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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:

"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."

"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.

melodramatic, corny, and all kinds of awesome. what an experience this book was!

🖤

Top 10 Bodice Rippers
should be noted that I've only read 10

1. Lemonade by Nina Pennacchi
the only modern br I've read, and easily the best

2. The Silver Devil by Teresa Denys
darkest of the dark

3. Stormfire by Christine Monsoon
ne plus ultra

4. Sweet Savage Love by Rosemary Rogers
a sweet and savage Western, of all things

5. Skye O'Malley by Bertrice Small
a Mary Sue of the highest caliber

6. Bound by the Heart by Marsha Canham
lots of great action and battles and ships

7. Island Flame by Karen Robards
pirate gives a spanking; heroine falls in love

8. The Last Carnival by Alexandra Ellis
excellent Venetian atmosphere but hero = doorknob

9. A Pirate's Love by Johanna Lindsey
my first bodice ripper; Jesus wept

10. Into Passion's Dawn by Michele Dubarry
he literally bites her and not in a fun way