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Purity's Passion (Purity, #1)

Janette Seymour

Start date: July 1, 2011

Finish date: July 31, 2011

Discussion: Group Reads and Challenges

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Group Reads and Challenges

* Group Read - Dec '14/Jan '15 The Wildest Heart by Rosemary Rogers
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last updated Jan 03, 2015 04:19PM

* Extend that novel's Ending and/or give it a HEA
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last updated Nov 21, 2013 01:37AM

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What Members Thought

Nov 14, 2010 Wendy, Lady Evelyn Quince rated it really liked it

Shelves: historical-romance, era-regency-england, read-in-2010s, hero-scarred-maimed-or-injured, xx2011xx-read, romance, bodice-ripper, reviewed, 4-stars, own

The tale of Purity Jarsy (part I) begins with the the horrors of the French Revolution and ends in France after Napoleon's final defeat. In between we witness the epic tale of Purity, a woman so beautiful many men desire her, they would ravish her, control her and kill for her...in other words, your basic, page-turning bodice ripper. And it's a good one.

Janette Seymour was a deft storyteller, quickly pulling me in with Purity witnessing a beautiful encounter of a couple making love and later sh The tale of Purity Jarsy (part I) begins with the the horrors of the French Revolution and ends in France after Napoleon's final defeat. In between we witness the epic tale of Purity, a woman so beautiful many men desire her, they would ravish her, control her and kill for her...in other words, your basic, page-turning bodice ripper. And it's a good one.

Janette Seymour was a deft storyteller, quickly pulling me in with Purity witnessing a beautiful encounter of a couple making love and later she sees the macabre slaughters of the Revolution. Purity is left orphaned and shaken in the aftermath.

Mark "You may kiss me--here" Landless is the object of Purity's devotion. Much older than she, he is her appointed guardian, but he also shares a hidden bond with his ward. Mark is a placeholder, we never see through his perspective. He is a scar-faced blue-eyed soldier who duels for Purity's honor, hurts her cruelly and the finally marries her. Her relationship with Mark is one of the weaker parts of the book, but since there are two sequels their romance will undoubtedly develop further.

Purity has many men before being with her true love, and each experience shapes her uniquely: There is a touching one night romance Purity shares with a soldier doomed to die at sea, and a sweet love affair with wounded Gypsy boxer. And many more. If the hero was more interesting, this might have detracted from the story, but since he wasn't, I just enjoyed the ride and didn't worry about the romance. As Purity says to herself (I'm paraphrasing) "She would come to Mark a complete woman." Other high points include a tawdry girl-school game with a dumb stud, a dominatrix-villainess who wears transparent gowns, and an aging duchess who makes constant fart references.

The story's pacing is a bit un-even, because most of the juicy parts are packed into the first third. But the author is skilled enough to make most of it enjoyable, even if the ending is a bit flat.

Purity's Passion is a romance only because at the end of the book the female protaganist is united with the man she loves. Otherwise, it's a soapy, door-stopper historical epic, typical of 70's and 80's. Readers-mostly women-from all walks of life used to openly enjoy these pulpy paperbacks with kaleidoskopic covers. They were taken to fantastical worlds where the heroines' beauty got men so carried away with mad lust that they'd have her...at any cost! (dun, dun, dun!) Now, not unlike tobacco cigarettes (which I never smoked), bodice rippers are banished to the darkest corners, reviled in public for the unwholesome filth they contain. Like a smoker relegated to puffing away in a cold alley, bodice ripper readers are banished to Romancelandia Siberia. And that's really a shame, because these books are a lot of fun!

4 Stars/B-
...more

15 likes · Like · see review

Aug 02, 2012 Circa Girl rated it it was amazing

Shelves: romance, drama-depressing, fuck-yeah, bodice-ripper

Janette Seymour took every great old school bodice ripper trope, threw it into a whirlpool of rape with a dash of relentless damsel-in-distress torment and Purity's Passion is what sprang from the purple prose mess. It is epic and it was everything I wanted it to be. I mean the heroine's name is Purity for crying out loud!

If you are more of a by the number Harlequin kind of romance fan, get ready to be offended and possibly throw the book against the wall. There are no politically correct notio ...more

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Sep 25, 2011 Elle rated it did not like it · review of another edition

This has got to be the most rape-riddled novel I've ever read, and yet perversely, one of the least graphic. The heroine has sex with at least ten different men before the end of the book, only three willingly. When the clothes start falling off or being torn off, the author goes all poetic, so that Purity is either ascending the peaks, looking out over the Promised Land (but only entering with her beloved Mark), or descending into the abyss and flinging herself into the flames of helll with the This has got to be the most rape-riddled novel I've ever read, and yet perversely, one of the least graphic. The heroine has sex with at least ten different men before the end of the book, only three willingly. When the clothes start falling off or being torn off, the author goes all poetic, so that Purity is either ascending the peaks, looking out over the Promised Land (but only entering with her beloved Mark), or descending into the abyss and flinging herself into the flames of helll with the villain. Pretty tame, for all the lovemaking and raping going on. Which is just as well, I guess, since if it WERE more graphic, the readers would be dealing with PTSD by the end. As it is, I don't think we ever become sufficiently engaged with either of the protagonists to empathize particularly, which is another reason the book fails, in my view. You root for Purity, but only because you'd feel sorry for anyone who suffered as she did, not because you form any particular attachment to the character. She's pretty much an atomaton, suffering time and again and going on like a robot to the next person who'll abuse her without much emotion or trauma, never even gaining the street smarts to be suspicious of strangers offering too good a deal. As for the hero, I actually disliked him all through, so why would I root for them to get together?

(view spoiler)[ The heroine pretty much starts the book with PTSD after seeing her childhood friends and family raped, abused, and murdered during the French Revolution. Maybe the PTSD is why she is so emotionless, but it doesn't make it easy to empathize with her. And you'd think after she is raped for like the twentieth time (some of her rapists abuse her repeatedly) she'd be beyond sanity. At least, you'd think, she'd reach a point where she finally starts making some attempt to defend herself, instead of going all helpless victim. She only fights back once, and seems to regret it after the fact. Moreover, after witnessing and experiencing the worst kinds of cruelty, there are occasions when she sees others falling victim to the same evil, the same mob mentality, and she doesn't act. Some of her school chums start a "club" that humiliates and more or less rapes a mentally challenged young man, threatening the lives and livelihoods of his family if he doesn't go along. Purity utters a token objection, but does nothing further to stop it. Later one of her friends is forcibly deflowered, and she still does nothing. Her reasons are explained and oh so sensible, but there's really no excuse for not trying to stop something she knows is wrong. So I didn't particularly like this character. She was just weak, morally, physically, and intellectually.

And then, one of her rapists is her Twue Wuv, her guardian, who pretty much treated her like dirt her whole life, sent her to that school where her "chums" were so abusive even though she tries (weakly) to tell him she hates the place, abandoned her to an abusive husband, but she wuuvs him anyway. He goes all mad dog after learning about all the other rapes, assuming without asking for her explanation that she must've been willing, so he rapes her. She runs away, but a year later, she goes back to him and, without any hint of remorse from him, pledges her undying love and begs him to hire her on as a servant, if nothing else. I tasted bile at this point.

From there on it's "Oh, my darling" this and "My sweet love" that, all billing and cooing and being insanely happy, even though I doubt any reader has any reason to think that Mark is the least bit likable, let alone lovable. Oh, he feels bad that he raped his true love and all that. You see he did it because she reminds him of another man who had the first woman he ever loved, so he was getting back at that guy. Yeah, that explains it and makes it all better.

And then, after he promises that he understands and accepts that she had sex, both willingly and unwillingly, with other men, he goes and does it again, when he learns that she slept with the villain, even tho he knows the man forced her to do things against her will before. He walks away from her. When he finally deigns to come back, she rushes into his arms, again without ever seeking even a hint of remorse or apology for his abandonment. He's a creep and she's a doormat. What's to love? (hide spoiler)]

Add to it all, the author's writing style is hard to read. It wasn't that out of line at the time of publication, to be fair; back then readers tolerated a lot more telling (she felt sad that her husband was leaving her but she was too proud to let him know) rather than showing (She used a rough hand to scrub away a tear as she watched him go. She'd never let him see her cry.). It may not be fair to hold this against the writer, but the style does help to distance the reader from the emotional content of the story. Then again, as I said, if it had been less distancing, it might be too much, given all the heroine is made to suffer.

And guess what? There are two more books in the series, and I bought the whole series, so I guess I'll end up reading them all, just because I'm too compulsive to leave a story half told. Argh. ...more

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Jul 12, 2011 Riccarla Roman rated it liked it · review of another edition

Purity's Passion is a bodice ripper from the late 70's and boy, does it have a lot of bodice ripping going on! Our heroine, Purity, lives on the estate of a debauched marquis during the French Revolution. After witnessing the horrors of revolutionary citizens, she is raised by her old nurse until she is rescued by Mark Landless, the cousin of the former marquis's wife. He takes the blossoming teenager to England and enrolls her in a girl's school, not realizing that there are some kinky girls th ...more

2 likes · Like · see review