The Rebel Bride Book

DNF at 66%.

Like Devil's Embrace by the same author, we have in Rebel Bride an obsessed, mine, mine, mine, ruthless and unapologetic "hero" who will go to any means to force seduction and marriage on a girl who wants nothing to do with him. Standard bodice-Ripper fare.

Unlike Devil's Embrace however, there was no emotional connection with either protagonist, no plausibility to their so-called romance, way too many plot holes and abrupt transitions in time. However, all of that pales in comparison with the utter despicability of the "hero."

The hero in Devil's Embrace was a typical bodice-Ripper cad in some ways, but also had very non-typical traits that normally lend themselves to a more modern, liberal character. Like his unwavering loyalty, love, and acceptance of the heroine. He did not care if she tried to kill him, tried to leave him, claimed to love another, even when she claimed to have given her virginity to someone else and being pregnant with another man's child. He did not fetishize her "purity." He loved her, as the person she was, and never wavered in his confidence that he would overcome all her misgivings and that having her love him back would be the single, most treasurable achievement of his life. It was not difficult at all to believe in their HEA, and that he would never stray from her or have anything affect his feelings for her. THAT is true romance, bodice-ripper style.

In this book, Rebel Bride, H becomes infatuated with h because he is bored with his overly ostentatious life, including a myriad of mistresses, debauchery, alcohol binges, card games, hunts, etc.

He realizes he wants to marry h within a week of meeting her, because the image of the pure, virginal, innocent yet feisty and spirited country girl is something new and spicy for him.

He knows she has been physically abused by a religious fanatic father and she is deathly afraid of physical intimacy but that doesn't matter. His lust must be satisfied. His solution? Dress up as a German highwayman, attack her, drug her, tie her to a bed, bind her eyes, and force his seduction.

Once he realizes she is not a virgin, he doesn't stop to think why that might be. Pfffftttt, all his supposed love, tenderness and affection disintegrate with the absence of a maidenhead. She loses all value to him and becomes nothing to him. So much for his love! He reduced her to a thin membrane of flesh that is missing from her body.

Yeah, I get it, it's a historical romance and in history, women were (and by the way still are in many cultures) valued by nothing more than their maidenhead, physical beauty, child bearing capability, and a big, fat dowry. But apart from historical, it is also supposed to be a romance so I am allowed to demand a hero who is extraordinary and unique, not just an average misogynist walking around in tight breeches hmmmm?

Anyways, our so-called hero proceeds to brutally and hatefully rape her, all the time mocking himself for having been gentle with this skank ho.

THAT is irredeemable imho and I didn't care to follow him on his inevitable journey of discovery in the last half of the book where he would redeem himself and he and h finally get their HEA. The romance was dead in the water with that scene, and nothing that could come after would change my mind.

Nope, not for me.