A rebel's pleasure Book

Set in the back ground of the civil war.
The book starts in 1859 with the heroine living in washington with her uncle who is a pro union senator for the state of Virginia. The h is being courted by Noel Philips , who owns a neighbouring plantation and is an attaché with General Winfield Scott.unfortunately Kate does not feel any passion for Noel and is also put off by his pro slavery views. Noel brings Kate to a dinner party at Gen Scott's home, where she is introduced to Zachary Benson, a marine officer attached to Scott. They flirt and on the way home, Zach kisses her.

The heroine regrets her actions and is grateful when her uncle then decides to go on campaign in west Virginia. On the way home, they stop at Harper's Ferry, where they get caught up in the attack by John Brown. Kate is sent out to take a message to the militia, but is shot at and ends up trapped in a ditch. Lt benson comes to her rescue and they make it to a near by building.

There is some really stupid dialogue between the two of them, whereby Kate appears to be more interested in arguing with Lt benson, rather than paying attention to the bullets flying over her head. There is a rather passe scene indoors, where Zack convinces Kate to remove her clothes so that she can dry off. He then proceeds to seduce her. I found this scene to be very superficial. at the start of this book, it is emphasised that Kate is upstanding, intelligent and very sensible. How then does it come to be that she is kissed by this man (who she has only met briefly once before) and then suddenly is overcome with desire and has sex with him, with all the risks associated , including pregnancy and loss of reputation? The author also tells us in passing that they later have sex again in a hotel after Brown is captured. I just did not get it.

Part 1 ends with Lt benson suggesting that things are not straight forward for him, that there may be a problem with a superior officer, that he is not in the same social class as Kate and that there may be issues with a marriage. He tells Kate that no matter what he does next, it will be because he loves her. [this was hard to credit given that they barely knew each other].

Part 2: Starts Washington 1861: It's a year later. Zack breaks into the h's bedroom.

Background information reveals:that he hasn't come near her for a year and has been cashiered out of the army - this is sign posted from the start as -All is not as it appears; Lincoln is president and Noel has committed to the confederacy; Zach appears to have shacked himself up with the well known spy and confederate sympathiser Rose O'Neal Greenhow; Kate sees him kissing Ms Greenhow at a party and leaves;We are told that she has a broken heart. She then volunteers to work as Gen Scott's secretary; After the battle of Bull Run, Ms Greenhow is arrested and names Zach as a fellow traitor.

So back to the bedroom - Kate berates Zack (for about 5 minutes max) but guess what - he pulls out his seductive charms and the next thing we know, they are shagging like rabbits. then Zach makes further mysterious (or not so much) comments about having to go off and do his duty, whilst making throw away remarks about marriage after Kate threatens to sleep with everyone she meets.

By this stage the book is rather tedious.

Kate formulates a plan to be incarcerated as a confederate spy and placed near Ms Greenhow so that she can try and find out details of what is going on.
This happens and Ms Greenhow then spills all to Kate, making reference to the fact that she lied about Zach giving her information because he had been so good in bed that she was worried that she had been indiscreet. Kate doesn't take this so well.

Part 3: Route to Richmond 1862:the confederate sympathisers are put on a boat to Richmond - conveniently captained by Zach. Rose is moved into Zach's cabin and Kate is jealous. an unpleasant english man Ian mawson makes advances to her but Zach pulls him off her. he repeats that 'all is not as it seems'. sometime later he again observes her with the Mawson and kate reluctantly pulls away. She then tells Zach that Rose tells her all about their sexual shananagans. his response is 'Oh God!'

for some reason they go on another boat (at this stage it is hard to care) .

mawson is also on the boat and clearly has dishonourable intentions. it turns out he has diplomatic papers for the confederacy. kate agrees to sleep with him in exchange for the knowledge. she regrets this but feels she has to go through with it - because she gave her word (WTF?). Just at the crucial moment there is an explosion on deck and this disrupts the whole thing - though it appears that Mawson is in a crazed state ('inflamed with lust to the point of madness'???).

a union cruiser is chasing them, so they get on to a small boat and try and row for shore. Kate and Rose end up in the water. Rose drowns and Kate makes it to shore - followed by Mawson, who demands that she submits to him or else he will allege that she has killed Rose and is a traitor to the Confederacy. Mawson tries to rape her. Kate gets a gun and ties him up. She then hijacks a carriage. she reports her information to union forces and then somehow shoots Zach by mistake. he comes down with a fever to which the cure is to have more sex - due to the flaring 'uncontrollable urges'.

She takes him to Richmond to get medical care - despite him telling her not to take him there.
When she goes to visit, he finally tells her that he is not a rebel and has been working for union intelligence and using Rose. she then decides to take him to her plantation. on the route there they are stopped but Noel Phillips comes along and for old time sake lets them pass. Mawson then reappears and again tries to rape her and then to butcher her to death. a troop of union soldiers miraculously appears and shoots the villains. the couple declare there love and Zach proposes. kate accepts but wants to talk about it later.

I did not enjoy this book. I suppose some of the history would be interesting to those who are unaware of it but it has been done better elsewhere.
The heroine was annoying and unlikeable. The hero was shagging another woman for most of the book - for the sake of his country!.
the hero's real loyalties were flagged from the outset in the most obvious way.

writing this review was the only thing that kept me going!