His Wicked Ways by Samantha James
AKA, "the abducted nun book"
Cameron McKay’s father and brothers were recently supposedly murdered by the head of the Munro clan. To get revenge, Cameron decides to make Munro think his daughter, Meredith, a novice nun, is dead. This involves abducting her during her prayers, forcing her to strip (then being disgusted that the woman he abducted and ordered to strip was worried he planned to rape her) so that he can dress a dead woman in her clothing and toss the corpse off a cliff. How Cameron and his friends acquired the corpse is never explained, so I spent the rest of the book wondering if they murdered her or just conveniently stumbled across a dead young woman with red hair, and if her family had a clue what happened to her.
Cameron’s plot is rather stupid, though, as his plans seemed to be to fake Meredith’s death then hold her prisoner forever. So he tells her her choice is to be his prisoner forever or give him a son. And by “give” he means “have sex with me, carry my spawn, give birth, and then beat it.” This, of course, is so that the sex will be TOTALLY NOT RAPE NO REALLY BECAUSE SHE AGREED. And yet, a wholesome romance as compared to Bertrice Small.
Anyway, that’s pretty much the plot, combined with everyone hating and suspecting Meredith and plenty of bullying. And you know, I like medieval romances. In some ways, they’re my favorite kind of romances. But not only are they not really easy to come across, but they’re often really, really bad, and far too fond of the “abduction for revenge” trope. And then there’s Scottish romances. For some reason, historical romances set in Scotland are almost universally awful. I don’t know what it is. Even normally good authors tend to write bad books in that setting. (Actually, I think the extreme popularity of historical romances set in Scotland are a major reason I almost quit reading romances for a few years.)
Meredith could have been a decent heroine if her transformation from spineless and mousy hadn’t been so abrupt and Stockholm syndrome-y. Cameron could have been a decent hero if he weren’t abducting innocent women and forcing them to choose between imprisonment and sex with him. (And then acting offended when she objected to sex, or pointed out yeah, maybe she had problems with him due to the part where he kidnapped her and made her father think she was dead. And did I mention that the reason she was at the abbey was because someone raped her but she didn’t know who, so she didn’t feel safe at home?) There were also bits where he mocked her faith, and characters who mock or undermine another for their faith, no matter what that faith is, are a major turn off for me.
Then there’s the writing. Not only does James utilize every trope and cliché she can think of (actually, I almost admire her for being able to do that and produce a plt that still mostly makes sense), but she does it with horribly stilted, faux-medieval language that often borders on the incomprehensible. It’s too painful to get into. Click the “abducted nun” tag.
I have I think 2-3 more books by James that I grabbed at the booksale. I may read them just to see if this can be topped.
Cameron McKay’s father and brothers were recently supposedly murdered by the head of the Munro clan. To get revenge, Cameron decides to make Munro think his daughter, Meredith, a novice nun, is dead. This involves abducting her during her prayers, forcing her to strip (then being disgusted that the woman he abducted and ordered to strip was worried he planned to rape her) so that he can dress a dead woman in her clothing and toss the corpse off a cliff. How Cameron and his friends acquired the corpse is never explained, so I spent the rest of the book wondering if they murdered her or just conveniently stumbled across a dead young woman with red hair, and if her family had a clue what happened to her.
Cameron’s plot is rather stupid, though, as his plans seemed to be to fake Meredith’s death then hold her prisoner forever. So he tells her her choice is to be his prisoner forever or give him a son. And by “give” he means “have sex with me, carry my spawn, give birth, and then beat it.” This, of course, is so that the sex will be TOTALLY NOT RAPE NO REALLY BECAUSE SHE AGREED. And yet, a wholesome romance as compared to Bertrice Small.
Anyway, that’s pretty much the plot, combined with everyone hating and suspecting Meredith and plenty of bullying. And you know, I like medieval romances. In some ways, they’re my favorite kind of romances. But not only are they not really easy to come across, but they’re often really, really bad, and far too fond of the “abduction for revenge” trope. And then there’s Scottish romances. For some reason, historical romances set in Scotland are almost universally awful. I don’t know what it is. Even normally good authors tend to write bad books in that setting. (Actually, I think the extreme popularity of historical romances set in Scotland are a major reason I almost quit reading romances for a few years.)
Meredith could have been a decent heroine if her transformation from spineless and mousy hadn’t been so abrupt and Stockholm syndrome-y. Cameron could have been a decent hero if he weren’t abducting innocent women and forcing them to choose between imprisonment and sex with him. (And then acting offended when she objected to sex, or pointed out yeah, maybe she had problems with him due to the part where he kidnapped her and made her father think she was dead. And did I mention that the reason she was at the abbey was because someone raped her but she didn’t know who, so she didn’t feel safe at home?) There were also bits where he mocked her faith, and characters who mock or undermine another for their faith, no matter what that faith is, are a major turn off for me.
Then there’s the writing. Not only does James utilize every trope and cliché she can think of (actually, I almost admire her for being able to do that and produce a plt that still mostly makes sense), but she does it with horribly stilted, faux-medieval language that often borders on the incomprehensible. It’s too painful to get into. Click the “abducted nun” tag.
I have I think 2-3 more books by James that I grabbed at the booksale. I may read them just to see if this can be topped.