Jade Star

Jade Star, By Catherine Coulter
Published by Signet, June 2002
Grade: C+

Back cover reads: Rescued from an evil slave trade by Saint Morris, minister's daughter Juliana DuPres is treated as a common prostitute by her family on her return. Saint marries her and takes her back to San Francisco, to look after her, as a protector. Juliana, however, has other ideas.

This is the fourth book in the star series. I have not read the first three, and even though we meet many of the characters from the first books, there is no confusion in the story.

Our heroine is a preachers daughters. One day her and her friend are kidnapped by sailors. Her friend is raped and she is locked in a room and is treated cruelly by the ships captain. He forces her to stay naked for 2 weeks and tries to break her spirits so that she wont cause a scene at the slave auction he plans to sell her at. He does not rape her, because he knows he will make lots of money of her if he sells her as a virgin, but he fondle her.

Our hero, Saint, is a giant of a man who is a doctor that is honorable and kind. He hates prostitution (forced or by choice) so when he finds out that there will e a slave auction he asks about the women and finds out that one of them is a girl he used to know years ago. With help from his criminal friends, he rescues her and returns her to her parents. Her parents are self righteous arsholes who want nothing to do with her. They don;t believe that she is still a virgin and think that she has 'let' dozens of men rape her.

Disowned by her family and cast away, Saint has no choice but to marry her and be her protector. He tries to stay away from her because he knows that she is hurting and he doesn;t want to make her more afraid of men than she already is. Jules though, has been in live with Saint since she was 12, and the more Saint treats her like a sister, the more she wants him to treat her like a wife.

They settle together in his home and she becomes friends with his friends. However, the man who kidnapped her and become obsessed with getting her back and he will stop at nothing to make her his.

What I liked: The hero really is perfection (except for the hairy chest they keep mentioning. Ew) I like a little it of hair, but not as much that is described on Saint. I love a hero who sticks up for the heroine. There is nothing better than a man who will beat up a preacher after he calls his daughter a whore during church.

What I did not like: The spanking. Sigh. I know it was common in the 1800's for husbands to give spankings as punishment. I hate it though. Spanking during sex when both parties are into is awesome. Spankings because the little wife disobeyed her husband is not and never will be something that I will accept.