Caress and Conquer

by Connie Mason

CAPTIVE OF PASSION
Lovely, young, and poverty-stricken, Amanda Prescott was forced to support herself and her invalid mother any way she could. Cast into prison for stealing, she was horrified to learn that she would be transported to the American Colonies to serve her term as an indentured servant. Her master turned out to be none other than dashing plantation owner, Tony Brandt, the very man who had unwittingly caused Amanda's downfall. Yet from their first passionate embrace, Amanda knew her heart would belong to him forever.

Despite the differences in their stations, Tony was determined to wed her. But his jealous mistress had other plans. Soon Amanda found herself held captive by another's desire, and only Tony's consuming love could win her freedom.

Genres: Historical Romance, Historical, Romance, Enemies To Lovers, Abuse, Adult, Dark

480 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1986

About the author

Connie Mason or Cara Miles is the best-selling author of more than fifty historical romances and novellas. Her tales of passion and adventure are set in exotic as well as American locales. Connie was named Story Teller of the Year in 1990 by Romantic Times and was awarded Career Achievement award in the Western category by Romantic Times in 1994. Connie makes her home in Tarpon Springs, Florida with her husband Jerry.

Prior to her first published work in 1984, Connie was a full time homemaker. Always an avid reader, writing was one of Connie's dreams.

In 1995 Connie was featured on a segment of the CBS news show 48 Hours, a television production that devoted an entire program to the romance novel industry. Connie was also featured in an article published by National Inquirer.

In addition to writing and traveling, Connie enjoys telling anyone who will listen about her three children and nine grandchildren, and sharing memories of her years living abroad in Europe and Asia as the wife of a career serviceman. In her spare time Connie enjoys reading, dancing, playing bridge and freshwater fishing with her husband.

Reviews

[Vivisection · Rating 1 out of 5]

Holy cesspit of political incorrectness, Batman! I am.... I just.... <-- That's me with mouth agape at the sheer wrongness of this novel. (and yet I did keep reading because there was some smutty, smutty sex).

Even by the ridiculously low standards set by the early age of bodice rippers, this book was BAD.

Let's start with all the rape.

Raping nobility
Raping prison guards
Raping overseers
Raping hero
Raping sailors
Raping savage Indians who can't get heap big fill of white flesh
Raping scorned woman who uses men to rape in her place
Raping black buck who doesn't really rape but is forced to simulate rape

Let's move on to the racism.
Indians are savages.
Blacks are gentle giants who love their masters.
All men of color want virginal white flesh.
White flesh is defiled once a penis of color enters it.

And the Sexism
There's lots of mansplaining. The heroine, despite the several descriptions of her amazing strength, is unable to speak up and so her hero/domestic abuser/rapist must mansplain to her how she feels.

Turns out, that all a woman needs to recover from rape is a couple nights of abstinence and the love of her first rapist/lover.

Also, it's A-OK for a man to beat a woman, rape a woman, degrade a woman, humiliate a woman--as long as he loves said woman. Life is hard for a plantation owner of noble birth when he buys a woman who has been raped a lot and then lets her get raped over and over--even raping her himself. That's hard. Sometimes a man just has to take his rage out on a woman. Cause he's a man. He'll mansplain that later if she dares try to ask a question during all the mansplanations.

I want to remind everyone, I have incredibly LOW expectations with this type of novel. I am not hard to amuse or entertain. But this book....

I can't... I just...<--mouth still agape...

[Lauren · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reread: 6/30/24
I was hoping I judged this book too harsh last time, but no, I didn't. I can handle disturbing, politically incorrect books (Stormfire),in fact, I thrive on them, but this story lacked interesting characters (except the h) and plot.

The other problem was the OW. The book should have ended with the MC marriage but no let's bring the bitch back in the last 40 pages. She was like a bad penny you couldn't get rid of

I would recommend trying CM other books.

Read: 2021
2.5 stars
**************Orginal review **********??
I enjoy BR, but this one was too much for me. The author liked treating her h like shit. It felt like every time something bad happened, the h was going to get raped. Give the poor girl a break! Amanda never even gets a chapter to be happy before something else happens. CM kept one dramatic catastrophe after another. The book seriously needed editing.

I'm not going to summarize the story bc I see other reviewers have already done a better job than I ever cou, d but here is a list:

The book contained- rape, multiple kidnappings, force servitude, pregnancy, a child (H denies it his) , slaves, Cherokee Indians (in a very bad light), alpha-male a**hole, the good guy not getting the girl, an evil, violent mistress, and did I mention rape. 😒

I gave this book 3 stars bc while I couldn't stand what was done to the h, I also couldn't put the book down. I probably need therapy 😉

Verdict: While I enjoy BR, I found this one to be redundant (rape) and lacking in imagination. CM has written better!

Sidenote for author: You can't sell your title or entitled lands. He also seemed to change titles as the story continued. First, a 2nd son of a Duke, then an Earl. Either way, he would have the honorary title of Lord and would never be called Sir.

[KatieV · Rating 2 out of 5]

This has been on so many classic bodice ripper lists that I just had to check it out. I knew it wouldn't be to my taste, but sometimes I enjoy being offended or shocked. What I was, believe it or not, was amused and mostly bored.

This was such an over-the-top crazed train wreck that I couldn't help giggling. Horrible things happen to our sweet Mary Sue, but I wasn't disturbed. All the characters were so two dimensional and the story was told from such an emotional distance that I couldn't trouble myself to be upset by anything that happened to them.

The villain was hysterically evil and the racism toward slaves and the Indians was so stereotypical and blatant that it was almost like the author was trying to offend us (i.e. an episode of South Park) in order to make a larger point. Problem was there was no larger point. It was was just over-the-top racism with no satirical intent. If you want to know 'how bad it got' read spoilers below.



Our heroine Amanda was raised in a respectable family in England. However, when dear papa died they fell on hard times. Poor mama couldn't face life without dear papa and her health rapidly declined.

Amanda kept them barely afloat with her sewing. She was only sixteen when she had to go out to buy lace to finish her latest sewing job. A group of upper crust young men decided she must be a prostitute and forced her to go to an inn to await the "hero" Tony who was seriously horny.

Tony was so drunk that he didn't realize that he'd just raped a sixteen year old girl with a traitorous body multiple times. He had things to do, so he left a coin and went on his way.

Since Amanda wasn't able to get the lace to finish her sewing job on time, things rapidly went even further south for her and she was eventually busted for stealing a loaf of bread to feed her starving/dying mother. She ended up in Newgate prison.

In prison she was able to whittle her pool of potential rapists down to one, a prison guard who promised to protect her and feed her starving mother if she'd give it up "willingly". The paragon even buried her mother when she died.

Amanda was finally convicted and sentenced to be shipped off to the colonies to be purchased as an indentured servant. Our charming hero (who has decided to give up his eventual earldom in favor of being a plantation owner in the colonies) purchases her because there's something that draws her to him even though she's half-starved, plus he feels a duty to save her from the pervy preacher who wants to buy her. Amanda is horrified because she knows who Tony is, but she never tells him (he eventually learns from one of his friends toward the end of the book).

Thus begins the real drama. Tony wants Amanda, but their love is constantly being thwarted by his mistress Letty. Because of Letty, Amanda is:

- nearly whipped by Tony for dropping Letty's birthday cake in her lap (after Letty secretly stabbed her in the leg)
- actually whipped by Letty's evil overseer
- locked outside during an Indian raid and carried off. She believes she was gang raped, but actually she passed out after the first began raping her and then after that she starts her period, which makes her "unclean" to the others.
- kidnapped while Tony is away and forced to simulate sex with a large slave named 'Buck' in front of the evil overseer and Letty (who's seriously turned on). Buck doesn't actually have sex with her because he loves another slave and.... wait for it.... he's so unbelievably well hung that he knows he'd tear her apart if he did.
So, they pretend to go along with Letty's evil plan of getting Amanda pregnant with a black child as her final revenge on Tony who Letty thinks she had murdered anyway.

As if Letty isn't bad enough Amanda also comes to a lot of grief at the hero's hands.
-he slaps her once when she tries to avoid his advances. He's never slapped a woman before, but he wants Amanda sooooooo badly.
-he relegates her to the hot, steamy attic and field work after returning from a trip to find she's had a baby that was born a month or so earlier than he'd calculated possible. So, obviously she was slutting it up on the prison ship and had another's baby. All the mistreatment results in heatstroke and her milk drying up. Then his house slave tells him the baby is his and he's like 'oh my god' and starts acting decent again. Yes, that's how much convincing it took after him being a giant dick for so long. Yes there is an apology, but like everything else it lacked any emotional impact.

IMHO the emotion impact of this novel is about as stirring as my summary. However it earned a second star from me for sheer train wreck craziness and a few horrified giggles at the sheer cartoonish outrage of it all.

[Twiggy · Rating 4 out of 5]

OMG

This is just beyond belief!

The heroine is the impoverished daughter of a professor and a well born woman. When her father dies, her mother supports them by working as a seamstress. She eventually attracts the attention of a wealthy noble client and sends Amanda (16) out by herself to get some extra lace so that the dress can be finished on time.

Within the first 10 pages, Amanda is accosted by 3 men who decide that she is a street walker and just the ticket as a fare well gift for their friend Tony. Of course, this being bodice ripper land, Amanda fails to properly alert them to the fact that they have made a mistake and when they strip her in a bedroom, instead of trying to escape, she falls asleep naked on the bed.

Tony staggers into bed has a bit of a grope before he realises that there is a female in bed with him and then goes at it all night long with her. She doesn't exactly protest too much and certainly doesn't try and fight him off; instead she rather enjoys it - even in drunk and in the dark he is irresistible!

I'm with one of the other reviewers who makes the point that it's hard to fathom how any normal sober woman would be enthused by having a drunken sod, whom she doesn't know and can't see, fall on top of her and have sex with her without so much as a hello and especially an innocent virgin of this time period. Why she wasn't screaming blue murder? How could she possibly have enjoyed it?

Tony never even realises she was a virgin and doesn't bother to get a good look at her. She is just a body that he's had the use of.

Anyway things go down hill from here : because Amanda doesn't escape until the next day, the lace is not available and the noble customer is left dissatisfied and storms off promising that no one will use the seamstress again. The mother falls ill and they have no money. Amanda gets caught stealing a loaf of bread and is sentenced to life in Newgate.

The constable offers her a deal, that if she will consent to let him bed her, he will protect her from the other guards and will see to her mother. She spends months in Newgate getting raped by the constable once a week and having to watch the other women in her cell, getting raped nightly by the other guards. She is beyond traumatised.

Amanda is then selected to be sent to America as an indentured servant to work off a period of 7 years. The trip on the boat is pretty bad but the captain only let's his men have sex with willing women, so she is not raped but has to watch others copulating in front of her.

When they land, she is bought by Tony, whom she immediately recognises. She doesn't say anything to him, although she thinks about revenge. Tony initially purchases her in order to get her away from a lecherous preacher, but his good intentions don't last too long ( a couple of hours?) . On the very first night of their journey to his planation he has sex with her. She is half starved, soaked, naked and generally traumatised and initially protests although soon succumbs. Given that the hapless heroine was in a pretty bad state and in light of the power imbalance between them, I would say that certainly blurred, if not crossed the line between forced seduction and rape.

Moreover Tony's attitude to the HH is not exactly one of sympathy or remorse and he makes it clear that he thinks her little better than a prostitute who likely has the pox! What a charmer!

From here on in, we get to see that Tony has some kind of bi polar disorder. One minute he is charming and kind , whilst the next he is just vicious. Also he doesn't seem to mind the fact that his mistress is an Evil Bitch Queen from hell and certainly doesn't object to her abuse of his servants/ slaves.

The very first time Letty sees Amanda, she creates a scene calling Amanda a whore and strikes her with her riding crop across the face. Tony, who stands by and watches, takes this in his stride, and although he apologises to Amanda, in No Way could it be suggested that he takes any kind of stand to protect her or to ostracise Letty for her unacceptable actions.

Instead when Letty demands that Amanda serve the table at her forthcoming birthday party he agrees although he knows it's a bad idea and likely to cause Amanda significant embarrassment. When Amanda dares to protest he rages at her ' how dare you speak to me in such an insolent manner' and when goaded, she tells him she would have preferred the parson to him. he grabs her saying ' then I will treat you as he would have done' and molests her. When she struggles and slaps him, he strikes her back across the face, knocking her to the ground : 'oh my god, what have I done, I've never struck a woman before!' - Really it's hard to believe him!

Amanda then serves at the dinner table but has a really bad feeling. Letty waits till she brings in the birthday cake and then stabs her with a knife in the leg , making Amanda drop the cake. Letty becomes hysterical claiming Amanda did if on purpose and demands that she be whipped and punished - it's just 100 pages in and already Letty is EVIL and more to the point, for a man looking for an easy life, embarrassing and irrationally bloodthirsty.

Instead tony feels he has to placate Letty and in front of the EBQ tells Amanda that he will punish her.

He and the EBQ then have wild rampant sex, even after he has said he will not marry her. Amanda escapes the noise of their wild mating by going for a walk outside. She bumps into Nathan (the decent over seer )who kisses Amanda, but this is observed by the 'hero' and results in Tony having public exhibition sex with Letty on the balcony, before all and sundry.

The next day Tony calls Amanda before him to punish her and he picks up his riding crop. She raises her skirt to show the knife mark ( but of course does not actually explain what she is doing) and he gets all excited thinking she wants to seduce him. A struggle ensues and she ends up face down on the ground with his booted foot on her neck, her skirts raised above her bottom and him poised to whip her, when he is interrupted by Nathan, who is pretty appalled - as you would be...

I mean WTF????

Tony gets a bit flustered as it occurs to him that the scene doesn't look too good. He is surprised and outraged when Nathan offers to buy her papers. Honestly, our a hole is an honourable man!

He goes to speak to the heroine the next day but don't expect an apology. No our a hole thinks now is the right time to chastise Amanda for kissing Nathan. He the forcibly kisses her himself and throws her away from him, calling her a whore.

Amanda goes to bathe in the river and is spotted by Tony who seeing her naked, seizes the moment. He takes her and though she is hesitant, she just can't resist the b. She then tells him about her time in Newgate and the fact that she was left alone on the ship but doesn't reveal their previous encounter. For a period of time he treats her well and they 'fall in love'. She realises she is pregnant but just as she is about to tell him, he is called away to England and although there is a 2 day window of opportunity, we are in BR land, And somehow the the right moment continuously eludes her...well, what do you expect, she is TSTL!!!

He goes away to England thinking to himself that he would marry the h on his return and trundles off to sell his estate and title ( the latter being impossible!) . He doesn't come home until after the baby is born thereby rendering it illegitimate. ( throughout the book no one seems to care and there is absolutely no CONCEPT of societal norms and the significant stigma and prejudice attached to illegitimacy)

In the interim the EBQ sees her opportunity to brutalise the hapless heroine and she and her lecherous overseer arrive unannounced and haul Amanda to a post and proceed to whip her back ( the evil plan being to flay the skin from her back and then to mutilate her face).

Amanda faints but is rescued by Nathan who spend the rest of the time telling her he loves her and begging her to marry him so that he can get her away from Tony ( yeh!!).

of course the h is in fact: TSTL and accordingly cannot bring herself to love the really nice decent, gentle man who loves her and must instead hang out for the brutal a hole instead.

Anyway she has a fall and the baby comes a month early which means that when Tony returns , he refuses to believe that the baby is his and declares that the h is a lying slut. His friend Sir Francis,( again wrongly titled: as we're told he's the son and heir of a Duke - what is it with this author?) is also with him and he was one of the charming chaps who had kidnapped the h off the street in the first place to give her to the a hole right back on page 10. He recognises her but doesn't say anything to the hero.

Nathan takes the head staggers at Tony's unconscionable behaviour and leaves the plantation making it clear that he would buy the heroines papers and make an honest woman of her at any stage.

Letty makes a reappearance and being the martyr that she is, our heroine declines to tell the a hole about the EBQ's actions. Instead she listens night and after night as they shag like bunnies. Letty discovers Amanda and the baby and to placate the EBQ , he banishes Amanda and Jon to an airless cramped attic room which significantly impacts on her health.

He allows Letty to have the run of his house and she spends her time abusing his staff or having sex with Tony as an endurance sport. Eventually he decides he will marry Letty after all come december and when The EBQ asks for amanda's indenture papers as a wedding gift, he thinks, what a great idea!

He then informs the HH of his grand plan and gloats over her panic. This guy a git of epic proportions!

And it only gets worse...

When Amanda falls to her knees, begging him not to do this and swearing that he would be sentencing her and Jon to death, he then blackmails her, stating that he will only stand up to Letty and not hand over the papers, if the hapless heroine will strip then and there and let him have sex with her in the study and thereafter every night until his marriage.

So she gives in and although her weak body can't help but respond to his overwhelming sexiness, she kind of hates him for his actions ( about time!!).

He works her throughout the day, shags her throughout the night, takes her milk so that the baby doesn't get it, let's her have 2 hours 'respite' a night in the attic heat trap, which is filled with mosquitos and fails to notice that she has lost weight and is on the point of collapse. She gets to the point where she almost hates him for treating her as a sexual convenience/ slave and for taking her nourishment from her son. The key word here being, almost...

To top it all, he then announces to her that he requires her to work in the fields planting rice along with the other slaves.

At this point I HATE this guy!!!

My god I can't tell you how appalling he is!!!

so Amanda is rightly outraged but feels she has no choice and goes out to the fields the next day.

Francis is horrified and puts it bluntly ' my god, Tony, you've gone too far this time, she is a nursing mother, have you no conscience?' which pretty much sums it up, the answer clearly being NO!!!

He realises his excuses sound lame to his own ears but does this give him pause? Not on your nelly.

However he does feel some remorse when Amanda collapses in a heap. Francis : ' you insensitive oaf! Amanda is no slave...where has your mind been these last few weeks!'. He takes the hapless heroine back to the house and when stripping her finally notices the scars on her back and the events with Letty come out. He also finally accepts that Jon is his son.

Being the gracious b that he is, he gives Amanda and Jon their old room back and then pops in to propose marriage, telling her that he will burn her papers what ever answer she gives ( this being BR land , what's the betting that this comes true anytime soon?).

For once Amanda shows a bit of back bone and indicates that she needs time to consider as after all he has not exactly covered himself in glory so far and she's also wary of his susceptibility to the EBQ from hell.

But she is overwhelmingly grateful to be free! Foolish foolish girl - why doesn't she make him burn the papers in front of her then and there!?!

Francis and she talk and she tells him the reality of her circumstances at their first meeting.

The EBQ returns just in time to interrupt the stupid F***wit from burning her papers and of course he announces his intentions to Letty and all but waves the envelope in her face. Nathan runs into the room warning of an Indian attack and the EBQ uses the opportunity to steal the papers and replace them with a blank note, which f***wit then dutifully destroys without checking.

So of course he lets Letty stay given the imminent Indian attack and then leaves her in the house alone with Amanda and 3 female slaves. The EBQ from Hell strikes again by convincing Amanda to check outside and then refusing to let her back in when she is pursued by Indians and Amanda is kidnapped. Letty's role in this comes out and after Tony almost kills her, she vows revenge...

In the interim 4 braves make off with the hapless heroine and she is brutally raped by the leader but as she passes out, thinks all 4 have had a go She is tied up naked to a post at their village awaiting their ritual ceremony where Everyman in the entire tribe will rape her. Tony, Nathan and francis ride to the rescue. Tony saves her just when she is about to kill herself to avoid the fate worse than death. They escape and Tony declares his love and the fact that the rape does not matter to him. He then starts to kiss her and has a good grope and it comes as a bit of a shock when she pulls back and isn't overly enthused about the prospect of sex. It's because he's such a sensitive soul...

She feels better the next day but that night Tony makes a further pass at her and only barely stops at her protests. Really, why hasn't she got over it after 24 hours!

After all he wants and needs her, then and there, on the trail!

Unbeknownst to them, they are followed by the ravaging Indians. They capture Tony and Amanda and go to gang rape Amanda but are stopped by the fact it is her time of the month. They are again rescued by Nathan and Francis and this time make it back home. Tony gets a bit fed up of lack of sex after a month and spends the next two weeks convincing the HH to give it up. Finally after a night of relentless passion, he goes off to seek a preacher so that they can be married.

Enter EBQ from Hell stage left...

So Letty hires two thugs to kill Tony and no one hears from him for months as he is presumed dead. The EBQ then strikes at Amanda by producing her papers of indenture and a forged bill of sale. She keeps the HH starved and naked for 2 weeks but doesn't allow the eager overseer to rape her, because Letty is shagging Ben herself and doesn't like to share.

She implements her evil evil plan by giving Amanda to one of the slaves for sex and threatening him that if he doesn't impregnate her within 2 months, he will be castrated. EBQ and perverted Ben then watch the floor show and get all hot and sweaty themselves. Unbeknownst to them in fact Buck and Amanda are play acting and he does not touch her. Letty is gleeful when she learns Amanda is pregnant and doesn't realise that it is Tony's baby.

Anyway Tony turns up after 3 months, after suffering from ( can you guess it? ) yes, amnesia!

He goes on the rampage and kills Ben.

Letty admits that she had tried to have him killed and gloats about the fact that Amanda will have a black baby.

F***wit of course fails to kill her or prosecute her or get the bloody indenture papers and just assumes she will go away and never bother them again. SERIOUSLY!!!!

He finds Amanda who tells him what has actually gone on and they finally get round to a marriage ceremony.

The property next door is bought by an English Duke and his new wife and they are invited to a ball.

Oh, who could the duchess be?

Ta da : it's Letty! She's like the plague, she just won't go away...

The EBQ decides that her husband isn't quite enough for her and blackmails Tony by threatening to utilise the indenture papers against Amanda unless he sleeps with her.

Does it occur to Tony to threaten to prosecute her for his attempted murder?
To blackmail her back with a threat to tell her husband that she is an insane demented nympho who everyone has slept with?
To tell the husband That she has tried to kill him and blackmail him about the papers?
To request the return of the papers from the nice, reasonable and well mannered husband?
To point out that as Tony is an Earl, his wife is a Countess and really he would like to buy the papers back...
to make any kind of a stand WHATSOEVER???

Of course not.

No, instead f**kwit decides he has no choice but to man up for hardcore duty. Oh, it's such a chore!

The HH observes the a hole shagging the EBQ who has consistently plotted to have her raped, impregnated, abused and degraded beyond belief. It's fair to say that this a source of some upset to her....

The a hole decides that he doesn't like the guilt and so takes all his anger out on Amanda.

He then plots to kill Letty but discovers her already dead.

It turns out that her husband has killed her in a jealous rage and he just admits all with no pressure whatsoever.

No one wants to pursue a prosecution because by this stage every single male character left alive in the book was planning to murder her.

The husband hands over the papers. A hole tells the HH that he was only shagging the EBQ for her sake.

She forgives him within 2 pages and they rush off to bed.

The end...


Totally Gob smacking!

The hero is a weak willed a hole of epic proportions.

The hapless heroine is the doormat of the century which he walks over at just about every opportunity.

The villainess was so extraordinarily evil that by the end it was just comical.

And yet... I couldn't put it down.

I don't know what's wrong with me, but god help me it had great pace, was a really catchy read and there was a definite compulsion to find out what would happen to the HH next - and let's be honest , almost everything did!

Overall it was just so ludicrous that I couldn't help but like it.

In the category of so bad that it's good...

On a side note: what is it with the author and her editor's failure to grasp the correct form of title? Tony is supposed to be an Earl ( which is a Lord) and yet he is referred to a Sir Tony throughout; likewise the Duke, is referred to as Sir Henry ( as opposed to your grace) and likewise Francis would also have been a lord. None of them would be referred to as 'sir' and it's annoying. This is just basic in what is supposed to be a historical romance.

That said, i suppose realism was not really what she was aiming for...

[Jena · Rating 1 out of 5]

I wish I could give this book a minus star if I could for the pure frustration factor... Yes, it has many twists to this story, and as a reader you never know whats going to happen next... because ANYTHING could and DID happen. Every torment a person can go through the heroine went through, from beatings, to rapes, to hearing her "love of her life" having sex with another woman...

If you like these high drama bodice ripper with insanely cruel and abusive hero, try Sweet Savage Love by Rosemary Rogers and skip this. Seriously, this must be one of my most hated romance novel.

[Kathrynn · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was not a romance--at all! I remember being horrified when I read it. The male protagonist should have been taken out and shot! He was horrible, spoiled, mean, nasty and he never redeemed himself. The female protagonist is raped by various individuals throughout the story, flogged, abused by Tony.

Save a tree. Don't bother with this one!

Big thumbs down from This Reader.

[Jac K · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wow! I was actually a bit speechless when I finished this. This book is ridiculous. Like riding the crazy train and eating shit stew for dinner. Why the 3 stars you ask? Because I gobbled that shit stew up like it was chocolate ice cream until 4am because I couldn’t look away. *Disclaimer-I read plenty of reviews before I started the book (pdf from Scribd) so I feel I was in the right mind set (80's soap opera) when I took the plunge.

*This review will be super LONG, rambling, and have lots of spoilers.*

There was so much that was just… wrong, stupid, fucked up…pick one about this book. Honestly, it reminded me of the movie Blazing Saddles served with a side of Dynasty, and South Park for dessert. If you are offended easily, or take literature seriously STAY AWAY you'll hate it! It is offensive in so many ways (race, gender, rape) and is all spun OTT and frankly stupid. I actually stopped mid-read to see when the book was published (1986) because I couldn't imagine a time when this shit would fly. I don't think the author's plan was to write satire, but this is such an over-the-top hot mess that it can't be considered serious even by bodice ripper standards. (in my opinion) Awful things happen to Amanda, but I wasn't affected...cuz she doesn't care. The characters are two dimensional caricatures of real people, and the story is told from such an emotional distance that I couldn't be bothered to be upset much by anything that happened to them. (until the end)
The villains were so psychotically evil and the racism so stereotypical and shameless that it was almost like Ms. Mason was trying to offend us (maybe to make a point or statement or be thought provoking) but the problem is the story is so shallow and pointless, that no-one is sitting around reflecting on the content after finishing. Following is all spoilers; I'll tag some, just to help with the length of the review:)

Amanda was from respectable family in England, and somewhat sheltered. Her dear dad died, leaving her and her mom alone; Mom tries to support them by sewing. Her mother sends her out to buy lace where she encounters a couple of lads that mistake her for a prostitute, and think she'll be the perfect send off gift for our hero Tony-who is leaving for the colonies the next morning. She attempts to correct them as they rush her to the room, but alas she is young (16) and has been sheltered and they dazzle her with a gold coin while they quickly strip her of her clothes and lock her naked in the room to wait for our hero. She tries to yell and beat the door, but she quickly grows weary and decides to lay down for a nap. Tony staggers into bed drunk, realizes he's not alone and then goes at it all night long with his "gift". She doesn't exactly protest and certainly doesn't try and fight him off; instead she enjoys the pleasure of his body resting with short naps between romps. She doesn't want to like it, she calls it rape, but even drunk and in the dark he's irresistible!

Things go bad after that, Amanda doesn't get the lace and the noble customer is pissed and makes sure everyone knows it. They live off the gold coin for a while then the mother falls ill and Amanda gets caught stealing a loaf of bread and is sentenced to Newgate Prison.
In prison she was able to "strike a deal" with the constable to improve her circumstances. If she agrees to "willingly" have sex with him; he will take care of her mother, and make sure none of the other guards "molest" her. She agrees, and he doesn't hesitate starting their "partnership" right there in the buggy while she ponders how it was such "a joy" to have sex with Tony compared to this dude. She spends months bedding the constable once a week, (never getting pregnant) while watching and listening to the guards snatch up and rape the other prisoners every night with abandon.

Eventually she's sentenced to be shipped off to the colonies and purchased as an indentured servant for seven years. Lucky for her she runs into Tony just as the evil pervy churchy people are snagging her up. He doesn't recognize her, but feels drawn to her so he saves the day and buys her papers. Along the way back to his plantation, they make camp, and have sex. Tony is an exceptional lover and hard to resist. After arriving home, Tony develops a bit of a split personality and fluctuates from wanting her,which usually results in him kissing her then going to screw Letty to being cruel, he insults her, accuses her of being a whore, slaps her once....he's never hit a woman before-he just wants her so muchto being kind....round and round it goes. Add in Letty his psychotic evil mistresswho insults her, stabs her in the leg, whips her across the face with a riding crop that wants to marry Tony, and hates Amanda on the spot. Amanda is attracted to Tony, but has to listen to him banging Letty next door all the time. The overseer Nathan is kind and lurves Amanda, but alas Tony's always on her mind. Then one morning Amanda decides to go for a skinny dip, and Tony stumbles upon her and just has to have her. The have a super sex connection, and Tony declares that he loves her and wants to be her guy. Shortly after Amanda realizes she's preggers, but doesn't tell Tony because they're always having sex. He gets a letter stating that his entire family is dead and he must go settle up his estate and will leave for England in 2 days.

Shortly after Tony leaves, Letty shows up with her overseer and ties Amanda to the tree and flogs her. Thank goodness Nathan arrives in the nick of time to save her. Tony is gone for about a year, in the meantime Amanda falls and has the baby 6 weeks early, (a son named Jon)and only receives 1 letter from Tony. She is worried he will marry now that he is an Earl, and Nathan puts on the full court press for her to marry him, but Amanda stays true to her one and only.

Tony finally returns, and is furious because there is no way Jon is his, and Amanda lied to him and tried to trick him (because she got pregnant whoring around on the ship) He is a complete prick, and Letty shows up just in time to offer a shoulder to cry on. Which he accepts along with lots of loud sex right next door to Amanda and his son. Eventually Letty suggest she move up to the attic, where her and Jon cook (cuz it's summertime) and are eaten up with mosquitos. This is where I checked out on both of them. Tony is a heartless ass, he doesn't notice she's wasting away, is too stupid to consider that the attic's hot, continues screwing Letty all the time...and Amanda is TSTL. At no point does she say...hey asshole the baby arrived 6-weeks early because I slipped on the ice...look at your son he looks just like you...look at the 100's of mosquito bites on his face and we are being burned alive!!
This shit show finally comes to a head when Tony announces that he's marrying Letty, and gifting her Amanda's papers. More bad shit happens, Amanda gets sick, and while tending to her Tony sees the scars all over her back and is outraged that Letty hurt his Amanda. He suddenly remembers what an evil bitch Letty is, and how much he loves her...and hey Jon looks like him-he must be his son.

Tony calls off the wedding, Letty is pissed...she does horrible stuff to Amanda involving Indians locks her out of the house so they kidnap her and rape her...on and on it goes. They get Amanda back, she's traumatized...Tony's patient but they eventually have sex. He rides off the next day to secure a minister to get married. Letty comes up with her master revenge plan. Things go from absurd to ridiculous She pays 2 thugs to kill Tony, he's rescued from the river but has amnesia and stays with a couple for a few months until he sees Francis and is cured. poof-memory back....Meanwhile Letty takes Amanda's papers she stole from and forces her to become Letty's indentured servant. Originally she starves her for a few weeks, then puts her into a slave (Bucky's) cabin and instructs him to impregnate her within two months or she'll castrate him. Bucky and Amanda pretend to have sex, and thank the lord she happened to get pregnant before Tony disappeared so-whew dodged a bullet. Tony comes and rescues her and Letty escapes to England.

At this point the book was almost finished; I just wanted a nice epilogue. Then just when I thought it was over...They receive an invite from their new neighbors Duke and Duchess of Whatever. Ends up the Duchess is...dum dum dumm Letty. She embarrasses Amanda in front of the party and tells Tony to meet with her the next day because she still has those fucking papers and isn't afraid to use them. By now, I was tired it was almost 4am, and I had been on this crazy train for hours. I had taken everything in stride up to this point, maybe I was just tired, or maybe it was because they were married, or maybe the visuals (you are along for the ride in each terrible thing) but this part bothered me...like made my stomach drop. Tony meets Letty in the hunting lodge the next day as instructed. I knew what she was going to do, and had hoped he had alerted her husband to listen, but no. Letty tells Tony that if he doesn't have sex with her she will use the papers and force her to be her servant again. He just gives up, and let’s her get him naked. She goes down on him…he calls her a bitch for making him hard and "feels like he’s going to explode", and hauls her off to the bedroom where he has sex with her twice, and is told to return the following day.

**What I hated was it was totally avoidable. Which was stupid of me to think rationally because the book is made up of one OTT scenario built on another, but the book was over damn it there was only like 10 pages left. She only had a few years left on that damn paper. They could have went to England for a bit...hell she could have hid out in the estate. She tried to kill you, you have options!! All would be better options than having her husband screw the devil.**

He goes home, ignores his wife and sends her to bed alone. This goes on for 2 weeks and her horndog husband doesn’t try to touch her so she knows somethings up. She confronts him, and he acts like an asshole…because he feels guilty. While adding in his stupid thoughts like “God how I love her!” She follows him to the hunting lodge the next day and sees them together through the window.
An excruciating pain as swift and deadly as a knife thrust into her heart… as if her eyes refused to believe the message from her brain, she could only stand in frozen horror and stare at her husband making love to a woman they both had good reason to hate.
Nude sprawled on her back, legs flung wide, eyes glazed with lust, Letty writhed beneath Tony’s naked loins, his buttocks pumping furiously.

But it’s ok, because his face showed no love, or lust…whatever asshole

Amanda rushes home sobbing and confides in Francis she can’t deal and needs to leave… Yes! Go somewhere... leave! but no... Francis finds Nathan and they spy on Tony (he’s been screwing Letty all day-cuz she wouldn’t release him from her lustful embrace….sigh
All three separately decide they must kill Letty, and from a scene straight from Benny Hill the following day all three arrive within minutes of each other and see that in fact Letty is lying in bed dead. (each assuming the other killed her)

Meanwhile Tony refuses to let Amanda into his study… a messenger arrives reporting the death of Letty, and upon reading Tony laughs.
“My God, Tony how can you laugh? Letty’s dead. Thrown by her horse and killed in a tragic accident. “What kind of a man are you?” ummmm….what?? that’s what you’re going to criticize him for? How about why was your lovestick in her yesterday???
Tony once again slams the door in her face and stays there until Nathan and Francis force him to open. While discussing they determine none of them killed Letty…well then who did??? Dum dum dumm...her Duke husband! In a fit of rage he choked her out when she taunted him while laying naked waiting for Tony....but everything's cool cuz it's the end of the book.

With that all sorted out. Tony knows that Amanda saw him with Letty and goes to speak with her, and we get ONE PAGE of this…
Tony I’m so sorry you must be so upset about Letty’s death.
What? I hated her.
I assumed you loved her.
Never! It’s you I love!
You have a strange way of showing it.
Look here. It’s your indentured servant papers. Letty had them and has been using them against me.
She…she forced you to… to…
Make love to her.
You didn’t really love her?
Damn it Amanda, are you listening to me?
Why didn’t you tell me?
Would it have hurt you any less knowing I was making love to Letty against my will?
Blinky eye tears…
Can you forgive me, my love?
Oh Tony! I was so afraid you didn’t love me anymore.
I love you.
I love you too Tony, make love to me.
THE END- I’m not shitting you. That’s what we get…one page with no groveling!! I was so disappointed!! Given the utterly ridiculousness of the book, we could have been given some crazy OTT grovel...and if said he made love to her one more time...ahhhh

[Booklover]

Only one question is in my mind "IS THIS LOVE"?,how can you say you love a person when you do not trust her call her names keep hurting her in worst possible ways and then say give me a chance...........

The H was a man slut who was cruel,his actions and behaviour which he did in the name of love i cannot forgive,h is TSTL.The only thing that was good in the book was in the end Letty was killed,i wanted Tony also murdered but sadly he lived*angry*

I would have even liked the story if Amanda would have shown a little back bone and self-respect and left with Nathan,i do not expect her to get married to him but just walk away from that jerk then she would have been a good woman but sadly here also i was disappointed.There was no grovelling at all,h forgive H too easily.

I cannot rate this book.I regret picking it up:(
Do Not Touch this book.

[Tara · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm halfway through this book and honest-to-God I don't know what else can happen to the poor, poor heroine :S. I'm loving this book but cringing every second page. And it's too bad that Connie had to make the hero borderline retarded (sorry if you find that politically incorrect). No other way to describe him.

I've finished it last night and the hero went from bad to worse in the end. There was no redemption. The heroine went through one horrific tragedy after another, it never ended. All in all, I couldn't put it down. I can see why readers didn't care for it but it was entertaining, for lack of a better word.

[Shellie · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars I read this because of all the reviews, just to read for myself what a train wreck this is! In that sense it delivered and the only word I can use is ridiculous! But as dramatically over the top and ridiculous as it was I continued to read it and went through it in two days. I think this was the second book Connie Mason wrote? Fortunately some of her books got better. I have read and enjoyed many of them and one is a favorite, this however isn’t one of them. I’m definitely going to pass on reading Tender Fury, I believe her first book written as CM. I’m highly suspicious it will be quite similar to this one.

[Nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

I hate my goodreads app. It eats my reviews! This is my second try:

The heroine was likable if somewhat dim-witted. The evil witch was über-evil (I liked this character in the book). The main storyline was suspenseful.

But: it was too much. That left the characters two-dimensional and the whole book seemed over the top. Still an ok read and I am sure that I will go back to another of Connie Masons books (as I do with Catherine Coulter, even if I know better than to do that). A bit less story and a bit more character-development would have improved the book from ok to actually good.

[Roub · Rating 1 out of 5]

this was horrible! i wish never to come across such a book! grasping as it was in a horrible way, i cud not help turning the next page as i wanted to know how amanda wud surmount the new horror befalling her. this was no romance. tony made her life hell. he brought nothing but pain and nightmares in her world. letty was an awfully evil bitch, beyond redemption. what she did twice to amanda was nauseating! i felt so disgusted and i wished the author had brought upon her comeuppance. the book included some brutal rapes and torture to the heroine, which i dunt wish to read about ever again!

[Lina · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was just horrible! I do love Connie Mason's books, but this one was a huge dissapoitment!
Cheating is a definate NO NO for me and this story has plenty of that in it.
I don't recommend this book to anyone i feel regret of wasting my money on it.
There is one other Connie Mason book that has mostly the same story and the same cheating as* of a MC! It is called "Tender Fury"! Avoid it as much as possible!
I had to give a rating, but if its up to me it doesn't even deserves the 1 star rating at all!
This book defo goes to my OH HELL NO Shelf!

[Alpha Possessive Heroes · Rating 5 out of 5]

This author is one of the reason why I am obsessed with cheating hero, hero with other woman sex scenes, OTT alpha heroes. This book totally changed me forever. lol.

[Caroline · Rating 3 out of 5]

Insane

The believability factor is stretched to the point of breaking. It's definitely not CM's best effort, but not bad for a summer read.

[Stacey O'driscoll · Rating 1 out of 5]

all i'm going to say is this 'heroine' is the unluckiest girl on earth. Firstly mistook for prostitute as a virgin and had sex with the drunk guy (who will later be the love interest), but of course they meet again and he doesn't remember her. Before this of course she's in prison for stealing bread and is made to be a whore to the head guy to stop from being raped by everybody. Then she s sold as a slave to.. you've guessed it, the love interest... oooooooooooooh. Now things spice up.... well ctually he dictates her, uses her status to get what he wants while continuing to have sex with his other evil mistress letty who tries to kill her nd hurt her, they finally confess there love but alas, the heroine has given birth and because of it being born early obviously it can't be his. Then he gets engaged to Letty, continues to have sex with the heroine as paymet for not selling his papers to Letty, she is whipped by Letty, this is later found out, after being forced to work, exhausted by the 'hero' of this novel, then he realises it is his baby. Big fucking woop you've treat her like shit and ignored your child for three months while he lived under your roof. She orgives him pathetically easily, is stupid enough to believe Letty even though Letty does everything against her, goes outside when indians attack and proceeds to get raped by 4 indians. She gets rescued by the hero of course... eventually. Then just as things are great IS KIDnAPPED AGAIN BY LETTY!! But the slave of Letty is in love with another, so they pretend to have ex... or he pretends to rape her as logically Letty wants her to get pregnant by this slave... normal behaviour. Once again she is saved. THEN when evetything is all hunky dory the hero is blackmailed by Letty into having sex with her whenever she wants. Th eheroine finds out, Letty gets killed, there's a whole page of 'who dunnit' then out comes Letty's husband. 'I DID IT' *insert shocked gasp here*. Everybody forgives th hero as obviously it's not his fault. the heroine is no longer mad and forgivves him instantly and trusts him completely and everything is right in the world... Jesus she is the most unlucky woman I have ever read about. AVOID THIS COMPLETELY! IT IS ATROCOUS!!

[Rabbit {Paint me like one of your 19th century gothic heroines!} · Rating 2 out of 5]

Rating: 2.5

TW: This book is chock full of rape. It seems the author used rape as a device when things got too boring.

Disclaimer: Snark and gifs.

I don't get it when the heroine falls in love with her rapist. I can understand the twisted love-hate relationship when it's incest or spousal rape, but falling in love with stranger who raped you, who you get to know seems really fucked up. I can't wrap my head around it. DAFUQ.



The hero was such an entitled idiot. The one time where she is gang raped by natives, he was like why can't you let me make love to you, and she was all traumatized and was like I can't right now. After a month of no sexxors, he was complaining about blue balls and how HE was suffering. All the house slaves were like you gotta give it to him because of that. I wanted to shoot off his balls with a shotgun. In all seriousness, he could have masturbated or taken up a mistress, which she told him to do [take up a mistress].



All the aboriginal scenes were so offensive on all levels. I almost rage!quit when I read those chapters.

Lettie was easily my fave character. She was an evil, sadistic bitch, who was cray cray. She was like evil in a cartoony way, so it cracked me up.

[Dendera · Rating 3 out of 5]

So after having Connie Mason's book on my shelves for almost 2 years, I finally decided to read and review this one. CARESS and CONQUER has been praised as one of the most notoriously famous old-school 1980's HR bodice-ripper. Now, I can clearly see what it was notorious for. However down-and-dirty this book really is, I can't say it was an absolute bore or snooze-fest. There was A LOT of DRAMA in this novel, more than I'd expected. There was also a lot of mischievous and sinister plots going on throughout the entire story line. It was, in fact, anything other than boring or tedious. It's very fast-paced and a page-turner, which is always a plus for me. The only two things that kept me from giving 5 stars or actually loving this novel was the sexual content and disorganized story line. It is, by far, NOT a young-adult read; CARESS and CONQUER is a rated R, adult content romance novel. And the sexual scenes were VERY graphic and outright blatant, making this novel dirty at times. The second issue is the story line, which looks as though Connie Mason's work is very sloppy and hasty, for the story line was very disorganized and just not well put together. Other than, it is definitely a novel for lovers of drama!

[Mitzi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amanda Prescott is trying support herself and her ailing mother. She gets lost in the fog while trying to find her way home after going out to purchase some lace to finish her sewing job.

Tony Brandt is celebrating with friends the night before he leaves for the colonies. His friends find Amanda and mistake her for a protitute and take her by force to a room where the very drunk Tony beds her.

She then gets arrested for stealing and gets deported to the colonies as an indentured servant. She gets bought by Tony. She remembers him but he has very foggy memory of her.

Tony is determined to wed her, but his mistress has other ideas.

Good story. I really enjoyed reading this book.

[Mas · Rating 2 out of 5]

- 5 stars. The one star is only because I finished it. The evil Ow basically ran the show until the 97% point of the book. It would almost seem that the book was written by Letty (the other woman) herself because the author most definitely hates the heroine based on the amount of abuse she had to endure. I had to skim and skip over some of the rape scenes. The hero was a zero and a wimp who let the OW rule him. Nathan would have been an awesome hero but alas, the poor heroine was not afforded one of those. Awful book.

[BRNTerri · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book. It's certainly very rough.

[Isabel Gonzalez · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ok so I normally don't rate books... But this was bad enough that I felt the need. I think this review is gonna be a bit of a warning message so here you go. It's gonna be supper lomg but I think worth it. (there will be spoilers just FYI)

Let me start off by saying: I am a romance novel fiend. I will litteraly read any romance book I can get my hands on, sometimes despite the ratings. In my mind, if there are a couple good scenes, the book is worthwhile, reguardles of clichés and such. I am particularly fond of pregnancy romance, and I decided to give this one a shot, reguardles of the bad reviews I read.

So, my main issues with this book were: the rape, the stupidity of a lot of the characters, the sexism, and, of course we can't forget, the racism.

STUPIDITY: Ok so the book starts of with Amanda being led into the bed of Tony. The author intended (?) for this to be sorta like a kidnapping, with Amanda being a virginal beauty who was totally unwilling, but it did not come off that way AT ALL. Like I was literally rolling my eyes in those first few pages because homegirl didn't even fight it. Literally the ONLY thing that got her into this situation was the fact that she kept getting interrupted, and for the life of her couldn't just shout "HEY GUYS, I'M NOT A PROSTITUTE!" Literally, that is all she had to say and she would have been home free. Once in Tony's room, she gets "locked in", which is ridiculous because what hotel room locks from the outside. And once again, instead even trying to open the door, or climb out the window, or create a plan of attack, homegirl FALLS ASLEEP?!?! Like what?!? I mean at that point you just gotta laugh. I'm sorry but that was just beyond stupid.
As the story progresses, a lot of the major conflicts all happen just because someone (usually Tony btw) kept interrupting. I mean it's really not that hard to.. how do I put this.. speak words! And if something is important enough, like you are about to be raped because someone thinks you are a prostitute, or you're pregnant, you say that shit reguardles of some idiot who is saying "it's ok baby it doesn't matter." because, newsflash, IT REALLY DOES.
Amanda wasn't the only idiot in this story for sure. Tony also had some incredibley stupid moments. He literally rejects his own kid just because he wouldn't look the kid in the face and realized "hey this actually looks a lot like me, so Amanda is probably saying the truth". I mean this man would not listen to reason, despite the fact that literally everyone in the book was telling him he was being an idiot. I mean the stupidity was astounding and made the book Soooo frustrating.

RAPE: The author wastes NO time just diving into these rape scenes. Going back to Amanda being led into Tony's bed: She basically let that shit happen and did almost nothing to prevent it. You tell me: If you were about to be raped, wouldn't you do absolutely everything in your power to stop it? I know I would, but Amanda did not, she hadly even tried.
I think this was an attempt by the author to blurr the lines a little, especially because Amanda seems to have enjoyed it sooo much. But let me remind you all of the (very simple) rape guidelines: Was there concent? if not, then it is rape, plain and simple.
I think maybe that first scene might have been redeemed if it were the only rape scene, but alas, it was not. I would say that 95% of the sex scenes in this book were rape scenes; and 90% of Tony's and Amanda's were rape. The amount of times Amanda says "no" to Tony, and Tony ignores her is ridiculous.
Tony is supposed to love her towards the end of the book, and yet for some reason becomes a total asshole who tells her "either have sex with me every night, or I'll give you to this crazy bitch who obviously wants to torture you." THAT IS NOT LOVE! and that anyone would think that is insane.
On top of the Tony sex scenes, Amanda gets raped by other people. When she is in jail toward the begining of the book, she gets continually raped by a constable, which prevents her from getting raped by all thr other officers. At first, although it obviously made me uncomfortable, I accepted it because it did bring a level of reality to this shamble of a book. But then, Amanda gets raped by Native Americans, and later on molested by a slave. By the end of the book, it's pretty plain to see that Amanda is basically just a sexual vesel and nothing more. Throughout the book, that is literaly all she is used for sex. Even after she is raped, Tony semi-forces himself on her, because the asshole has gone too long without sex.
Again, if the author had properly adressed the physical and emotional trauma that a rape victim goes through, the book would have been tolerable. She makes an attempt at this after Amanda is kidnapped by the Nativie Americans, but, like I said before, abandons this because poor Tony needs his sex. It was just so beyond disappointing.

SEXISM:
One of the worst tropes in bodice-rippers is the Crazy-Ass-Lover trope, which was of course incorporated into this lovley book. Despite the fact that I'm tired of it, it was so annoying, as a member of the female gender, to have the main too female characters be: sexual object & psycho bitch. I mean, these two traits were literally the only ones displayed by the characters respectively.
Amanda's journey throughout the book consisted of getting raped, getting pregnant, and getting raped again (by the man that "loves" her might I add.
Like aforementioned, I love me some pregnancy romance, but it was just so obvious that Amanda's value was measured by how the kids that came out of her. Even Letizia point blank says how the only thing she's good for is being fertile.
There is a minor character, who use to be Amanda's friend. She was a prostitute as well. Her whole journey is that she got raped by like 7 Native American, but hey, one of them liked her and they got married and had a kid and he kindda loves her (?).
Just sexism all around my friend.

RACISM:
Believe it or not, one of the main reasons I was really hesitant about reading this book was because it was set in America 1760. Books set in that time often times don't sit well with me because they almost never address slavery and racism. This book unfortunately wasn't that different. You have your typical Mammy trope character in Jemma (who by the by, sounds an awful lot like Jemima.. Aunt Jemima anyone?) Who's entire being revolves around Massa Tony. It was so annoying and all I could think was "umm this does not excuse slavery".
Then we move on to the Native Americans. I absolutely hate it when they have to bring Native Americans into the equation, because they just villainize these poor people all around. Like damn can't they get a break. So in this book, we completely overlook the fact that they have been run out of their land, murdered, and all that good stuff. No in this book. The Nativie Americans are savages who literally just kill, and just love to rape white women. The racism was soo blatant in this one, and not once did one Native American woman show up to play a role in the book. Not once did the author show that Native American's main purpose was NOT to go around and rape white women, or show that there was a substantial amount of Native American women that were raped by white men.
Bucks whole character was also incredibly offensive. He was literally just a big black man whos physical attributes were the only things he was used for.

I reiterate: I don't have very high standards when it comes to romance books because I feel even the bad ones have some redeeming qualities. With this book however, I found it so difficult to read on.

I understand that this book is a little bit older, and older romance books I have found tend to have substantial tones of rape, sexism and racism. But this book just sorta went above and beyond.

If you have an issue as I do with any of the things listed above, I suggest you don't read this book because, it's impossible to overlook any of them.

I do know that there are some people out there who are into the whole naive damsel in distress with a hero who is kindda an asshole. In which case this book might be for you. If you are into blurred lines and constant iffy rape scenes, then this book is definitely for you. To each their own.

[Nessa · Rating 2 out of 5]

CONTAIN SPOILERS! PROCEED WITH CAUTION!

I FIND MYSELF AT CROSS ROADS OF RATING THIS STORY, SO I WILL LEAVE IT STARLESS AND YOU MAY BE ADVISED TO JUST READ THIS REVIEW THAT I HAD MUCH TIME TO MULL OVER.

AS I READ THIS STORY, I WAS GRIPPED BY A MULTITUDE OF EMOTIONS AND MOST WERE BORDERING ON NEGATIVITY, AND TRULY I WAS DEEPLY STRESSED AS I FINISHED THIS BOOK. MAINLY, I DIDN'T QUITE LIKE THE HERO OF THIS STORY...NO MATTER HIS REASONS, HE'S NOT A MAN ANY WOMAN SHOULD DESERVE TO LOVE IN REALITY. IT WOULD BE THE MOST PAINFUL AND SAVAGE EXPERIENCE IMAGINABLE, AND ONLY A WOMAN SO STRONG AND PURE COULD TRULY CLAIM TO LOVE HIM.

OUR HERO is a certified asshole of his time, and not even the honorable kind of jerk. To me, he has no honor. We shall start at the beginning. When he was merely about 26 or so, he was leaving England for the Colonies where he now owns a plantation and to send him off, his friends bought him what they assumed to be a dockside whore for him to properly enjoy. Unfortunately, he Tony was too soused to realise that the delicious woman in his bed was a virgin and he used her thoroughly indeed yet, there is something about this mysterious maiden that pulls him in, even if he has never seen her face. A year later, he's already settled in America, and is looking for a housekeeper at his plantation, and attends a function where he can get one without having to buy one for they were convicts who were to become indentured servants, fulfilling their term until their allotted freedom. Sights set on a grumpy, older matron, his attention was diverted by an auburn beauty who was almost sold to a lecherous man, and he stepped in to save her scrawny ass. Of course, he doesn't recognise Amanda and immediately judges her as a convicted whore. Okay, what DISGUSTED me the most about Tony is how lustful he is...it's almost incomprehensible and seriously....no normal man acts like that...unless he's a nympho maybe? Anyways, even if Amanda was willful, she was seduced into it and frankly I call it rape on his part. And Tony was VERY VERY demanding in his sexual conquest of her most of the time, it was painful to read. I felt violated for her, even though he was the hero. AND what I thoroughly LOATHE about his behaviour is how IMMATURE and DISHONORABLE he is as a gentleman, to use two women just to slake his desires in another of another woman. That was just FUCKING GROSS. THANK GOD the evil bitch out to ruin their lives was barren! I can't take anymore of the drama if she pops out and says she's carrying Tony's baby. It was disgusting the number of times he copulated with the bitch, I think even more than he did with Amanda! OMG I cannot unsee what I have vividly seared onto my brain the DISLOYALTY of this man! I fucking hated him then. I felt Amanda was better off with Nathan, Tony's overseer who clearly loved Amanda and treated her right. Tony has many faults that I can nitpick at and I only wonder what Amanda sees in him. He clearly can't get his emotions right, and is quick to jump to conclusions, not to mention he has poor control over his temper. In this entire story, he's like a jealous, pompous, lusty animal who just moans and whines about what he can't get and then bitch about it by retaliating with his bitter, hurtful words. I cannot express with deeper clarity what a TERRIBLE HERO he is. I highly disapprove of his acquiescing to Letty's blackmail into fucking her when he was married to Amanda....it just didn't seem like the right thing a man in love should do. True, maybe it was a greater sacrifice to protect Amanda at his own sanity...but it's not like he never willingly NOT FUCK Letty before....so suck it up son of a bitch! Another more round of fucking with his ex-mistress shouldn't prove a pain to him! But think of your goddamned wife!

OUR HEROINE was the only person I admire in this story and I have to UNDERLINE the fact that this author has a really OVERLY DONE THING FOR RAPE. I cannot imagine how it is to be Amanda, having been treated so poorly by almost everyone in her life, except Tony's black woman slave and Nathan, his overseer. At 16 years old, she and her mother were struggling to survive after the death of her father. Sent out to buy more lace, she was stopped by two men who thought she was a prostitute and whisked her into their friend's bed. Despite the situation (which was quite unbelievable if you ask me), she enjoyed her first sexual experience at the hands of Tony then. Later on, when he has gone, she continues to feed herself and her ailing mother, getting caught by the authorities for stealing food and sent to Newgate where she endured a vicious cycle of tormenting, mental abuse and just the horrors of rape, and anything a woman can find herself in prison being tested by. In order to protect herself, she agrees to be the constable's whore and gets fucked once a week for his protection from the other guards. EWWW that was just gross and I truly hated what she had to go through, she didn't deserve it! The next chapter of her life begins as the housekeeper of Tony, but their relationship wasn't so simple, not when he was brimming with lust with her. From then on, it was like an ongoing battle between Tony, Amanda and his other mistress. I was glad she had a champion in Nathan, because clearly Tony sucked at taking care of what he claims to love, and keeps getting led around the balls by his bitch mistress. Oh poor Amanda! How I wish I could have saved you from such torment! I wouldn't blame her if she hated men for the rest of her lives....to be raped by the constable, by Red Indians and possible rape by others, and even a slight one from Tony himself....OMG it's a never ending story of RAPE, SEX and RAPE!

OVERALL this story was a heart-attack waiting to happen and while part of me enjoyed the angst, the other part of me found this story thoroughly unlikeable. I mean, who would ever want anyone to endure what Amanda did? It's a miracle she hasn't killed herself long ago!

To have a man who claims to love you, yet still betrays you at times? No thanks!

Anyways, after writing this story I think I'm suffering a slight increase of blood pressure. I'm not sure if I should proceed to another Connie Mason book right away in order to protect my heart from overstimulation and angst! But I can see the appeal of Mason's writings. It's the kind of story that you WANT TO HATE but THERE IS SOMETHING ABOUT IT THAT MADE YOU ENJOYED IT. I tell you it's the ANGST! EVER LOVING MOTHER FUCKING ANGST!

[Maura · Rating 2 out of 5]

This might have only been one star, but for the sheer entertainment value. This could be a drinking game.

One drink every time she's raped (uh-oh, I'm shitfaced). Honestly this woman is raped by every ethnicity and class in the book. First she's raped by the noble hero, then she's raped by Newgate's prison guard, then she's raped by the hero again, then she's raped by Indians, then she's pretend raped by Buck the black slave with an enormous shlong via her hero's evil ex-mistress (who conveniently gets so turned on by the simulated rape that she talks about how wet she gets). Half a drink for the near-rapes (one or two with the Indians and then another with Ben the overseer).

Another drink for every time a cultural stereotype pops up. Elderly black slave matron? She's there. Big hulking gentle giant slave? He's there too. Bloodthirsty, raping savages? Yup. Got them. I'm honestly surprised they didn't bring in an Asian stereotype or something.

Finally, another drink for every time the hero abuses the heroine (either mentally or physically). He neglects her, he calls her a liar and a whore repeatedly, he sleeps with his mistress (loudly) while she's in the next room nursing their son, he blames her for his attraction to her, he forces her to work out in the field while she gets next to no sleep because he forces her to please him in bed until dawn.

This story had everything! I couldn't believe how awful this woman's life was. I'd have given up and just said forget this - this life ain't worth it. Could it get any worse? I had to take this story with a grain of salt and laugh at most of it. Not very romantic and I certainly wouldn't want anything to do with the hero. Nathan on the other hand - he's quality people. I would have liked to see the book head in that direction.

[DelilahW · Rating 1 out of 5]

Dear God does it get any worse than this? This is definitely an old-school bodice ripper. My problem with Connie Mason's novels are the characters have very little dimension. Why does Tony come to love Amanda? Because he enjoys her in the sack? That seems to be about it. We are never given a reason and frankly I see zilch in Amanda that was special or interesting. She was just a constant damsel-in-distress (to the point of tediousness) with no intellect and absolutely no self-possession. Ditto Tony who goes from hating Amanda to loving her in the blink of an eye with no true character development. I guess rape is the freeway to love. And why is Tony so stupid?? Probably the dumbest hero I have ever read in the romance genre. Who the hell sells a TITLE? Can I buy a title? I'm now Queen of England. Letty was just completely over-the-top but I was hoping that she would actually succeed in killing Amanda. You'd think Letty would have been conveniently "done away with" 200 pages beforehand. Getting away with murder was so easy back then. Why did the characters put up with her? It became comical. Oh Letty you're still around? Cool. So she throws Amanda out to the Indians (those poor stereotyped Indians) and nobody makes any effort to stop her. But at least our ol' pal Tony was able to get it up for Letty despite being blackmailed into rutting her like a pig-in-heat. Magic blow jobs, I suppose. But no big deal, he explains to Amanda that he's been boffing his ex (enthusiastically) for quite some time just so's Amanda won't be sold. Yup those pesky indenture papers just never seem to be properly burned, do they?

[William · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'd heard about this book. I'd seen it on a list of quintessential bodice rippers. I'd read reviews that slammed it for absolute horribleness in terms of rape and racist tropes. I'd also read reviews that acknowledged all that but enjoyed it for its very outlandishness, claiming that it was never boring. So I finally found a copy.

Everyone was right...except about the boring part. This book is just a mess. I can't even go into the sheer awfulness of the racism, which cannot be blamed on when it written. Even in 1986, that shouldn't have been acceptable. More than that, the hero and heroine are just plain idiotic. Not just naive, but stupid. The villain is cartoonishly evil--and while that should be fun, the hero and heroine just don't seem worth the trouble. And then, just to make matters worse, the editing and proofreading are sloppy. And if I'm going to be petty, let's also just mention the cover art, which is the lowest-rent version of the famous 80s "clinch" by someone who possibly might not have gone to art school. But it's of a piece with the quality of the novel. If I didn't know that the author went on to write dozens of more books, I would have suspected "Caress and Conquer" to be a parody written jointly by a bunch of tipsy editorial assistants on a dare to see if they could pull one over on the public. Sadly, this isn't the case. Don't get me wrong: I have a fondness for old school, disreputable, first gen bodice rippers. But this book is truly, deeply, madly, indisputably, unredeemingly terrible.

[Blaze King · Rating 1 out of 5]

Trash ! I've read my share of bad, overbearing, jerk heroes and truth to tell, more times than not i enjoy reading them, but this guy takes the cake ! He repeatedly rapes the heroine. Treats her worse than dirt ! At one time he had her under his foot, actually, really squashing her throat beneath his foot. And later absolves himself thinking he hadn't in truth hurt her physically - What is that Madam Connie Mason ?! Now the heroine, though i would not judge her for bargaining her body in favour of a constable's protection when she landed in jail at one time, BUT i consider her through and through morally lacking in character. When being Raped, Virgins' are suppose to bite, claw - fight like a banshee for their virtues. What virgin would lie down with a man (Here the man is the Hero) she doesn't know and hasn't seen before in her life. She couldn't even see him while they did the deed the first time ! If she liked and actively participated in that copulation, how could she then have the audacity to call it a Rape. But somehow AFTER losing her virginity she found voice and strength to make token objections to him ? Now then, She should have hated the hero at least in the beginning , but though she maintained that thought the second time she saw him it was never a point later. Not once she cursed him. In fact she was more a masochist, who, i think, enjoyed her miseries at his hand and loved it. Twisted Woman ! Worst Book i ever Read !

[Bianca · Rating 3 out of 5]

This review will contain spoilers. I just will not be able to keep myself from it, sorry.
I love the Connie Mason's books i have read up till now, but this one left me with a bad aftertaste. I hated every single character. Tony in particular. I know that the morale of this kind of novel is "love conquers all" but, dear god, the guy fucked the evil bitch within hearing (and view) of he woman he loved (and that's without counting the physical and mental abuse he subjected her and their son)... I would not be able to forgive and forget, sorry. I would have castrated him with a dull, possibly rusty, knife, and thank you so very much for coming.
Kisses all around

[Sophie · Rating 1 out of 5]

I've read other books by Connie Mason before I read this one, so when I did read this one, it was completely unexpected. I was HORRIFIED. All I wanted was a bit of fun light-reading, instead I had a dark book, full of horrible, terrible things happening to the heroin Amadan Prescott. I just kept thinking to myself, surely one woman couldn't be so unlucky? All I can say is that after reading it, I felt horrified, I wouldn't recomend it to anyone. Actually, I forget to mention, that after reading it now, I am scarred. For life. I'm a bit scared now to read other books by Mason.

[Jamie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This books is quite racists so it was hard to get through those parts.
spoiler:
H is not likable. He is a horny cheater. He cheated on his ex and he cheated on h. But that is probably how it was during that time.
Everything bad happens to the h. She gets whipped, beaten, raped, kidnapped, and whatever else you can think of.
This book probably has the most EVIIL OW I've ever read.
...
Overall it was still entertaining. It's like watching Jerry Springer with a bunch of idiots and you can't look away.