Trade Literature: A Review and Survey Book

A+ for creativity! The hero of Roberta Leigh's Savage Aristocrat does not keep the heroine in captivity because of unrequited love, a Seekret Baybee, or an embezzling relative. He does it for political principle, hurray!

Mr. Wannabe Che Guevara wants to teach the bloated English capitalist pig about the poor Peruvian peasants that she exploits, picking up their handmade ponchos for a bean then selling them for 500% profit back in her chic English boutique.

It's "Workers of the World, Unite!" Versus "Let Them Eat Cake" and it is delightful. Three guesses who loses their head lol.

The bickerfest between the protags was, for once, lively and enjoyable. Instead of going into jealous rages over OW/OM or creating Big, Terrible, Misunderstandings, these two argued back and forth about the exploitation of third-world countries by the West versus the corruption of the local governments who exploit their own people too, and found time to insert a lovely Peruvian travelogue, history lesson, and food and fashion porn too.

All that and the romance was pretty sweet. Yes, the hero behaved abominably in keeping the heroine captive and forcing her to live the life of a Peruvian peasant. But he fell for her about five minutes after he met her and all his meanness was punctuated by sweet, kind, helplessly besotted moments.

I loved his background story, with his Spanish grandee grandfather falling in love with a local Indian woman and waiting patiently for ten years before they could wed, in the face of savage opposition by his family and society. His dad was equally besotted with his wife. The men of this family seem to be one-woman men so I predict a great future for the heroine, which she absolutely deserved after what she had to go through because of him:)

That was a fun ride!