Love's Avenging Heart (Hannah, #1) in Bodice Ripper Readers Anonymous

Mar 10, 2012 Sarah Mac rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: read-regifted, fail-horn-fizzle, cover-uglies, zzz-2016, mary-sue-puke-bucket, zzz-departed-vintage, reviewed, surrounded-by-incompetence, zz-publisher-pinnacle

2.5 stars. I rounded up because of the good beginning, but the last half...nope. It tumbled downhill in a landslide of Teh Dumbz. Once Hannah achieved her short-term goals & became mistress of Malvern, the plot ground to a halt & the entire cast cracked open a bottle of stupid pills. The pirate plot only added to the plodding snore that was the remainder -- a damn shame, since the opening sections were pretty good & gave a (false) impression of further awesomeness to be had. Dammit.

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Feb 07, 2011 BRNTerri rated it really liked it

Shelves: 4-star-historical-romance, no-longer-own, historical-romance, rape

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Pub. Date: 1976 Publisher: Pinnacle
Setting: Virginia, July 1717
Timeline: 3-4 years
Heroine: Hannah McCambridge, 16
Hero: Michael Verner,22-ish
Rating/Grade: B/4 stars

Hannah goes through hell during the first part of the book. Her stepfather leads her, with a rope around her neck, to an inn called The Cup and Horn. He’s forcing her to become an indentured servant for the next five years, until she’s twenty-one. The man who buys her is the owner of the inn, Amos Stritch. He’s fifty, fat and bald. Am Pub. Date: 1976 Publisher: Pinnacle
Setting: Virginia, July 1717
Timeline: 3-4 years
Heroine: Hannah McCambridge, 16
Hero: Michael Verner,22-ish
Rating/Grade: B/4 stars

Hannah goes through hell during the first part of the book. Her stepfather leads her, with a rope around her neck, to an inn called The Cup and Horn. He’s forcing her to become an indentured servant for the next five years, until she’s twenty-one. The man who buys her is the owner of the inn, Amos Stritch. He’s fifty, fat and bald. Amos bought her to ‘warm his bed’ and because she was a virgin. She’s to work at the inn too. He rapes her and beats her several times.

She meets a sixty-three year old Englishman named Malcolm Verner. He’s owner of a plantation called Malvern, which is assume the word is a combination of his first and last name. He’s wealthy because he grows tobacco. He’s got a young son, Michael, whom he assumes is dead. He buys Hannah’s indenture papers from Silas and gives them to her; he frees her but she chooses to say at Malvern and continue on as his housekeeper. Malcolm asks her to marry him and she agrees. She’s now seventeen.

The rest of the book is a bit boring to me. There is some interesting information about Hannah being octoroon, meaning she’s 1/8 African. Her
father is 1/4 African. There’s some blackmail toward her involving that. Malcolm dies and his dead son reappears. He and Hannah begin a sexual relationship, resulting in a pregnancy. She flees to Boston and opens up an inn and had a lover. The plague strikes and kills thousands. Michael finds her and they, and their daughter, Michele, move back to Virginia and they get their happily-ever-after.

I didn’t like that Michael was only 22 ish or the secret mission he was on to kill the pirate known as Blackbeard. I also didn’t like the plague stuff either. The book wasn’t quite as good as I was hoping but it was alright.

There’s a sequel to this and is about both Hannah and her adult daughter, Dancer of Dreams.

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Nov 22, 2010 Alucard added it

It had to be the FAB 70's....I like the cover, but I would have personally done so much more with it, still, very intriguing and I actually own this copy!!! ...more

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