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Stormfire
Abducted on her way to boarding school, a terrified Catherine Enderly was brought from England to the coast of Ireland, the prisoner of the angry and powerful young Sean Culhane—a man sworn to vengeance against her family.
Frightened but defiant, the young countess met her captor with a strength that belied her fragile loveliness. But even as Sean vowed to have his revenge on Catherine, with each encounter he became more attracted to her. Her fiery innocence was a seduction that lured the passions of long smoldering hostility into a blazing inferno of desire.
Locked in a love-hate duel, he did not suspect that the captivating beauty who fought him with such tenacity was struggling desperately against her own awakened desires, and that his touch had become the burning reminder that the fierce hatred she felt for him had become an all-consuming love.
Frightened but defiant, the young countess met her captor with a strength that belied her fragile loveliness. But even as Sean vowed to have his revenge on Catherine, with each encounter he became more attracted to her. Her fiery innocence was a seduction that lured the passions of long smoldering hostility into a blazing inferno of desire.
Locked in a love-hate duel, he did not suspect that the captivating beauty who fought him with such tenacity was struggling desperately against her own awakened desires, and that his touch had become the burning reminder that the fierce hatred she felt for him had become an all-consuming love.
568 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 1984
61 people are currently reading
3,259 people want to read
About the author
Christine Monson
7Ìýbooks81ÌýfollowersChristine Monson was born in 1946. Raised in a West Virginia coal camp, she read for escape, learning to coax the ordinary out of the extraordinary. She published her controversial debut novel, Stormfire, in 1984.
Lauded by some readers as lyrical and moving, and condemned by others as a violently immoral tale, Stormfire, a romance set during the Irish Rebellion of 1798, has gained a cult following since its release. After Stormfire’s publication, Monson continued combining high-angst historical romance with political conflict: Rangoon is set prior to the third Anglo-Burmese War, Surrender the Night breaks apart the main couple during the Hungarian Revolution of 1848, and A Flame Run Wild follows a weary Crusader. She published her last two novels, Golden Nights and This Fiery Splendor, in the early 90s.
Lauded by some readers as lyrical and moving, and condemned by others as a violently immoral tale, Stormfire, a romance set during the Irish Rebellion of 1798, has gained a cult following since its release. After Stormfire’s publication, Monson continued combining high-angst historical romance with political conflict: Rangoon is set prior to the third Anglo-Burmese War, Surrender the Night breaks apart the main couple during the Hungarian Revolution of 1848, and A Flame Run Wild follows a weary Crusader. She published her last two novels, Golden Nights and This Fiery Splendor, in the early 90s.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 278 reviews
August 2, 2009
Of all forbidden-luv theme I’ve read the last 16 yrs, this was probably the most memorable 1, not in a good way tho�, thanx to the slew of appalling, shudders-inducing, stomach-churning experiences heroine suffered thru�. Just when I thought things could not have gotten worse for the heroine, they did. How in holy hell Kit’s sanity & physical being could survive intact w/ 1 paralyzing terror after another, was a miracle indeed. H/H ended up w/ a dubious HEA, but I just wasn’t sure if the vicious cycle wouldn’t continue off screen (the string of atrocities the hero committed & endless dire circumstances befallen Kit made me wonder). I didn’t think this shoulda been categorized as ‘romance�, it reads more like a historical fiction & an antidote to ‘romance�. The 2 stars were for the fact that I read the epic saga from cover to cover & it’s a v. well written story, despite the hardcore demoralizing things inflicted on both H/H (esp the heroine) & the distasteful series of cheating. So much hate & heartaches going on that’ll make even a seasoned reader flinch & squirm. I finished it last weekend, couldn’t look away, like a horrific train wreck that mesmerized me, but I felt like it’s imperative to overdose on cotton candy romances to shake off the aftershocks & as a reminder of why I read ‘romance� in the 1st place =)~ Lotsa repetitive patterns of cringe-worthy abuse & cruelties to warrant a lifetime restraining order against the hater. I didn’t lose sleep over it, but I see now what the fuzz is all about. I’d never read a heroine in peril, whose dignity was stripped in an awful manner like this. H/H had the most volatile, dysfunctional relationship in romancelandia, bar none.
Some dishonorable mentions of what Kit � damsel in perennial distress - went thru�, dramatic twists, outrageous turns & interminable conflicts between H/H :
� The hero showed his true colors by breaking men’s code of honor @ 1st meeting between H/H after she’s kidnapped @ 16 y/o. She spit @ him & was promptly rewarded w/ a brutal backhand slap that bloodied her nose.
� He smeared his blood on her boobs (she raked her claws @ his cheek & chest) to make her slippery, then the revenge-driven hero took her by brute force, wiped her tattered undergarments w/ the mixture of blood & seed & gift-wrapped it to be sent to Kit’s dad, Sean’s nemesis. In the aftermath he wondered why she wailed during her nitemare-ladden sleep.
� He starved & worked her like a dog that she fainted dead away, shaking & stirring feelings & sympathy outta hero’s bro (who later on turned out to be no better than hero, he raped heroine & wreaked havoc in H/H’s lives).
� After her futile attempt to escape & to gut him w/ an ax & a blade, Sean bound Kit’s wrists, tied ‘em to his horse’s tail, dragged her like a rag doll all the way back & kindly expanded her limited swear vocabs on the journey.
� Sean’s oh-so-romantic idea of sparkling jewelries : a leg iron (w/ ball & chain) around her ankle, plus an iron-band collar around her neck.
� After rescuing Kit from his men’s gropings & near-rape, he clipped her to his bed & uttered a classis line : “U rode my nag until he nearly dropped. Now I’m going to ride U…�, then raped the defenseless Kit again & again.
� Sean spanked Kit viciously as retaliation for giving his housekeeper her foul recipe for curing his headaches the morning after & molested her.
� When she refused his summons to come to him, he broke her door down & raped her. Incomprehensible to me, she broke the cardinal rule of “Don’t fall in luv w/ your abusive rapist even if he’s a chick magnet� (BTW, he still boinked his long-time mistress whenever he’s away from his sex slave).
� Kit almost expired from drowning in the hands of a daft co-worker & Sean pumped her back to life. Her near-death experience must’ve been a turn on, as he just couldn’t keep it in his pants. After nursing her, he made luv to her, weakened state & all. This poor gal just couldn’t catch a break =^D
� Across the pond (England), he slept w/ another lady, in-between his meticulously-planned mission in destroying Kit’s father’s rep & dwindling coffers. @ the same time back home, Kit had her hands full of thwarting Liam’s (Sean’s bro) increasingly-amorous attentions & marriage proposals
� Nice chap that he is, Sean took Kit sailing to please her. @ the end of their journey, he showed her the ruins of his home & the devastation of Kit’s father’s reign of terror. Reliving the nitemare & so engulfed in hatred, he almost gutted Kit until she fainted & he came outta his murderous spell just in the nick of time. U’d think they woulda realized by now to steer clear of each other as 1 of these days 1 or both of ‘em might end up 6 FT under.
� Back on the ship, he taunted her to kill him & she stabbed him (for real). Predictably, their turbulent encounter left ‘em breathless w/ molten lust, so lovers� spat turned into another passionate race to the finish line.
� Liam persuaded Kit to accept his proposal & to sabotage Sean’s rebellion against the crown, all ‘cuz she didn’t want Napoleon in Ireland & wanted to warn the authorities, even if it’ll cost Sean his life & the lives of others. She under-estimated Liam & got herself off the frying pan into the inferno when her hubby claimed his privileges by raping her on their wedding nite� in a cave.
� After recapturing Kit, Sean � supposedly following his Irish tradition for traitresses � sawed off Kit’s glorious crown down to her scalp then assaulted her brutally over & over again.
� The dawn after, the demented so-called hero slapped garish make up on her face, stripped her naked & gave her away to 5 of his men to do as they wished, then he scampered. He rode like the devil ‘till he got thrown off the horse & slipped into oblivion, only realizing what he’d done to her when he’s awake. He saw the bloody negligee & thought it was too late. Li’l did he know that Kit was already preggers w/ his child when he did this. Did he grovel & beg for her forgiveness ? Nope, he confined her in a dank cell & went back to his mistress, who � w/out his knowledge � starved Kit for 3 months ‘till she’s all skin & bone.
� He meant to marry his evil mistress & only found out the condition in which Kit was kept when he finally went to see her. The only comeuppance the petty mistress got was a bitchslap. Kit remained his captive, albeit in a nicer surroundings upstairs. He had the audacity to flaunt his new, nicer mistress in Kit’s face, still no clue that Kit’s carrying his unborn babe.
� Throughout the book, Sean called her “English, cat, bitch, slut, little viper, skinny carcass, Miss Snivel etc�. When she refused his order to be examined by the concerned physician & she labeled his mistress a ‘whore� to his face, he grabbed her by the hair & smacked Kit so brutally that she went spinning & striking the corner of his desk, cracking 3 of her ribs. He told her to go riding w/ him & Co. the next day.
� By not telling Sean ‘bout her delicate condition & that her pain-riddled broken self wasn’t really favorable to riding (tightly-bound ribs & a cut lip), the TSTL heroine jeopardized herself & her unborn baby by persevering. He ridiculed her snail’s pace & the death-defying heroine responded to his taunting by galloping & jumping over a wall, getting squashed by the screaming horse. Seeing her gruesome injuries (a bone protruding thru� skin, no less), he turned into panic mode. Didn’t he go thru� this before ?
� Instead of standing by her, the b@llless hero tried to run @ the sight of her distended belly. W/ a new set of injuries (a punctured lung), Kit precariously clung to life. Sean tried to drink himself to death, wrecked by remorse that he’d heaped all these agonies on her head & Kit’s been carrying a dead baby due to months of malnourishmen. It woulda been more merciful to just let the heroine expire instead of prolonging her suffering. Turns out, falling off a horse was actually a blessing in disguise, ‘cuz otherwise she woulda died of system poisoning w/in a month. Committing suicide as penance @ this point wouldn’t be enough to redeem himself, so he sucked it up & nursed Kit’s body back to health. Mentally battered, Kit took a long-overdue vacay outta reality for > 1.5 yrs.
� The funniest thing happened when she came outta her empty shell. She told him that their child died for the offenses she’s committed against God. Sean told Kit that he never meant to hurt her. What a joke, after all he put her thru�, he tried to rationalize his bizarre behavior that he degraded her outta jealousy < Rolls eyes >. Kit shoulda had the common sense to stay away from him, but nope, she got pissy when she learned of his intentions of martyrdom by pushing her away. He almost slapped & raped her again during a picnic. Didn’t Sean ever learn his lessons ? Well, obviously not.
� Just when happiness is finally w/in their grasp, Liam returned to drop the bombshell, the irrefutable proof that Kit was actually � gasp ! - their sister. W/out telling her why, he sent her back to her father’s England nest.
� When Sean’s captured by her father, pregger Kit used her wiles & body to entice a powerful French Prince for favors & he agreed to claim parentage of her unborn child, ‘cuz her cold-blooded father would try to terminate her to get his grubby paws on her inheritance.
� Fighting tooth & nail, mortally wounded Sean (crastrated, beaten to a messy pulp & shot) was tossed out w/ other corpses into the snow. He crawled to a temporary refuge where he finally reunited w/ Kit. Thru� a li’l bit of luck & help from good samaritans, they barely escaped England by a boat to Ireland.
� During his convalescence, the ungrateful bipolar @$$ was � once again - stricken w/ jealousy & lashed out on Kit, for bartering herself (also ‘cuz the lusty French Prince still had both of his b@ll$ - how petty of Sean) & he had the gall to question Kit the paternity of their unborn child.
� Kit became the object of Napoleon’s lust & she married her ol� flame, an ascending French General, to avoid being Napoleon’s mistress & for the umpteenth time, to save Sean’s hide. Under scrutiny, Sean fought duel after duel & drowned his sorrow & heartbreak by being a regular client @ his ol� flame’s den in Paris. Kit’s 2nd hubby turned out to be another untrustworthy, abusive creep. H/H were reduced to pining away & stealing chaste glances @ each other, unable to express their forbidden luv openly
� The drama escalated to a crescendo (runaway Kit was about to give birth just as Sean’s being hunted down by her bloodthirsty hubby). In the end H/H found out the real truth of their relationship. They’ve been played like a yo-yo by fate & evil villains. The final reunion & HEA � after a 4-year gap - were the only dim light in a v. long & dark tunnel.
This was 1 f-d up book LOL...
Some dishonorable mentions of what Kit � damsel in perennial distress - went thru�, dramatic twists, outrageous turns & interminable conflicts between H/H :
� The hero showed his true colors by breaking men’s code of honor @ 1st meeting between H/H after she’s kidnapped @ 16 y/o. She spit @ him & was promptly rewarded w/ a brutal backhand slap that bloodied her nose.
� He smeared his blood on her boobs (she raked her claws @ his cheek & chest) to make her slippery, then the revenge-driven hero took her by brute force, wiped her tattered undergarments w/ the mixture of blood & seed & gift-wrapped it to be sent to Kit’s dad, Sean’s nemesis. In the aftermath he wondered why she wailed during her nitemare-ladden sleep.
� He starved & worked her like a dog that she fainted dead away, shaking & stirring feelings & sympathy outta hero’s bro (who later on turned out to be no better than hero, he raped heroine & wreaked havoc in H/H’s lives).
� After her futile attempt to escape & to gut him w/ an ax & a blade, Sean bound Kit’s wrists, tied ‘em to his horse’s tail, dragged her like a rag doll all the way back & kindly expanded her limited swear vocabs on the journey.
� Sean’s oh-so-romantic idea of sparkling jewelries : a leg iron (w/ ball & chain) around her ankle, plus an iron-band collar around her neck.
� After rescuing Kit from his men’s gropings & near-rape, he clipped her to his bed & uttered a classis line : “U rode my nag until he nearly dropped. Now I’m going to ride U…�, then raped the defenseless Kit again & again.
� Sean spanked Kit viciously as retaliation for giving his housekeeper her foul recipe for curing his headaches the morning after & molested her.
� When she refused his summons to come to him, he broke her door down & raped her. Incomprehensible to me, she broke the cardinal rule of “Don’t fall in luv w/ your abusive rapist even if he’s a chick magnet� (BTW, he still boinked his long-time mistress whenever he’s away from his sex slave).
� Kit almost expired from drowning in the hands of a daft co-worker & Sean pumped her back to life. Her near-death experience must’ve been a turn on, as he just couldn’t keep it in his pants. After nursing her, he made luv to her, weakened state & all. This poor gal just couldn’t catch a break =^D
� Across the pond (England), he slept w/ another lady, in-between his meticulously-planned mission in destroying Kit’s father’s rep & dwindling coffers. @ the same time back home, Kit had her hands full of thwarting Liam’s (Sean’s bro) increasingly-amorous attentions & marriage proposals
� Nice chap that he is, Sean took Kit sailing to please her. @ the end of their journey, he showed her the ruins of his home & the devastation of Kit’s father’s reign of terror. Reliving the nitemare & so engulfed in hatred, he almost gutted Kit until she fainted & he came outta his murderous spell just in the nick of time. U’d think they woulda realized by now to steer clear of each other as 1 of these days 1 or both of ‘em might end up 6 FT under.
� Back on the ship, he taunted her to kill him & she stabbed him (for real). Predictably, their turbulent encounter left ‘em breathless w/ molten lust, so lovers� spat turned into another passionate race to the finish line.
� Liam persuaded Kit to accept his proposal & to sabotage Sean’s rebellion against the crown, all ‘cuz she didn’t want Napoleon in Ireland & wanted to warn the authorities, even if it’ll cost Sean his life & the lives of others. She under-estimated Liam & got herself off the frying pan into the inferno when her hubby claimed his privileges by raping her on their wedding nite� in a cave.
� After recapturing Kit, Sean � supposedly following his Irish tradition for traitresses � sawed off Kit’s glorious crown down to her scalp then assaulted her brutally over & over again.
� The dawn after, the demented so-called hero slapped garish make up on her face, stripped her naked & gave her away to 5 of his men to do as they wished, then he scampered. He rode like the devil ‘till he got thrown off the horse & slipped into oblivion, only realizing what he’d done to her when he’s awake. He saw the bloody negligee & thought it was too late. Li’l did he know that Kit was already preggers w/ his child when he did this. Did he grovel & beg for her forgiveness ? Nope, he confined her in a dank cell & went back to his mistress, who � w/out his knowledge � starved Kit for 3 months ‘till she’s all skin & bone.
� He meant to marry his evil mistress & only found out the condition in which Kit was kept when he finally went to see her. The only comeuppance the petty mistress got was a bitchslap. Kit remained his captive, albeit in a nicer surroundings upstairs. He had the audacity to flaunt his new, nicer mistress in Kit’s face, still no clue that Kit’s carrying his unborn babe.
� Throughout the book, Sean called her “English, cat, bitch, slut, little viper, skinny carcass, Miss Snivel etc�. When she refused his order to be examined by the concerned physician & she labeled his mistress a ‘whore� to his face, he grabbed her by the hair & smacked Kit so brutally that she went spinning & striking the corner of his desk, cracking 3 of her ribs. He told her to go riding w/ him & Co. the next day.
� By not telling Sean ‘bout her delicate condition & that her pain-riddled broken self wasn’t really favorable to riding (tightly-bound ribs & a cut lip), the TSTL heroine jeopardized herself & her unborn baby by persevering. He ridiculed her snail’s pace & the death-defying heroine responded to his taunting by galloping & jumping over a wall, getting squashed by the screaming horse. Seeing her gruesome injuries (a bone protruding thru� skin, no less), he turned into panic mode. Didn’t he go thru� this before ?
� Instead of standing by her, the b@llless hero tried to run @ the sight of her distended belly. W/ a new set of injuries (a punctured lung), Kit precariously clung to life. Sean tried to drink himself to death, wrecked by remorse that he’d heaped all these agonies on her head & Kit’s been carrying a dead baby due to months of malnourishmen. It woulda been more merciful to just let the heroine expire instead of prolonging her suffering. Turns out, falling off a horse was actually a blessing in disguise, ‘cuz otherwise she woulda died of system poisoning w/in a month. Committing suicide as penance @ this point wouldn’t be enough to redeem himself, so he sucked it up & nursed Kit’s body back to health. Mentally battered, Kit took a long-overdue vacay outta reality for > 1.5 yrs.
� The funniest thing happened when she came outta her empty shell. She told him that their child died for the offenses she’s committed against God. Sean told Kit that he never meant to hurt her. What a joke, after all he put her thru�, he tried to rationalize his bizarre behavior that he degraded her outta jealousy < Rolls eyes >. Kit shoulda had the common sense to stay away from him, but nope, she got pissy when she learned of his intentions of martyrdom by pushing her away. He almost slapped & raped her again during a picnic. Didn’t Sean ever learn his lessons ? Well, obviously not.
� Just when happiness is finally w/in their grasp, Liam returned to drop the bombshell, the irrefutable proof that Kit was actually � gasp ! - their sister. W/out telling her why, he sent her back to her father’s England nest.
� When Sean’s captured by her father, pregger Kit used her wiles & body to entice a powerful French Prince for favors & he agreed to claim parentage of her unborn child, ‘cuz her cold-blooded father would try to terminate her to get his grubby paws on her inheritance.
� Fighting tooth & nail, mortally wounded Sean (crastrated, beaten to a messy pulp & shot) was tossed out w/ other corpses into the snow. He crawled to a temporary refuge where he finally reunited w/ Kit. Thru� a li’l bit of luck & help from good samaritans, they barely escaped England by a boat to Ireland.
� During his convalescence, the ungrateful bipolar @$$ was � once again - stricken w/ jealousy & lashed out on Kit, for bartering herself (also ‘cuz the lusty French Prince still had both of his b@ll$ - how petty of Sean) & he had the gall to question Kit the paternity of their unborn child.
� Kit became the object of Napoleon’s lust & she married her ol� flame, an ascending French General, to avoid being Napoleon’s mistress & for the umpteenth time, to save Sean’s hide. Under scrutiny, Sean fought duel after duel & drowned his sorrow & heartbreak by being a regular client @ his ol� flame’s den in Paris. Kit’s 2nd hubby turned out to be another untrustworthy, abusive creep. H/H were reduced to pining away & stealing chaste glances @ each other, unable to express their forbidden luv openly
� The drama escalated to a crescendo (runaway Kit was about to give birth just as Sean’s being hunted down by her bloodthirsty hubby). In the end H/H found out the real truth of their relationship. They’ve been played like a yo-yo by fate & evil villains. The final reunion & HEA � after a 4-year gap - were the only dim light in a v. long & dark tunnel.
This was 1 f-d up book LOL...
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 30, 2022
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STORMFIRE is a very difficult book to get in physical form. In terms of price, it's right up there with THE SILVER DEVIL. I despaired of ever getting a copy of either, and then my mom found a cheap copy of STORMFIRE at a thrift shop. Obviously, I started reading that shit immediately, because wouldn't you?
***WARNING: SPOILERS AND TWs***
It's easy to see why it's become such a cult classic. Not only does it have a beautiful cover, it's also got a unique story and setting. STORMFIRE is set during the Napoleonic Wars/Georgian England, but set in Ireland, during the British's violent colonization of the people. The hero, Sean Culhane, is out to get English viscount, John Enderly, for leading the genecide that wiped out most of his town and resulted in the violent death of his mother, as well as other people he knows. He does this by kidnapping Catherine on her way to school and raping her, before sending her blood- and semen-stained underwear to her father by courier.
After that, the story becomes a chaotic maelstrom of ups and downs. Catherine is brutalized and treated as a servant and a whore. She's beaten and starved. At one point, the hero makes her nose bleed by hitting her in the face. Even when he starts to fall for her, he's still impossibly cruel. One minute they might be having sex in a lightning storm or he's buying her sexy lingerie; the next, he's slathering makeup on her face and ordering his men to gang-rape her, or letting one of his mistresses starve her to the point that her baby dies in the womb and gives her sepsis(!). Both the hero and the heroine sleep around gratuitously, and sometimes it feels like they spent more time with other people than they did with each other.
What ultimately sort of ended up making this book a win for me was the passionate, beautiful writing, and the emotion clotting the pages. Sean also has some pretty terrible things happen to him, as a sort of poetic justice for his mistreatment of the heroine: he's partially castrated, whipped with iron spikes, and shot and stabbed several times, at least one of those times with poison. Other people have said that the book was about one hundred pages too long and I agree. The gratuitous smutty intrigues with Napoleon and Josephine, I could have passed on. I was ready to wrap up after Sean's torture, when Catherine helped rescue him. It really felt like both characters suffered way more than they had to.
The ending also kind of felt abrupt. When I finish a romance story, I like to imagine that the couple will last. I didn't really get that feeling with these two. It felt like they'd be off-again and on-again for the rest of their lives, which wasn't all that satisfying. Still an incredibly memorable story, though.
3.5 to 4 stars
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January 22, 2023DNF
i was going to read three clinch cover romances for a vlog and i just wanted to address the fact that the amount of violence against women was just too thick to get through this book, let alone two more.
maybe i'll revisit this project because i do think that books like this really paved the way for the genre and i found a lot of parallels between this and common romances today but-
it was ruining reading for me. it was too much. so i'm stopping, for now.
i was going to read three clinch cover romances for a vlog and i just wanted to address the fact that the amount of violence against women was just too thick to get through this book, let alone two more.
maybe i'll revisit this project because i do think that books like this really paved the way for the genre and i found a lot of parallels between this and common romances today but-
it was ruining reading for me. it was too much. so i'm stopping, for now.
February 1, 2022
***STORMFIRE is available for FREE on Open Library: ***
I'm in reading groups, and commonly see readers complain about not being able to find a paperback copy of Stormfire since the book is out of print. Prices for used copies are exorbitant and many readers seem unaware of Open Library. Stormfire is such a classic in the bodice ripper genre, it saddens me to think others may not get to experience it because they can't afford to pay over $100 for a book. For Open Library, all you need to do is create an account with email, and borrowing books is free for either 1 hour or 2 weeks. If there's only 1 hour of availability, you can check the book out again, and Open Library saves your place.
While there is currently controversy regarding Open Library I support them and the concept of controlled digital lending. If you're interested in learning more about controlled digital lending and the legal controversy here are a few links I found helpful under the spoiler:
~~~My original review~~~
She wanted to match him on his own terms, in his own element; and at sea, he was at home as he was nowhere else on earth. She came to understand the source of his pride in his heritage and slowly realized he was showing her his soul, its wildness and freedom, in the coast he had roamed since boyhood.
His spirit, like the lonely, windswept sea, was ever-restless, ever-changing, sometimes howling down to savage the unyielding land, then caressing it with a lulling embrace, inevitably wearing away its resistance. He was asking her to become part of him, without reservations, without ties that would inevitably be wrenched apart, leaving her battered on the rocks and him lonelier and wilder than before.
Stormfire turned out to be a beautiful romantic saga. I cried at the end. I didn't just shed a tear, but actually had a good cry. I can't remember the last time I actually cried because of a book.
I've picked up this book several times within the last two years and simply set it down. It took me a while to sink into Monson's prose. I'm not sure I ever fully did, although there were certain passages that flowed well & were atmospheric. The premise: A man stealing a young woman for revenge against the wrongs her father committed is admittedly not my favorite trope. I've seen this time and time again in contemporary dark romances as well as mafia books. A fair share of historical romances employs it of course. I'm glad I gave this book a fair shake because this story is so much more than an enemies to lovers romance. I'm going to sound embarrassingly sentimental by saying this, but this story felt like two soulmates fighting for each other against all odds.
***Minor Spoilers Ahead***
Sean Culhane has been heralded as one of the most ruthless, cruel MMCs in romance. I have to say I don't see it. I thought he rather quickly fell under Kit's spell and came across like a big softy when in her presence. When faced with the hard truth that she may die if she's not under better protection, he quickly elevated her status from servant to his mistress. While he introduced himself cruelly to Kit when she first arrived, he ended up trying to make up for it by giving her space & allowing her to initiate anything physical. I thought this change of heart from Sean occurred rather soon in the book as well. Not to say Sean didn't have his own demons & a temper. Kit was perfect for him though.
When Kit made the decision to side with Liam, I was just as angry with her as Sean. I thought it was a foolish and doomed decision on her part from the start. Sean's anger with Kit was 100% understandable to me. He was of course stupid to allow Fiona to care for Kit, and cruel to make her ride the horse in her state. He realized his error and did what he could to make up for it. I think he fully redeemed himself. His love for Kit was obvious from the beginning and his anger was more than understandable when faced with her betrayal.
I think part of what influenced my opinion of Sean is that I'm coming from two Natasha Peters' rippers: Savage Surrender & Dangerous Obsession. Those two books are written in first person POV. The reader never gets the MMC's POV. I find Natasha Peters' MMCs more harsh and cruel, all the way to the end of the stories. With Sean's POV, his devotion to Kit became crystal clear. He went above and beyond to right his mistakes, & with his effort, he fully won me over.
I liked Kit. I'm doing something that's not polite in a review, but I can't help but compare. I didn't fall in love with her the same way I fell in love with Elise in Savage Surrender & Rhawnie in Dangerous Obsession. I liked her though. Both main characters had strong character arcs that were fulfilling to read.
I'm quite honestly feeling exhausted after reading this book. One criticism: There were structural elements to the plot that took me out of the story. Some parts were too long, other parts rushed where they should have been longer. This is a vague criticism, but I'm too tired to go into detail. A few elements to the story felt too much like forced melodrama. I skimmed a few paragraphs here and there. All of this is subjective of course. I was entranced by Savage Surrender, clinging to every word. Someone else could say that book felt like forced melodrama, it was certainly more OTT than this book. Yet, I was completely lost and caught up in that story. So, it's all subjective.
This book at times reminded me very much of Outlander. An English woman forced abruptly into a strange culture. Kit's interest in medicine/time spent with the doctor and at a hospital. Her husband fighting in a revolution and family betrayal. Escaping the British for France. The similarities go on. If I was to ever meet Diana Gabaldon I would want to ask her if she read Stormfire.
The cover for this book is a shame. The title is apt. The cover for Stormfire should have a picture of dark blue ocean waves, tall cliffs in the background, a ship at the forefront with the leading couple on board.
This was such a fulfilling romance to read. Harsh, brutal, tender, heartbreaking, as well as touching. It deserves to be made into a movie. I understand now why this has been recommended to me so many times and is considered a must-read for those who enjoy this genre of romance.
"You're not afraid anymore?"
She burrowed closer, whispering, "I died inside when you hated me. Even after the hate was gone, I felt like glass only glued together each time you touched me. Then, suddenly, there was no more time and nothing mattered anymore but never losing you."
"I never stopped loving you, little one. I nearly went crazy. Christ, what a battleground we made of what should have been."
Trigger Warning:
Safety:
I'm in reading groups, and commonly see readers complain about not being able to find a paperback copy of Stormfire since the book is out of print. Prices for used copies are exorbitant and many readers seem unaware of Open Library. Stormfire is such a classic in the bodice ripper genre, it saddens me to think others may not get to experience it because they can't afford to pay over $100 for a book. For Open Library, all you need to do is create an account with email, and borrowing books is free for either 1 hour or 2 weeks. If there's only 1 hour of availability, you can check the book out again, and Open Library saves your place.
While there is currently controversy regarding Open Library I support them and the concept of controlled digital lending. If you're interested in learning more about controlled digital lending and the legal controversy here are a few links I found helpful under the spoiler:
~~~My original review~~~
She wanted to match him on his own terms, in his own element; and at sea, he was at home as he was nowhere else on earth. She came to understand the source of his pride in his heritage and slowly realized he was showing her his soul, its wildness and freedom, in the coast he had roamed since boyhood.
His spirit, like the lonely, windswept sea, was ever-restless, ever-changing, sometimes howling down to savage the unyielding land, then caressing it with a lulling embrace, inevitably wearing away its resistance. He was asking her to become part of him, without reservations, without ties that would inevitably be wrenched apart, leaving her battered on the rocks and him lonelier and wilder than before.
Stormfire turned out to be a beautiful romantic saga. I cried at the end. I didn't just shed a tear, but actually had a good cry. I can't remember the last time I actually cried because of a book.
I've picked up this book several times within the last two years and simply set it down. It took me a while to sink into Monson's prose. I'm not sure I ever fully did, although there were certain passages that flowed well & were atmospheric. The premise: A man stealing a young woman for revenge against the wrongs her father committed is admittedly not my favorite trope. I've seen this time and time again in contemporary dark romances as well as mafia books. A fair share of historical romances employs it of course. I'm glad I gave this book a fair shake because this story is so much more than an enemies to lovers romance. I'm going to sound embarrassingly sentimental by saying this, but this story felt like two soulmates fighting for each other against all odds.
***Minor Spoilers Ahead***
Sean Culhane has been heralded as one of the most ruthless, cruel MMCs in romance. I have to say I don't see it. I thought he rather quickly fell under Kit's spell and came across like a big softy when in her presence. When faced with the hard truth that she may die if she's not under better protection, he quickly elevated her status from servant to his mistress. While he introduced himself cruelly to Kit when she first arrived, he ended up trying to make up for it by giving her space & allowing her to initiate anything physical. I thought this change of heart from Sean occurred rather soon in the book as well. Not to say Sean didn't have his own demons & a temper. Kit was perfect for him though.
When Kit made the decision to side with Liam, I was just as angry with her as Sean. I thought it was a foolish and doomed decision on her part from the start. Sean's anger with Kit was 100% understandable to me. He was of course stupid to allow Fiona to care for Kit, and cruel to make her ride the horse in her state. He realized his error and did what he could to make up for it. I think he fully redeemed himself. His love for Kit was obvious from the beginning and his anger was more than understandable when faced with her betrayal.
I think part of what influenced my opinion of Sean is that I'm coming from two Natasha Peters' rippers: Savage Surrender & Dangerous Obsession. Those two books are written in first person POV. The reader never gets the MMC's POV. I find Natasha Peters' MMCs more harsh and cruel, all the way to the end of the stories. With Sean's POV, his devotion to Kit became crystal clear. He went above and beyond to right his mistakes, & with his effort, he fully won me over.
I liked Kit. I'm doing something that's not polite in a review, but I can't help but compare. I didn't fall in love with her the same way I fell in love with Elise in Savage Surrender & Rhawnie in Dangerous Obsession. I liked her though. Both main characters had strong character arcs that were fulfilling to read.
I'm quite honestly feeling exhausted after reading this book. One criticism: There were structural elements to the plot that took me out of the story. Some parts were too long, other parts rushed where they should have been longer. This is a vague criticism, but I'm too tired to go into detail. A few elements to the story felt too much like forced melodrama. I skimmed a few paragraphs here and there. All of this is subjective of course. I was entranced by Savage Surrender, clinging to every word. Someone else could say that book felt like forced melodrama, it was certainly more OTT than this book. Yet, I was completely lost and caught up in that story. So, it's all subjective.
This book at times reminded me very much of Outlander. An English woman forced abruptly into a strange culture. Kit's interest in medicine/time spent with the doctor and at a hospital. Her husband fighting in a revolution and family betrayal. Escaping the British for France. The similarities go on. If I was to ever meet Diana Gabaldon I would want to ask her if she read Stormfire.
The cover for this book is a shame. The title is apt. The cover for Stormfire should have a picture of dark blue ocean waves, tall cliffs in the background, a ship at the forefront with the leading couple on board.
This was such a fulfilling romance to read. Harsh, brutal, tender, heartbreaking, as well as touching. It deserves to be made into a movie. I understand now why this has been recommended to me so many times and is considered a must-read for those who enjoy this genre of romance.
"You're not afraid anymore?"
She burrowed closer, whispering, "I died inside when you hated me. Even after the hate was gone, I felt like glass only glued together each time you touched me. Then, suddenly, there was no more time and nothing mattered anymore but never losing you."
"I never stopped loving you, little one. I nearly went crazy. Christ, what a battleground we made of what should have been."
Trigger Warning:
Safety:
March 25, 2010
So, like most recent readers of this book, I picked this puppy up based on its notorious reputation.
I'll have to admit, I ended up liking it.
It is a bodice ripper, no doubt about that. He backhands her hard enough to give her a bloody nose on page 28. By page 31, he's brutally raped her and sent her blood and semen encrusted underthings to her father. He holds her responsible for her father's actions, and he blames him for his mother's death in a bloody massacre.
The way to enjoy it, I think, is to remember it's fiction. No English virgins were harmed in the making of this book.
It also helps that Catherine fights Sean tooth and nail until he stops brutalizing her. She makes multiple escape attempts, she tries to con his brother Liam into taking her away, she learns to fight with knives and acquits herself admirably. She's not at all TSTL or a doormat, she's a hellcat with Stockholm syndrome.
Sean gets satisfactorily punished as well. Captured after returning Catherine to her father, and refusing to tell her father what Catherine had actually gotten up to in the past few years, he gets well tortured:
Oh, he got to keep one nut, but I'd say that's some epic penance. He gets whipped and shot a few times too, just for good measure.
The final 300 pages are an epic saga of family drama, international intrigue, dashing feats of derring-do and a whole lot of bad guys dying. So much gets thrown at poor Catherine and the now sympathetic Sean that I couldn't go to bed without knowing it ended happily. And it does. 7+ years after capturing her, he marries her and takes her and their 4 year old son back to Ireland. Mentally exhausted after watching these two continually put through the wringer, I crashed for the night.
What keeps this from being a really good or a great book is a lack of character depth and a half-dozen WTF moments. They're not one-dimensional characters or anything, but there were a number of times where I just didn't understand their actions. How do you go from trying to kill someone to enthusiastically screwing him in the space of 5 minutes? Stuff like that. A bit more head time would have made their actions a lot more interesting.
All told, it's really not a bad book at all. I wasn't forcing myself through it at all. Brutal rape aside, it was well plotted and written. I don't think I could re-read it, as it contains more misfortune than a newspaper, but it's nothing to be afraid of.
I'll have to admit, I ended up liking it.
It is a bodice ripper, no doubt about that. He backhands her hard enough to give her a bloody nose on page 28. By page 31, he's brutally raped her and sent her blood and semen encrusted underthings to her father. He holds her responsible for her father's actions, and he blames him for his mother's death in a bloody massacre.
The way to enjoy it, I think, is to remember it's fiction. No English virgins were harmed in the making of this book.
It also helps that Catherine fights Sean tooth and nail until he stops brutalizing her. She makes multiple escape attempts, she tries to con his brother Liam into taking her away, she learns to fight with knives and acquits herself admirably. She's not at all TSTL or a doormat, she's a hellcat with Stockholm syndrome.
Sean gets satisfactorily punished as well. Captured after returning Catherine to her father, and refusing to tell her father what Catherine had actually gotten up to in the past few years, he gets well tortured:
Enderly's mouth whitened and his grip tightened on the crop. "You'd like to taunt me into killing you with a blow, wouldn't you?" He turned to Worthy and dictated calmly as if giving an order to a tradesman. "Geld him."
Worthy dismissed the soldiers and began to strop a knife that resembled a medical scalpel. "Watchin' only makes it worse, lad. The sharper the blade, the less you'll feel. I'll be as quick as I can."
Worthy tested the blade against his thumb then took a position between the prisoner's thighs.
Suddenly, the spread-eagled man arched like a drawn bow, tendons standing out like crawling snakes as the knife sliced cleanly...
Oh, he got to keep one nut, but I'd say that's some epic penance. He gets whipped and shot a few times too, just for good measure.
The final 300 pages are an epic saga of family drama, international intrigue, dashing feats of derring-do and a whole lot of bad guys dying. So much gets thrown at poor Catherine and the now sympathetic Sean that I couldn't go to bed without knowing it ended happily. And it does. 7+ years after capturing her, he marries her and takes her and their 4 year old son back to Ireland. Mentally exhausted after watching these two continually put through the wringer, I crashed for the night.
What keeps this from being a really good or a great book is a lack of character depth and a half-dozen WTF moments. They're not one-dimensional characters or anything, but there were a number of times where I just didn't understand their actions. How do you go from trying to kill someone to enthusiastically screwing him in the space of 5 minutes? Stuff like that. A bit more head time would have made their actions a lot more interesting.
All told, it's really not a bad book at all. I wasn't forcing myself through it at all. Brutal rape aside, it was well plotted and written. I don't think I could re-read it, as it contains more misfortune than a newspaper, but it's nothing to be afraid of.
September 5, 2024
here she is, the queen of the bodice rippers! the mountain that must be scaled if you love the psychodrama of such romances, their hysterical narratives; if you accept that emotional and physical and sexual abuse are part & parcel of such stories; if you can temporarily repress contemporary mores about gender dynamics; if you appreciate an intensity in storytelling that can sometimes rival the most grueling and jaw-dropping of horror. if you enjoy the sound of a bodice being ripped! I've only climbed one mountain (Mount Satima, shudder) and this book was as harrowing and as exciting an experience. and it certainly took much more time. this is a doorstopper.
the plot: the clever, headstrong, and enchanting 16-year-old Countess Catherine Enderly is kidnapped on her way to boarding school and soon finds herself the prisoner and love slave of vindictive Irishman Sean Culhane, a seething, hairy-chested (regularly noted) young revolutionary with a deep grudge against her English father. the two fall in love, because of course they do, and proceed to have many adventures, together and apart and back together again.
let's get the over-the-top sexual violence out of the way: it's wild that Sean's sympathetic servants, his sensitive brother, his relatively kindly colleagues in revolution all just sigh and look the other way as he imprisons Catherine, forces her into servitude by withholding food, parades her around with an iron collar, and - it should go without saying - rapes her on a nightly basis. it's wild that he sends explicit proof of her plundered virginity to her father, as a taunt. it's wild that all of this lasts for over 100 pages, until at long last Sean finally demonstrates proof of his humanity and begins to rue his monstrous ways. the first part of this book wasn't remotely romance, it was horror, and was pretty tough to get through - even as a horror fan. the day-to-day details of Catherine's existence were often realistically drawn and so all the more unpleasant to read about. the author Christine Monsoon gives her heroine both intelligence and pluck, which made it all the more difficult to watch her get repeatedly demeaned and demoralized. plus the mind-bending nonchalance of everyone around her to this horrific situation. wild!
fortunately, Sean comes to his senses and Catherine of course falls in love. the remaining 500 pages (!) were more to my tastes. they still include plenty of wildness: a vicious mistress, a barbaric henchman, a vengeful brother, an empathetic nun-turned-whore, an untrustworthy father, more imprisonment, more sexual assault, childhood trauma and ptsd, horse thievery at the race track and other horse-centered antics, a failed uprising, pregnancy and stillbirth, torture and partial castration, deadly duels, a marriage plot, an attack on the castle, intrigue at the court, and guest starring Napoleon and Josephine. after that introductory rapeathon, this became an incredibly fun, sprawling, page-turning adventure-romance and both tormented Catherine and tormented Sean became highly enjoyable protagonists.
strongly in this novel's favor is that its heroine is no doormat, while also not being unrealistically superhuman. she's brave and bold and can handle herself on horseback and in a fight; she recognizes that her rapes are indeed rapes and doesn't just get over them to further the plot; she's resilient while still having many moments of weakness and despair; her ability to scheme and to manipulate sit comfortably alongside her guiding virtues of loyalty and integrity. she's the whole package and is a great creation. despite not holding a candle to Catherine, Sean is also an entertaining character, a moody, driven, ferocious hero with an understandable chip on his shoulder, one who becomes increasingly relatable and appealing over the course of the book (once we get past his brutal rapist period, of course; I just have to keep reminding myself that those first 100 pages actually happened). Stormfire is full of entertaining, intriguing, often three-dimensional characters who regularly surprised me. some great horses too.
I loved the writing! Christine Monsoon was an author with talent, especially when I compare her style, plotting, and characterization to other authors in the genre. lavish details and evocative descriptions of the societies and settings on display, but without overstuffing a book that is already filled to the brim with plot. a complicated storyline that is not dumbed down for impatient readers. a refreshing lack of banality when it comes to the characterization and in particular the changing thought processes of her relatively complex protagonists. and alongside the matter-of-fact brutality and realism and the frank, unadorned descriptions of bodies and beatings, there are frequent displays of vivid, near-Shakespearean purple prose that was often overripe, but was always a pleasure to read. for example, this exchange, in which our hero copes with our heroine's latest post-ravishment rejection of him, by comparing her to Diana, Roman goddess of the hunt:
🖤
Top 10 Bodice Rippers
should be noted that I've only read 10
1. by Nina Pennacchi
the only modern br I've read, and easily the best
2. by Teresa Denys
darkest of the dark
3. Stormfire by Christine Monsoon
ne plus ultra
4. by Rosemary Rogers
a sweet and savage Western, of all things
5. by Bertrice Small
a Mary Sue of the highest caliber
6. by Marsha Canham
lots of great action and battles and ships
7. by Karen Robards
pirate gives a spanking; heroine falls in love
8. by Alexandra Ellis
excellent Venetian atmosphere but hero = doorknob
9. by Johanna Lindsey
my first bodice ripper; Jesus wept
10. by Michele Dubarry
he literally bites her and not in a fun way
the plot: the clever, headstrong, and enchanting 16-year-old Countess Catherine Enderly is kidnapped on her way to boarding school and soon finds herself the prisoner and love slave of vindictive Irishman Sean Culhane, a seething, hairy-chested (regularly noted) young revolutionary with a deep grudge against her English father. the two fall in love, because of course they do, and proceed to have many adventures, together and apart and back together again.
let's get the over-the-top sexual violence out of the way: it's wild that Sean's sympathetic servants, his sensitive brother, his relatively kindly colleagues in revolution all just sigh and look the other way as he imprisons Catherine, forces her into servitude by withholding food, parades her around with an iron collar, and - it should go without saying - rapes her on a nightly basis. it's wild that he sends explicit proof of her plundered virginity to her father, as a taunt. it's wild that all of this lasts for over 100 pages, until at long last Sean finally demonstrates proof of his humanity and begins to rue his monstrous ways. the first part of this book wasn't remotely romance, it was horror, and was pretty tough to get through - even as a horror fan. the day-to-day details of Catherine's existence were often realistically drawn and so all the more unpleasant to read about. the author Christine Monsoon gives her heroine both intelligence and pluck, which made it all the more difficult to watch her get repeatedly demeaned and demoralized. plus the mind-bending nonchalance of everyone around her to this horrific situation. wild!
fortunately, Sean comes to his senses and Catherine of course falls in love. the remaining 500 pages (!) were more to my tastes. they still include plenty of wildness: a vicious mistress, a barbaric henchman, a vengeful brother, an empathetic nun-turned-whore, an untrustworthy father, more imprisonment, more sexual assault, childhood trauma and ptsd, horse thievery at the race track and other horse-centered antics, a failed uprising, pregnancy and stillbirth, torture and partial castration, deadly duels, a marriage plot, an attack on the castle, intrigue at the court, and guest starring Napoleon and Josephine. after that introductory rapeathon, this became an incredibly fun, sprawling, page-turning adventure-romance and both tormented Catherine and tormented Sean became highly enjoyable protagonists.
strongly in this novel's favor is that its heroine is no doormat, while also not being unrealistically superhuman. she's brave and bold and can handle herself on horseback and in a fight; she recognizes that her rapes are indeed rapes and doesn't just get over them to further the plot; she's resilient while still having many moments of weakness and despair; her ability to scheme and to manipulate sit comfortably alongside her guiding virtues of loyalty and integrity. she's the whole package and is a great creation. despite not holding a candle to Catherine, Sean is also an entertaining character, a moody, driven, ferocious hero with an understandable chip on his shoulder, one who becomes increasingly relatable and appealing over the course of the book (once we get past his brutal rapist period, of course; I just have to keep reminding myself that those first 100 pages actually happened). Stormfire is full of entertaining, intriguing, often three-dimensional characters who regularly surprised me. some great horses too.
I loved the writing! Christine Monsoon was an author with talent, especially when I compare her style, plotting, and characterization to other authors in the genre. lavish details and evocative descriptions of the societies and settings on display, but without overstuffing a book that is already filled to the brim with plot. a complicated storyline that is not dumbed down for impatient readers. a refreshing lack of banality when it comes to the characterization and in particular the changing thought processes of her relatively complex protagonists. and alongside the matter-of-fact brutality and realism and the frank, unadorned descriptions of bodies and beatings, there are frequent displays of vivid, near-Shakespearean purple prose that was often overripe, but was always a pleasure to read. for example, this exchange, in which our hero copes with our heroine's latest post-ravishment rejection of him, by comparing her to Diana, Roman goddess of the hunt:
"You loose no barbs, Diana," Culhane replied quietly with strange, lyrical self-mockery, "but killing lances. If I am a husk and mockery of a man, why do my sides now run red? If blind, why do my empty eyes see a fair illusion that leads me to hope? Like that slackwit, I gape at love and rend it with clumsy fingers, yet still hold its tatters close in idiot hope it may live again. Solitary death is no more welcome than solitary life, so yet I stand and refuse to fall on my sword. It's you, fair Diana, who must lower me and all my bleeding dreams to dust."melodramatic, corny, and all kinds of awesome. what an experience this book was!
"No blow is needed," she answered softly. "You cannot stand forever."
"No, I cannot stand forever."
"I shall always hate you," she whispered, as gently as a kiss.
🖤
Top 10 Bodice Rippers
should be noted that I've only read 10
1. by Nina Pennacchi
the only modern br I've read, and easily the best
2. by Teresa Denys
darkest of the dark
3. Stormfire by Christine Monsoon
ne plus ultra
4. by Rosemary Rogers
a sweet and savage Western, of all things
5. by Bertrice Small
a Mary Sue of the highest caliber
6. by Marsha Canham
lots of great action and battles and ships
7. by Karen Robards
pirate gives a spanking; heroine falls in love
8. by Alexandra Ellis
excellent Venetian atmosphere but hero = doorknob
9. by Johanna Lindsey
my first bodice ripper; Jesus wept
10. by Michele Dubarry
he literally bites her and not in a fun way
August 10, 2016
Spoilers
One of the worst books I've ever read. I had to skim through the last half, it was just that bad. The so called romance made me feel sick � the hero (Sean) was beyond fucked up, and the heroine (Catherine) was fine to begin with but then turned into an awful-abuse-loving-doormat.
-I LOATHE, LOATHE, LOATHED Sean. He was a violent, perverted, baby killing, rapist, wanker-bastard of a fucker-bastard. He kidnapped Catherine, raped her dozens of times, beat her, starved her, chained her up, humiliated her, let his men gang rape her (yea, I know she was saved at the end but not by him)� Oh and he basically killed Catherine's baby. But all that was apparently okay because he was oh so sexy and powerful. Ugh.
What a pathetic excuse for a man. He abused and tortured a young girl because he wanted to punish her dad� But he wasn't actually man enough to face the dad, he was so weak that he had to go after an innocent girl.
He wasn't even remorseful or guilty about being a disgusting rapist. Yep, it was cool for him to rape and slap around women yet for some reason he got all high and mighty and had a hissy fit about his enemies being rapist. Hypocritical fuck. He acted like he had every right to Catherine's body just because she made him feel horny. And then all that bullshit about him being in love her� really?! Sure, he was obsessed with her and attracted to her, but there was no evidence whatsoever of him loving her. If he loved her, he wouldn't have tortured, raped, beat her, and fucked loads of other women� And he definitely wouldn't have given his men permission to gang rape her. Who the fuck did he think he was?! That FUCKING FUCKER. And why did he moan and bitch about her 'betraying' him?! Did he expect loyalty after all he did to her?! WTF?! He was no hero, he was a woman-beating evil fucker of a rapist.
If he was fat and ugly, he wouldn't have been excused (by other characters and readers) for his perversions and violence. Apparently, as long as a hero is good looking, he can do how ever many vile things he wants. Ugh.
-Catherine was great to begin with, she was determined, cool, and resourceful but then she changed into a dumb cow. Her reaction to her rapist was fucked up - Sean brutally raped her yet she acted like it was nothing, and instead flirted and verbally sparred with him. Ugh.
-Why the fuck did Liam let his bastard brother boss him around so much?
Oh, and Liam was a bastard rapist too.
-How can anyone possibly think that Sean raping and torturing Kit was love or remotely romantic? It's fucked up.
All in all, a disgusting book with a disgusting 'hero' and a disgusting romance. I wish I could erase it from my brain.
One of the worst books I've ever read. I had to skim through the last half, it was just that bad. The so called romance made me feel sick � the hero (Sean) was beyond fucked up, and the heroine (Catherine) was fine to begin with but then turned into an awful-abuse-loving-doormat.
-I LOATHE, LOATHE, LOATHED Sean. He was a violent, perverted, baby killing, rapist, wanker-bastard of a fucker-bastard. He kidnapped Catherine, raped her dozens of times, beat her, starved her, chained her up, humiliated her, let his men gang rape her (yea, I know she was saved at the end but not by him)� Oh and he basically killed Catherine's baby. But all that was apparently okay because he was oh so sexy and powerful. Ugh.
What a pathetic excuse for a man. He abused and tortured a young girl because he wanted to punish her dad� But he wasn't actually man enough to face the dad, he was so weak that he had to go after an innocent girl.
He wasn't even remorseful or guilty about being a disgusting rapist. Yep, it was cool for him to rape and slap around women yet for some reason he got all high and mighty and had a hissy fit about his enemies being rapist. Hypocritical fuck. He acted like he had every right to Catherine's body just because she made him feel horny. And then all that bullshit about him being in love her� really?! Sure, he was obsessed with her and attracted to her, but there was no evidence whatsoever of him loving her. If he loved her, he wouldn't have tortured, raped, beat her, and fucked loads of other women� And he definitely wouldn't have given his men permission to gang rape her. Who the fuck did he think he was?! That FUCKING FUCKER. And why did he moan and bitch about her 'betraying' him?! Did he expect loyalty after all he did to her?! WTF?! He was no hero, he was a woman-beating evil fucker of a rapist.
If he was fat and ugly, he wouldn't have been excused (by other characters and readers) for his perversions and violence. Apparently, as long as a hero is good looking, he can do how ever many vile things he wants. Ugh.
-Catherine was great to begin with, she was determined, cool, and resourceful but then she changed into a dumb cow. Her reaction to her rapist was fucked up - Sean brutally raped her yet she acted like it was nothing, and instead flirted and verbally sparred with him. Ugh.
-Why the fuck did Liam let his bastard brother boss him around so much?
Oh, and Liam was a bastard rapist too.
-How can anyone possibly think that Sean raping and torturing Kit was love or remotely romantic? It's fucked up.
All in all, a disgusting book with a disgusting 'hero' and a disgusting romance. I wish I could erase it from my brain.
August 22, 2009
I don't know quite what to say about this book. I read it years ago when I read just about every book I got my hands on. I probably wouldn't read it today because of how cruel the people are in this book.
I certainly don't think Sean is a model hero. He's a very angry, obsessed, bedeviled man and did some awful things to the heroine because of it.
I'm a bit of a sexist. I think men should fight their wars and leave women and children out of it, unless the women are warriors too. If they are civilians, I think only a coward would hurt them. Well the hero and Catherine (the heroine)'s father don't subscribe to this point of view.
It was an ugly situation and a lot of wrong things were done. Having said that, it was a very well-written book, if you could stomach it. I remember not being able to put it down. Let me say that I started reading historical romances for the history and the adventure. I was twelve and I didn't care about the mushy stuff. I think I read this when I was fourteen. This book is from the heydey of the bodice ripper era where all bets were off as far as what a hero could do to a heroine. I remember being pretty wide-eyed when I read this book. Nowadays I care about the love relationship and the history and the adventure. My tastes have changed where I have ideas about what I will tolerate in a hero and a heroine, and what they do and my feelings about it depend highly upon the execution and how their behavior is dealt with.
I wouldn't judge anyone who wanted to read it, and I certainly wouldn't judge a person who didn't want to read it. But I'd say if you have heard lots of things about it, but are not sure what to think, you can read it for yourself and make up your own mind. But go into this book prepared. It's very, very dark!
I certainly don't think Sean is a model hero. He's a very angry, obsessed, bedeviled man and did some awful things to the heroine because of it.
I'm a bit of a sexist. I think men should fight their wars and leave women and children out of it, unless the women are warriors too. If they are civilians, I think only a coward would hurt them. Well the hero and Catherine (the heroine)'s father don't subscribe to this point of view.
It was an ugly situation and a lot of wrong things were done. Having said that, it was a very well-written book, if you could stomach it. I remember not being able to put it down. Let me say that I started reading historical romances for the history and the adventure. I was twelve and I didn't care about the mushy stuff. I think I read this when I was fourteen. This book is from the heydey of the bodice ripper era where all bets were off as far as what a hero could do to a heroine. I remember being pretty wide-eyed when I read this book. Nowadays I care about the love relationship and the history and the adventure. My tastes have changed where I have ideas about what I will tolerate in a hero and a heroine, and what they do and my feelings about it depend highly upon the execution and how their behavior is dealt with.
I wouldn't judge anyone who wanted to read it, and I certainly wouldn't judge a person who didn't want to read it. But I'd say if you have heard lots of things about it, but are not sure what to think, you can read it for yourself and make up your own mind. But go into this book prepared. It's very, very dark!
February 4, 2018
This is the perhaps the Ultimate Bodice Ripper romance. It has EVERYTHING and everyone gets to let their inner monsters out.
It also keeps you glued to the page waiting for what comes next and after seven years of story and plot, everyone finally calms down enough to celebrate a real HEA.
This isn't a pc romance in ANY shape or form, but it is a great one and I have three copies that I regularly reread for the sheer epic intensity. No one in this is very likable, but they are unforgettable and if you claim to be a vintage bodice ripper devotee at all, you have to read this.
It also keeps you glued to the page waiting for what comes next and after seven years of story and plot, everyone finally calms down enough to celebrate a real HEA.
This isn't a pc romance in ANY shape or form, but it is a great one and I have three copies that I regularly reread for the sheer epic intensity. No one in this is very likable, but they are unforgettable and if you claim to be a vintage bodice ripper devotee at all, you have to read this.
September 23, 2013
Stormfire I was curious as to what all the hype was about, so I decided to read it. First-hand experience is the best when trying to create a personal opinion, don’t you think?
Ìý
Well, I read it, keeping in mind the “romance fashion� of the day with bodice rippers being a-la mode and we all know what bodice rippers entail, don’t we? The first bodice ripper I read was The Flame and the Flower by Kathleen E. Woodiwiss back in the day when I first started reading actual romance novels (I was more of an A. Christie and E. Wallace fan). TFATF didn’t shock me, but I did wonder as to the “romance fashion� of the 80s. For someone to willingly put rape and/or forced seduction into a book struck me as strange for someone who was but a baby when bodice rippers were the height of romance novel sophistication.
Ìý
Anyway, Ms. Woodiwiss’s “bodice ripper� has nothing on Stormfire. Now, if someone asked me to list all the required elements of a true bodice ripper I’d merely suggest they read Ms. Monson’s “bodice-ripping masterpiece�. Like a Knorr mix, this book has everything one needs to become perfectly acquainted with all the necessary elements for a bodice ripper—there’s physical abuse, emotional abuse, psychological abuse, rape, kidnapping, borderline pedophilia, torture, physical retribution (read: castration), murder, incest…and all other kind of mayhem you can think of. Oh, let’s not forget an extremely beautiful heroine that such a beauty can only come from the Devil, so she must be a witch, so everything that happens to her is justified. She’s the spawn of the Devil, she’s evil, she must be punished. And not only the men in this book think so, but also the women (but you know how we chicks are—she’s intruding on our turf, let’s be rid of her).Seen like this, I guess it could be cringe-worthy, but lucky for us who decided to read this, there is some semblance of story thrown into the mix, a love/hate relationship that somehow, inexorably, between one type of abuse and torture and the next, blooms into a love-story. Maybe not so believable, given today’s standards in romance (and life in general), but a love-story nonetheless. And it sort of a “redemption� for everything that happens at the beginning of a book. A cleansing of soul and spirit so to speak.
Ìý
That said, I couldn’t help but admire Ms. Monson’s style and writing. She succeeded in turning this 500+ page monstrosity with all the baggage that came with it into a rather enjoyable read. I wouldn’t say it was quick-paced, because it sure did drag its feet in some parts, but the time did fly during those flowing passages.
Ìý
I wouldn’t say I particularly enjoyed any of the characters, I rather developed a love/hate connection to them. When Sean was at his worst I’d love nothing more but for him to be quartered alive, but he had those few, but previous moments of lucidity (if I could call it that) when he showed true romance-hero-coloring. Pity, they didn’t last that long.
Ìý
Catherine affinity to Catherine was the same. All that is female in me rebelled at her SS, falling in love with her abuser and captor, while on the other hand I couldn’t help but understand her. In those rare moments of lucidity, Sean was a prince (until the moment she betrayed him), and besides, he was the one constant in her three-year-long captivity. He was both her tormentor and savior, both angel and devil, something was bound to give…And, as the old adage states, there’s a fine line between love and hate. Which goes for both, Sean and Catherine.
Ìý
So, while I didn’t particularly like them, I understood where they came from.
Ìý
All in all, this is really a (really twisted) sort of redemption story. He needed to atone for his sins, she (don’t ask me why) needed to atone for the sins of her father, they both went through hell—multiple visits—but in the end love prevailed.
Ìý
I wouldn’t have minded a more lengthy resolution—after so long a few more pages wouldn’t hurt—but what we got sure was better than nothing.
Ìý
That said, having read this book with an open mind and taking in consideration the decade in which it was written, I cannot help but give this one an overall rating of 5 stars. Because it is a prime example of a bodice ripper, it is well-written, it does take you on an emotional rollercoaster (for me, feeling something for the characters, be it love, hate, disdain, sympathy� is better than feeling nothing), and it comes with a nice bow tied in the end.
Ìý
P.S. Looking at it with the eyes and mind-frame of a 21st century woman, comparing it to the historicals of today, the rating is much, much lower. First, because of all the abuse and “forced seductions� and second (which for me is the most important), because I cannot stand my hero and/or heroine being intimate with anyone but each other after they meet. It’s a personal standard of mine and I’m pretty particular about it. All the “rutting� Sean does (including the threesome with his older mistress and the Indo-Chinese chit) and Catherine’s consummating her marriage to Raoul severely chafes.
Ìý
³§´Çâ€�
80s mind frame�5 stars
21st century mind frame�2 stars (for the writing)
Ìý
P.P.S. A comment-related rant, read at your own discretion.
Ìý
And now, Zosia’s review thread has so many comments I didn’t want to intrude, so I decided to post a few of my thoughts about them here. There’s still time for you to stop reading.
Ìý
How in the world did this book get published?
Ìý
Well, Ms. Monson wrote it, her agent pitched it to a publisher, they signed a contract, the manuscript was proofread, the corrections approved, and then it went through the printing process. That’s how books get published today as well.
Ìý
In the 80s these bodice-rippers were all the rage and publishers clamored for them, the more outrageous the better. I wonder if someone from the 80s succeeded in traveling through time and picked up an erotica book. I guess they’d wonder how that got published as well.But, WHY would someone write this book?
Ìý
Hmm, for the money?
Ìý
I just...don't understand how a woman could actually write these words.
Ìý
Would've made a difference if a man wrote them?...And, it’s called fiction. I think that pretty much anything is allowed in fiction and as long as there are people willing to read that anything, so it shall remain.
Ìý
Monson ended up committing suicide, so I think you have to approach her as a special case re: what she wrote and why.
Ìý
Well I'm going to sound mean but I can't say I'm surprised! To write a book like that as a romance (because I could accepted it simply as historical fiction) you really must have issues!
Ìý
I agree, I'm not overly surprised. I just can't imagine the type of person who would write something like this, so it makes sense that, like you said, she had issues. However, I can't imagine this getting published, but that's the world we live in I guess.
Ìý
Wow, issues, huh? She wrote fiction, people! F-I-C-T-I-O-N. Anything remotely involving a man and a woman in close proximity to each other was categorized as romance back in the 80s, so calling on her issues is really a moot point.
Ìý
And bringing up her suicide is in really poor taste, if you ask me. We don’t know why she committed suicide, but it’s safe to say it wasn’t because she wrote this book. This was her first published work, she published 5 more after it.
Ìý
What about other authors out there writing horror and suspense rife with abuse, battered women, and, yes, gasp, rape? Shouldn’t they have offed themselves by now? Yet, they’re still breathing, and writing horror and suspense rife with abuse, battered women, and, yes, gasp, rape.
Ìý
And now to answer all those who keep asking themselves how can people read this?
Ìý
It’s pretty easy. You pick up the book, open it and start with the first word on the first page, and continue from there. Yes, just like they taught us in school. See, how easy it is. Then you keep turning the pages, reading word after word in an orderly fashion.
Ìý
Then, when you come to the end, you close the book as set it on the shelf, donate it to your nearest UBS, or give it to a friend, so they can benefit from it as well and create their own opinion based on the words they read in the book and not on a reviewer’s subjective opinion.
Ìý
For those, like me, who found this book online (which is cheaper, BTW), you open the file and start with the first word in the first line. And you go on from there. But since that’s not particularly good for the eyes, you can easily transfer the book file onto your favorite ebook reading device (it comes in different formats�.html, .epub, .prc and .lit—or you can print it out (putting additional strain on the environment).When you’re done, you calmly close the file on your computer or favorite ebook reading device and maybe send it to a friend, so they can benefit from it as well and create their own opinion based on the words they read in the book and not on a reviewer’s subjective opinion.
Ìý
Well, I read it, keeping in mind the “romance fashion� of the day with bodice rippers being a-la mode and we all know what bodice rippers entail, don’t we? The first bodice ripper I read was The Flame and the Flower by Kathleen E. Woodiwiss back in the day when I first started reading actual romance novels (I was more of an A. Christie and E. Wallace fan). TFATF didn’t shock me, but I did wonder as to the “romance fashion� of the 80s. For someone to willingly put rape and/or forced seduction into a book struck me as strange for someone who was but a baby when bodice rippers were the height of romance novel sophistication.
Ìý
Anyway, Ms. Woodiwiss’s “bodice ripper� has nothing on Stormfire. Now, if someone asked me to list all the required elements of a true bodice ripper I’d merely suggest they read Ms. Monson’s “bodice-ripping masterpiece�. Like a Knorr mix, this book has everything one needs to become perfectly acquainted with all the necessary elements for a bodice ripper—there’s physical abuse, emotional abuse, psychological abuse, rape, kidnapping, borderline pedophilia, torture, physical retribution (read: castration), murder, incest…and all other kind of mayhem you can think of. Oh, let’s not forget an extremely beautiful heroine that such a beauty can only come from the Devil, so she must be a witch, so everything that happens to her is justified. She’s the spawn of the Devil, she’s evil, she must be punished. And not only the men in this book think so, but also the women (but you know how we chicks are—she’s intruding on our turf, let’s be rid of her).Seen like this, I guess it could be cringe-worthy, but lucky for us who decided to read this, there is some semblance of story thrown into the mix, a love/hate relationship that somehow, inexorably, between one type of abuse and torture and the next, blooms into a love-story. Maybe not so believable, given today’s standards in romance (and life in general), but a love-story nonetheless. And it sort of a “redemption� for everything that happens at the beginning of a book. A cleansing of soul and spirit so to speak.
Ìý
That said, I couldn’t help but admire Ms. Monson’s style and writing. She succeeded in turning this 500+ page monstrosity with all the baggage that came with it into a rather enjoyable read. I wouldn’t say it was quick-paced, because it sure did drag its feet in some parts, but the time did fly during those flowing passages.
Ìý
I wouldn’t say I particularly enjoyed any of the characters, I rather developed a love/hate connection to them. When Sean was at his worst I’d love nothing more but for him to be quartered alive, but he had those few, but previous moments of lucidity (if I could call it that) when he showed true romance-hero-coloring. Pity, they didn’t last that long.
Ìý
Catherine affinity to Catherine was the same. All that is female in me rebelled at her SS, falling in love with her abuser and captor, while on the other hand I couldn’t help but understand her. In those rare moments of lucidity, Sean was a prince (until the moment she betrayed him), and besides, he was the one constant in her three-year-long captivity. He was both her tormentor and savior, both angel and devil, something was bound to give…And, as the old adage states, there’s a fine line between love and hate. Which goes for both, Sean and Catherine.
Ìý
So, while I didn’t particularly like them, I understood where they came from.
Ìý
All in all, this is really a (really twisted) sort of redemption story. He needed to atone for his sins, she (don’t ask me why) needed to atone for the sins of her father, they both went through hell—multiple visits—but in the end love prevailed.
Ìý
I wouldn’t have minded a more lengthy resolution—after so long a few more pages wouldn’t hurt—but what we got sure was better than nothing.
Ìý
That said, having read this book with an open mind and taking in consideration the decade in which it was written, I cannot help but give this one an overall rating of 5 stars. Because it is a prime example of a bodice ripper, it is well-written, it does take you on an emotional rollercoaster (for me, feeling something for the characters, be it love, hate, disdain, sympathy� is better than feeling nothing), and it comes with a nice bow tied in the end.
Ìý
P.S. Looking at it with the eyes and mind-frame of a 21st century woman, comparing it to the historicals of today, the rating is much, much lower. First, because of all the abuse and “forced seductions� and second (which for me is the most important), because I cannot stand my hero and/or heroine being intimate with anyone but each other after they meet. It’s a personal standard of mine and I’m pretty particular about it. All the “rutting� Sean does (including the threesome with his older mistress and the Indo-Chinese chit) and Catherine’s consummating her marriage to Raoul severely chafes.
Ìý
³§´Çâ€�
80s mind frame�5 stars
21st century mind frame�2 stars (for the writing)
Ìý
P.P.S. A comment-related rant, read at your own discretion.
Ìý
And now, Zosia’s review thread has so many comments I didn’t want to intrude, so I decided to post a few of my thoughts about them here. There’s still time for you to stop reading.
Ìý
How in the world did this book get published?
Ìý
Well, Ms. Monson wrote it, her agent pitched it to a publisher, they signed a contract, the manuscript was proofread, the corrections approved, and then it went through the printing process. That’s how books get published today as well.
Ìý
In the 80s these bodice-rippers were all the rage and publishers clamored for them, the more outrageous the better. I wonder if someone from the 80s succeeded in traveling through time and picked up an erotica book. I guess they’d wonder how that got published as well.But, WHY would someone write this book?
Ìý
Hmm, for the money?
Ìý
I just...don't understand how a woman could actually write these words.
Ìý
Would've made a difference if a man wrote them?...And, it’s called fiction. I think that pretty much anything is allowed in fiction and as long as there are people willing to read that anything, so it shall remain.
Ìý
Monson ended up committing suicide, so I think you have to approach her as a special case re: what she wrote and why.
Ìý
Well I'm going to sound mean but I can't say I'm surprised! To write a book like that as a romance (because I could accepted it simply as historical fiction) you really must have issues!
Ìý
I agree, I'm not overly surprised. I just can't imagine the type of person who would write something like this, so it makes sense that, like you said, she had issues. However, I can't imagine this getting published, but that's the world we live in I guess.
Ìý
Wow, issues, huh? She wrote fiction, people! F-I-C-T-I-O-N. Anything remotely involving a man and a woman in close proximity to each other was categorized as romance back in the 80s, so calling on her issues is really a moot point.
Ìý
And bringing up her suicide is in really poor taste, if you ask me. We don’t know why she committed suicide, but it’s safe to say it wasn’t because she wrote this book. This was her first published work, she published 5 more after it.
Ìý
What about other authors out there writing horror and suspense rife with abuse, battered women, and, yes, gasp, rape? Shouldn’t they have offed themselves by now? Yet, they’re still breathing, and writing horror and suspense rife with abuse, battered women, and, yes, gasp, rape.
Ìý
And now to answer all those who keep asking themselves how can people read this?
Ìý
It’s pretty easy. You pick up the book, open it and start with the first word on the first page, and continue from there. Yes, just like they taught us in school. See, how easy it is. Then you keep turning the pages, reading word after word in an orderly fashion.
Ìý
Then, when you come to the end, you close the book as set it on the shelf, donate it to your nearest UBS, or give it to a friend, so they can benefit from it as well and create their own opinion based on the words they read in the book and not on a reviewer’s subjective opinion.
Ìý
For those, like me, who found this book online (which is cheaper, BTW), you open the file and start with the first word in the first line. And you go on from there. But since that’s not particularly good for the eyes, you can easily transfer the book file onto your favorite ebook reading device (it comes in different formats�.html, .epub, .prc and .lit—or you can print it out (putting additional strain on the environment).When you’re done, you calmly close the file on your computer or favorite ebook reading device and maybe send it to a friend, so they can benefit from it as well and create their own opinion based on the words they read in the book and not on a reviewer’s subjective opinion.
March 19, 2021
So, after a couple of decades of reading romance, I finally got around to "Stormfire." Whew! They do not write them like this anymore. The ultimate in bodice-ripping, "Stormfire" is a tale of two mentally unstable people and their violent, intense love. And it's great!
The main attraction of "Stormfire" is its writing. If it was a poorly written book no one would still be talking about it 20-plus years after it was published. The chapters each have their own titles such as "Silken Irons," "Into Eden," or "The Nadir." When the heroine meets the hero her first thoughts are of Milton's poetry: "His form had not yet lost/All his original brightness, nor appeared/Less than Archangel ruined..." The prose is evocative and compelling, but not purple. We agonize with Catherine's enslavement, we feel the angry passion between the lovers, we grieve with Catherine's loss, and suffer from Sean's torture...how much misery can two people take? Then there is that intense love/hate. I wish writers of historical romances today wrote like this, deeply and intensely, if not necessarily the same plot.
But then, maybe I'm a sicko, but I like the plot. Yes, it's epic and melodramatic: everything but the kitchen sink is in the plot including SPOILERS***: kidnapping, rape, starvation, forced slavery, multiple marriages, miscarriage, insanity, beatings, brothers fighting for the same woman, incest, castration, forcible sodomy, murder... To be honest, I wasn't comfortable with a lot of things in the book. Even so, Stormfire is enthralling. Even those who hate this book can't say it's boring.
There are a lot of detractors of Stormfire, so in its defense, I'll say this: this isn't a sweet romance; it's a historical romance novel, a bodice ripper, and I use the term with great affection. It's a fantasy. A dark one, definitely, but then some might say so are the vampire, werewolf, bestiality, BDSM, menage fantasies of today. This is a different kind of fantasy, where the greatest hate in the world can be turned into love. Would this relationship work in real life? Probably not. That's why it's a fantasy. Stormfire is very entertaining, emotional, and unforgettable. It falters a bit towards the end, so it's not perfect. It's not the best romance novel ever written, but for me, it's up there.
I'd give it 5 stars or an A- rating.
The main attraction of "Stormfire" is its writing. If it was a poorly written book no one would still be talking about it 20-plus years after it was published. The chapters each have their own titles such as "Silken Irons," "Into Eden," or "The Nadir." When the heroine meets the hero her first thoughts are of Milton's poetry: "His form had not yet lost/All his original brightness, nor appeared/Less than Archangel ruined..." The prose is evocative and compelling, but not purple. We agonize with Catherine's enslavement, we feel the angry passion between the lovers, we grieve with Catherine's loss, and suffer from Sean's torture...how much misery can two people take? Then there is that intense love/hate. I wish writers of historical romances today wrote like this, deeply and intensely, if not necessarily the same plot.
But then, maybe I'm a sicko, but I like the plot. Yes, it's epic and melodramatic: everything but the kitchen sink is in the plot including SPOILERS***: kidnapping, rape, starvation, forced slavery, multiple marriages, miscarriage, insanity, beatings, brothers fighting for the same woman, incest, castration, forcible sodomy, murder... To be honest, I wasn't comfortable with a lot of things in the book. Even so, Stormfire is enthralling. Even those who hate this book can't say it's boring.
There are a lot of detractors of Stormfire, so in its defense, I'll say this: this isn't a sweet romance; it's a historical romance novel, a bodice ripper, and I use the term with great affection. It's a fantasy. A dark one, definitely, but then some might say so are the vampire, werewolf, bestiality, BDSM, menage fantasies of today. This is a different kind of fantasy, where the greatest hate in the world can be turned into love. Would this relationship work in real life? Probably not. That's why it's a fantasy. Stormfire is very entertaining, emotional, and unforgettable. It falters a bit towards the end, so it's not perfect. It's not the best romance novel ever written, but for me, it's up there.
I'd give it 5 stars or an A- rating.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 14, 2015
Call me crazy but I loved this one.
Yes, it's dark. There's rape and Stockholm Syndrome and torture and castration involved.
BUT...
There is also an amazing story told here, full of excitement and intrigue, in addition to a seemingly impossible love story between star-crossed lovers. As I read, I found myself completely enraptured by the drama of the story, which was quite substantial. It absolutely played with my emotions: At first came outrage. Then came the roller coaster. I experienced anger, dismay, horror, and disgust, as well as heartbreak, fear, and disbelief.
This story is complex (to say the least) and probably not everyone's cup of tea, but despite said complexity, within its pages is perhaps the fiercest love story I've ever read. In fact, I was completely swept away by it. Mind you, it's a love story chock-full of pain - physical, emotional, and psychological. I found myself in tears as I read, several times. But - for me - it was all well worth it. In fact, as a reader, there's nothing better than a book that can drag you through the darkest pits of emotional hell, only to bring you to the precipice of joy, where you willingly let yourself fall, peril be damned.
So, this (often) stingy-with-the-five-stars reviewer happily gives Stormfire the elusive 5-star rating, without question.
Yes, it's dark. There's rape and Stockholm Syndrome and torture and castration involved.
BUT...
There is also an amazing story told here, full of excitement and intrigue, in addition to a seemingly impossible love story between star-crossed lovers. As I read, I found myself completely enraptured by the drama of the story, which was quite substantial. It absolutely played with my emotions: At first came outrage. Then came the roller coaster. I experienced anger, dismay, horror, and disgust, as well as heartbreak, fear, and disbelief.
This story is complex (to say the least) and probably not everyone's cup of tea, but despite said complexity, within its pages is perhaps the fiercest love story I've ever read. In fact, I was completely swept away by it. Mind you, it's a love story chock-full of pain - physical, emotional, and psychological. I found myself in tears as I read, several times. But - for me - it was all well worth it. In fact, as a reader, there's nothing better than a book that can drag you through the darkest pits of emotional hell, only to bring you to the precipice of joy, where you willingly let yourself fall, peril be damned.
So, this (often) stingy-with-the-five-stars reviewer happily gives Stormfire the elusive 5-star rating, without question.
Shelved as 'dnf_abandoned'
October 23, 2017No wonder I can’t read Bodice-rippers.
I was hoping this wouldn’t be a classic BR, but a proper romance. But no deliverance was on the horizon.
So I left it midway, read other reviews to get a gist of what more was to come and dumped it (as I wish the h/H had done to each other!)
What was it about authors of the 70s and 80s that they had to degrade the hs to such an extent? Full of misogyny, degradation and humiliation for the woman folk.
Rape of the h is de rigueur � it starts with the so-called H and then his cohorts, his enemies, her ‘admirers� and everyone gets a turn. It’s just so horrible.
And then add severe physical and mental abuse to it.
And all through he flaunts his women in front of her and she returns the favor. Where’s the love or romance, you ask? It’s more like two strong-minded destructive forces/bodies being pulled towards each other by gravitational forces outside their control, bent on complete annihilation. Hea seems pointless and you wish they’d go their separate ways.
To be fair, later books are also sexist and misogynistic (and we read and enjoy them despite that!). Dubious/ non-con are the terms usually used (by myself too) to describe the rapey sex in vintages or smut-eroticas. The rest are also full of sexist misogynistic ‘alphas', (sometimes) made palatable by ‘grovels� and ‘gaunt-faced suffering� but BRs are beyond even my deeper than most tolerance!
I was hoping this wouldn’t be a classic BR, but a proper romance. But no deliverance was on the horizon.
So I left it midway, read other reviews to get a gist of what more was to come and dumped it (as I wish the h/H had done to each other!)
What was it about authors of the 70s and 80s that they had to degrade the hs to such an extent? Full of misogyny, degradation and humiliation for the woman folk.
Rape of the h is de rigueur � it starts with the so-called H and then his cohorts, his enemies, her ‘admirers� and everyone gets a turn. It’s just so horrible.
And then add severe physical and mental abuse to it.
And all through he flaunts his women in front of her and she returns the favor. Where’s the love or romance, you ask? It’s more like two strong-minded destructive forces/bodies being pulled towards each other by gravitational forces outside their control, bent on complete annihilation. Hea seems pointless and you wish they’d go their separate ways.
To be fair, later books are also sexist and misogynistic (and we read and enjoy them despite that!). Dubious/ non-con are the terms usually used (by myself too) to describe the rapey sex in vintages or smut-eroticas. The rest are also full of sexist misogynistic ‘alphas', (sometimes) made palatable by ‘grovels� and ‘gaunt-faced suffering� but BRs are beyond even my deeper than most tolerance!
April 29, 2023
We start with a young Catherine Enderly being abducted by Sean Culhane's men. Catherine is a Countess, the privileged daughter of an aristocrat, and a mischievous girl of leisure. Her father, unbeknownst to her, is a war criminal, a slimy smugger who not only plays both sides between England and France before the Napoleonic wars, but uses the oppression of Irish Catholics as a source of profit. He engineered a massacre in a small Irish village in hopes to steal their assets after inciting a rebellion. Sean Culhane is the only survivor of that massacre, and he has one hell of a grudge. The aim is to punish Catherine's father, but as is often the case for women during wartime, Catherine suffers the most.
Sean's brutality towards a captive Catherine is swift and unforgiving. He emanates hatred in every scene, and it's made quickly evident to Catherine via a vicious backhand that Sean doesn't make idle threats. What made the early abuse bearable for me was that Catherine never stopped fighting him, even knowing what it would cost her.
Sean is likely the most terrifying bodice ripper villain/love interest I've ever come across. After thwarting Catherine's first escape attempt he confronts his weapon-wielding victim and delivers this chilling diatribe:
Also worth mentioning is Sean's older brother Liam. Liam is the foil to Sean, the good guy who is troubled by the abuse and wants to help and comfort Catherine. He sidles up to Catherine as an ally, but if you're suspicious of his motives, you are correct. If there are no "nice guys" in 2021, surely we shouldn't be looking for one in this calamitous tale.
Even during the early stages of abuse and rage, Sean is fascinated by and attracted to Catherine. He wants to be around her. Now he wants her consent. Catherine balks at this, because her refusal is the last defense that she has.
While this is a love story, it's ultimately a story about the futility of wartime violence. After all he puts Catherine through, Sean meets John Enderly in England, and is awed at how empty he feels. The rage that propelled him was unsustainable. He couldn't erase the oppression of his countrymen by breaking a young girl or laying low a an English lord.
As usual, I would be doing an injustice to other readers by summarizing more of this (and it's also impossible! Stormfire is almost 600 pages and there are around 8 plots or so), but when Catherine and Sean fell in love around 200 pages in, I knew something was up. The honeymoon phase was so lyrical and lush that I felt just as horrified as Catherine did when it ended. The book only allots for two cycles of abuse, but the second broke my heart in a way that I'm still thinking about.
Sean's brutality towards a captive Catherine is swift and unforgiving. He emanates hatred in every scene, and it's made quickly evident to Catherine via a vicious backhand that Sean doesn't make idle threats. What made the early abuse bearable for me was that Catherine never stopped fighting him, even knowing what it would cost her.
Sean is likely the most terrifying bodice ripper villain/love interest I've ever come across. After thwarting Catherine's first escape attempt he confronts his weapon-wielding victim and delivers this chilling diatribe:
"Now, if you don't throw that thing, I'll take it away from you. If you throw it and miss, you're going to think the culmination of our last argument was idyllic. If you don't miss, my men are going to throw you off the cliff after giving vent to their irritation at losing the source of their income. So don't be nervous, and take your best shot, Miss Enderly; you sure as hell won't get another."
Also worth mentioning is Sean's older brother Liam. Liam is the foil to Sean, the good guy who is troubled by the abuse and wants to help and comfort Catherine. He sidles up to Catherine as an ally, but if you're suspicious of his motives, you are correct. If there are no "nice guys" in 2021, surely we shouldn't be looking for one in this calamitous tale.
Even during the early stages of abuse and rage, Sean is fascinated by and attracted to Catherine. He wants to be around her. Now he wants her consent. Catherine balks at this, because her refusal is the last defense that she has.
"My experience of brutality has come from you," she replied evenly, "never beauty, tenderness, or affection, because you don't permit them in yourself... How can I give you affection when you seek to wrench it from me and crush it as heedlessly as that boy might a butterfly, tearing off its bright wings to keep in his pocket, then startled to soon find them colorless and dead?"
While this is a love story, it's ultimately a story about the futility of wartime violence. After all he puts Catherine through, Sean meets John Enderly in England, and is awed at how empty he feels. The rage that propelled him was unsustainable. He couldn't erase the oppression of his countrymen by breaking a young girl or laying low a an English lord.
As usual, I would be doing an injustice to other readers by summarizing more of this (and it's also impossible! Stormfire is almost 600 pages and there are around 8 plots or so), but when Catherine and Sean fell in love around 200 pages in, I knew something was up. The honeymoon phase was so lyrical and lush that I felt just as horrified as Catherine did when it ended. The book only allots for two cycles of abuse, but the second broke my heart in a way that I'm still thinking about.
May 21, 2022
MAYBE 4 stars
I think a need a few days ....wow
RTC
I think a need a few days ....wow
RTC
March 8, 2019
I am officially obsessed with bodice rippers. In fact, I would like to take a brief hiatus from life in order to properly enjoy these classics from the 70s and 80s, if they live up to their cracktastic reputations as Stormfire sure does.
Stormfire is a wild gem that will have you go, what the F***K? The infamous scene introducing Catherine and Sean is nothing. It is the tip of the iceberg in this insane soap opera fantasy. Operative word: fantasy. One reason why Stormfire is insane is because Monson has packed four separate stories into one extended jam.
The first storyline follows Catherine’s kidnapping on behalf of Sean’s orders in order to avenge his family destroyed due, in large part, to the mercenary actions of Catherine’s father. Sean is staging an Irish rebellion against the English and Catherine is torn between her love for him and for her country. The second arc follows the aftermath of the failed uprising where Catherine, still a prisoner, suffers under a Big Misunderstanding. Eventually, Sean and Catherine come together for a day or two of happiness before a former love interest shows up. The third plot ties up final loose ends with the appearance of Catherine’s father who shows his villainous side. Catherine must devise a way to save Sean. The fourth and final story follows Catherine and Sean now in France, and again separated by a Big Misunderstanding not resolved until the final chapter. However, the final obstacle preventing Catherine and Sean together was obvious because there was no way Monson . The fourth story has not aged well. I’m not sure what purpose it served other than to highlight the forbidden love aspect to Catherine and Sean’s relationship, but if so, it went on too long and ultimately dragged the story down, and with it, the whirlwind action.
In an extremely entertaining read, Manson manages to pack in a surprising amount of twists and turns.
Stormfire is a wild gem that will have you go, what the F***K? The infamous scene introducing Catherine and Sean is nothing. It is the tip of the iceberg in this insane soap opera fantasy. Operative word: fantasy. One reason why Stormfire is insane is because Monson has packed four separate stories into one extended jam.
The first storyline follows Catherine’s kidnapping on behalf of Sean’s orders in order to avenge his family destroyed due, in large part, to the mercenary actions of Catherine’s father. Sean is staging an Irish rebellion against the English and Catherine is torn between her love for him and for her country. The second arc follows the aftermath of the failed uprising where Catherine, still a prisoner, suffers under a Big Misunderstanding. Eventually, Sean and Catherine come together for a day or two of happiness before a former love interest shows up. The third plot ties up final loose ends with the appearance of Catherine’s father who shows his villainous side. Catherine must devise a way to save Sean. The fourth and final story follows Catherine and Sean now in France, and again separated by a Big Misunderstanding not resolved until the final chapter. However, the final obstacle preventing Catherine and Sean together was obvious because there was no way Monson . The fourth story has not aged well. I’m not sure what purpose it served other than to highlight the forbidden love aspect to Catherine and Sean’s relationship, but if so, it went on too long and ultimately dragged the story down, and with it, the whirlwind action.
In an extremely entertaining read, Manson manages to pack in a surprising amount of twists and turns.
April 24, 2024
His spirit, like the lonely, windswept sea, was ever-restless, ever-changing, sometimes howling down to savage the unyielding land, then caressing it with a lulling embrace, inevitably wearing away its resistance. He was asking her to become part of him, without reservations, without ties that would inevitably be wrenched apart, leaving her battered on the rocks and him lonelier and wilder than before.
Christine Monson's infamous bodice-ripper Stormfire is at times completely riveting, and at others, campy and ridiculous.
My favorite part is Chapter 12, the titular "Stormfire" because it is the moment that the characters shift from a captor-captive, hateful and coerced relationship to one that is built on a tentative friendship, which morphs slowly into love. So many authors just gloss over this transition and give us insta-love or rather lust and we are supposed to accept that overnight, the two people who were at each other throat and involved in a depraved, abusive relationship can now fart rainbows and ride unicorns into the sunset.
I would have been a happy camper if the book had concluded around page 273. But alas, it meandered away to its conclusion at 568 pages. It became unnecessarily repetitive and boring. The author just kept finding new, horribly creative ways to torture and destroy her heroine: a masochist's dream, perhaps, not mine.
Christine Monson's infamous bodice-ripper Stormfire is at times completely riveting, and at others, campy and ridiculous.
My favorite part is Chapter 12, the titular "Stormfire" because it is the moment that the characters shift from a captor-captive, hateful and coerced relationship to one that is built on a tentative friendship, which morphs slowly into love. So many authors just gloss over this transition and give us insta-love or rather lust and we are supposed to accept that overnight, the two people who were at each other throat and involved in a depraved, abusive relationship can now fart rainbows and ride unicorns into the sunset.
I would have been a happy camper if the book had concluded around page 273. But alas, it meandered away to its conclusion at 568 pages. It became unnecessarily repetitive and boring. The author just kept finding new, horribly creative ways to torture and destroy her heroine: a masochist's dream, perhaps, not mine.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 21, 2013
Ahh....The 80's. The era of big hair, shoulder pads and the bodice ripper! Stormfire is the epitome of the genre. Set around the turn of the 19th century, the tumultuous action takes places mainly in an Ireland oppressed by the English and is a story of revenge and hatred that develops into passionate love. Sean Culhane hates the English and in particular Lord John Enderley and kidnaps his only daughter Catherine in retribution. But what develops is a meeting of souls and despite the seemingly insurmountable differences in their backgrounds, all sorts of obstacles and their own natures love will finally reign supreme.
This is the gold star of bodice rippers and has all the elements that make the genre so un-pc by today's standards. In the first fifty pages the heroine is raped by the hero and what follows is betrayal, jealousy, incest, the death of an unborn baby and even partial castration. And of course the obligatory purple prose. Despite all these some may say unsavoury elements of plot and writing style Christine Monson still manages to weave a tale of passion which keeps you enthralled to the last page. Keeping in mind the era in which it is set and the time it was actually written in, it is a five star effort and a must read for anyone interested in the bodice ripper genre.
For better or worse, they don't write them like that any more!
This is the gold star of bodice rippers and has all the elements that make the genre so un-pc by today's standards. In the first fifty pages the heroine is raped by the hero and what follows is betrayal, jealousy, incest, the death of an unborn baby and even partial castration. And of course the obligatory purple prose. Despite all these some may say unsavoury elements of plot and writing style Christine Monson still manages to weave a tale of passion which keeps you enthralled to the last page. Keeping in mind the era in which it is set and the time it was actually written in, it is a five star effort and a must read for anyone interested in the bodice ripper genre.
For better or worse, they don't write them like that any more!
October 15, 2014
After several days to digest my reaction to this book, I'm prepared to offer some thoughts.
This was my first experience with a no-holds-barred Bodice Ripper (capitalized to emphasize the amount of tattered clothing worn by our heroine), so for that it retains a special place in my library. And what a place it occupies. Despite the labels of "romance," there's very little tenderness in this book. Is that a bad thing? Not at all. For someone who is bored silly by tepid Regency (or Victorian, or Georgian) romances, this book is a welcome shift of style. In fact, I'd like to suggest a subtitle:
Stormfire: the Regency From Hell.
Here's a book where standardized 'witty banter' is thrown out the window. That's not to say there aren't verbal exchanges between h/h. There are plenty, & they're some of the most interesting chapters. But what sits front & center is brutality -- not just between h/h, but between everyone in the story. If you can imagine an unpleasant situation for romantic leads, it's probably crammed somewhere into this potboiling plot. Thankfully Ms Monson decided to skip the kitchen sink -- but she couldn't resist a bathroom washbasin. Rape (heroine), torture (hero), bloody memories, family murder, incest (unintended), guns, knives, jagged cliffs o' doom, slave collars, shipwrecks, insanity, illegitmacy...the list goes on.
Therein lies the book's greatest weakness. It was too long. The last quarter of the book was totally different from the rest; if I'd been Ms Monson's editor, I'd have rec'd she scrap the entire incest plot & end it upon Sean's recovery. Why? Not because I'm afraid of incest in books -- but because without the incest, Kit & Sean would have married after Shelan's destruction...and if they'd married then, the entire France section could've been axed. Isolated interaction between Sean & Kit was the focus for 75% of the story -- for good or ill, they were the stars. But the France plot was disruptive. There was no Sean/Kit. Those chapters didn't add anything to their story; they didn't even add interesting characters (except the Asian prostitute; I would have liked more about her).
As for the rest of the book...
The rape & slavery was discomfiting at times...but I think it squicks more because it's packaged inside a romance. The sex descriptions were less graphic than a modern erotica novel -- but apparently it's the brutality that gets these tepid Regency-fans so up in arms. Well, duh. If I lived on a steady diet of cheesy snoozers, I'd be shocked as well. If you're a blah-romance nut, why on earth would you even read this book? *eyebrow* On the other hand, if you're the sort of person who is frustrated by endless rehashing of the same dull scenarios, take a chance. You might be surprised! The writing isn't for simpletons (much better than most contemp-written romances) & the characters are nicely rounded (whether for good or ill).
Character notes:
I liked Kit. I liked Peg & Flannery. I even liked Liam; though he turned into an obnoxious asshat, he made valid points about Sean's behavior & his frustration with Kit was realistic. As for Sean, I have mixed feelings. I recognize that he's an alpha from a different era of writing...but still. Ordinarily I'm a fan of maligned heroes. I've been a raving Boromir fangirl since I was eight years old; I'm not afraid of misguided males who battle legit demons & do the wrong thing at the wrong time. But Sean takes the cake in the asshole contest. It's not that he didn't suffer enough to redeem himself in the grand scale...but even his kinder moments did nothing to endear himself to yours truly. He was just an unpleasant person. Good on Kit for finding happiness with that guy; she might be the only woman who could.
This was my first experience with a no-holds-barred Bodice Ripper (capitalized to emphasize the amount of tattered clothing worn by our heroine), so for that it retains a special place in my library. And what a place it occupies. Despite the labels of "romance," there's very little tenderness in this book. Is that a bad thing? Not at all. For someone who is bored silly by tepid Regency (or Victorian, or Georgian) romances, this book is a welcome shift of style. In fact, I'd like to suggest a subtitle:
Stormfire: the Regency From Hell.
Here's a book where standardized 'witty banter' is thrown out the window. That's not to say there aren't verbal exchanges between h/h. There are plenty, & they're some of the most interesting chapters. But what sits front & center is brutality -- not just between h/h, but between everyone in the story. If you can imagine an unpleasant situation for romantic leads, it's probably crammed somewhere into this potboiling plot. Thankfully Ms Monson decided to skip the kitchen sink -- but she couldn't resist a bathroom washbasin. Rape (heroine), torture (hero), bloody memories, family murder, incest (unintended), guns, knives, jagged cliffs o' doom, slave collars, shipwrecks, insanity, illegitmacy...the list goes on.
Therein lies the book's greatest weakness. It was too long. The last quarter of the book was totally different from the rest; if I'd been Ms Monson's editor, I'd have rec'd she scrap the entire incest plot & end it upon Sean's recovery. Why? Not because I'm afraid of incest in books -- but because without the incest, Kit & Sean would have married after Shelan's destruction...and if they'd married then, the entire France section could've been axed. Isolated interaction between Sean & Kit was the focus for 75% of the story -- for good or ill, they were the stars. But the France plot was disruptive. There was no Sean/Kit. Those chapters didn't add anything to their story; they didn't even add interesting characters (except the Asian prostitute; I would have liked more about her).
As for the rest of the book...
The rape & slavery was discomfiting at times...but I think it squicks more because it's packaged inside a romance. The sex descriptions were less graphic than a modern erotica novel -- but apparently it's the brutality that gets these tepid Regency-fans so up in arms. Well, duh. If I lived on a steady diet of cheesy snoozers, I'd be shocked as well. If you're a blah-romance nut, why on earth would you even read this book? *eyebrow* On the other hand, if you're the sort of person who is frustrated by endless rehashing of the same dull scenarios, take a chance. You might be surprised! The writing isn't for simpletons (much better than most contemp-written romances) & the characters are nicely rounded (whether for good or ill).
Character notes:
I liked Kit. I liked Peg & Flannery. I even liked Liam; though he turned into an obnoxious asshat, he made valid points about Sean's behavior & his frustration with Kit was realistic. As for Sean, I have mixed feelings. I recognize that he's an alpha from a different era of writing...but still. Ordinarily I'm a fan of maligned heroes. I've been a raving Boromir fangirl since I was eight years old; I'm not afraid of misguided males who battle legit demons & do the wrong thing at the wrong time. But Sean takes the cake in the asshole contest. It's not that he didn't suffer enough to redeem himself in the grand scale...but even his kinder moments did nothing to endear himself to yours truly. He was just an unpleasant person. Good on Kit for finding happiness with that guy; she might be the only woman who could.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 6, 2010
Really about a 1.5* for me . . . but the writing is exceptional and the author deserves a better grade for it to be quite honest (if it hadn't been so well "drawn," there's no way in hell I could have finished this book!). However, the two protagonists are probably two of the least likeable people I've ever read as leads in a book. Considering the number of books I've read (the ones I've shelved here are only the ones I've read in the last three years or so) . . . that saying a LOT!
Fans of "Stormfire," and apparently there are many, must love "angst" in a storyline beyond reason. Not for me!
K.
Fans of "Stormfire," and apparently there are many, must love "angst" in a storyline beyond reason. Not for me!
K.
July 1, 2022
For many readers who’ve invested time into the romance genre, Christine Monson’s Stormfire needs no introduction. It is the quintessential Bodice Ripper, dating from back when the genre was darker, more violent, and, well…a lot more problematic. Books like this are what give romance novels their bad name, though it’s worth pointing out that Stormfire is, at this point, more that 30 years past its initial publication. Progress has been made, and it’s unfair to judge something based on where it used to be.
Besides, I think anyone reading Stormfire expecting a vile puddle of anti-feminist, patriarchal piss will be somewhat pleasantly surprised. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
Definitely, the first thing to do with this book is accept that it’s problematic and just move on. Christine Monson was clearly not out to win any Feminist of the Year awards, even in 1984. Stormfire is a romance where the hero kidnaps, imprisons, tortures, and rapes the heroine. It is what it is. We could bemoan how damaging this novel’s portrayal of “love� is at length, or we could simply proceed with the understanding that the story is seriously fucked up.
As fellow reviewer Ridley points out, “The way to enjoy [Stormfire], I think, is to remember it’s fiction. No English virgins were harmed in the making of this book.� This is the attitude I adopted, and it worked well enough to muscle through.
For me, the really surprising thing about Stormfire is how nonchalant Monson was in her treatment of the hero’s behavior. The worst scenes were delivered in a very bland and casual manner, without the emphasis one would expect when reading about gang rapes or castrations or what have you. Perhaps this is just how books like this work—the grotesque violence is taken for granted to such an extent that it’s not worth emphasizing. Oh look, he’s spanking her bloody; oh look, he’s raping her for the umpteenth time; oh look, he’s locking her in the cellar and starving her. What’s the big deal, right? Stormfire is litany of misfortune delivered in the blasé tone of a grocery list.
Another surprising thing was that the heroine, Catherine, wasn’t quite the wilting flower I expected. She fought back, and she fought back hard. Sure, she falls in love with her rapist and then keeps forgiving him after he repeatedly betrays her in various dastardly ways, but she had a hell of a spine. And at least Monson doesn’t try to pretend consent was given when it clearly wasn’t; in Stormfire, rape is rape, and Catherine knows that it isn’t okay, even as she’s falling in “love� with her abuser (please note scare quotes).
But beyond that, this book is such a freaking mess. It’s pretty much tragedy porn. How many calamities can befall one couple, you ask? Well, Monson is going to surprise you. Aside from the obvious kidnap-rape scenario that takes up the first 200 pages (which was actually the part of the book I enjoyed the most; we’re talking 4-star material), there’s just one bizarre disaster after another that intervenes to keep the hero and heroine apart. Seems like they’re getting cozy? Hah, insert surprise revelation that they’re actually brother and sister. Add a dash of incestuous pregnancy. Have Napoleon get super horny at the sight of the heroine’s bewitching eyes. Sprinkle liberally with duels, spies, and jealous husbands. Don’t forget a strange Indo-Chinese nun-turned-whore!
It’s just a mess, really.
So, if you’re looking for your Everything Plus the Kitchen Sink, guaranteed fresh 1980s bodice ripper, Stormfire fits the bill. Kidnapping, torture, rape, infidelity, incest, vengeful ex-mistresses, castration, Irish rebels, missing wills, disastrous pregnancies, fluffy kittens bringing women out of comatose fugue states. You’ve name it, this book probably has it.
All this being said, I think it’s important to note that rape fantasies are extremely prevalent among women of all ages�Fifty Shades of Grey wasn’t as groundbreaking as we like to think, and books of this sort have a long and celebrated tradition. As has already been stated, this book is fiction, an expression of a fantasy life shared with an audience. Fantasies are, by and large, healthy. Plus, even though there’s rape in Stormfire, Monson never once suggests that it’s acceptable. It’s also worth noting that while the vast majority of today’s romance novels (as opposed to erotica novels; two fairly separate genres) are very different from this book, there is much that is the same in terms of genre conventions and tropes.
Any way you look at it, Stormfire is an important novel, if only for its massive reputation among the community of romance readers and its continued legacy and influence.
Bottom line? Was this monstrosity worth the outrageous price I paid to get my hands on a copy? Er…maybe? I don’t like it and I would never run around telling my friends to read it, but damn was Stormfire a nightmarish thrill ride from start to finish. However, from the perspective of a “scholar� of genre romance (if that’s what we can call me—probably not), I am glad I read it.
📌 . | | | | Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ
Besides, I think anyone reading Stormfire expecting a vile puddle of anti-feminist, patriarchal piss will be somewhat pleasantly surprised. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
Definitely, the first thing to do with this book is accept that it’s problematic and just move on. Christine Monson was clearly not out to win any Feminist of the Year awards, even in 1984. Stormfire is a romance where the hero kidnaps, imprisons, tortures, and rapes the heroine. It is what it is. We could bemoan how damaging this novel’s portrayal of “love� is at length, or we could simply proceed with the understanding that the story is seriously fucked up.
As fellow reviewer Ridley points out, “The way to enjoy [Stormfire], I think, is to remember it’s fiction. No English virgins were harmed in the making of this book.� This is the attitude I adopted, and it worked well enough to muscle through.
For me, the really surprising thing about Stormfire is how nonchalant Monson was in her treatment of the hero’s behavior. The worst scenes were delivered in a very bland and casual manner, without the emphasis one would expect when reading about gang rapes or castrations or what have you. Perhaps this is just how books like this work—the grotesque violence is taken for granted to such an extent that it’s not worth emphasizing. Oh look, he’s spanking her bloody; oh look, he’s raping her for the umpteenth time; oh look, he’s locking her in the cellar and starving her. What’s the big deal, right? Stormfire is litany of misfortune delivered in the blasé tone of a grocery list.
Another surprising thing was that the heroine, Catherine, wasn’t quite the wilting flower I expected. She fought back, and she fought back hard. Sure, she falls in love with her rapist and then keeps forgiving him after he repeatedly betrays her in various dastardly ways, but she had a hell of a spine. And at least Monson doesn’t try to pretend consent was given when it clearly wasn’t; in Stormfire, rape is rape, and Catherine knows that it isn’t okay, even as she’s falling in “love� with her abuser (please note scare quotes).
But beyond that, this book is such a freaking mess. It’s pretty much tragedy porn. How many calamities can befall one couple, you ask? Well, Monson is going to surprise you. Aside from the obvious kidnap-rape scenario that takes up the first 200 pages (which was actually the part of the book I enjoyed the most; we’re talking 4-star material), there’s just one bizarre disaster after another that intervenes to keep the hero and heroine apart. Seems like they’re getting cozy? Hah, insert surprise revelation that they’re actually brother and sister. Add a dash of incestuous pregnancy. Have Napoleon get super horny at the sight of the heroine’s bewitching eyes. Sprinkle liberally with duels, spies, and jealous husbands. Don’t forget a strange Indo-Chinese nun-turned-whore!
It’s just a mess, really.
So, if you’re looking for your Everything Plus the Kitchen Sink, guaranteed fresh 1980s bodice ripper, Stormfire fits the bill. Kidnapping, torture, rape, infidelity, incest, vengeful ex-mistresses, castration, Irish rebels, missing wills, disastrous pregnancies, fluffy kittens bringing women out of comatose fugue states. You’ve name it, this book probably has it.
All this being said, I think it’s important to note that rape fantasies are extremely prevalent among women of all ages�Fifty Shades of Grey wasn’t as groundbreaking as we like to think, and books of this sort have a long and celebrated tradition. As has already been stated, this book is fiction, an expression of a fantasy life shared with an audience. Fantasies are, by and large, healthy. Plus, even though there’s rape in Stormfire, Monson never once suggests that it’s acceptable. It’s also worth noting that while the vast majority of today’s romance novels (as opposed to erotica novels; two fairly separate genres) are very different from this book, there is much that is the same in terms of genre conventions and tropes.
Any way you look at it, Stormfire is an important novel, if only for its massive reputation among the community of romance readers and its continued legacy and influence.
Bottom line? Was this monstrosity worth the outrageous price I paid to get my hands on a copy? Er…maybe? I don’t like it and I would never run around telling my friends to read it, but damn was Stormfire a nightmarish thrill ride from start to finish. However, from the perspective of a “scholar� of genre romance (if that’s what we can call me—probably not), I am glad I read it.
📌 . | | | | Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ
January 2, 2012
This is a marvelous book. It has everything you would ever want: we start with a kidnapping, proceed to a rape, some face slaps, a little bit of slavery, some annoying near death experiences and then we culminate with the lovely Stockholm Syndrome, we face some betrayal too, how could I forget to mention that on?? As I said, it's perfect!
PS: Can we have a 'sarcasm' font please??
PS: Can we have a 'sarcasm' font please??
May 8, 2023
I feel like I deserve a medal for finishing the bodice-ripper to end all bodice rippers aka "Stormfire". I feel like this has been recc'd to me ever since I have been on Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ and have discovered bodice rippers. For a long time I didn't think I would be able to find a copy of it, but a friend ended up helping me out in getting a copy. Thanks again Meredith! I don't think I would have been able to read this without you.
This book was one of the best books I have read in a long time. The characters and setting were fully fleshed out and the plot was intense and riveting. Catherine "Kit" Enderly has got to be one of my top favorite heroines of all time. Catherine was smart, selfless, and caring you can't help but not like her. She was the perfect foil to the arrogant, revenge filled, chauvinist that was Sean Culhane. I learned a lot about the Irish Rebellion of 1798, the Regency period and Napoleonic wars while reading this too. You can tell Monson did her research while she was writing this book. The setting or rather the time period was well researched and incorporated seamlessly into the book.
I do have to say that Sean does redeem himself by the end of this book and even after all the crap that he put Catherine through I could tell that he truely does love her by the end. Unlike Savage Surrender by Natasha Peters where I was still very skeptical that Garth loved Elise. Stormfire has a more satisfying love story then SS (just my opinion). The characters in Stormfire are more likeable too. Garth barely grovels in SS where in Stromfire Sean's groveling arc is more fleshed out and believable. Elise takes some getting used to, but Catherine is instantly likeable.
One of my biggest issues with this book was that it seemed to go on for forever. There were parts where I thought the book would or should end, but then it just kept going. This made the book feel very episodic. I think Monson crafted the transitions from one arc to the next for the most part seamlessly, but the book still felt like 3 books crammed into one. I wouldn't recommend binge reading this book for this reason alone. Stromfire is very much so a book that needs to be taken in slowly and sipped like a fine wine. Even for the portions of this book that contain large info and name drops alone, I would tell someone to take their time reading this. Even minor characters are integral to the plot towards the end. There are slight things Sean says or does on his road to revenge that play a large part in the later chapters, or minor characters he meets that pop up later in the story.
My other issue with this book was that is kept changing characters' povs every other paragraph, which would make me typically instantly dnf, but the well written plot and characters made me push through this. Once I got used to Monson's writing style, and got over some of her quirks, I was able to enjoy the book more. Her tone and the way she writes in general is ,i>very different than how most modern writers write their books. You'll know what I mean when you start reading.
What I realized after reading this is that Monson needed a good editor to go through this book. It would have been a 5 star rating from me if it would have been easier on my eyes and brain to read.
I recommend going into this book blind and not to read too many reviews. Part of the enjoyment of reading this book were being surprised by the major plot twists (which there were a lot of).
I highly recommend this book if you are looking for an enemies to lovers, tragic, historical romance.
TW: R@pe, dub-con, domestic violence, racist comments/words, torture, and more (I won't list everything here or I might ruin some of the plot-twists).
Side-note/Warning:
So as of March 28, 2023 this is available on Kindle for $45.52. That's the most expensive Kindle book I have ever seen. The only description is "Stormfire romance novel", which seems sketch.
Heads up this is not an official release from a publishing house or the author or their estate. Don't buy the Kindle version of this as it stands on Amazon.
Thank-you again to all of my amazing Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ friends for letting me know the details on this.
This book was one of the best books I have read in a long time. The characters and setting were fully fleshed out and the plot was intense and riveting. Catherine "Kit" Enderly has got to be one of my top favorite heroines of all time. Catherine was smart, selfless, and caring you can't help but not like her. She was the perfect foil to the arrogant, revenge filled, chauvinist that was Sean Culhane. I learned a lot about the Irish Rebellion of 1798, the Regency period and Napoleonic wars while reading this too. You can tell Monson did her research while she was writing this book. The setting or rather the time period was well researched and incorporated seamlessly into the book.
I do have to say that Sean does redeem himself by the end of this book and even after all the crap that he put Catherine through I could tell that he truely does love her by the end. Unlike Savage Surrender by Natasha Peters where I was still very skeptical that Garth loved Elise. Stormfire has a more satisfying love story then SS (just my opinion). The characters in Stormfire are more likeable too. Garth barely grovels in SS where in Stromfire Sean's groveling arc is more fleshed out and believable. Elise takes some getting used to, but Catherine is instantly likeable.
One of my biggest issues with this book was that it seemed to go on for forever. There were parts where I thought the book would or should end, but then it just kept going. This made the book feel very episodic. I think Monson crafted the transitions from one arc to the next for the most part seamlessly, but the book still felt like 3 books crammed into one. I wouldn't recommend binge reading this book for this reason alone. Stromfire is very much so a book that needs to be taken in slowly and sipped like a fine wine. Even for the portions of this book that contain large info and name drops alone, I would tell someone to take their time reading this. Even minor characters are integral to the plot towards the end. There are slight things Sean says or does on his road to revenge that play a large part in the later chapters, or minor characters he meets that pop up later in the story.
My other issue with this book was that is kept changing characters' povs every other paragraph, which would make me typically instantly dnf, but the well written plot and characters made me push through this. Once I got used to Monson's writing style, and got over some of her quirks, I was able to enjoy the book more. Her tone and the way she writes in general is ,i>very different than how most modern writers write their books. You'll know what I mean when you start reading.
What I realized after reading this is that Monson needed a good editor to go through this book. It would have been a 5 star rating from me if it would have been easier on my eyes and brain to read.
I recommend going into this book blind and not to read too many reviews. Part of the enjoyment of reading this book were being surprised by the major plot twists (which there were a lot of).
I highly recommend this book if you are looking for an enemies to lovers, tragic, historical romance.
TW: R@pe, dub-con, domestic violence, racist comments/words, torture, and more (I won't list everything here or I might ruin some of the plot-twists).
Side-note/Warning:
So as of March 28, 2023 this is available on Kindle for $45.52. That's the most expensive Kindle book I have ever seen. The only description is "Stormfire romance novel", which seems sketch.
Heads up this is not an official release from a publishing house or the author or their estate. Don't buy the Kindle version of this as it stands on Amazon.
Thank-you again to all of my amazing Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ friends for letting me know the details on this.
August 5, 2022
3 Stars: it was awesome and I hated it.
My feelings on this book fluctuated wildly throughout the book. Some of it was due to my real admiration for Catherine, the heroine, and my absolute hatred for the hero, Sean.
Sean is a violent, evil PIG.
Forget falling in love with him, emphasizing with him ... I struggled to even feel as if he deserved to live by the end of the book.
Some readers have pointed out that Sean was "redeemed" by the end of the book. But that is patently untrue. Did he suffer? Sure. But that was KARMA, not justice.
Dude reaped some of the bullshit he sowed. But did Catherine profit? Hell nah. She didn't even get a real apology from him.
Let me list just the crimes Sean committed against Catherine:
*rape
*battery (he slaps her, punches her, bloodies her nose, breaks her ribs while she's pregnant, and also gauds her into taking an unsafe jump with a horse she isn't used to, which nearly kills her, and aborts her child)
*captivity in a cold, damp dungeon (while she's pregnant)
*starvation
and that's without even opening pandora's box of cheating (tm) which Sean is also guilty of, in spades, or the fact that he constantly mocks, belittles and insults Catherine, calling her all kinds of names, treating her in ways no paid prostitute would willingly put up with.
So yeah, I think Sean should'nt have survived the book. He is an insult against human dignity and I hate him. No amount of suffering can ever wipe his vest clean and the fact that he hardly ever repented the times (yes, plural!) he just about murdered Catherine make him the WORST.
Even the most horrible villains ostensibly love their families, but Sean is the opposite: he hates everyone, but the one woman he supposedly loves is the one who gets to suffer the most under his random tantrums. With a man like Sean you don't need enemies, he is a one man army hell-bent on destroying your life, killing your babies and cheating on you with a smirk on his face.
Die, Sean, you snivelling, ugly monkey.
-------------------------------------
This book cover is haunting me, so I redrew it with simple cartoon art:
Let's face it, if this wasn't the Stormfire, I would have dnf'd this ages ago. Sadly I am resolved to read this, no matter how much I hate all of the characters, the patriarchy and the message that all brute rapists have a sad sob story that makes it all okay.
I just want all of the men to die, and frankly most of the women as well. People have been criticizing the heroine, Catherine, who is 16 (!!) and very sheltered, but still manages to survive all the crap they throw at her.
Leave Catherine alone! She's doing her best and honestly she should stab Sean in the face with knife. He isn't fit to lick her dirty ENGLISH boots, bye
__________________________________
I'm spitting mad at every single man in this book. I want them all flayed, then burned, then quartered
DIE DIE DIE YOU EVIL MONKEYS
---------------------------
Ah, the classic honor and revenge plot.
Our women and children got raped and killed so let's get back at the perpetrators by raping their women and children
Of all the flawed revenge logics, this is one of the worst, because the actual women and children who got raped in the first place get nothing out of it, while the original perpetrators don't actually suffer, but instead new victims are made.
The western/christian idea of honor, in its basis, is that only the male family members have honor. And their honor can be tarnished by proxy: if a woman of the family gets raped, she ruins the family's reputation: that is, the honor of her male relatives. They must seek revenge. So if they are to weak to strike in an actual blood feud against the (male) perpetrators, they target the weakest links instead: the women an children. Like the male relatives of the original victim, the perpetrators are vulnerable through their mothers, sisters, wives and daughters.
Today there is talk of "honor killings" in families of muslim faith. But the western idea of honor is no less toxic or violent in its root.
Women are objects with price tags and owners. They have no agency or honor of their own. Their innocence or culpability doesn't matter. I suppose the most honorable thing to do for a woman who gets kidnapped and raped is to commit suicide.
Needless to say I hope the 16 yr old heroine goes on a murder spree.
It's very early into the book and the poor girl hasn't been abused too much yet but I am already up on the barricades over the sexist creep men in the story.
The GALL of them, kidnapping a young girl on her way to SCHOOL and then getting upset that she dares to fight back despite being a lady!
I hope she gets to kill some of them at the very least.
My feelings on this book fluctuated wildly throughout the book. Some of it was due to my real admiration for Catherine, the heroine, and my absolute hatred for the hero, Sean.
Sean is a violent, evil PIG.
Forget falling in love with him, emphasizing with him ... I struggled to even feel as if he deserved to live by the end of the book.
Some readers have pointed out that Sean was "redeemed" by the end of the book. But that is patently untrue. Did he suffer? Sure. But that was KARMA, not justice.
Dude reaped some of the bullshit he sowed. But did Catherine profit? Hell nah. She didn't even get a real apology from him.
Let me list just the crimes Sean committed against Catherine:
*rape
*battery (he slaps her, punches her, bloodies her nose, breaks her ribs while she's pregnant, and also gauds her into taking an unsafe jump with a horse she isn't used to, which nearly kills her, and aborts her child)
*captivity in a cold, damp dungeon (while she's pregnant)
*starvation
and that's without even opening pandora's box of cheating (tm) which Sean is also guilty of, in spades, or the fact that he constantly mocks, belittles and insults Catherine, calling her all kinds of names, treating her in ways no paid prostitute would willingly put up with.
So yeah, I think Sean should'nt have survived the book. He is an insult against human dignity and I hate him. No amount of suffering can ever wipe his vest clean and the fact that he hardly ever repented the times (yes, plural!) he just about murdered Catherine make him the WORST.
Even the most horrible villains ostensibly love their families, but Sean is the opposite: he hates everyone, but the one woman he supposedly loves is the one who gets to suffer the most under his random tantrums. With a man like Sean you don't need enemies, he is a one man army hell-bent on destroying your life, killing your babies and cheating on you with a smirk on his face.
Die, Sean, you snivelling, ugly monkey.
-------------------------------------
This book cover is haunting me, so I redrew it with simple cartoon art:
Let's face it, if this wasn't the Stormfire, I would have dnf'd this ages ago. Sadly I am resolved to read this, no matter how much I hate all of the characters, the patriarchy and the message that all brute rapists have a sad sob story that makes it all okay.
I just want all of the men to die, and frankly most of the women as well. People have been criticizing the heroine, Catherine, who is 16 (!!) and very sheltered, but still manages to survive all the crap they throw at her.
Leave Catherine alone! She's doing her best and honestly she should stab Sean in the face with knife. He isn't fit to lick her dirty ENGLISH boots, bye
__________________________________
I'm spitting mad at every single man in this book. I want them all flayed, then burned, then quartered
DIE DIE DIE YOU EVIL MONKEYS
---------------------------
Ah, the classic honor and revenge plot.
Our women and children got raped and killed so let's get back at the perpetrators by raping their women and children
Of all the flawed revenge logics, this is one of the worst, because the actual women and children who got raped in the first place get nothing out of it, while the original perpetrators don't actually suffer, but instead new victims are made.
The western/christian idea of honor, in its basis, is that only the male family members have honor. And their honor can be tarnished by proxy: if a woman of the family gets raped, she ruins the family's reputation: that is, the honor of her male relatives. They must seek revenge. So if they are to weak to strike in an actual blood feud against the (male) perpetrators, they target the weakest links instead: the women an children. Like the male relatives of the original victim, the perpetrators are vulnerable through their mothers, sisters, wives and daughters.
Today there is talk of "honor killings" in families of muslim faith. But the western idea of honor is no less toxic or violent in its root.
Women are objects with price tags and owners. They have no agency or honor of their own. Their innocence or culpability doesn't matter. I suppose the most honorable thing to do for a woman who gets kidnapped and raped is to commit suicide.
Needless to say I hope the 16 yr old heroine goes on a murder spree.
It's very early into the book and the poor girl hasn't been abused too much yet but I am already up on the barricades over the sexist creep men in the story.
The GALL of them, kidnapping a young girl on her way to SCHOOL and then getting upset that she dares to fight back despite being a lady!
I hope she gets to kill some of them at the very least.
September 13, 2016
This has been a controversial romance, not just because it’s a bodice ripper, but because of some of the harsh elements it contains. So, of course, I had to read it to discover the truth for myself. Some readers might categorize this an �80’s bodice ripper� and so it is, first published in 1984, but I never look at books that way. To me a story stands or falls on its own no matter the era it was written (some of my favorite keepers were written decades ago). If the story is absorbing and the characters compelling, if I can’t stop thinking about it and I find myself reading late into the night, then I know I have a keeper.
It begins in the late 18th century and continues into the early 19th, set in Ireland (mostly), England, Scotland and France. It’s the story of Sean Culhane, a bitter Irishman seeking revenge, and the spirited English beauty Catherine, daughter of John Enderly, Viscount Windemere. Hardened by the English atrocities he has witnessed, Sean weaves an intricate plan using his smuggling in art, spies and munitions to destroy the man responsible for decimating his family in Kenlo and consigning hundreds of Irish to their deaths. Abducting Enderly’s daughter is only the beginning.
Sean brutally rapes the innocent Catherine and then makes her his whore and puts her to work as a slave on his older brother’s estate of Shelan in Ireland. Catherine fights Sean with every ounce of her being, even trying to escape into the night, while earning the respect of Sean’s men. I couldn’t help but wonder how English atrocities could drive a good man to such cruelty and how an English girl raised in luxury might be affected by such treatment. Then, too, Sean’s initial brutality toward Catherine seemed at odds with the devotion shown him by his housekeeper, his mistress and his men, making me wonder what the real man was like under that hardened exterior. Eventually, as seems inevitable, Sean and Catherine soften toward each other. She comes to understand what motivates Sean’s desire for revenge, and he comes to admire her courage and tenacity.
This is a saga of nearly 600 pages and I cannot do it justice in a review, but let me say there are many twists and turns I did not anticipate in the relationship between Sean and Catherine—and Sean’s brother, Liam (“the more dangerous of the two�). It’s the story of a man who nearly destroys the woman he deeply loves, all for the sake of bitter revenge. And it’s the story of a woman who comes to love that man so that she would do anything to save him. But there is much more to this saga, as others would see them both destroyed.
Into a great story, Monson has woven the pain of Ireland’s history, a beautiful land sorely affected by the English. (It includes the Irish rebellion of 1798 and its aftermath.) The writing is so good, there were times I stopped and re-read a passage just to admire it.
Here is one of Catherine’s musings about Sean:
“His spirit, like the lonely, windswept sea, was ever-restless, ever-changing, sometimes howling down to savage the unyielding land, then caressing it with a lulling embrace, inevitably wearing away its resistance. He was asking her to become a part of him, without reservations, without ties that would inevitably be wrenched apart, leaving her battered on the rocks and him lonelier and wilder than before.�
Whatever you might say about this book, Monson’s writing is consistently brilliant and her story absorbing. She did an incredible job creating an impossible situation. When Sean falls in love with Catherine and her unwavering spirit, you want them to be together, yet you can’t see a way for it to happen�-a powerful set up for the rest of the book and there were many obstacles yet to follow.
I highly recommend this romance for those readers unafraid of what are some raw scenes and more angst than other romances. It’s a well written, worthy tale.
It begins in the late 18th century and continues into the early 19th, set in Ireland (mostly), England, Scotland and France. It’s the story of Sean Culhane, a bitter Irishman seeking revenge, and the spirited English beauty Catherine, daughter of John Enderly, Viscount Windemere. Hardened by the English atrocities he has witnessed, Sean weaves an intricate plan using his smuggling in art, spies and munitions to destroy the man responsible for decimating his family in Kenlo and consigning hundreds of Irish to their deaths. Abducting Enderly’s daughter is only the beginning.
Sean brutally rapes the innocent Catherine and then makes her his whore and puts her to work as a slave on his older brother’s estate of Shelan in Ireland. Catherine fights Sean with every ounce of her being, even trying to escape into the night, while earning the respect of Sean’s men. I couldn’t help but wonder how English atrocities could drive a good man to such cruelty and how an English girl raised in luxury might be affected by such treatment. Then, too, Sean’s initial brutality toward Catherine seemed at odds with the devotion shown him by his housekeeper, his mistress and his men, making me wonder what the real man was like under that hardened exterior. Eventually, as seems inevitable, Sean and Catherine soften toward each other. She comes to understand what motivates Sean’s desire for revenge, and he comes to admire her courage and tenacity.
This is a saga of nearly 600 pages and I cannot do it justice in a review, but let me say there are many twists and turns I did not anticipate in the relationship between Sean and Catherine—and Sean’s brother, Liam (“the more dangerous of the two�). It’s the story of a man who nearly destroys the woman he deeply loves, all for the sake of bitter revenge. And it’s the story of a woman who comes to love that man so that she would do anything to save him. But there is much more to this saga, as others would see them both destroyed.
Into a great story, Monson has woven the pain of Ireland’s history, a beautiful land sorely affected by the English. (It includes the Irish rebellion of 1798 and its aftermath.) The writing is so good, there were times I stopped and re-read a passage just to admire it.
Here is one of Catherine’s musings about Sean:
“His spirit, like the lonely, windswept sea, was ever-restless, ever-changing, sometimes howling down to savage the unyielding land, then caressing it with a lulling embrace, inevitably wearing away its resistance. He was asking her to become a part of him, without reservations, without ties that would inevitably be wrenched apart, leaving her battered on the rocks and him lonelier and wilder than before.�
Whatever you might say about this book, Monson’s writing is consistently brilliant and her story absorbing. She did an incredible job creating an impossible situation. When Sean falls in love with Catherine and her unwavering spirit, you want them to be together, yet you can’t see a way for it to happen�-a powerful set up for the rest of the book and there were many obstacles yet to follow.
I highly recommend this romance for those readers unafraid of what are some raw scenes and more angst than other romances. It’s a well written, worthy tale.
July 10, 2017
I read this to satisfy one of my bodice-rippers for the 2017 year historical romance challenge.
I did not take the following warning as strongly as I should have.
Warning: The (anti) hero is an angry, violent psycho.
The writing can be beautiful and poetic. The book started off interesting in spite of the rape, torture, and abuse. However the last two thirds of the book took the darkness to an extreme degree and also became boring.
There is not one halfway decent character in the book. They are all extremely selfish, without any morals or care for anyone or anything that is right or good. For the entire book, there is absolutely no one to root for. I was really kind of hoping that everyone would die. That would have been a more satisfactory ending for me.
I will not read any more books by this author. To me, it seems like she demonstrates her depression in her story. I prefer stories that are either happy, redeemable, or at least have some kind of cathartic value to them.
I did not take the following warning as strongly as I should have.
Warning: The (anti) hero is an angry, violent psycho.
The writing can be beautiful and poetic. The book started off interesting in spite of the rape, torture, and abuse. However the last two thirds of the book took the darkness to an extreme degree and also became boring.
There is not one halfway decent character in the book. They are all extremely selfish, without any morals or care for anyone or anything that is right or good. For the entire book, there is absolutely no one to root for. I was really kind of hoping that everyone would die. That would have been a more satisfactory ending for me.
I will not read any more books by this author. To me, it seems like she demonstrates her depression in her story. I prefer stories that are either happy, redeemable, or at least have some kind of cathartic value to them.
November 6, 2011
Conflicted.
I picked this up in order to see what all the fuss was about.
On the positive side, the book is well written and that probably explains why people keep reading it and some brave souls even finish the thing.
On the negative side of the scale:
We have horrible Irish people who appear to be barbarians but are excused due their desire to fight for liberty from the wretched English.
The hero kidnaps the heroine and then rapes her violently within the first 30 pages.
He starves her and forces her to work as his servant until she faints.
No one in the rest of the castle sees anything wrong with this and not one of them tries to help her - either the gentry, the doctor or the servants. The portrayal of the Irish was pretty unpleasant.
The heroine tries to escape but is caught and lashed to the back of a horse and dragged back to the castle
The hero then puts her in fetters
He rapes her some more and tells her it is either him or his men.
He goes off to kill her father and on his return he again rapes her violently.
No one helps her.
She is used as his whore for a further period and whether he is violent depends on his mood.
Things appear to ' improve' between them but when she helps his brother due to fear of an Irish uprising, the brother marries her and also rapes her.
Sean catches her , shears her hair off, is violent to her and rapes her some more
He then throws her to his men inviting them to gang rape her ( she is rescued by a third party intervention)
He then has her locked in her cell for months, with no light and provided with starvation rations.
When he goes to see her after a while, he feels an itsty bitsy speck of remorse about the state she is in but not enough to let her go.
He has his lover round, strikes the heroine, breaking her ribs and forces her on a horse whereupon she has a further accident, where she is almost killed and she losses her baby, which had already died anyway due to her period in the cell where she was starved.
He comes to believe that they may be siblings and sends her off back to England.....
The second half of the book seems to involve torture, loss of body parts, monasteries, France, and further saga which goes on forever.
I only skim read it and can't remember the details and that is no bad thing...
This was car crash territory - you can't stand it but it is next to impossible to look away.
Sean does express some remorse at the end but events are too extreme to allow for forgiveness.
He is just irredeemable.
The fundamental problem is that no one who had gone through what happened to the heroine at the ' hero's hands could possibly want him any where near them thereafter.
As a reader i was NOT rooting for Sean.... in any other book he would be classified as the VILLAIN.
In fact throughout the book I was hoping that she would escape and get away from the evil sob.
My abiding aspiration was that he should be sent to jail and have the key thrown away - that or come to a bad end.
Alas this did not happen.
The whole thing made me feel slightly dirty
Not what I would call a romance.
I picked this up in order to see what all the fuss was about.
On the positive side, the book is well written and that probably explains why people keep reading it and some brave souls even finish the thing.
On the negative side of the scale:
We have horrible Irish people who appear to be barbarians but are excused due their desire to fight for liberty from the wretched English.
The hero kidnaps the heroine and then rapes her violently within the first 30 pages.
He starves her and forces her to work as his servant until she faints.
No one in the rest of the castle sees anything wrong with this and not one of them tries to help her - either the gentry, the doctor or the servants. The portrayal of the Irish was pretty unpleasant.
The heroine tries to escape but is caught and lashed to the back of a horse and dragged back to the castle
The hero then puts her in fetters
He rapes her some more and tells her it is either him or his men.
He goes off to kill her father and on his return he again rapes her violently.
No one helps her.
She is used as his whore for a further period and whether he is violent depends on his mood.
Things appear to ' improve' between them but when she helps his brother due to fear of an Irish uprising, the brother marries her and also rapes her.
Sean catches her , shears her hair off, is violent to her and rapes her some more
He then throws her to his men inviting them to gang rape her ( she is rescued by a third party intervention)
He then has her locked in her cell for months, with no light and provided with starvation rations.
When he goes to see her after a while, he feels an itsty bitsy speck of remorse about the state she is in but not enough to let her go.
He has his lover round, strikes the heroine, breaking her ribs and forces her on a horse whereupon she has a further accident, where she is almost killed and she losses her baby, which had already died anyway due to her period in the cell where she was starved.
He comes to believe that they may be siblings and sends her off back to England.....
The second half of the book seems to involve torture, loss of body parts, monasteries, France, and further saga which goes on forever.
I only skim read it and can't remember the details and that is no bad thing...
This was car crash territory - you can't stand it but it is next to impossible to look away.
Sean does express some remorse at the end but events are too extreme to allow for forgiveness.
He is just irredeemable.
The fundamental problem is that no one who had gone through what happened to the heroine at the ' hero's hands could possibly want him any where near them thereafter.
As a reader i was NOT rooting for Sean.... in any other book he would be classified as the VILLAIN.
In fact throughout the book I was hoping that she would escape and get away from the evil sob.
My abiding aspiration was that he should be sent to jail and have the key thrown away - that or come to a bad end.
Alas this did not happen.
The whole thing made me feel slightly dirty
Not what I would call a romance.
November 4, 2015
If you're looking for an absorbing read, Stormfire is it. This belongs at the top of the Legendary Bodice Ripper list. It's chock full of delicious WTF-ery. The hero is what psychiatrists would diagnose as... schizo? Bipolar? PTSD? Just pure evil? The (quote/unquote) hero rapes the heroine so violently that he almost kills her. He beats her, starves her, and mentally tortures her so much it's a surprise and delight that she is actually able to survive. Of course she's "fiery" and "willful" and "resistant" so that apparently warrants the hero doing things like raping her until she bleeds over and over, throwing her against the corner of a table so hard it breaks her ribs, putting a Jacob-Marley-style ball and chain around her neck, locking her in a dungeon for 3 months with no light or food, threatening to kill her, giving her naked body to his men for gang rape, etc etc. Tad-da! It's the bodice ripper version of Ted Bundy!
One of my favorite WTF moments comes when Catherine has passed out freezing her little body in an unheated bedroom with no blankets and Sean examines her and finds the shackle around her neck and ankles have festered into open wounds. He says to himself "the little nitwit didn't even think to pad the shackles". Oh yes Sean, I'm sure she was wearing the chains for her own shits and giggles.
Gradually, Catherine and Sean find themselves falling for each other in a way that only Stockholm Syndrome can explain. Why is Sean Culhane so irresistible? I guess that's something to discuss with my therapist. You know the saying....It's so bad, it's good.
However, Stormfire is truly beautifully written and Christine Monson created two vivid characters that stay with you long after you finish the novel. It lived up to every expectation and then some. Truly in a league of its own.
One of my favorite WTF moments comes when Catherine has passed out freezing her little body in an unheated bedroom with no blankets and Sean examines her and finds the shackle around her neck and ankles have festered into open wounds. He says to himself "the little nitwit didn't even think to pad the shackles". Oh yes Sean, I'm sure she was wearing the chains for her own shits and giggles.
Gradually, Catherine and Sean find themselves falling for each other in a way that only Stockholm Syndrome can explain. Why is Sean Culhane so irresistible? I guess that's something to discuss with my therapist. You know the saying....It's so bad, it's good.
However, Stormfire is truly beautifully written and Christine Monson created two vivid characters that stay with you long after you finish the novel. It lived up to every expectation and then some. Truly in a league of its own.
January 27, 2011
I am very hard pressed to describe this book, it is by far the most violent romance book I have ever read. I recently started to review old time romances that have a male character who is a complete ass and beaten up female but this goes beyond everything else. There is all sorts of violence, physical, sexual, mental, at first I could not believe there will be any romance coming out of the whole thing, I cried and I had to speed read some pages because I had to get to a more peaceful part. At some point I just thought that the author will kill off the characters and give them some piece. In reality no living thing can go through so much and come out alive/sane. At times this book greatly reminded me of Outlander series (first 2 books), there are a lot of similarities, although this book had a lot more hurt, Jamie’s ordeal looks like nothing too much after reading this. I need something nice and cheerful to take away from this entire story, it needed more happy ending then it got, this book begs for an ever after princes tale epilogue, sigh but at the end it kept me so occupied that I finished it of in a day and half. I am not sure if I will Endeavour to read anything by this author again, but I do not regret reading this book.
July 11, 2018
I picked this up hoping for a brutal and engrossing soap opera and Monson delivered. She is not messing around. There's plenty of action and mayhem. As anyone who has heard of this book probably knows, Sean kidnaps and rapes Catherine to get back at her father because he commandeered a brutal raid in the town Sean lived in that resulted in the rape and murder of his mother. He also beats her, starves her, makes her wear neck and ankle chains, works her to exhaustion, and continually threatens to murder her. He also goes into kind of rage fugue states where he loses complete control of his actions and can't recall them the next day. The raping actually stops earlier in the book than I anticipated but fear not, other abuses persist.
Catherine and Sean both have appropriately tortured back stories, and this book heaps comically over the top suffering upon them, especially Catherine. Over the course of this wild tale Sean shifts from violent to domineering, controlling, and "protective" of Catherine. Catherine resists, throwing back a lot of sass mouth, trying to escape, before eventually realizing her traitorous body lurrrves Sean. Eventually, the sheer power of their sexual chemistry overcomes their mutual hatred. Before we get to our (lol) HEA there are side dalliances for both (and other women who are so hot for Sean they try to kill Catherine too natch), periods of imprisonment for both, and tons of pain including multiple near death experiences for our intrepid couple. The roster of scheming supporting characters is also fun.
I enjoyed this book a lot. Everything about it feels epic. The big personalities, the nutso plot twists, the intensity of the characters' suffering, the flowery writing, so much meaty drama. The characters are spirited, resilient, and resourceful, always up for a spontaneous surgery, mercy killing a family member, or improbably surviving grievous bodily injury. The only downside is, as is typical for the genre, this book is too long. You could lose most of the last 100 pages of this no problem. I didn't really care about the French hijinks. Also,
Catherine and Sean both have appropriately tortured back stories, and this book heaps comically over the top suffering upon them, especially Catherine. Over the course of this wild tale Sean shifts from violent to domineering, controlling, and "protective" of Catherine. Catherine resists, throwing back a lot of sass mouth, trying to escape, before eventually realizing her traitorous body lurrrves Sean. Eventually, the sheer power of their sexual chemistry overcomes their mutual hatred. Before we get to our (lol) HEA there are side dalliances for both (and other women who are so hot for Sean they try to kill Catherine too natch), periods of imprisonment for both, and tons of pain including multiple near death experiences for our intrepid couple. The roster of scheming supporting characters is also fun.
I enjoyed this book a lot. Everything about it feels epic. The big personalities, the nutso plot twists, the intensity of the characters' suffering, the flowery writing, so much meaty drama. The characters are spirited, resilient, and resourceful, always up for a spontaneous surgery, mercy killing a family member, or improbably surviving grievous bodily injury. The only downside is, as is typical for the genre, this book is too long. You could lose most of the last 100 pages of this no problem. I didn't really care about the French hijinks. Also,
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