Bodice Ripper Readers Anonymous discussion

And our October winner is....
Devil's Embrace by Catherine Coulter 1982
Yay!!! I am so excited to read this with everyone!!! I really love this cover so I am going to make it extra big :)

Average GoodRead rating: 3.51
GoodReads description: For beautiful Cassie, the seething city of Genoa seems a world away form her 18th-century estate where she was raised. Until she meets Lord Anthony Welles, the brutally handsome aristocrat who swears that he will win Cassie's heart, even as he conquers her body. And on the eve of her wedding to another man, Anthony proves that he will stop at nothing to be with the woman he loves...
Availability: This should be super easy to find as it is currently in print, check out Amazon (available in print and kindle format, yay!) the original cover is super purdy tho so I would try to find that one used if you can :)

Discussions: This is a somewhat controversial book... What did you think? Did you find it shocking in anyway? Did you find it to be more over the top and offensive than modern romance novels? From other bodice rippers? How do the characters change or evolve throughout the course of the story? What events trigger such changes? What was your favorite scene? At what point in the book did you decide if you liked it or not? What helped make this decision? If you could change something about the book would you? If so what/how?


Please be considerate of others and use 'spoiler spaces' when revealing key plot elements.

I think the currently in-print version of Devil's Embrace is revised/updated... does anyone know if there are any major differences between the "new" version and the original one? I've got both, just trying to figure out which one I should actually read. :)

BTW, really excited about this one... with reviews calling this novel "Evil, Cruel, Sick, Twisted, Disgusting, Disturbing, Horrifying", you know it's gotta be good!!

SmittenKitten wrote: "with reviews calling this novel "Evil, Cruel, Sick, Twisted, Disgusting, Disturbing, Horrifying", you know it's gotta be good!!"

That equals "Must Read!" in my book. :D

I've got the original version, so I'm all set.

Hey when in doubt go with the older original version. From what I remember, the changes were pretty small, like some small changes in dialog and whatnot but no major changes to the plot etc... I could be wrong... I have the new one so I will be reading that, we can compare :)

And yes! I am with you Karla! That equals must read! LOL

Well I've always wanted to know what the "cream" comments were about in refrence to Coulter's work. I guess I'll shelve my Valcourt Heiress ARC and read this instead. =)

I can get the Kindle edition of this book, but now I'm not sure if it has been revised. I would appreciate if anyone who knows if there have been many changes made to the book would let me know before I order it.

Jeanine ♥ Cheshire Catt ♠ wrote: "I am pretty sure nothing will be lost in the re-issue. She definitely did not edit out any of the OMG-WTF moments. So I think it is a safe bet to get either. I know my copy is the re-issue paper..."

Thanks, Jeanine, for letting me know. I was worried that I would lose some of the OMG-WTF moments. After the last two reads I'm looking forward to a completely un pc bodice ripper.

Awesome! One of my faves :)

Ok- I know I was expecting some real OMG-WTF type of stuff from Whitney, My Love based on all the reviews and then when I read it it really didn't seem so bad. Same thing with The Flame and the Flower so I can't help but wonder if this one is really all that bad....

So I am just wondering what all of you are expecting from this months group read... Take the poll here!

I just ordered a copy from the library. Hopefully it comes before the end of October.

Stormfire was the first bodice-ripper I ever read... and I found it shocking, disturbing, and of course, totally awesome. I have not read anything else that can top my feelings/experiences while reading Stormfire.

I think the issue with reading the bodice-rippers is that the more we read, the more desensitized we become to all the OMG-WTF moments...

but I'm still hoping for the best with Devil's Embrace. :)

OMG, I think Anthony Welles has got to be one of the more obnoxious alphas out there, as well as being a stalker psychopath.

I'm enjoying it, but I do want to lay a heavy chair across the back of his skull, tromp on his windpipe, and take his jar of cream and shove it where the sun don't shine.

Karla, you're making me want to track down my book on whatever UPS truck it's currently sitting on and start reading STAT.

Sans wrote: "Karla, you're making me want to track down my book on whatever UPS truck it's currently sitting on and start reading STAT."

Hopefully it arrives SOON! It's good, though Cass' dialogue is so repetitious at this point.

"I hate you!"
"Go to the devil!"
"I'll never love you!"
"You suck!"
"Bite me!"

After quite a few pages of this and bodies unwillingly responding and such, it'll be nice to move on to the next part of the plot. :P

Funny you should mention that about Captive Passions....at the volcano part, I thought, "Wow, now it's picking up! Serious action!" but then it went right back into cartoonland. :P So I guess you're not going to read the others? ;)

As for Anthony, yes, total psychopath. The motive for why he wants Cassie is totally bizarre. But he goes on later to say that she's BETTER than her mother. As if that changes things and makes it all better. Or makes any bit of sense.

This book is seriously effed up. And I had no idea that Coulter wrote relentless smut. There's boinking, a couple pages interlude, and then back at it! It's why I don't read erotica. It gets effing boring after awhile. :-\ Where I am (pg. 130), they've finally reached Italy, though probably the endless shagging and arguing will just move to a villa rather than a boat.

I'm looking forward to more of the plot, if it ever shows up. :P

Karla wrote: "they've finally reached Italy, though probably the endless shagging and arguing will just move to a villa rather than a boat."

pg. 164. Yup. I'm a g-ddamned psychic.

Ok, I plowed through it today and I'm baffled and bewildered. My only coherent thought is: What the #!@&ing #!@& did I just read? O__o But I'll have a go at the questions in the first post.

***SPOILERS***


Did you find it shocking in any way? Oh yeah, and skeevy and psychotic, too.
Did you find it to be more over the top and offensive than modern romance novels? From other bodice rippers? Yes and yes. Even compared to other bodice rippers. Because I have yet to come across any book where the hero (the HERO!) is 21 years old and looks at a 5 year old and starts to put into motion a plan to MARRY her. Jesus Christ. There was a throwaway line near the end where Anthony says "Your dad seemed to be neglecting you, so I wanted to see that you were brought up right" but yeah...uh huh. I'm not buying it. He was operating from a hard-on for Cassie's dead mother.
How do the characters change or evolve throughout the course of the story? What events trigger such changes? Um, well, gee. "I'm warming up to Anthony after getting gangraped because (apparently) he's much better in comparison!" seemed to be Cassie's point of evolution. Anthony, however, was the same smug, self-satisfied prick at the end that he was in the beginning. There's alpha and then there's "Every Breath You Take" Psychoboy. He's the latter. There's no hope.
What was your favorite scene? I liked Joseph, the Corsican. I wished he hadn't gotten injured and eventually died from being in charge of Cassie's sorry ass. I liked his death scene.
At what point in the book did you decide if you liked it or not? What helped make this decision? Early on. The endless pages of Cassie flipflopping between "omg, I hate you!" and "Oh yeah, touch me there!" with Anthony being a dense cloud of smug just about broke me before page 100. The book nearly flew soooooo many times.
If you could change something about the book would you? If so what/how? I have no idea where to start. Anthony would have to change to be even remotely redeemable/less skincrawly. I never thought Garth McClelland in Savage Surrender would be out-assholed (pardon my French). Anthony was even creepier because he was soooooo in love with Cassie. He had all the hallmarks of a stalker, and with the constant sex, I felt like I was watching some thriller on Skinamax.

I've got to get my thoughts together for a review. There's just so much wrong with this, and I'm not normally baffled by a bodice ripper, but....dayum.

Ok, I'm intrigued with this one! I haven't been reading the spoilers because I don't want to mess up my reading of the WTF stuff, but I'm anxious to see what it's all about! ... I'll track it down and start it soon

I struggled getting in to this one initially (more to do with me and circumstance than the book itself), but I've gotten over that hump and am really enjoying it so far!

Well, I just finished it. This book to me was a true bodice-ripper. Even though I have to agree that Anthony made me really dislike him at times, I much preferred him over Edward. This book had quite a few OMG/WTF moments for me. It's probably not everyone's cup of tea, but I liked it.

By contrast, I preferred Edward. He seemed more realistic, despite his British stiff upper lip faults.

But a real bodice ripper, no doubt. With a dose of psycho stalker. LOL

I'd love to know just what it is about Edward that turns readers off compared to Anthony. I'm frankly baffled by that opinion and wonder if someone would elaborate. I'm really curious!!!

Yeah, too bad Coulter couldn't have written a sequel about HIM. Or some enterprising fanfic writer who wants to give him a dignified story of his own.

Hey, girls, you're making me feel guilty for enjoying this book. To me this is what a bodice ripper is all about! It is so politically incorrect it's unbelievable. I just recently started reading bodice-rippers again and I can see why historical romance books have changed over the years, but it was fun to read! I recently read and I think that book was just as shocking and disturbing as .

Don't feel guilty! I was only curious. I love Sean Culhane in Stormfire, and he was so OTT alpha/mean/obsessed, but I felt like he had a back story to justify it. The Irish vs. English hatred does go deep, and that's what the author tapped into for the dark, dysfunctional relationship between Sean and Kit. In Devil's Embrace, it seemed like Anthony was the kind of guy who'd be busted nowadays for breaking and entering so he could paw through his lust interest's laundry hamper, looking for fragrant underwear.

IMO Devil's Embrace went over the line from Stormfire's OMGtragic into OMGcreepy.

Plus there's the thing of Devil's Embrace having a super-slim plot, and that is usually a dealbreaker in a book for me. I like to have the characters doing things and interacting with other carbon-based units in a meaningful way. This one was so much just Cassie and Anthony that it bored me.

Jeanine ♥ Cheshire Catt ♠ wrote: "Yup - everything that Karla said plus - it is a bodice ripper, no denying that. The thing that killed it for me also was it was so damn boring. It does seem to be an either love/hate type of book..."

I felt that was the most boring book that I read in many years. That just dragged for me. I didn't think I'd be able to finish it. After that book I was thinking that Johanna Lindsey isn't my style, but we will see. I can't wait till November's Group Read.

Oh yeah, I thought that one was dull too. And again, it was because so much of the story was the H/h dukeing it out and the characters didn't seem that well-drawn to begin with.

As I'm reading more and more in this genre, I'm definitely discovering what I like and don't like. :)

I can't wait to start this!!!! Great review Jeanine! To bad it was such a disappointment for you. I am looking forward to just checking this out and see for myself what all the fuss is about. I am going to try to pick it up tonight or tomorrow!

Definitely not the most exciting book so far... I'm taking a break from reading it to finish To Love a Rogue for the Valerie Sherwood reading :)