Desire's Captive (Harlequin Presents No. 609)

WARNING: THIS REVIEW CONTAINS INFORMATION THAT SOME MAY CONSIDER SPOILERS.

PENNY JORDAN

Stats for my copy: Mass market paperback, Harlequin Books, 1983.

How acquired: Who knows. I registered it on BookCrossing in 2003 after retrieving some boxes of books that my husband had put in the attic when we moved into our house some seven or eight years previously.

First line: 'Saffron, my dear, you look wonderful – so like your mother!'

My thoughts: So many conflicting emotions. Saffron meets Nico, is entranced by him, he seems entranced by her. He takes her on a picnic. Next thing she knows three more people show up and she's taken hostage at gunpoint. And Nico is the leader of the gang of kidnappers.

So despite the kidnapping, and the ruthless way he treated her while she was held captive, I knew Nico was the hero. No other man is mentioned in the synopsis on the back cover. So he had to be. But I just couldn't see how. For the entire book I just couldn't figure out he could possibly redeem himself and not end up in jail. Because obviously if he repented for his deeds and went to jail in the end, there wouldn't be an HEA. Unless the book jumped forward to his release. But that just didn't seem plausible. If one of the other men had lured her to the remote area where she was kidnapped, then I could easily assume right off the bat that Nico was working with the kidnappers in an undercover capacity. Perfectly plausible. But he engineered the kidnapping.

Of course it all works out in the end. But after learning the truth, the whole truth, I was outraged on Saffron's behalf. Outraged that her father had allowed Nico to kidnap her. Outraged that Saffron seemed to harbor no anger at her father for allowing her to be put in that situation. In my head I wrote an epilogue in which, after the initial joy of being reunited with Nico and learning he was actually one of the good guys had worn off, Saffron would vent her anger on both Nico and her father. Oh, she'd still marry Nico, of course. But she would hold their actions over both their heads for awhile and make them both grovel for her forgiveness.

Whew. Ok. Now that I got that out of the way. I read the majority for this book in one day. I liked Saffron. She was strong. She was frightened but defiant. She was attracted to Nico and hated him for it. She was shrewd in her observations of Olivia, the female kidnapper who was jealous of her and the hold she seemed to have over Nico. And of course I liked Nico as well. I mean, I knew the anger he often took out on Saffron wasn't out of meanness, it was for show around the other members of the gang, and it was his own defense against the feelings he felt for her.

Ugh. I'm not a hundred percent sure I even liked the book. No, that's a lie. I did like it. But I'm not proud of that.

Goodreads synopsis: Her worst fears had come true. Being kidnapped by political terrorists was the realization of Saffron Wykeham's worst nightmares. And to be taken to an isolated primitive farmhouse and subjected to the volatile dangerous temperaments of her captors was worse than she ever could have imagined. For Nico Doranti, the man she loved, the one man to whom her whole being responded, had manipulated her descent into hell. Though calculating and callous, he was her only hope for escape-and for future happiness.