Untouchedby Anna Campbellreviewed by Cybil SolynDecember 2007, 384 pages, Publisher: Avon, ISBN: 0061234923 Back Cover Blurb: Beautiful Grace Paget was kidnapped, spirited away to a remote country manor, and told she is to grant this man his every desire . . . or lose her life. But Grace is no common trollop. So she risks everything to save her virtue by planning a daring escape, even though she finds herself tempted by this handsome man. There is something in his eyes that makes her wonder if he is as dangerous as he would have her believe.
Sheene knew nothing of the plan to bring him this woman. Locked up as a prisoner, called "mad" by all of the world, he will do anything to reclaim his life, and Grace's sensuous beauty has distracted him from his goals. And although he finds her irresistible, he is horrified to hold her against her will. Now, together, they must both revolt against the strange set of circumstances that have forced them together - for only then will Grace truly surrender to him . . . forever.
Anna Campbell awed and disgusted me in her debut novel (The Courtesan) with a relationship based on forced sex, but the talent of her writing compelled me to keep reading. In her newest book I am happy to say that she's lived up to all the potential I saw in the last novel. Untouched is, hands down, among the best books I have read this year.
Recently widowed Grace Paget thought she had fallen on hard times when she gave up her comfortable life to marry a husband who ended up hating her and her upbringing. But when the new widow is kidnapped, drugged, and threatened with death if she doesn't sleep with the man she shares her captivity with, she thinks things have gone from terrible to nightmarish. As her captivity progresses she comes to love her prisonmate, and becomes determined to get them both out alive.
Matthew, Marquess Sheene, has been held captive most of his adult life due to an illness that left him "mad" when he was just a boy. When he finds Grace strapped to a table and drugged he can't help but think this is some trick by his wicked uncle to solidify the trumped-up lunatic diagnosis Matthew has suffered under so that his uncle can control his life, his fortune, and the power that goes with the Marquisate. But once Grace and Matthew realize that they are bound together by more than their circumstances, Matthew's uncle has a surprise coming because love really can conquer all.
Campbell's style of writing hearkens back to the days of Woodwiss and Victoria Holt. She writes with an old school Gothic flare that encompasses the entire story. Nothing is done halfway. The descriptions are heavily detailed and lush. Our hero is utterly tormented from every side. Our villain is over-the-top evil. Our heroine is 100% in need of rescue. The plot is fairly unrealistic. And yet, Campbell pulls this all off by dragging the reader deep into her characters' psyche and making it all seem not only plausible, but disturbingly real.
I tend to like my women strong and capable and my men even more so. Although Grace is a little weaker than I usually like my heroines, she is strong enough to hold up Matthew - the hero and center of the story. Matthew is a to-die-for hero. He has suffered more than most could and still kept his wits and humanity intact. He is strong, but understanding. He is naive, but willing to learn. He is ... well perfection. Which makes the seduction and ultimate consummation scenes all the hotter.
Matthew has been locked away without a woman for all his adult life. This makes for some VERY steamy pent up sex scenes. Even his first effort with Grace which he understandably makes a mess of, is redeemed when he sets his scientific mind to discovering how to please her. Matthew's blend of innocence, strength, and dark torment is the stuff that makes the sexiest heroes. He is so sexy that I almost forgot to mind how annoyed I was that he wouldn't just kill his captors. As a botanist I kept thinking he was going to quietly poison the men holding him captive, but he didn't. Made me crazy. Still, many arguments could be made as to why he didn't. It was just a sore point for me.
The book is a fast read and yet you want to savor every bit of it. It is one of those books that you tear through, but then are sorry it's all done. Untouched has found its way onto my Keeper shelf just as I'm sure it will find its way onto yours.
Bottom Line: Easily one of the best reads of 2007. Don't miss it!
Contact us!
Cybil Solyn, csolyn@rakehell.com
|
