I wish that my hate for this book was more passionate or complex but I just found it obnoxious. Sure, it's crazy offensive but not in the spectacular way that To Sail Beyond the Sunset was. I would go to war with that terrible book but I doubt I'll remember anything that happened in this one come next month. Except i will remember when the hero romantically offered the heroine a few minutes to decide if she wanted to willingly sleep with him or be raped again. She agrees because she'd fallen in love with him for reasons (I don't know what they were but she said she had them). Then magic ensued, I guess, but I was distracted thinking about the villainous woman that had earlier rouged up her nipples and worn a transparent dress.

I used to really love this book when I was a(n older) teen. Upon reading it now, there were definitely a lot of issues that I had with the book. Brandon was way too domineering - he rapes Heather, and in the end when Mr. Hint threatens to rape her, he says he'll kill her before he lets that happen...really? I loved the middle of this book, when they were really getting to know each other/falling in love. I just really wish that rape was never an acceptable plot device.

2 STARS

Full disclosure: I skimmed most of the book after chapter 6 (there's only 10 chapters in this 500+ page book so you can imagine how VERY long they are). I had completely lost interest in the story and its characters by that point and was just trying to get a feel of what was happening instead of actively reading every sentence.

Regardless of the problematic elements which this book is kind of infamous for, it's also considered a classic of the romance genre. One of my goals this year was to read more of those "classics" in order to have a better understanding of where the genre started/how it evolved into what it is today. And so obviously, I felt I had to read the Flame and the Flower.

In the first 2-3 chapters of the novel, I could totally see the makeups of a LOT of historical romance archetypes in our two leads so that part was interesting and kept me reading for that reason. Unfortunately, the more the book progressed, the more flat and uninteresting the characters became. Like yea, Brandon is awful in the beginning but at least he had a personality, lol. By the end he was about as interesting as a cardboard box.

Anyway, I really wasn't planning on writing a review for this book so I'll just say that overall it really isn't a great book for a plethora of reasons, but I'm glad I'll be able to understand next time someone mentions "The Flame and the Flower".

This is a tough book to review. It's considered a classic, and beloved to several people and I can see why. It inspired a lot of historical romances which is what led to the historical romance we have today. However in a modern context, this did not age well. At all.

This review will contain spoilers.

All the CWs: death of a parent (mentioned), emotional abuse, mental abuse, physical abuse, attempted sexual assault, murder of assailant, rape, accidental pregnancy by rape, marriage to rapist, slut shaming, fat shaming, racism.

This is about Heather and Brandon. Heather's father has died and she lives with her uncle and abusive aunt basically as a servant. In a series of events, Heather is sexually assaulted in London, accidentally murders her assailant, runs away, is mistaken for a prostitute, and then is raped by American ship captain Brandon. This happens in the first 10% of the book.

When she learns she is pregnant she is forced to marry Brandon, her rapist. And he takes her to live with him in the Americas where he is a plantation owner in South Carolina. Heather and Brandon eventually start to care for one another and fall in love with each other.

I can see why this is considered a classic and a favorite. The writing is gorgeous and captures the historical setting of London and South Carolina so well. There's so many familiar tropes that are so popular in today's modern historical romance (marriage of convenience, one bed, accidental pregnancy), but there's also tropes that we rarely find in romance today. Raping was a more common trope between the alpha hero and the virtuous, virginal heroine who couldn't be seen enjoying her first sexual experience, because that would make her unvirtuous. It is interesting to see how far romance novels have come, but in a modern context this book is a whole lot of cringe.

As far as my own enjoyment of the book, I enjoyed the writing and certain parts. However, I disliked the characters and the whole romance between them was tainted due to the nature of how their relationship started. This is barely a 2 star for me. I wonder if I had read this book when I was younger, if I would have a different view point of it.

This book was on a list of romance novelist's favorite romance novels and I honestly think I understand some subtext to the issues RWA has had because holy shit, this book is insane. I'm one of the first to say that sex in books doesn't have to be ethical the way sex ought to be in real life, but the cheerfulness Heather feels about her rape by the end of the book was not something I enjoyed reading. I understand that one way rape culture and purity culture and patriarchy can manifest is in rape fantasies, that is because sex is coded as dirty and wrong sometimes fantasizing about being forced happens and there's room for that in romance and fanfic but yeah, this was just too rapey for me. I think that maybe older romance novels just don't work for me. Part of what I like about romance as a genre is that it feels like fantasy to me and I've definitely read romances with unhealthy power dynamics and "bad" sex and enjoyed them but it works when those dynamics are thought about and this just made me roll my eyes.

Also the mystery was obvious and stupid and Heather was annoying. I don't think that all female characters need to be "strong" but that doesn't mean I want to read about someone who constantly calls herself a coward and seems to only make stupid decisions.

This book was too much of an "old-school" bodice ripper for my taste: cliched, flowery language, indirect descriptions of physical moments, and a heavy-handed Alpha male (who just needs to love his lady in just the right way, then she'll be putty in his hands).

The story around the romance was stuffed with plot points, including multiple off-page murders surrounding a thinly hidden mystery; jealous, shrieking women and melodramatic villains trying to pry the lovers apart.

The first part of the book was the best, including the scenes aboard Capt. Birmingham's ship.

And I understand it's in retrospect, but the African American slaves were offensive, speaking as if they walked off the set/pages of [b:Gone with the Wind|18405|Gone with the Wind|Margaret Mitchell|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1328025229s/18405.jpg|3358283]. Strange choice since Brandon Birmingham was also from the South but his dialogue wasn't written with a phonetic drawl. The slaves might not have been quite as offensive if not for the disparate character dialogue choices.

The large age difference between h and H was about the only thing I enjoyed. What can I say the older I get the more bored I am with the proper and conventional norms of the society. Just typing that makes me yawn.

DNF at 55%.

Maybe i'll finished it someday (most probably it will be left as it is)

The rape was bad enough. But worse was the peoples reactions to Heather. Just because she's beautiful, everybody love her on sight and treat her like an angel. 20 years ago this maybe won't bother me, but hundreds of romance books later would really open your eyes.