Summary
Yes, this image is a link to another image… almost like a traditional stepback.
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GENRE
TROPES
AO3 TAGS
From the cozy confines of a tiny seaside village to the glittering crush of the a fashionable London soiree comes an enthralling tale of a thoroughly mismatched couple . . . poised to discover the rapture of love.
There was no doubt about it. What Miss Harriet Pomeroy needed was a man. Someone powerful and clever who could help her rout the unscrupulous thieves who were using her beloved caves to hide their loot. But when Harriet summoned Gideon Westbrook, Viscount St. Justin, to her aid, she could not know that she was summoning the devil himself.
Dubbed the Beast of Blackthorne Hall for his scarred face and lecherous past, Gideon was strong and fierce and notoriously menacing. Yet Harriet could not find it in her heart to fear him. For in his tawny gaze she sensed a savage pain she longed to soothe . . . and a searing passion she yearned to answer. Now, caught up in the Beast’s clutches, Harriet must find a way to win his heart–and evade the deadly trap of a scheming villain who would see them parted for all time.
Hot Takes
What We Liked
Apers
Ok, once again to the surprise of no one, I’m pretty sure I’ve read this one before. So there wasn’t a plot thread that I didn’t see coming, and yet for every absolutely bananas plot to show up I was like “oh man, here’s this!” It really goes at breakneck speed through about five or six different plot lines, and yet not a single one gets left behind at the end. Amanda Quick really ties everything up by the end with a neat little bow. So if you have a particular fondness for a story that seems to take a deep breath before saying “and then” this book is also for you.
What We Didn’t Like
Jems
Tbh I really thought there was going to more about this book that I didn’t like since it was published in 1992 😂 I was pleasantly surprised on that front. The main things for me were, of course, the instances of murky consent vis a vis coercion and/or implied violence, such as when the MCs were in the caves and Gideon said he might “lose control” around her. However, these were contained to the beginning and truthfully, not that bad. The other thing for me was the lack of foreplay in the first half of the spicy scenes. Like you’re telling me this man just put his magnum dong in there with no foreplay and no lube and ya girl wasn’t in immense pain???? Immediately no.
Review
Jems
Y’all this book was so bonkers (complimentary) that we had to add new level to our star rating system: the five banana. Five bananas means that this book was out there and a little (or a lot) off the rails but we had an excellent time. Ravished was all of those things and boy howdy if I didn’t enjoy every second of the heavily autistic-coded Harriet digging up fossils and telling her man to stfu and don’t tell her what to do while she doesn’t notice that he’s completely in love with her. And then she killed a guy via fossil on top of that AND still had time to get dicked down multiple times?? Amazing writing, what a time to be alive, no notes 😌
Apers
This felt like a pretty standard romance in terms of spice from the 1990s. A lot of “his shaft” and “her channel” so if you absolutely don’t like that, probably skip the scenes so you don’t miss any of the bonkers story line. I honestly don’t remember anything specific about the spicy bits because I was so focused on like whose baby the rector’s daughter had and where the other thief was.
