story sizzles with passion!Annette Carney -- Copyright © 1994-97 Literary Times, Inc. All rights reserved -- From Literary Times

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Product Details

• Paperback: 448 pages
• Publisher: Bantam (April 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553299476
• ISBN-13: 978-0553299472
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #167,395 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars As tantalising as the bared breasts, November 22, 2002

By	"chezkelly" (Singapore) - See all my reviews

I really enjoyed it. The setting at Hawaii gave an exotic and erotic backdrop. Jared first saw Cassie on a moonlit beach and thought she was a native since she dressed like them, just a sarong aroung her waist, leaving her tantalising breasts bared. That was a sure innocent way to arouse a man. But Cassie was not out to seduce, she was brought up at the island and thus not self-conscious about her body. Like most Iris Johansen heroines, Cassie unknowingly needed to be needed. She was very protective over Kapu, her beloved horse. Thank goodness it was not another child or dependent person. I liked reading about her resistance to stay in Jared's bed. Cassie wanted their lovemaking to be just mating, so as not to be vulnerable to betray her father. The sexual tension between Jared and Cassie was very strong, which added to the joy of reading the story. I enjoyed reading about how Cassie taunted Jared's command, in her small way but was extremely frustrating for Jared. The secondary characters did not have a cunning sense of humour as in her other books. Brandford was supposed to be but he was a tad bland. Josephine injected some energy into the story but had a relatively minor role in the story development.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars good romance, November 18, 2002

By	audrey (white mtns) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

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The book begins with a short prologue set in 1795 revolutionary France and then picks up in Hawaii in 1806. The happenings in France are at the heart of a mystery which motivates all the subsequent action, as a stranger appears one day who wants to exact revenge against Cassandra's father. She does not know what happened all those years ago, but she trusts her father, helping him to escape back to France while she stays behind to delay the young Duke of Morland. The characters are well-written, though Cassandra doubts her feelings long after a reasonable person would; also, a secondary romance develops between two likeable characters, which I enjoyed.

Conflict arises first from Cassie wanting the stranger to stay away from her father and later from wanting to reconcile her growing tenderness toward him while staying loyal to her father. The settings -- France, Hawaii and England -- are interesting and used to good effect. Horses figure largely here, and that's a good thing too. And ultimately what you want in a romance, a real desire to see the protagonists united, is here. Johansen writes in several genres and is talented in all of them. This romance was enjoyable and I would read others by this author.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars I sense a theme. . ., January 13, 2007

By	M. Lockhart (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is one of the weaker of Johansen's books. Her usual delightful secondary characters are absent, and the primary couple get all the attention, but are formulaic and don't really deserve it.

There is a pattern I think the author should see a shrink about, since it occurs in so many of her books: I've read at least 4, and it's been present in all. In each one, an innocent maiden meets a jaded man-of-the-world, and the only courtship between them is in the form of repellent foreplay: he instantly makes raunchy, explicit sexual threats, and follows up the threats with intimidation and groping. This makes the innocent girl 1) run for cover? Or 2) pant and flutter and hop into his bed? (Guess what -- it's #2.) Other than hinting the author might have had serious boundary violations as a girl, it makes for near-offensive reading--it's sexual harrassment, not romance.

This was actually appropriate to the first Wind Dancer book, as the character had rough edges and his arc in the book was to learn the error of his ways. I love that her 'heroes' are not perfect, not the typical monochromatic virtuous type, but this pattern is just not appropriate for every single couple in every single book.

Johansen is very good at intricate plots, but whatever genre she chooses to write, she should streamline the plot a bit, and give some more focus to character and dialogue. She's very talented, so I always find her books interesting in some way, but the romance aspects of them have been disappointing.