Claiming the courtesan by Anna Campbell
The Duke of Kylemore knows her as Soraya, London's most celebrated
courtesan. Men fight duels to spend an hour in her company. And only he comes close to taming her. Flying in the face of society, he decides to make her his bride; then, she vanishes, seemingly into thin air. Dire circumstances have forced Verity Ashton to barter her innocence and change her name for the sake of her family. But Kylemore destroys her plans for a respectable life when he discovers her safe haven. He kidnaps her, sweeping her away to his hunting lodge in Scotland, where he vows to bend her to his will. There he seduces her anew. Verity spends night after night with him in his bed . . . and though she still dreams of escape and independence, she knows she can never flee the unexpected, unwelcome love for the proud, powerful lover who claims her both body and soul.
The 'hero' is a rapist. He flat out raped the Heroine. I heard about this before I read the book, so I had planned on not reading it at all. Then I asked around to a few friends who read it and they said that it was forced seduction. Okay, well I can deal with that. Forced seduction is common in historical novels.
Well, this was not forced seduction at all. It was rape with a capital R.
Even erotica publishers draw the line at rape. They say that forced seduction is fine, but the woman must be willing by the time penetration occurs. In Claiming the courtesan, the heroine was not willing till the third time he did it.
Sickening.
Verity became at whore at 15 so that she would have a way to support her younger brother and sister. Justin, the Duke of Kylemore, wanted her for 6 years, but she chose a different protector instead.
When she finally decided to become his Mistress the contract stated that the relationship would end after 12 months if either party is not happy. After 12 months, she ended it. She didn't tell him, she just took off.
This made the Duke very very angry. He tracked her down and kidnapped her. It was his goal to break her. He was emotionally abuse and mean.
After he rapes her, Verity hates him, but then once she finds out that he had a bad childhood, and now suffers from nightmares, she starts to get all soft about him.
She finds a way to escape, but she falls over a cliff and almost dies. The Duke saves her, and now she is in love with him.
She is totally brainwashed when it comes to him. Her kidnapper does one or two nice things on top of all the bad things, and she feels that she owes him for his kindness. It's classic Stockholm syndrome.
Verity is so mixed up and brainwashed, it's disgusting.
She thinks she loves him, but knows that a Duke cannot marry a whore, and even though he wants her to stay with him, she wants to leave. He lets her go.
He admit to himself that he took her unwilling, and he thinks that letting her go is the best thing he can do to make up for what he has done.
There is a point in the story where Kylmores mother tries to kill Verity, but the Duke rides to the rescue. Like he is some dashing hero or something. It was too long played out, and even though it started off as an exciting scene, it quickly got boring and repetitive.
I kept waiting for Kylemore to redeem himself. Not that you can 'fix' rape, but since this is fiction I expected there was something that he could have done to make it right.
He didn't.
Verity ends up staying with him. She may or may not be pregnant. Since daddy is a rapist, I hope they don't have any female children.
I do not recommend this book to anyone.
The first 2 'love' scenes are very clearly rape. The lines of forced seduction were crossed in a huge way. I feel dirty having just read this book.
