Review: His Forbidden Fruit
Rating: 1 out of 5
Date: 10 7, 2012
Dominic Rainier has been told by a witch that only Lilith Somerset can break the curse that plagues his land. To do this, he must find her and impregnate her before the next full moon. Upon Lilith's capture he forces himself on her roughly as she is tied to the bed. He then continues to visit her nightly and hope that soon she will come to love him and his land will prosper.Okay. I read the whole book, and this seems to follow the trend of what I've heard of the old bodice rippers showcased. Kidnap and rape the heroine, but then she'll fall in love with you, etc.Oh Lordy. I mean, he feels bad about it (sad face), and after another night, this one of dubious consent, she's then welcoming to future advances (um, wha...?), etc. It's distasteful in a modern day "romance" novel. While it's true that an older generation of romance readers may possibly still love this, the new generation may not be as tolerant of this type of story thread. I am not tolerant of a hero raping a heroine in a romance novel.Aside from the circumstances of the coupling of the hero and heroine, neither are great characters and the ending was very anti-climatic.I think the publisher or the author did this a great disservice by not calling attention to the rape in the Amazon description so that readers who do not want to read about women falling in love with their rapists could avoid this. Should this be labeled with the warning, the book can then avoid getting into the hands of readers who will be upset and voice their displeasure with negative reviews as a result.Update (10/15/12): I'm pleased to see the Amazon description now has a notation... but I think it's being generous to say "forced seduction" which is just a gentler way of saying rape.