Worst Romance Heroes Hall Of Fame: Rapey!
LatestWhenever someone mentions horrible, rapey, sadistic romance novel heroes, Catherine Coulter’s first historical romance comes up. Obviously, we had to check it out. And boy, this book is no joke.
The Hero: Anthony Welles, Earl of Clare, a handsome, ruthless nobleman of 34. In addition to his British lands, the Earl holds and Italian title and an estate in Genoa. He’s also had all kinds of dealings with pirates and brigands, including some pirate king, with whom he had a wager that he couldn’t bring some woman in the harem “to pleasure”…anyway, it’s not important. Suffice it to say, he’s a legendary lover, adventurer, horseman, sea-captain, businessman and man-about-town. He could have any woman in the world! However, he’s obsessed with…
Our Heroine: Cassandra “Cassie” Brougham is a stunningly beautiful, high-spirited 18-year-old noblewoman who loves flouting convention, sailing, and swimming in the sea. She’s grown up not far from the earl.
The Plot: [Spoiler Alert] Cassie has been in love all her life with a dashing soldier named Edward. When he comes back from the wars, much petting ensues, manhoods become engorged, lusts are unsated, and they decide to marry. However, on the eve of their wedding, Cassie is kidnapped while sailing by the Earl of Clare, who takes her aboard his yacht, The Cassandra. Turns out he was obsessed with her late mother, has been grooming Cassie all her life to be his wife, and is determined no one else shall have her. (“I’ve never known a man to raise his own wife,” his crusty Scottish manservant tells him, somewhat admiringly.) He rapes her, repeatedly. Like, unambigous, tearful, painful, she’s-tied-down raping. Of course, by the next time it happens her traitorous body responds to him, and then she can’t help herself from having sex with him constantly. At one point, in a scene ripped right from the pages of Georgette Heyer’s Devil’s Cub if Devil’s Cub were awful, she shoots the earl and tries to escape. Then she feels bad about it. Oh, and there’s also some part where she demands the earl give her a lashing as he would any of his men over some minor infraction; this, you see, demonstrates her courage and strength of character.