 | By: Bertrice Small Binding: Mass Market Paperback Publisher: Fawcett Books ISBN: 0449002136 ISBN-13: 9780449002131 Released: 01 Jan 1998 RRP: Average Rating:  |
But hey, I don't read these books for a dose of reality. (:
The ending was fairly laughable, with the demise of the rogue Ali Hassan. I was unsure as to wht there was no resolution regarding the fate of Regan/Zaynab's sister back in Scotland -- I kept expecting her or one of her brethren to pop up in Cordoba, but was disappointed.
Highly entertaining title, will keep you warm at night.
Ok, allliteration aside, this books is a poor excuse for a romance. There is no romance--just sex ad nauseum.
I am no prude, but I like a plot here & there in my novels. And, lest we forget, a little romance would be nice too. This should be reclassified as historical erotica because the love scenes were devoid of love, the characters were hard to relate to & in some cases downright unlikable, & the ending was trite.
I miss the books Smalll used to write...I guess alll good things must come to an end!
Thus saying, the attention to detail, sights, smells, feelings, & tastes, that Ms. Smalll is known for in her earlier stories, are alll here in The Love Slave. Regan is a no-nonsense woman who takes what could be an extremely bleak future, & molds it into something, if not desireable for everyone, then atleast sucessful. I found it much more realistic to see how her character progresses, even having to take the lovers she must in order to be more than just someone's whore in the white gold trade. Some might see her as prostituting herself (and thus be turned off), but Ms. Smalll tries very hard to disuade us of thinking of Regan in that light. It is the more practical I-will-do-whatever-I-have-to-to-survive light that is striving to surface here.
Regan & Karim are both interesting characters to get to know, & to empathise with, as the story unfolds. By the end of the story, the plot seems to turn a little too pat with first the one, & then the other needing each other to pull them out of a depression, but we can work around that. In a time when you can't simply buck the system or win alll the time, this story might pull at our democratic ideals of the freedom to chose to live our lives as we see fit, but it makes it alll that more realistic in my eyes. I enjoyed this story, but as I warned above, stay clear if you don't like VERY graphic sex.
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