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Dear Listener, Island Flame is a classic tale of romance on the high seas, featuring two extraordinary characters: the headstrong Lady Catherine Aldley and the legendary pirate Jonathan Hale. No book is more special to me. I was thrilled when it was published, and now, more than thirty years later, I am just as excited to share it again with you. I don’t have to tell you that their tumultuous escapade sizzles with passion (lots of passion!), but what I hope you will take away most from Cathy and Jonathan is that dreams do come true - in love and in life. Mine did, and I hope yours will too.
When Lady Gabriella Banning receives word that her half brother, the Earl of Wickham, has died on his tea plantation, she faces the reality that she and her younger sisters are suddenly penniless - unless she thinks fast. Arranging Claire’s London season, Gabby pretends that Marcus is still alive, just until Claire can marry a fabulously wealthy nobleman. But when a handsome gentleman arrives claiming to be Marcus, Gabby’s plan backfires. If she exposes this mysterious stranger’s deceit, she exposes her own.
Saved from an abduction and unthinkable harm, Gabrielle Bennett owed her life to her rescuer. Marc Stephano, a stranger from the sketchy shadows of town, could've asked for money. Instead, he introduced her to desire and claimed her completely - then he broke her heart. Older, wiser and now a top New York model, Gabrielle is prepared for anything - except Marc's reemergence into her life.
Devon Ravenel, London's most wickedly charming rake, has just inherited an earldom. But his powerful new rank in society comes with unwanted responsibilities...and more than a few surprises. His estate is saddled with debt, and the late earl's three innocent sisters are still occupying the house - along with Kathleen, Lady Trenear, a beautiful young widow whose sharp wit and determination are a match for Devon's own.
Since his return from war, the Duke of Ashbury's to-do list has been short and anything but sweet: brooding, glowering, menacing London ne'er-do-wells by night. Now there's a new item on the list. He needs an heir - which means he needs a wife. When Emma Gladstone, a vicar's daughter turned seamstress, appears in his library wearing a wedding gown, he decides on the spot that she'll do.
hnny Harris is home again, his too-tight jeans and damn-your-eyes belligerence honed to perfection by a ten-year stretch in federal prison for murder. Now he’s out on parole and ready for the job Rachel Grant has promised him to help him begin a new life. Unlike the rest of the town, Rachel has always believed in her former student’s innocence. But one thing has changed. The sullenly handsome boy she remembers is still sullen, still handsome - but no longer a boy.
Dear Listener, Island Flame is a classic tale of romance on the high seas, featuring two extraordinary characters: the headstrong Lady Catherine Aldley and the legendary pirate Jonathan Hale. No book is more special to me. I was thrilled when it was published, and now, more than thirty years later, I am just as excited to share it again with you. I don’t have to tell you that their tumultuous escapade sizzles with passion (lots of passion!), but what I hope you will take away most from Cathy and Jonathan is that dreams do come true - in love and in life. Mine did, and I hope yours will too.
When Lady Gabriella Banning receives word that her half brother, the Earl of Wickham, has died on his tea plantation, she faces the reality that she and her younger sisters are suddenly penniless - unless she thinks fast. Arranging Claire’s London season, Gabby pretends that Marcus is still alive, just until Claire can marry a fabulously wealthy nobleman. But when a handsome gentleman arrives claiming to be Marcus, Gabby’s plan backfires. If she exposes this mysterious stranger’s deceit, she exposes her own.
Saved from an abduction and unthinkable harm, Gabrielle Bennett owed her life to her rescuer. Marc Stephano, a stranger from the sketchy shadows of town, could've asked for money. Instead, he introduced her to desire and claimed her completely - then he broke her heart. Older, wiser and now a top New York model, Gabrielle is prepared for anything - except Marc's reemergence into her life.
Devon Ravenel, London's most wickedly charming rake, has just inherited an earldom. But his powerful new rank in society comes with unwanted responsibilities...and more than a few surprises. His estate is saddled with debt, and the late earl's three innocent sisters are still occupying the house - along with Kathleen, Lady Trenear, a beautiful young widow whose sharp wit and determination are a match for Devon's own.
Since his return from war, the Duke of Ashbury's to-do list has been short and anything but sweet: brooding, glowering, menacing London ne'er-do-wells by night. Now there's a new item on the list. He needs an heir - which means he needs a wife. When Emma Gladstone, a vicar's daughter turned seamstress, appears in his library wearing a wedding gown, he decides on the spot that she'll do.
hnny Harris is home again, his too-tight jeans and damn-your-eyes belligerence honed to perfection by a ten-year stretch in federal prison for murder. Now he’s out on parole and ready for the job Rachel Grant has promised him to help him begin a new life. Unlike the rest of the town, Rachel has always believed in her former student’s innocence. But one thing has changed. The sullenly handsome boy she remembers is still sullen, still handsome - but no longer a boy.
Caitlyn was an orphaned beauty with no future-until the rugged outlaw nobleman rescued her from the streets. And now they ride together in the shadows of the night-on the run from corrupt minions of the law-emboldened by the exhilarating heat of the chase...and by a love as wild and free as the wind on the moors.
Judith Hampton was as beautiful as she was proud and loyal. Her dear Scottish friend from childhood was about to give birth, and Judith had promised to be at her side. But there was another reason for the journey from her bleak English home to the Highlands: to meet the father she had never known, the Laird Maclean. Nothing prepared her, however, for the sight of the Scottish barbarian who was to escort her into his land...Iain Maitland, laird of his clan, a man more powerfully compelling than any she had ever encountered.
Growing up, Bianca St. Ives knew she was different from all her friends. Instead of playing hopscotch or combing her dolls' hair, she studied martial arts with sensei masters and dismantled explosives with special-ops retirees. Her father prepped her well to carry on the family business. Now a striking beauty with fierce skills, the prodigy has surpassed the master.
Mac McQuarry knew better than to mix women and work. And he had enough trouble of his own: The disgraced former cop had been demoted after an explosive shakedown of the Charleston police department. But when Julie Carlson hires him to spy on her cheating husband, Mac can't resist. Not only is she drop-dead gorgeous, but her husband was a player in Mac's inglorious downfall. But what begins as a run-of-the-mill assignment spiced by a fiery flirtation suddenly spirals into a harrowing race for survival.
Miss Mary Whitsun is far too intelligent to fall for the rakish charms of a handsome aristocrat. But when the gentleman in question approaches her in a bookshop, mistaking her for his fiancée, Lady Johanna Albright, the flirtatious encounter only raises more questions. Could Mary, a servant raised in a St Giles orphanage, actually be Lady Joanna's long-lost twin sister? If so, Mary has been betrothed since birth - to the rakishly handsome aristocrat himself....
The girl everybody loves to hate has returned to the town she'd sworn to leave behind forever. As the rich, spoiled princess of Parrish, Mississippi, Sugar Beth Carey had broken hearts, ruined friendships, and destroyed reputations. But 15 years have passed, now she's come home, broke, desperate, and too proud to show it.
Alexandra Haywood and her sister Neely have always loved Whistledown, the family's Shelby County horse farm. After their billionaire father's sudden and tragic death, Alex returns to find the family fortune in shambles, and Whistledown has to go. But Joe Welch, the sexy farm manager, refuses to cooperate. Sparks of rage give way to a fiery attraction when Joe and Alex meet head-on. But just as a volatile passion flares between them, the discovery of a shocking murder with ties to the past rocks the county.
By edict of the king, the mighty Scottish laird Alec Kincaid must take an English bride. His choice was Jamie the feisty youngest daughter of Baron Jamison. Alec ached to touch her, to tame her, to possess her forever. But Jamie vowed never to surrender to this highland barbarian. Though his kisses fired her blood, shadowed secrets from Alec's past threatened Jamie's happiness. She brazenly resisted him - until one rapturous moment quelled their clash of wills.
An arrogant duke does the unthinkable - he falls in love with his mistress.... She raced onto the green, desperate to stop a duel. In the mêlée, Jocelyn Dudley, Duke of Tresham, was shot. To his astonishment, Tresham found himself hiring the servant as his nurse. Jane Ingleby was far too bold for her own good. Her blue eyes were the sort a man could drown in - were it not for her impudence. She questioned his every move, breached his secrets, touched his soul. When he offered to set her up in his London town house, love was the last thing on his mind.
If driving a piece-of-crap tow truck through the seediest part of town with a Smith & Wesson beside her means putting a roof over her son’s head, then Samantha Jones is going to be the best damn repo woman on the books. The streetwalkers, the drug pushers, the bands of looking-for-trouble punks haunting the mean streets at midnight don’t intimidate her. These are her people. The guy she finds bound and bloodied in the trunk of her latest conquest, a flashy new BMW, is a different breed entirely.
Lord Robert Dennington, the Marquess of Westfield, has long reveled in the freedom afforded him as the ducal heir. He knows he must someday do right by the Somerset line, but he's in no hurry to give up his carefree existence.Helena Banbury is a bookkeeper in a gentleman's gambling club, adept at analyzing numbers and accounts but helpless for lack of influence.
"Of all of my novels, After the Night remains one of my personal favorites – and Faith Devlin and Gray Rouillard are two of my favorite characters. Faith is strong, proud, and fearless, and Gray – well, he’s just downright sexy. Faith’s search for the truth about the devastating scandal surrounding her mother and Gray’s father blazes with intrigue. Add some sultry Southern hear, and you’ve got a real scorcher of a listen." (Linda Howard)
With one sweet, seductive kiss, Megan Kinkead is no longer the impudent child Justin Brant remembers. She was a girl when she left Maam’s Cross Court for school, but she has returned a woman, body and soul. Once Megan’s guardian, Justin, the sixth Earl of Weston, is soon her heart’s obsession. Desire smolders between them, and then he tells her he is married….
Set against the lush green hills of Ireland, Karen Robards’s classic tale will captivate your imagination and set your soul ablaze as a stubborn young beauty and her aristocratic paramour are caught between loyalty and Forbidden Love.
The story revolves around an affair between a 17 year old girl and her 36 year old guardian who has been unhappily married for 15 years. On the surface, this plot line could have provided the basis for a very good book(i.e. a similar story written by Anita Shreve in which the young girl is very precocious and mature beyond her years). Sadly, the girl in this novel is so immature (for example, she doesn't know what a penis is) and unrealistic that it is hard to believe the guardian could feel more for her than lust. The guardian himself has a bad temper, is very controlling, and is so self-centered he appears downright clueless sometimes. Most of the book is full of self-recrimination, angst, anger, and misunderstanding. The resolution toward the end leaves one feeling like "hell, why didn't the guardian do this a long time ago." The narrator is unpleasant and difficult to listen to. This is not a terrible book, but it is not one I would recommend.
7 of 8 people found this review helpful
Any additional comments?
Karen Robards is actually one of my favorite historical fiction writers and so I hate to say a disparaging word, Buuut, I really didn't like this book. Her writing was intense and engaging as usual but I was turned off by the story line.
It's very hard to enjoy a book where the main character is nothing more than a very young girl and the man nearly double her age.
I'm not fool enough to think that such things didn't take place at that time but it was kinda creepy to hear it at THIS time.
The Narrator: I DID enjoy, he makes for a lousy women but his male aspect to the story was the only part that kept me listening.
Overall, I'd tell you to try some of her other stuff because she has some awesome books, this just isn't one of them.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful
Let me first say that I do not usually do reviews on books that I have yet to finish, but I made the exception this time because I don't think I will be able to stomach it much longer.
I don't mind an age difference in a romance, my spouse is 15 years older than me, BUT when the age difference is 20 years AND he is her guardian AND he is MARRIED to another woman... I am having a hard time seeing the "romance" in this!
** He put her over his knee and spanked her, yet 20 minutes later, he is kissing her?!?
** Then he spends half his time reprimanding himself that she is his ward and he should have "fatherly" affection towards her, YET he doesn't do much to remove her from his temptation.
**Did I mention that he was already MARRIED?
Honestly this book makes me think it was written for a pedophile. It shows a man who is 36 years old, married and is the guardian of a 17 year old girl. He totally abuses his power and takes advantage (IMHO) of someone in his care. He is cheating on his marriage vows (even if it is a distant marriage, it IS STILL A MARRIAGE!) so he is cheating on his wife. Were this turned around, the man would be an outraged cockhold seeking revenge on the field of honor.
*** This book seriously is making me ill and I don't think that I will EVER seek out this author again. Abuse is NOT romance and if we teach young girls that it is, we are only extending the normalcy of abuse and making it seem right. Not for me! I can't believe that this was published OR that someone could read it out loud and still label it as "Romance"
4 of 6 people found this review helpful
Would you listen to Forbidden Love again? Why?
Pride & Prejudice, Jane Eyre, and Gone with the Wind all in one story... Made me look at my bookshelf for some old Karen Robards favorites that I have there. Yes I would listen to this again.
What was one of the most memorable moments of Forbidden Love?
The cat and mouse play as well as the contrast of naivete to carnal knowledge and the situations it created.
What about James Clamp’s performance did you like?
Yes I enjoyed it very much. Wish I could find Nobody's Angel with the same narrator :)
If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?
Classic Robards with a Jane Austin Feel....
Any additional comments?
Miss some of the older style historical romances such as this. Everything has gone so supernatural and other worldly. This type of romance was my first love (So to speak)
Re: the audio. James Clamp did a good job of narrating. I don't normally like men narrating romance, because their female voices always make me think of a big strapping woman with 'man hands'. Of course, some females do an equally poor job with the males. YMMV, I'm sure/
The story was nice and 'forbidden', which was what I was looking for. As her ward, the H legally had all the power of a father over the heroine. Plus he was almost 20yrs older than she. Then there's the tiny little fact that he's already married.
I normally wouldn't read something with a already-married H, but I could swallow it here. The H hadn't had sex with his wife in years and that's how she wanted it. It would have been different had she been pining away for him, but she couldn't have cared less. As far as she was concerned he could have all the mistresses he wanted as long as he was discreet and left her alone. The only thing she wanted was his title/money.
I really did like the h. She wasn't perfect, but she was 17 and sheltered and she acted like it. Robards really made you feel her loneliness and pain at having had no one in her life who cared for her. I'm still not sure who she was though. Maybe I wasn't paying enough attention. I took it that she was an orphaned 5yr old on the H's Irish estate when he took her on as a ward. There was some hint that he may have had something going on with her mother, but well after the h was born.
Meagan may have been reckless in how she pursued the romance with Justin, but she was desperate for love and attention AND she didn't know about the Countess. Yes, some have said that's hard to swallow and I agree it was unrealistic. However, within the context of the story, I have no doubt that Meagan did not know and that's what is important to me.
The first half was a little slow to me at times and I'd rate it a 3.5. It was your basic people falling in love with 'seemingly' no great conflict aside from the H being much older and feeling he should be a father figure not a lover. Of course, at that time a 17yr old and a 36yr old wasn't that unheard of. We do know that Justin has a wife and he knows more is at stake, but that's all conveniently pushed under the rug for the time being. The H does give the h a slight spanking (3 whacks) at one point, so that was kinda kinky (or completely DNW depending on your point of view).
But, oh, the last half was filled with crazy and that's what I came here for :) Justin goes nuts once Meagan tries to find a husband within the Ton. She still loves him, but has to convince him she wants to marry another because she's pregnant and knows Justin will not allow her to marry if he knows. She chooses the child over Justin and I respected her for that. She knew Justin would keep her and the child in luxury, but the child would still be a bastard and that was a huge thing at the time.
The last half was a 5 for me, thus the overall 4.5 I gave to the book. However, that's because I wanted a bodice ripper with a healthy dose of crazy and angst. The H is very unlikeable in much of the latter half. He rapes the h several times (to me it was more of a hardcore forced seduction). Little Meagan just couldn't control that traitorous 'inner goddess'. Even when he was being rough and calling her cruel names (slut, whore, bitch) she was still helplessly melting for him. I really wish she'd have at least pretended indifference once, dude needed a little more guilt piled onto his side of the ledger. *evil grin*
He also abducts her, holds her prisoner, and slaps her once - and I won't even get into that scene as it's a HUGE plot point.
This was my first Robards, but definitely won't be my last.
What disappointed you about Forbidden Love?
This is the first time I have ever hoped that the main characters wouldn't get together in the end. I truly began to loathe the so-called hero.
What was most disappointing about Karen Robards’s story?
My problem was that as the story progressed, I began to truly dislike the hero. In my opinion, he was written so loathsome, that I just could not get past it.
Any additional comments?
I had no problem with the ward/guardian dynamic and the extreme age difference. My issues were with the main characters themselves. Megan was written as being very naive, which could be explained by the time period itself, but I just could not get past the violence that Justin began to exhibit. Between the name calling, the threatened rape, abandonment and slapping, I just could not root for him in the end.
It was kind of weird to get over the fact he used to be her gaurdian. I know the age difference isn't that big of a deal but it would have been better if he was just slightly younger. Ha! At least from a young girls perspective!
I love Karen Robards and she went to places that I have not seen in any other romance. That made me a little uncertain. I wouldn't say it was good or bad just interesting. I am glad I listened to it. But it wouldn't be one I'd listen to again.
0 of 1 people found this review helpful