The beginning of this book is very challenging to read, oof. I put the book down at ~20% and it took me weeks to pick it up again and only because I switched to audio. Once you get past when he essentially rapes her TWICE and after they're forced together it gets slightly better from there. This is definitely an old style book where the heroine is extremely young, virginal, but feisty and opinionated which gets her into "trouble" with the hero. Heather is essentially a clone of the heroines in Johanna Lindsey's Captive Bride or Gentle Rogue or Julie Garwood's The Bride (pretty much the standard character of pre-90s romances :X) Brandon's character is not that great either. The characters that save this book are his man-servant George, especially when he gets drunk and talks to his cat, his brother Jeff (Geoff?) who flirts hardcore with Heather, and the black servant (former slave?) Hatty or something who is stereotypical sassy. Like the writing is good, the characters are iffy but somewhat redeemable at the end, and the story is a bit hard to read in this day and age.

Heather's aristocratic dad gambled away all their money so she's been forced to live essentially as a servant with her aunt and uncle doing manual labor everyday and wearing clothes too big for her - because she's slim and beautiful. Her aunt's brother comes to visit and offers to take her to be a teacher at a "school" (Brandon explains at the end that the school was actually a brothel so she was being lied to) so he takes her to London where he tries to rape her and she causes him to fall on a knife when she defends herself. Thinking she's murdered him she flees into the night and ends up lost near the docks where she's mistaken for a prostitute. Thinking she's been caught by a seaside magistrate she goes without a fight and ends up in Captain Brandon's bed where he fucking RAPES HER, including taking her virginity and his only thought is "huh that's weird she's a virgin, she could have sold that for a lot of money." And he even sees the blood and she's fucking crying and everything. But he decides he's going to keep her, basically keep her naked in his cabin and use her as he pleases. The next day he rapes her again and keeps her locked in. She manages to trick his manservant George and she escapes back to her aunt and uncle in the countryside.

But time passes and she becomes pregnant. When she's forced to admit that it was Brandon who impregnated her (leaving out the bit about murdering the aunt's brother), they enlist the help of her benefactor a powerful Lord to find Brandon and force her to marry Heather. Brandon is pissed because he had offered to set her up has a well-to-do mistress but she had refused, so he promises that yes they'll be married but he plans to treat her like a servant. (Thank GOD this didn't happen or this book would have been unreadable). Much later we find out that Brandon had been frantically searching London for her because he was immediately obsessed.

They go back to America where he has a plantation near Charleston. He had planned to marry Louisa for her land but obviously that can't happen now. Louisa becomes the antagonist in this book and its fucking insane. She will just barge into his home and Brandon doesn't ever tell her off (AHHH IT'S SO INFURIATING). She's constantly trying to split them up and makes tons of comments right in front of Heather attempting to seduce Brandon. EVEN AFTER HEATHER GIVES BIRTH. In one scene she's literally breast feeding her son Beau with Brandon right there and Louisa barges in and tries to seduce Brandon.

The whole plot when they're in America is that they still fight but Brandon is attracted to her but he's too proud and wants her to come to him. He ends up not having sex with her or anyone from the time he raped Heather and got her pregnant until months after she gives birth to their son. Heather wins the hearts of the townspeople, his brother Jeff, George, and the house servants. They all get mad at Brandon for how he treats Heather.

Then one day the tailor for the aunt's brother shows up, Mr. Hint (sp?). He blackmails Heather to pay him off or else he'll let everyone know her murder crime. BUT turns out the brother hadn't did, it was Mr. Hint who killed him bc he was sick of him stealing his dressmaking work for his own. He was forced to flee to America too and he starts murdering women in town. He's butt ugly and he murders women who turn him down. When Louisa starts letting him use her in exchange for pretty dresses, he admits the info about Heather and she immediately wants to reveal this info because this is what is needed to break up Heather and Brandon. Mr. Hint doesn't want to reveal it because then he can't blackmail Heather for money so he murders Louisa. Then there's a scene where he almost rapes and murders Heather but Brandon saves her in time, but gets shot in the process, and then it all comes out that Heather had revealed all this while she was fevering once and Brandon didn't confront her about it but he knew. So basically everything works out and they start having sex like a normal couple and are a happy family with their son.