Welcome to Part 2 of my deep dive into Candlelight Ecstasy, a line of groundbreaking steamy contemporary romance from the early 1980s.
In part 2, I’ll be diving into my opinions on 14 Candlelight Ecstasy romances that I read, and asking: how do they hold up 40+ years later?
Housekeeping
In Part 1, I covered the history of the line, which was started by legendary editor Vivian Stephens, and more context about the state of romance publishing at the time.
If you missed it, head over here to read it:
Companion podcast episode: you can listen to a slightly different version of this Substack series (part 1 and 2) on Shelf Love Podcast. Listen on your favorite podcast app (Apple | Spotify), or right here:
Gentle Pirate
Author: Jayne Castle (aka Jayne Ann Krentz)
Candlelight Ecstasy #2, published December 1980
Overall Assessment: It slaps
Why I picked it up:
Basically what kicks this whole project off was I was reading Love Lines, a book about romance novels from 1983. I saw a mention of Gentle Pirate and how the hero was missing a hand as the result of a war wound in Vietnam. And therefore he had a hook instead of a hand.
Okay, that's really interesting. I have to read this book.
What it’s about: the back cover:
"Don't ask me to stop," he whispered in a husky voice that came from deep in his chest. "I want you so badly..."
Simon Kendrick had charged suddenly into Kirsten Mallory's life. Powerful, intimidating, as her boss he controlled her job. Did he mean to take possession of her?
His mouth covered hers with a kiss that began gently, then exploded into an irresistible demand. Who was he? What did he want? Kirsten Mallory had sworn that no man would ever control her again. Yet suddenly she felt herself bound by invisible chains -chains held casually in the steel grip of the relentless, passionate pirate.
So as you may have guessed the pirate allusion comes from the fact that he is perceived as perhaps both a corporate raider and also has a hook for a hand which is associated with pirates.
A lot happens in this book.
She’s corporate librarian. And he is her boss, but really is just like this management consultant that they've brought in to do some cost cutting measures.
She immediately thinks he's going to fire her because he's going to think that her job is not useful. So she's prepared this report showing the value that she brings to the organization, which very much impresses him.
He also has the hots for her, from the beginning. He moves into her apartment complex and starts showing up places.
The heroine was married to a really abusive guy who conveniently died. And then there is a little bit of intrigue around his death: he was mixed up in some things that she's getting pulled into that they have to work their way through.
Thoughts, opinions, feelings:
I liked this book way more than I thought I was going to. The book slaps.
There are a lot of problematic things about this book. He's her boss and there's a lot of: “her mouth says no, but her body says yes.”
I feel like I have to add all of these caveats about enjoying it, but I think this was a really good exercise in how my enjoyment of this book is in no way an endorsement for the actions of the characters or even the message of the book, because my critical thinking skills have remained intact even though I did enjoy it.
My notes after reading: “bonkers in the best way, plot pacing like a racetrack. Hero has hook prosthetic because he lost his left hand in Vietnam. Jayne Ann Krentz does a great job using that without being at ridiculous. The hero is over the top pushy and I don't love it, but the book is enjoyable. It starts with a memorable scene where she thinks that he is about to fire her.”
Would I read more from this author?
Heck Yes
I immediately went to go read some other Jayne Ann Krentz books that I had on my shelf, from a little bit later in her career. I also ordered more Jayne Castle Candlelight Ecstasies to add to my collection.
I read a lot of Jayne Ann Krentz as a teenager, including her Amanda Quick historical romances, but this renewed my interest in her work.
The Game is Played
Author: Amii Lorin
Candlelight Ecstasy #7, published March 1981
Overall Assessment: It sucks. DNF
Why I picked it up:
Amii Lorin was one of the debut Ecstasy authors and it sounded like she’d be exemplary.
What it’s about: the back cover:
"But you don't even know me," she whispered hoarsely. "I will," he replied, silencing her protests with a kiss that left her trembling. He had to be mad, barging into her life, making his proposal so bluntly that it stunned her.
Beautiful, brilliant, and aloof, Dr. Helen Cassidy had worked hard and gotten what she wanted. It didn't include a brazen bully like Marshall Kirk. Even as his hard, possessive arms closed around her, she shuddered to recall the past. If he wanted to play fire to her ice, let him try it. Once burned was enough. Surely she could beat him at his own arrogant game.
Thoughts, opinions, feelings:
This was a DNF at page 66. Here are my DNF rules:
Life is too short to read books that are boring. I try to start at the beginning of the book and I give it a shot. If I find myself just really distracted and slogging through it, I will give up. If I am interested to know what happened, sometimes I skim ahead a little bit. Sometimes something will catch my attention and I'll read a little bit more later in the book.
This was not actually the first Amii Lorin I read and it confirmed that I was not into her style. This one's started better than the first one that I read.
She is a 35 year old OB GYN doctor and he's younger. His sister is a patient of hers and gives birth. He sees her at the hospital and forces her to come to dinner with him where he essentially proposes marriage.
Helen is a virgin who has trauma from a former fiance who violently sexually assaulted her. The attack was interrupted, which is why she's still a virgin. In fact still has to socialize with her former fiance, because he's also a doctor. At some point later in the book, he is at an event and dances with her and propositions her, and I was very icked out the fact that she never reported him and socialized with him - I get that that’s representative of life at the time, and even today, but it was disturbing.
The hero finds out about the sexual assault when she's having a trauma response during one of their intimate moments. He's ready to kill the guy, but then he says that he's thankful because the scary incident means that she is still a virgin so that he can devirginize her, which I hated.
That's the point I said, fuck this book. I'm not reading it.
Would I read more from this author?
Hard pass.
Amii Lorin's books had a weird pattern where the hero wants to marry the heroine instantly, and there's really no chemistry. They argue constantly and the heroine is never interested in sex, but then gets overridden. Her heroines tend to have really conservative upbringings and a lot of shame associated with sex.
I get that this was of its time and era. But I think in contrast to some of the other books, it feels like a hold over from even a previous era because. In other Ecstasies, even when heroines are conflicted about sex, they’re still physically into it and don’t always feel a massive amount of shame about enjoying sex, especially when they are in love.
There was too much shame and bad feelings in Amii Lorin’s books, in my opinion.
Freedom to Love
Author: Sabrina Myles
Candlelight Ecstasy #25, published October 1981
Overall Assessment: …skimmed it
What it’s about: the back cover:
He was a mystery. Tall, lean, rugged, Jason Stewart had been cold, arrogant, inexcusably rude from the start. And he had done nothing to endear himself to her -- until tonight. Tonight his caressing hands, his burning kisses, had swept her recklessly toward surrender.
Janet had come to the wilds of Oklahoma to teach, to find herself to start over. The past was dead, gone. And what kind of beginning had she made? She wanted a new life, longed for a new love, but he wanted too much. Would she wake one morning to find her dreams shattered... to find herself enslaved by an impossible love?
Thoughts, opinions, feelings:
Meh. Skipped the beginning and read the end.
There's a slutty other woman that the hero uses until the “good” woman heroine comes along. The heroine strings along another love interest, literally up until the moment she decides to marry the hero.
I was really not interested in the setup, which included a plot moppet niece. The heroine is a teacher or something, and that's how she is introduced to the uncle who is raising the niece.
The hero was too opaque about his motivations, and was just an angry mystery. The heroine was extremely passive and indecisive about what's going on.
I was just really bored at the beginning. Not very interested in this one.
Would I read more from this author?
Meh.
Bargain With The Devil
Author: Jayne Castle (aka Jayne Ann Krentz)
Candlelight Ecstasy #26, published October 1981
Overall Assessment: In Love
Why I picked it up:
Jayne was delivering!
What it’s about: the back cover:
Every line of his face, from the deep-set eyes to the arrogant nose and harshly carved cheekbones, declared that this was a man who lived by his own rules. He hadn't come to Tucson for his health. Hunter Manning wanted revenge.
Stacy Rylan looked into the eyes of the man who meant to ruin her father. She had made a bargain -- agreed to marry him if he would stop his threats. With a coolly possessive air that defied protest, his hands settled on her small waist and moved slowly upward. How could she go through with it? She despised him. His touch made her tremble with outrage -- and desire!
Thoughts, opinions, feelings:
I absolutely loved it and the setup is ridiculous. Stacy’s brother is having a fancy party. She’s outside on the deck, chomping on an apple and she sees the hero trying to seduce her sister-in-law. The sister-in-law goes inside and she's like, “Hey, you should leave her alone.”
He is up front that he wants to ruin her father. He intends on enacting his revenge through the brother and the sister-in-law. In order to protect her brother, Stacy offers to have an affair with him to upset the father. He’s intrigued but pushes the envelope further, saying that she has to marry him because then she’s loyal to him and not her father.
At first it seemed like it was going to be a really hard sell to get me to like Hunter. But it was actually incredibly sweet.
There’s a recurring flower / garden / gardener metaphor in this book, which is related to how the heroine owns a garden nursery.
Here's a really memorable section:
They're kissing and he says,
"You're going to be my own private flower garden, honey." He whispered deeply bending over her to nibble carefully at the tip of her ear.
"I'm going to be able to wander in any time and gather a handful of blossoms. Blossoms that no other man can touch now that your mine. Will you like switching roles and becoming the garden instead of the gardener?" he added with a strange whimsy as his hands trailed possessively urgently across her breasts and down to the briefs he had mocked a moment earlier.
"Do you think," she whispered in a small pleading little voice at his finger slipped under the edge of her last piece of clothing and removed it, "that you really want the responsibility of a garden, Hunter?" She lifted her head higher on the pillow enough to meet the gray evening fog of his gaze.
"Are you afraid I won't know how to tend my flowers?" He murmured putting his lips on her throat tracking lazily, languidly down to the small bones of the hollow of her shoulder. "Have no fear of that. I'll admit this is the first time I've ever owned a garden, but I know what I want out of it. And I'll do all the necessary labor involved."
I know this is long, but it’s SOOOO GOOD!
"Gardens can be very demanding."
“So can gardeners," he says, "tell me what my garden would have of me."
“Gardens needs someone who understands them, cares for them, someone who, who needs them in return."
“And this gardener wants a patch of flowers that looks toward him for its strength, rather than towards the sun or anything else."
And then he calls her flower witch, which I love.
Maybe that sounds cheesy to you listening to me tell you this, but it was incredibly appropriate in the book. After going along with the story I was in love with it. I was squeeing as I read it.
Oh, I just loved it.
Would I read more from this author?
Obviously, yes.
I did notice a pattern with these early Jayne Castle books that the hero is super pushy. The heroine is often saying no to kisses and stuff, and that isn't always respected. But unlike the Amii Lorin books, I do actually feel like the heroines in Jayne Castle’s books want to have sex with the heroes, and I feel like the emotional relationship is built up where I understand what's going on with our relationship, why they are into each other, what their relationship is actually like, and why they want to get married to each other, like what their motivations are.
Snowbound Weekend
Author: Amii Lorin
Candlelight Ecstasy #50, published April 1982
Overall Assessment: I hated it
Why I picked it up:
This was the first Amii Lorin I read.
What it’s about: the back cover:
It began innocently enough. A ski weekend in the Adirondacks. But when the blizzard began and the tour bus was forced to stop at a wayside motel for a snowbound weekend, it became something else again.
All around her, wide-eyed Jennifer Lengle could see that people had lost their inhibitions. They seemed to have entered another world- the world where anything goes. And within that world was Adam Banner-handsome, suave, sophisticated... Adam with his seductive words, his passionate kisses, his outrageous promises... promises that could be broken as easily as her innocent heart ...
Thoughts, opinions, feelings:
I did finish this one, but I wasn't happy about it.
Jennifer is an uptight virgin. Adam calls her on her judgey bullshit, but also they're in Insta love. He wants to marry her basically after seeing her for five minutes, not even talking to her.
They're stuck in this motel during a snow storm. The hotel is full of horny adults. My notes say everyone is wearing eighties colors. This book was really into describing what people wore to its detriment. I think the intention was to describe how fashionable people were, but it was a lot of like, baby puke ochre and dirt brown and creams. I don't know. I was not into it. It just felt like an eighties camper van.
There's lots of stupid misunderstandings. They literally get married while being mad at each other constantly.
The heroine is a moralistic uptight toddler who has been indoctrinated into purity culture. And basically he's like, well, let's get married because I know we had sex once, but I want to have sex again. So we have to get married. He doesn't explain that his father is dying over the course of the four to five months that they're planning a wedding. She thinks that maybe he's having an affair, so she's like, “don't tell me!” because again, she's a toddler who can't face things.
It was just like a very bizarre world that was presented here. I didn't like it. I didn't enjoy spending time in it.
And, um, I hated it. Thanks.
Would I read more from this author?
Never again will I subject myself to Amii Lorin.
Double Occupancy
Author: Elaine Raco Chase
Candlelight Ecstasy #56, published May 1982
Overall Assessment: A FAVE! I RAVE!
Why I picked it up:
Had me at “Boston”
What it’s about: the back cover:
Casey Reynolds, the Boston-based Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter, was burned out and looking for escape. Acapulco seemed the perfect getaway ...until she discovered that her Mexican hideout was already occupied by a brash stranger who believed in leaping without looking... in action before words.
Travis Craig radiated danger. He was a sensual predator on the prowl, and Casey was far more vulnerable than she cared to admit. His touch made her tremble; his presence inspired fear. They were far too close for comfort and one more sultry night could put the torch to the embers of passion simmering in the tropical heat....
Thoughts, opinions, feelings:
The back of the book does not do a good job of explaining the vibes of the book, because I would not call Travis a sensual predator on the prowl. He's actually one of the most gentle heroes that I think I encountered at any of the Candlelight Ecstasies I read.
Casey is six feet tall, and Travis is a little bit taller than her, which we know is very important in romance, but she basically has been told all of her life that because she's six feet tall that she's not desirable.
The book is fun, and it’s thinking through gender roles and cultural changes hardcore.
Travis is delightful and does lots of laundry and cleaning. And then he decides that he loves her. He realizes, “I don't want a lot of women. I want this one woman who is quality.” He is kind and gentle and gives her lots of space, but also pushes her out of her comfort zone, which basically is needed.
They are two basically mature people, engaging in adult relationship. There's all these really fun details and quirky activities. They stay in this ridiculously over the top apartment in Acapulco that have mirrors everywhere and a water bed. This book isn't afraid to be lush. They take a donkey trip out to some ruins and they're on the beach and they're eating delicious food.
It takes place primarily in Mexico: basically she escapes Boston for the majority of this book.
It's not really gone into detail until the end, although it's pretty clear that this is what's happening, but he’s the son of the owner of the newspaper publishing company that is trying to buy the newspaper that she quit and that she used to work at.
Throughout the book, she has no idea what his true profession is and why he's even there, which you'd think would be a problem. But she assumes that he's an out of work PhD who is looking for a job. I don't know why and it doesn't really matter.
So here's why I think this book is doing culture wars (in a fun way):
They’re doing dishes together, and he says "there's nothing worse than an emasculating woman." (I think he's teasing her at this point.)
Her mouth dropped. There was a brief hostile silence. She turned to face her adversary.
“Don't give me all those chic clothed euphemisms. You men are just angry because we've stopped making you legends in your own time. If our emancipation has made you nervous, that's tough. We left the home front and invaded all phases of the workforce and the locker rooms as well, and contraception has made the old double standard obsolete.”
Casey smiled at him, smugly. Travis shrugged his wide shoulders negligently, and reached for the pan.
“Hey, if you women want to cheapen yourselves…”
“Oh!” Casey grabbed his arm in her damp hands and pulled him around. “Don't you give me that garbage. The old good girl, bad girl concept has been flushed down the toilet. Why is it when men sow their wild oats they're spirited and adventurous? When women do it, they're promiscuous and fast.”
Her eyes glowed like fiery emeralds in her animated face. “Admit it. You men just can't take the shoe being on the other foot now we're doing the cruising and choosing. We're paying for dinners and taking business trips and the nudes in our magazines are no longer undiapered babies."
That’s just one example of the exchanges back and forth between these two. He's not actually a misogynist. I think he's just pushing her buttons at various points because he knows that she's going to argue with him.
Honestly, I had so much fun reading this book. I want more people to read this book. It was so fun. I'm not even doing it justice talking about it. So: go read it.
This book did also have a really ridiculous line in a sex scene:
His body erupted and poured his love offering deep inside her.
I mean just literally dead. I thought it was hilarious.
Would I read more from this author?
HELL YEAH. Of course I don’t have any others in my collection… :(
Lilac Awakening
Author: Bonnie Drake (aka Barbara Delinksy)
Candlelight Ecstasy #85, published October 1982
Overall Assessment: Tender & sweet: I liked it
Why I picked it up:
Barbara Delinksy went on to have quite a career: I was curious to see if one of her early books was good.
What it’s about: the back cover:
She was a widow, too young and beautiful to be alone. But Anne Boulton was determined to spend a week in the isolated Vermont cabin. As a storm raged without and a snug fire burned within, it was perfect -- until he burst into her life.
In less than a week Mitch had commandeered the cabin, igniting the passions Anne had tried so hard to forget. And, like a fool, she agreed to his outrageous plan: They'd meet for vacations only -- no last names, no strings attached. But, hungry for happiness. Anne craved more. Who was he, this maddening stranger? And what were the secrets he tried so desperately to conceal?
Thoughts, opinions, feelings:
So I was a little worried on page 10 when the hero calls the heroine a bitch, but then I ended up really liking it.
It's actually a super heavy book. Both main characters are widowed in the last year, both from tragic accidents and one of them is intermingled with the other person (although unbeknownst to one of them until the very end of the book).
A mix up with a Vermont cabin rental is what ends up throwing them together, and then they keep meeting at the cabin as they heal together.
I thought this book was actually quite tender and interesting. They agree mutually that they are not going to engage in much of a physical relationship with each other for a long time, because they both acknowledged that they really like each other and that as soon as they start having sex, that they're going to be emotionally involved.
They know that they're not in a place where it's fair to be emotionally involved with each other yet. So they meet up at the cabin and basically continue to help each other heal from the trauma of their spouses passing away.
They both loved and miss their former spouses, and are figuring out how to be ok with moving on: I like that their relationships with their first spouses are able to remain loving and strong in their memories and that isn’t a threat that has to be diminished for their relationship to thrive.
Really enjoyed this one, but in a different way than how I enjoyed some of the other ones.
Would I read more from this author?
Yes, definitely.
I would be really interested in reading more books by Bonnie Drake in the Candlelight Ecstasy series.
In the Arms of Love
Author: Alexis Hill
Candlelight Ecstasy #115, published February 1983
Overall Assessment: Barely made it through
Note about the cover:
Usually the cover corresponds to something from the text, but this one puzzles me. There is no scene where the heroine wears a bridesmaid prom gown and the hero wears a tux.
What it’s about: the back cover:
"Those macho types don't appeal to me," Rachel Pritchard insisted. 'Jason Brand leaves me totally cold."
Easy enough to say, but was it true? A blue-eyed Adonis in tight jeans and T-shirt, he had invaded her freshman Composition class. An unschooled literary hotshot researching Quincy Adams University for his next book, he dared her to teach him something he didn't already know.
Determined to be strictly professional, Rachel swore to treat his assignments with the iciest objectivity. But she hadn't counted on his written words: words that made her long for his touch... his kiss. Words that set off an alarm that cried "Danger," even as they set her heart afire.
Thoughts, opinions, feelings:
I did finish this one, barely.
Rachel is a tenure-track professor despite having just a master’s degree and no real experience, Jason is her student slash famous nonfiction author hero.
Rachel is an inconsistent mess. Jason comes on a bit strong, but then later is vulnerable.
This is one where it felt very middle of the road. I didn't enjoy the heroine. She really did not know her own mind in a way that was really frustrating.
Power dynamics are imbalanced both ways at different times in this book. At the beginning, she is a professor and he is her student but he's a famous author, so it's not the same power imbalance if he was an 18-year-old freshmen with no power. I suppose it's mitigated in that way.
But then later on, basically she's no longer professor and becomes his paid research assistant, which is clearly arranged just because he's interested in her romantically. Then it becomes very weird because she's strong-armed into taking the role by her department head. It’s very strange and I couldn’t tell if this was a reflection of academia in the 1980s or an author who didn’t understand academia.
This was one that felt very much of its time and I did not enjoy it as much, although I did make it through. And that's really all I have to say about it.
Would I read more from this author?
Cautiously.
To Have and To Hold
Author: Lori Herter
Candlelight Ecstasy #118, published February 1983
Overall Assessment: It’s Awkward
Why I picked it up:
The cover is hot.
Also I was interested in reading a book by Lori Herter because she was featured in Where the Heart Roams, the documentary by George Csicsery that came out in the mid 1980s. (I had covered that with Steve Ammidown on the podcast a few years ago: it's episode 98.)
So I knew who Lori Herter was, and basically the reason she was featured in that documentary was, she was like this, new voice of the sexier romances.
There's this really awkward scene in that documentary where she's reading a sexy-for-its-time scene from one of her books, and the camera pulls back and her husband is sitting on a couch next to her, just like staring at her while she's reading. It's so awkward.
Unsurprisingly, so was this book.
What it’s about: the back cover:
Yes--she couldn't deny it--she still wanted him. But it could never be as it had been before.
A few short years ago Stacie Smythe had been his student at the university. Awed by his brilliance, overwhelmed by her own desire, she had become his wife. She had married him...then left him to make a life of her own. Now a professional photographer with a New York magazine, she had been assigned to Phoenix to do an article on Gray Pierce's archaeological work, forced to face the man who was still her husband. Once she had sat at his feet. Now she was determined to stand on her own. And yet everything within her longed for his searing kiss, for the warm haven of his arms. Could she ever again be his wife?
Thoughts, opinions, feelings:
I don't have good notes on this one because I realized after I read a few of these that I needed to start taking better notes.
There’s an extended scene in this book that IS memorable though.
So just imagine that you graduated from a college and years later, you're on an assignment for your job. And your former department chair picks you up and takes you to lunch, and you start giving a play-by-play of your entire illicit relationship with your professor who still works in the department of the man that you're speaking to. So you're telling your husband's boss that when you were a student, your professor seduced you and you're also giving him all the details.
That. Actually. Happened. In. This. Book.
There were lots of weird scenes in this book where I'm like, this is inappropriate. Why is this happening? This is awkward. Why is this not internal monologue? Why does this have to be her telling him over lunch, this entire story? I don't believe that this man would have the time. Or would care. Or would think this is appropriate.
It was so weird. I made it through but I don’t think the romance or the sex scenes were very memorable
Gray was a sad sack. He accuses her of leaving him to have a career. And she's like, well, I wanted to come back to you but you said not to!
They resolve the conflict by her making herself smaller so that he is more comfortable with her career. Maybe at the time this was seen as “wow! Look at them, making compromises. She can find a way to have her career without being away from him all the time, which is important to him. And he can acknowledge that she should be allowed to have basically just a life outside of being his wife.
I don't know, y’all - it’s a little depressing in the year 2023.
Would I read more from this author?
With trepidation.
Passionate Appeal
Author: Elise Randolph
Candlelight Ecstasy #143, published May 1983
Overall Assessment: Pretty good!
What it’s about: the back cover:
She knew his reputation. Warren J. Hamilton could pour on the charm with accomplished ease, then zero in on his prey with lethal accuracy. It worked in the courtroom time after time. Surely it worked as well in his private life.
But Chris Davis had a reputation, too. She was a successful trial lawyer-- a woman of high moral principles. He was her opponent, her enemy, her nemesis. And if he aroused something beyond fierce professional competition, she would never let him know. Like the criminals she prosecuted, Chris would hide the evidence-- her surging passion, her aching desire. And. like a criminal, she too would plead innocence-- until proven guilty.
Thoughts, opinions, feelings:
So this book is trying to be cute with the whole law thing. And um, yeah.
My notes: “Dichotomy between being a woman and a lawyer. She's a prosecutor. He's a defense attorney. And there's really interesting ideas in this book about integrating the parts of the self and how both of them are lawyers who are really tortured over their role in the justice system. Heroine is a little too interested in punishing people and has a sense of retributive justice as a result of a crime against a family member, and that doesn't resolve very well.”
The relationship between Chris and Warren is actually quite respectful and consenting. It's two fairly emotionally mature people. The heroine doesn't spend that much time resisting and not acknowledging her physical attraction.
The primary conflict is her concern over getting emotionally entangled with “the enemy” and professional conflicts related to that. She definitely worries a lot about the fact that he is a defense attorney because she thinks that that means that he's helping people who should be punished. (Rolling my eyes.)
Sometimes I take pictures of pages with interesting passages and I was sending some of them to Jayashree Kamble because at the same time I was reading her book, Creating Identity. (There’s an episode where she discusses it here!)
There were several passages in here that were explicitly talking about that dichotomy between two parts of the self that the heroine was struggling with and trying to work through, and that’s something Kamble talks about in her book. It's always fun when you're reading theory and then you see it in practice immediately.
Would I read more from this author?
Yeah, although it seems she only ever wrote 5 books under this name and I haven’t found another name/pseudonym.
Surrender to the Night
Author: Shirley Hart
Candlelight Ecstasy #144, published May 1983
Overall Assessment: DNF on page 3. Hero looks like a jock bully from Revenge of the Nerds: hard pass
Why I picked it up:
Morbid curiosity.
What it’s about: the back cover:
A wild and wanton need to touch him burned inside her. And yet she couldn't... must not!
Why had Jord Deverone, a man who spent his days, jetting across the world from one high-level business deal to the next, suddenly appeared in her Iowa hayfield? Why had the man Trish Flannery hated, the man who had aroused in her such passion, only to marry--and desert--her own sister, come back now? In the shadowy barn as rain pounded the roof and lightning slashed the skies above them, Jord stood before her, his body golden, sleek with moisture. Did Trish know the truth? Whatever it was, as he bent to kiss her again there was no escape. She was trapped between outrage and overwhelming desire.
Thoughts, opinions, feelings:
This one I did not finish. It was a hard no.
I read the first three pages and I was like, Nope. Nope. The hero impregnated the heroine's sister and abandoned his child. And he's blonde. It was just a no.
Now, obviously there is some sort of misunderstanding about the situation (like her sister's a skank [in the perspective of the book] and cheated on him).
I don't know. I just couldn't. I was just bored.
His name was “Jord.” I just couldn't do it.
Would I read more from this author?
No. Not even if I was on a desert island and her books were the only books available.
A Season for Love
Author: Heather Graham
Candlelight Ecstasy #154, published July 1983
Overall Assessment: A Season for DNFing
Why I picked it up:
Heather Graham: I definitely read a few of her books back in the day and didn’t remember hating them.
What it’s about: the back cover:
"Witch! Seductress! Temptress!" The words struck out in anger. They were not the words he had first used. Two strangers aboard a ship cruising at sea, their words, their kisses, their touch, had been filled with a fierce, tender passion.
And Ronnie von Hurst had abandoned herself; so briefly, to a love she knew could never be. What was there to warn her that Drake O'Hara would appear at her isolated South Carolina island estate? That she would have to receive him as an honored guest? That she would be powerless to explain, torn between the man who was her husband in name only and the man she desired beyond anything in the world -- the man who despised her as a faithless wife and loved her with a passion she alone could equal?
Thoughts, opinions, feelings:
I was not turned off by the premise so much as I would turned off by the writing in this one. There is so much internality and it is so boring.
I did not give a shit about these people. The plot seems to have some sort of angsty disappointment with the heroine who's in a loveless marriage. The guy is clearly famous or rich in some way, although she doesn't know that, but he definitely has this cockiness that turned me off immediately.
I got so many pages in and they're flirting at a pool, but all the action and dialogue happened off page.
It was just so boring and I didn't care what was going to happen. So I stopped. And that was that.
Would I read more from this author?
Not going out of my way, although she must have gotten better given the tenure of her prolific romance writing career…
Illusive Lover
Author: Jo Calloway
Candlelight Ecstasy #164, published August 1983
Overall Assessment: Oh, you could have been a model?!
Why I picked it up:
Was hoping for A Few Good Men.
What it’s about: the back cover:
An officer -- and a lady! -- West Point graduate Susan Vance was determined to do her duty. But she would not succumb to her dashing new Commander in Chief
First the playboy general promoted her to the rank of major. now he claimed her as his own. General Beau Valentine was definitely out of order when he took her in his arms. She tried to say no, but he invaded her heart with a single incendiary kiss. It was a warof wills, a call to arms, passionate combat of the most dangerous kind. She thought she knew the enemy and could outmaneuver him on his own territory--until she discovered the traitor within.
Dun, dun, DUHHHH!
Thoughts, opinions, feelings:
So the heroine ended up at West Point because her father was in the military and taught at the academy. At some point in the beginning, she's like, well, I guess I could have been a model if the military didn't work out or I could have been an accountant.
I mean, come on.
It was just problematic and boring. There was no characterization. The heroine's inner monologue was slowly killing me. There was definitely a lot of problematic abuse of power things going on. And also it felt (more than a little) unbelievable.
Like he was the youngest general ever who is known around the world and is the world's best lover… it just strained credulity.
So yeah, I stopped reading it at page 40, which is honestly more than this book deserved.
Would I read more from this author?
I would rather be a model.
Reluctant Merger
Author: Alexis Hill Jordan (same person as Alexis Hill, who wrote In the Arms of Love)
Candlelight Ecstasy #195, published December 1983
Overall Assessment: Nahhhh, he merges the heroine with his dead wife’s memory
Why I picked it up:
The cover has one of the least appealing men I’ve ever seen on a romance cover (in my opinion!), and that bar is already pretty low.
What it’s about: the back cover:
She would never give in. Her father had meant the Emerson Mills Gazette to be a rural Maryland paper. Award-winning publisher Claire Tanager meant to keep it that way. It would never be part of Spence McCabe s new East Coast chain.
But there was more to it than business. Sitting coolly before her, the picture of unruffled masculine authority, was McCabe himself the man who'd managed to seduce her within hours of their first meeting. It had been an impetuous evening in which shed overthrown the principles of a lifetime, a night she couldn't help but remember, yet struggled to forget. Why had he come? What made him think he could take over her paper, her life? The mere sight of him aroused her shame and outrage, and a longing she was too proud to see.
Thoughts, opinions, feelings:
I read about the first third of it. And then I found Spence to be really weird because he was saying his dead wife's name in his sleep. And then like I skimmed ahead and it turns out the heroine looks like her.
The ick factor was too high.
The opening scenes take place in a lavishly tacky Poconos resort that’s optimized for romantic getaways. I recently came across photos of this real resort, and I’m pretty sure this was the real inspiration.
They're both newspaper publishers. There were some interesting parallels with Double Occupancy by Elaine Raco Chase. You could probably do a compare and contrast in the ideology of these books and how they compared when it came to this idea of corporate mergers.
They're definitely gesturing at the macro changes that are happening in the economy and kind of the switch from being able to have these small local businesses to them getting swooped up into these large chains and conglomerates, multinational corporations and all of that.
There's probably something interesting to say there, but I didn't find this book to be that interesting.
Would I read more from this author?
Nah, I’m good.
What have I learned?
First of all, I know that if I want to give these books a fair shake, I can't start by skimming them. I have to start at the beginning and see if they pull me in. If you just skim through them and pick out a scene out of context, they seem ridiculous, which is why I don't let myself do that until I've given it a fair shot.
Definitely as a result of this first round, there are authors that I find I like much more than others.
That's what happens with any category book line, right? In any line that is publishing today there are authors that are going to appeal to you and authors that are not going to appeal to you.
In that sense, this line isn’t that different from category romance today.
Yeah, the problems maybe seemed a little bit more magnified as a result of when they were published. There's a lot of problematic power dynamics in these books that are very normalized in the world building. There will be an acknowledgement like, oh no, I should feel bad about this, oh no, I'm conflicted, but really nobody else seems to care about it, which feels strange.
I definitely liked some way more than I thought that I was going to like them: there are books in here that I’m going to reread and seek out more books by the author.
How sexy are they?
They have sex scenes and there are a few explicit words, but they're very euphemistic and very purple prose-y compared to sex scenes that you could read now.
I can see how readers at the time found these to be really sexy, particularly compared to what else was being published at the time. I don't think I found them particularly sexy, but I certainly found some of the emotional relationships to be quite affecting.
It's well-established that I like books that are quite explicit and sexy, though, so there may be some readers who find these books to be sexier than I did.
Thanks for reading! A few notes and timely reminders:
Don’t forget that you can still get 35% off Jayashree Kamble’s book Creating Identity: The Popular Romance Heroine's Journey to Selfhood and Self-Presentation
Shelf Love Discount code: use “UShelflove” for 35% between September 15, 2023 and November 2, 2023.
Recent episodes include:
Coming soon:
This week, a new episode with Ellie Mae MacGregor (@bisexual_booknerd) about bisexuality in romance! Watch for it Tuesday.
I heard that an episode I recorded a while back with Bree from Categorically Romance Podcast will be releasing Wednesday - we talked about Harlequin Kiss!
Jodie Slaughter and I will be reading Alisha Rai’s A Gentleman in the Streets for an upcoming episode.
Appreciate you sharing your takes on these books. Some of them sound super entertaining, and I love the old cover art. I loved your conclusion that "my critical thinking skills have remained intact even though I did enjoy it." Yes, we can retain our critical thinking skills while reading romance! LOL Loved that. Thanks again.