Okay, so I read this book as like a fun little challenge. I'd always wanted to read a vintage bodice-ripper for the culture, you know? And I'll admit, I was expecting it to be bit silly and unabashedly smutty, but like...why was this so bad? How does this book have over 4 stars 0_0

Let's start with the good, because there's not a whole lot of it. I have to give this book some credit for basically inventing the genre. When I picked it up at the thrift store, I didn't even realize that this was basically the holy grail of Bodice Rippers; I just thought the blurb on the back sounded juicy, and it made me laugh. But I can definitely see how this book influenced not only the historical romance genre but romance as a whole. There are tropes and themes that I've seen a million times in more contemporary stories, but honestly, because most modern romance has disregarded a few of the more outdated sentiments, it read so much like a modern fanfiction :'/ Still, I have to give it credit for the cultural impact it had. The only other thing preventing me from giving this book one star is that it did meet my expectation of being dramatic and goofy as hell, and for at least the first half of the book, that kept me entertained.

That being said, I have literally never in my life had such a hard time getting through the last few pages of a book. Usually, the ending is the part where I start speeding through the chapters, because I'm dying to know how the story is resolved. With this book, I genuinely considered DNFing with like a hundred pages left, but I'd already read over three hundred, and I knew I would disappoint myself if I didn't just power through. I was doing it for the culture. I had to commit. But I literally could not care less about how this story ended, because I could not care less about the characters. The love interest was a piece of shit, the protagonist was boring as hell, and all the other characters were about as one-dimensional as you can get. I was so disappointed, because the story literally had the perfect set up for a good character arc with Heather. In the beginning, she hated how passive and weak she was when she was being treated unfairly by her aunt, and I thought, "oh, okay so she's going to become more strong willed as the story goes on." Nope. If anything, she became even more passive. There was literally zero character arc. She just accepts all the terrible shit that happens to her and does absolutely nothing about it, even begins to consider it a blessing. And honestly, the exact same thing happened with the love interest. I mean, he was pretty much irredeemable from the start, considering how the two of them met 0_0 but I was willing to give him a chance, willing to see the guilt of it all lead him to becoming a better, less violent, less possessive, less sexually driven person. Also no. That did not happen. Also, every time I was reminded of this man's beard and thick chest hair it was a jump scare. Like, I know this was written in the 70s and maybe body hair was considered hot back then, but God, if I ever have to read about someone's matted chest hair again, it will be the last book I ever read. Also, I was expecting this book to be sexually explicit, and like, it was, but not in the way I would have thought. The story starts off horny, but then there are really not any sex scenes until much later on in the book, which kind of shocked me. And also, considering that these stories have been credited with creating a more female-oriented sexual attitude in fiction, all of the sex scenes in this book felt strangely male-gazey. Like, sure the book claimed Heather was enjoying it (at least at the end of the book), but it never really gave us any evidence of that. Basically every smutty scene was initiated by the male love interest. Also, why was his name Brandon? I know I already complained about him but... Like come up with a less sexy name. I challenge you. And if I may add, Brandon and Heather are two of the least 18th century sounding names she could have chosen. Speaking of which, I was willing to let this slide as the story is obviously more about the romance, but the historical accuracy in this was mid as hell. Like, not horrible, and considering google didn't exist in 1972, I have to give Ms. Woodiwiss some credit for trying, but everything felt so anachronistic, there was some questionable content about slavery (still unsure if the love interest's black servants were slaves or not, Kathleen sort of brushed past that), and I feel like the time period and setting just wasn't utilized as well as it could have been. Like, this is kind of a dumb example, but where were Heather's stays? You're telling me I'm reading a smutty historical romance and the author decided not to have a scene where her stays are magically ripped off? Kathleen, please explain to me how Heather's awe-inspiring bosom wasn't falling out of all her low-cut gowns without any kind of support garment??? Anyway, trying not to let this book completely sway my overall outlook on the historical romance genre. Maybe I should try and read one written in the last 20 years next lol.

Edit: I realized that even with a ridiculously long paragraph of complaints, I forgot some major issues I had with this story, and for no one else's sake but mine, I wanted to note a few more of those. Idk how I forgot this because it was such a major reason I got so fed up reading the last few pages of this book: there is randomly a murder plot? Why? And also, the villain that appears in the last one hundred pages of the book had the dumbest motive ever and it was so obvious that he was the culprit. Also, I know I already mentioned this, but the way in which EVERY SINGLE CHARCATER was sooooo one-dimensional was truly brain numbing. And also, almost every single character in this book was deplorable except for a few comic relief/ boring side characters. Literally the only people in this book who I genuinely liked were the family friends that helped Heather get married. They were the only people who seemed even halfway decent and the only ones with common sense, but they were also only in the story for like a scene and then were never mentioned again. So that's cool. And that's another thing, the plot of this book was so disjointed. Like, it felt like characters and scenes were introduced for no other reason than to serve as a tool in the relationship drama. And, I also realized that I never commented on the writing itself, which is another element that left me so disappointed. I remember, when I first started reading, I thought the writing was fairly well done and I was enjoying the imagery and flowery language, but it quickly lost it's charm on me as it became so repetitive and unimaginative. Idk why this book is still occupying my mind, I need it to not take up anymore of my time. So this is it. This is all I will ever say of this book. I'm done lmao