The Duke's Captive [Mass Market Paperback]

This book is about a man bent on revenge.5 years earlier he had been kidnapped,tortured and drugged for 5 weeks.He mistakingly believes that one person escaped justice for his ordeal.This sick and cruel man devoid of any consience or humanity begins a campaign to terrorize her.This comes to a head when he takes her captive ties her up and sexually tortures and rapes her.To make it worse the book played the rapist fantasy that the victim enjoyed the rape.As it turns out not only had his victim not been guilty but had nursed him during his ordeal.She had also been the reason he had been rescued. When he finds this out he then goes to her and still being his arrogant self, announces she will be his wife without asking her.Of course she will marry him.What garbage.In the beginning I felt pity for the torture the Duke suffered.By the end of the book however, I was sorry he had gotten out alive.

-0 stars!!! WARNING--SPOILERS!!!! SPOILERS!!!!

I was fooled by the attractive cover of this book and the first few pages which appeared interesting. This had to be one of the most poorly plotted books I've ever read, with lots of loose ends and tangents about erotic paintings and other stuff that was inadequately developed and made little sense. I made myself finish it, because I thought it had to get better (IOW, no published romance could be this bad). Alas, I was mistaken, as each chapter got worse. I can say without reservation that The Duke's Captive was absolutely one of the worse romance books I have ever read, and I have read thousands.

Ian and Viola are our hero/heroine. Five years prior to the start of our tale, Viola's two sisters kidnapped Ian, who was then the Earl of Stamford. Viola's sisters are safe because one killed herself and the other is imprisoned for her crime, but Ian who is now a Duke, has plans to ruin Viola for her part in his nightmare. Viola left the area and married, had a child, is conveniently widowed, now out of mourning and a much sought-after painter. She is also TSTL and some piece of work and Ian is not much better. I wouldn't want to have dinner with either of them, but Ian at least had an excuse--even a soap-opera doctor could tell that he suffered from severe post-traumatic stress disorder from a 5-week long kidnapping during which he was drugged out of his mind, chained in a dungeon and nearly starved to death, by Viola's evil sisters. Although Viola didn't help kidnap Ian, I can't absolve Viola of responsibility. She should have tried harder to free him sooner, instead of moaning about her lot in life. She wasn't chained and starved. And the gender prejudice of having sex with an ailing, captive man!! If the roles were reversed, no one would hesitate to label Ian as a rapist and Viola his victim. It appears that we are expected to view her actions as providing comfort to Ian because he supposedly begged her and because he's a man so she can't possibly have molested or raped him.

I've never disliked a character in a romance as much as Viola. I can't believe that the author had Viola pat herself on the back and make smug self-serving statements about feeding him every 2-3 days, lovingly fondling (let's call it tending) to an ill, semi-conscious man, before eventually figuring out how to have him rescued. I mean how long was this kidnapping supposed to go on? Viola expressed more sorrow about herself and her sisters than the incredibly horrific things that happened to Ian. To tie this sweet story up with a bow, let's add a little love-child to the story!! Of course, besides beginning to fall in love/lust with Viola, Ian gives up all thoughts of revenge when he accidentally finds out he has a little Mini-Me.

I guess love conquers all, but by the end of the book, I just wanted these two awful people to live unhappily ever after (separately) and a refund of my money. Oh, if only the spine didn't have that slightly noticeable crease in it, I could still return it!

(2.5 stars rounded up for unusual plot.) I have to give Ms Ashworth credit for attempting an adult and thought-provoking theme, with a more original plotline than most recent romances have. But I read romances for the "romantic-ness" of them and this one was disquieting, unsettling and downright uncomfortable for me. Hero Ian Wentworth, the Duke of Chatwin, is the brother of Ivy Wentworth (now married and the Marchioness of Rye), who was the heroine of A NOTORIOUS PROPOSITION. I believe it was in that book that Ian was drugged and taken prisoner by a madwoman and her sister and chained in the tunnels of Winter Garden (Rye's home). A third sister who was not directly involved in the abduction did her best to see to his comfort during his imprisonment.

Now, in THE DUKE'S CAPTIVE, it is 5 years later. The two sisters directly involved in his abduction, continuous drugging and torture have received their just punishment, but Ian is looking for revenge on the third sister, who he is convinced was in on the whole plot. That sister is Viola, Lady Cheshire, widowed, the mother of a young son, and a well-known portrait painter of the ton. Ian meets her at a party, pretends not to recognize her and engages her to paint his portrait. His plan for revenge is now underway.

During his capture, Ian was under the influence of drugs constantly and has foggy recollections of someone arousing him sexually and bringing him to climax while he is drugged and chained. Now this, IMO, is rape. He believes this someone was Viola. Most of the book is an uncomfortable lead-up to his emotional and sexual domination of her and a love scene which, IMO, is also rape. The last 30 pages of the book try to explain all this as being love between H and H and, I will admit, helped me to feel slightly better about the first 330 pages but, still, I found this story to be an uncomfortable read.

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