What do you think?
Rate this book
Captive Embrace
"I NEVER WILL MARRY"
...swore handsome, independent Sebastian Cain. Especially now that he sought his brother's killers he was determined that nothing distract him from the vengeance trail--even so tempting a diversion as the curvaceous half-breed named Summer He needed to be on the move; surely other women along the way could satisfy his great appetite for sensual adventure. Yet he couldn't forget the maddening sway of her sumptuous body, couldn't help but wonder how it would feel to have her submit beneath his hard, driving frame. In that instant, Sebastian decided to stay one more night to savor the innocent blossom's sweet nectar--then travel on with no regrets.
"I WILL BE NO MAN'S WIFE."
...stormed the wildly beautiful Summer after witnessing a friend die because of a cruel lover. And white men were particularly contemptible since they spoke pretty words as they released their base desires, ruining a girl's reputation and breaking her heart, too! Then a golden-haired stranger saved her life, and the jet-eyed maiden couldn't sleep for thinking of his virile, muscular stature. She tried to resist the overwhelming force that drew her to him, for instinctively she knew that to relent to his magnetism for one moment would make her a slave to his passions, forever yearning for his CAPTIVE EMBRACE
...swore handsome, independent Sebastian Cain. Especially now that he sought his brother's killers he was determined that nothing distract him from the vengeance trail--even so tempting a diversion as the curvaceous half-breed named Summer He needed to be on the move; surely other women along the way could satisfy his great appetite for sensual adventure. Yet he couldn't forget the maddening sway of her sumptuous body, couldn't help but wonder how it would feel to have her submit beneath his hard, driving frame. In that instant, Sebastian decided to stay one more night to savor the innocent blossom's sweet nectar--then travel on with no regrets.
"I WILL BE NO MAN'S WIFE."
...stormed the wildly beautiful Summer after witnessing a friend die because of a cruel lover. And white men were particularly contemptible since they spoke pretty words as they released their base desires, ruining a girl's reputation and breaking her heart, too! Then a golden-haired stranger saved her life, and the jet-eyed maiden couldn't sleep for thinking of his virile, muscular stature. She tried to resist the overwhelming force that drew her to him, for instinctively she knew that to relent to his magnetism for one moment would make her a slave to his passions, forever yearning for his CAPTIVE EMBRACE
509 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published April 1, 1986
2 people are currently reading
116 people want to read
About the author
Sylvie F. Sommerfield
35 books29 followersAka Sylvie Sommerfield.
In 1978, Sylvie Sommerfield's husband challenged her to write a "better" romance novel, than the ones she eagerly devoured. She accepted the challenge. And now the six-time grandmother has written many historical romance novels, which have sold into the millions of copies.
In fact, John Sommerfield had to retire from his successful career as an investment funds manager to run the business side of Sylvie F. Sommerfield Enterprises.
Some of her books, with western themes, all published by Zebra, include Moonlit Magic, Tame My Wild Heart, Captive Embrace, Savage Rapture, Savage Kiss, Wild Wyoming Heart and Autumn Dove.
In 1978, Sylvie Sommerfield's husband challenged her to write a "better" romance novel, than the ones she eagerly devoured. She accepted the challenge. And now the six-time grandmother has written many historical romance novels, which have sold into the millions of copies.
In fact, John Sommerfield had to retire from his successful career as an investment funds manager to run the business side of Sylvie F. Sommerfield Enterprises.
Some of her books, with western themes, all published by Zebra, include Moonlit Magic, Tame My Wild Heart, Captive Embrace, Savage Rapture, Savage Kiss, Wild Wyoming Heart and Autumn Dove.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
August 5, 2016
The Sequel to “Tame My Wild Heart”
As always, do not read if you dislike knowing spoilers.
Sequels are a tricky thing for writers. On the one hand, it’s good to see characters develop and have their own stories. On the other hand, it’s important to maintain continuity between books and not lose sight of the original work. Sylvie F. Sommerfield does very well with this in “Captive Embrace”, the sequel to “Tame My Wild Heart.”
At the end of that book, Summer Moon Storm, daughter to that book’s hero, Clay Storm, and stepdaughter to Sabrina McNeil Storm, had a vision/prophecy of various things; among them, a golden-haired man would meet an Indian woman. What Summer didn’t realize is that the woman would be herself and the man would become the love of her life, although not without hardships and pain.
The Story: “Captive Embrace” begins with the hero of the book, Sebastian Cain, making love with his mistress, Kate Maxwell, in England. Sebastian fancies himself in love with Kate and wants her to leave her much older husband, Gerald, and come with him to America. Kate, however, wants to stay with her husband in order to get her hands on his money when he dies and refuses to go with Sebastian, although she believes he will return to her someday.
Sebastian’s plan to go to America doesn’t sit well with his parents, but his younger brother, Nathaniel, is excited and decides to go with Sebastian to the new country. Sadly, soon after, tragedy strikes, as the brothers Cain and their friend, Cole Robbins, are attacked by four men, two white and two Indian, who destroy their home, shoot and seriously wound Sebastian and Cole and kill Nathaniel. This makes Sebastian very bitter, wracked with guilt and intent on avenging his brother’s death.
While this is going on, Summer is leaving the English boarding school she was sent to by Clay to learn about the white world. She, also, has faced hardship. While in school in England, Summer faced bigotry due to her Indian heritage and the desire of most of the white men she met to make her their mistress, but never a bride. She only made one friend, a young woman named Emily Gill, but this friendship ended in tragedy.
Emily was impregnated by a man, Sinclair Masterson, who disclaimed the baby was his. Soon after, Emily committed suicide by hanging. Hurt, embittered, and angry, Summer left school without telling Clay and Sabrina and returned home, vowing to have nothing to do with the white world other than her family. (Summer is half-Indian, but her father, Clay Storm, her stepmother, Sabrina McNeil Storm, and her younger brothers, Jason and Clay Jr, are white.)
On her way back home after arriving in America, Summer is chased by two men, who may also be the same men Sebastian is chasing. The men chased Summer over an embankment where she is found and rescued by Sebastian. Although they are attracted to each other from the moment they meet, Summer can sense that there is a darkness in his soul and is very reluctant to get involved with him, especially in a sexual relationship, feeling that he is just like all other white men, who want her body but not the rest of her. (This is true. Sebastian views Summer as a half-breed squaw mistress, good for relieving his sexual needs until he can get Kate to America, but not good enough to marry, not knowing that her blood is as blue as his is.)
Sebastian and Summer make love-despite Summer’s misgivings-then he asks her to help him find his brother’s killers. She reluctantly agrees. However, one of those four renegades, an Indian named Three Feathers, finds them first. Three Feathers and Sebastian fight, leaving Sebastian injured.
While Summer nurses Sebastian back to health with her healing powers and he begins to realize he actually might be in love with her, back in England, evil is rearing it’s ugly head. Kate Maxwell is now a widow after her husband has died and left his fortune to her. (The death wasn’t from natural causes; his nephew-and Kate’s current lover, Richard Devale-killed him, believing that he and Kate will share the Maxwell fortune.) Kate, however, has double-crossed Richard and has taken all the money and has sailed to America to track down Sebastian. On the ship, Kate has an affair with the ship’s captain, Luke Sutter. Kate then leaves, thinking she’ll never see him again.
In her quest to find Sebastian, Kate gets help from a kindred spirit, the similarly evil Elenora Gregory. (In “Tame My Wild Heart”, Elenora was Clay Storm’s mistress. Elenora believed she would eventually become Mrs. Clay Storm. Clay had no such thoughts, however and when he met Sabrina McNeil, he fell in lust first and then in love with her and they now have a family, Summer and her two younger brothers.) Furiously angry, Elenora conspired to get Sabrina jailed and/or killed; since that plan failed, she has harbored a deep hatred for Sabrina and this is her opportunity to finally get her revenge.
Elenora’s latest partner in crime/lover is a man named Miles Chandler, a greedy land investor and nefarious individual who has ways of making women “disappear.” Like Kate with Sutter, Elenora thinks she has Chandler wrapped around her finger. What neither woman realizes, however, is that the players are being played, as both men are quite willing to turn on them if necessary for their own survival. Chandler hired the four renegades, two white and two Indian, who burned down Sebastian’s home and wounded he and Cole and killed Nathaniel.
Now that Kate has arrived in America and settled in with Elenora, she decides to take a trip to Sebastian’s house, thinking she’ll be greeted with open arms. To her shock, however, she finds the house essentially burned down, thanks to the work of Chandler’s henchmen. Kate then decides to spend some of her money to build a house-not just a house, a mansion-without Sebastian’s permission, in the middle of the wilderness. She thinks Sebastian will be so grateful to her when he comes back that he’ll fall back in love with her.
While Kate is building her castle in the air-or her mansion in the wilderness-others have things going on as well. Chandler and Sutter are scheming together and, unbeknownst to Kate, Elenora or Chandler, two of Chandler’s henchmen are also concocting a nefarious plan to double cross him. While that is going on, Clay, Sabrina and their family and friends are wondering why Summer is with Sebastian and whether she’s okay or not.
The answer to that question is mostly, yes, Summer is okay. She and Sebastian are still not being completely honest with each other-which would have solved most of their problems-but after a few fights and disagreements, they do realize that they love each other and want to be together. Sebastian takes Summer to his home, not realizing what Kate has ordered a palatial mansion be built there. When Kate sees Sebastian and Summer, she’s incredibly happy to see Sebastian but immediately dismisses Summer as an ignorant Indian squaw, who would be out of place in Sebastian’s life. Nothing is further from the truth, as Summer shows them both one night at dinner. Soon after, Sebastian orders Kate to leave the house-he’ll pay her back the money she spent to build the edifice-but he wants her out because he’s in love with Summer. This angers Kate, who concocts yet another nefarious plan to get rid of Summer. (That seems to be all Kate, Elenora, Sutter and Chandler do, concoct nefarious plans and set them into motion.) They still don’t realize that one or more of the people in their little cabal are conspiring against one or more other people in their group.
Kate has a three step plan to get Sebastian back into her arms-and bed:
Step 1: Have Chandler’s white renegades, Carl and Toby, kidnap Summer.
Step 2: Forge a letter-ostensibly from Summer-claiming that she never loved Sebastian and that she only used him for revenge.
Step 3: Sebastian will get furiously angry with Summer and run back to Kate.
Steps 1 and 2 work out well for Kate; it’s Step 3 where the plan goes to pot. First, Sebastian tells Kate he never loved her at all. Second, and even more importantly, Sutter shows up, gun in hand, to take Kate and her money, not necessarily in that order. After Sutter takes Kate away, Sebastian burns down the house she had built and sets out to get revenge on Summer, who he believes has betrayed him. Before Sebastian can find Summer, however, Clay finds him. At first, it’s an angry interaction, but once they talk-and Sebastian listens-he realizes that Summer really does love him and now he and Clay join forces to find her.
Meanwhile, Carl and Toby have also kidnapped Sabrina, on the instructions of Elenora, who wants Sabrina dead for, Elenora feels, taking Clay from her.
The final 100 pages are when the action really picks up. Elenora finalizes her plans to double-cross Chandler, who finds out and imprisons her in the same caves as Sabrina and Summer are being held. They soon have company as Clay and Sebastian are captured by Three Feathers. However, there is hope, as Cole has enlisted the services of Summer’s godfather, Hawk, and his tribesmen to help rescue them from the outside. Meanwhile, Sebastian is trying to find an escape route from inside the caves, which he eventually finds.
Inside the cave system where Sebastian, Summer, Clay, and Sabrina are being held, are guns, ammunition and gunpowder being held by Chandler for a gunrunner named Santiago, whom Chandler trades those items and captured women with. Sebastian has found a way out of the caves, and after they have escaped, his plan involves using a crude fuse to blow up the guns, ammo and gunpowder, thus trapping and killing Chandler, Santiago and their respective men inside a cave-in. Summer wants to rescue Elenora as well; this despite the fact that Elenora is responsible for their predicament, because Summer is a healer and the fact that Elenora has been gang-raped by Chandler and his crew for trying to double-cross them.
The planned explosion works like a charm, and the Storm family and their future son-in-law escape basically unharmed; Summer was hit by falling debris and is slightly injured. They all believe that no one else survived the cave-in. They were wrong, as Three Feathers did and tries to kill Summer and Sebastian. After a long, bloody fight, Summer kills Three Feathers, and after that, Summer and Sebastian are free to have their happily ever after.
While this is a good, exciting book, there are a few minor issues. The first is that some of the supporting characters are a bit underdeveloped; Cole falls in love with Summer’s best friend, Kylie Flynn, and this feels like it was added to pad the book’s pages more than as a storyline. I also would have liked to know what happened to Kate after Sutter took her away; that storyline just abruptly ended. And, most of the issues between Summer and Sebastian could have been avoided had they TALKED to each other and not made inaccurate assumptions about each other, but we all do that, and sometimes we find out we’re wrong about what we think to be true.
Sex: This book is a bit more sexual than Ms. Sommerfield’s previous books. It is nowhere near erotica, but it’s a little more descriptive sexually than her previous work is.
Violence: Multiple assaults, Elenora’s gang rape, a shooting. None of this is described in over graphic detail.
Bottom Line: While I give this book 5 stars, it may have more to do with Ms. Sommerfield’s reputation and my affection for her work than the quality of this book, which is probably closer to 4 stars.
As always, do not read if you dislike knowing spoilers.
Sequels are a tricky thing for writers. On the one hand, it’s good to see characters develop and have their own stories. On the other hand, it’s important to maintain continuity between books and not lose sight of the original work. Sylvie F. Sommerfield does very well with this in “Captive Embrace”, the sequel to “Tame My Wild Heart.”
At the end of that book, Summer Moon Storm, daughter to that book’s hero, Clay Storm, and stepdaughter to Sabrina McNeil Storm, had a vision/prophecy of various things; among them, a golden-haired man would meet an Indian woman. What Summer didn’t realize is that the woman would be herself and the man would become the love of her life, although not without hardships and pain.
The Story: “Captive Embrace” begins with the hero of the book, Sebastian Cain, making love with his mistress, Kate Maxwell, in England. Sebastian fancies himself in love with Kate and wants her to leave her much older husband, Gerald, and come with him to America. Kate, however, wants to stay with her husband in order to get her hands on his money when he dies and refuses to go with Sebastian, although she believes he will return to her someday.
Sebastian’s plan to go to America doesn’t sit well with his parents, but his younger brother, Nathaniel, is excited and decides to go with Sebastian to the new country. Sadly, soon after, tragedy strikes, as the brothers Cain and their friend, Cole Robbins, are attacked by four men, two white and two Indian, who destroy their home, shoot and seriously wound Sebastian and Cole and kill Nathaniel. This makes Sebastian very bitter, wracked with guilt and intent on avenging his brother’s death.
While this is going on, Summer is leaving the English boarding school she was sent to by Clay to learn about the white world. She, also, has faced hardship. While in school in England, Summer faced bigotry due to her Indian heritage and the desire of most of the white men she met to make her their mistress, but never a bride. She only made one friend, a young woman named Emily Gill, but this friendship ended in tragedy.
Emily was impregnated by a man, Sinclair Masterson, who disclaimed the baby was his. Soon after, Emily committed suicide by hanging. Hurt, embittered, and angry, Summer left school without telling Clay and Sabrina and returned home, vowing to have nothing to do with the white world other than her family. (Summer is half-Indian, but her father, Clay Storm, her stepmother, Sabrina McNeil Storm, and her younger brothers, Jason and Clay Jr, are white.)
On her way back home after arriving in America, Summer is chased by two men, who may also be the same men Sebastian is chasing. The men chased Summer over an embankment where she is found and rescued by Sebastian. Although they are attracted to each other from the moment they meet, Summer can sense that there is a darkness in his soul and is very reluctant to get involved with him, especially in a sexual relationship, feeling that he is just like all other white men, who want her body but not the rest of her. (This is true. Sebastian views Summer as a half-breed squaw mistress, good for relieving his sexual needs until he can get Kate to America, but not good enough to marry, not knowing that her blood is as blue as his is.)
Sebastian and Summer make love-despite Summer’s misgivings-then he asks her to help him find his brother’s killers. She reluctantly agrees. However, one of those four renegades, an Indian named Three Feathers, finds them first. Three Feathers and Sebastian fight, leaving Sebastian injured.
While Summer nurses Sebastian back to health with her healing powers and he begins to realize he actually might be in love with her, back in England, evil is rearing it’s ugly head. Kate Maxwell is now a widow after her husband has died and left his fortune to her. (The death wasn’t from natural causes; his nephew-and Kate’s current lover, Richard Devale-killed him, believing that he and Kate will share the Maxwell fortune.) Kate, however, has double-crossed Richard and has taken all the money and has sailed to America to track down Sebastian. On the ship, Kate has an affair with the ship’s captain, Luke Sutter. Kate then leaves, thinking she’ll never see him again.
In her quest to find Sebastian, Kate gets help from a kindred spirit, the similarly evil Elenora Gregory. (In “Tame My Wild Heart”, Elenora was Clay Storm’s mistress. Elenora believed she would eventually become Mrs. Clay Storm. Clay had no such thoughts, however and when he met Sabrina McNeil, he fell in lust first and then in love with her and they now have a family, Summer and her two younger brothers.) Furiously angry, Elenora conspired to get Sabrina jailed and/or killed; since that plan failed, she has harbored a deep hatred for Sabrina and this is her opportunity to finally get her revenge.
Elenora’s latest partner in crime/lover is a man named Miles Chandler, a greedy land investor and nefarious individual who has ways of making women “disappear.” Like Kate with Sutter, Elenora thinks she has Chandler wrapped around her finger. What neither woman realizes, however, is that the players are being played, as both men are quite willing to turn on them if necessary for their own survival. Chandler hired the four renegades, two white and two Indian, who burned down Sebastian’s home and wounded he and Cole and killed Nathaniel.
Now that Kate has arrived in America and settled in with Elenora, she decides to take a trip to Sebastian’s house, thinking she’ll be greeted with open arms. To her shock, however, she finds the house essentially burned down, thanks to the work of Chandler’s henchmen. Kate then decides to spend some of her money to build a house-not just a house, a mansion-without Sebastian’s permission, in the middle of the wilderness. She thinks Sebastian will be so grateful to her when he comes back that he’ll fall back in love with her.
While Kate is building her castle in the air-or her mansion in the wilderness-others have things going on as well. Chandler and Sutter are scheming together and, unbeknownst to Kate, Elenora or Chandler, two of Chandler’s henchmen are also concocting a nefarious plan to double cross him. While that is going on, Clay, Sabrina and their family and friends are wondering why Summer is with Sebastian and whether she’s okay or not.
The answer to that question is mostly, yes, Summer is okay. She and Sebastian are still not being completely honest with each other-which would have solved most of their problems-but after a few fights and disagreements, they do realize that they love each other and want to be together. Sebastian takes Summer to his home, not realizing what Kate has ordered a palatial mansion be built there. When Kate sees Sebastian and Summer, she’s incredibly happy to see Sebastian but immediately dismisses Summer as an ignorant Indian squaw, who would be out of place in Sebastian’s life. Nothing is further from the truth, as Summer shows them both one night at dinner. Soon after, Sebastian orders Kate to leave the house-he’ll pay her back the money she spent to build the edifice-but he wants her out because he’s in love with Summer. This angers Kate, who concocts yet another nefarious plan to get rid of Summer. (That seems to be all Kate, Elenora, Sutter and Chandler do, concoct nefarious plans and set them into motion.) They still don’t realize that one or more of the people in their little cabal are conspiring against one or more other people in their group.
Kate has a three step plan to get Sebastian back into her arms-and bed:
Step 1: Have Chandler’s white renegades, Carl and Toby, kidnap Summer.
Step 2: Forge a letter-ostensibly from Summer-claiming that she never loved Sebastian and that she only used him for revenge.
Step 3: Sebastian will get furiously angry with Summer and run back to Kate.
Steps 1 and 2 work out well for Kate; it’s Step 3 where the plan goes to pot. First, Sebastian tells Kate he never loved her at all. Second, and even more importantly, Sutter shows up, gun in hand, to take Kate and her money, not necessarily in that order. After Sutter takes Kate away, Sebastian burns down the house she had built and sets out to get revenge on Summer, who he believes has betrayed him. Before Sebastian can find Summer, however, Clay finds him. At first, it’s an angry interaction, but once they talk-and Sebastian listens-he realizes that Summer really does love him and now he and Clay join forces to find her.
Meanwhile, Carl and Toby have also kidnapped Sabrina, on the instructions of Elenora, who wants Sabrina dead for, Elenora feels, taking Clay from her.
The final 100 pages are when the action really picks up. Elenora finalizes her plans to double-cross Chandler, who finds out and imprisons her in the same caves as Sabrina and Summer are being held. They soon have company as Clay and Sebastian are captured by Three Feathers. However, there is hope, as Cole has enlisted the services of Summer’s godfather, Hawk, and his tribesmen to help rescue them from the outside. Meanwhile, Sebastian is trying to find an escape route from inside the caves, which he eventually finds.
Inside the cave system where Sebastian, Summer, Clay, and Sabrina are being held, are guns, ammunition and gunpowder being held by Chandler for a gunrunner named Santiago, whom Chandler trades those items and captured women with. Sebastian has found a way out of the caves, and after they have escaped, his plan involves using a crude fuse to blow up the guns, ammo and gunpowder, thus trapping and killing Chandler, Santiago and their respective men inside a cave-in. Summer wants to rescue Elenora as well; this despite the fact that Elenora is responsible for their predicament, because Summer is a healer and the fact that Elenora has been gang-raped by Chandler and his crew for trying to double-cross them.
The planned explosion works like a charm, and the Storm family and their future son-in-law escape basically unharmed; Summer was hit by falling debris and is slightly injured. They all believe that no one else survived the cave-in. They were wrong, as Three Feathers did and tries to kill Summer and Sebastian. After a long, bloody fight, Summer kills Three Feathers, and after that, Summer and Sebastian are free to have their happily ever after.
While this is a good, exciting book, there are a few minor issues. The first is that some of the supporting characters are a bit underdeveloped; Cole falls in love with Summer’s best friend, Kylie Flynn, and this feels like it was added to pad the book’s pages more than as a storyline. I also would have liked to know what happened to Kate after Sutter took her away; that storyline just abruptly ended. And, most of the issues between Summer and Sebastian could have been avoided had they TALKED to each other and not made inaccurate assumptions about each other, but we all do that, and sometimes we find out we’re wrong about what we think to be true.
Sex: This book is a bit more sexual than Ms. Sommerfield’s previous books. It is nowhere near erotica, but it’s a little more descriptive sexually than her previous work is.
Violence: Multiple assaults, Elenora’s gang rape, a shooting. None of this is described in over graphic detail.
Bottom Line: While I give this book 5 stars, it may have more to do with Ms. Sommerfield’s reputation and my affection for her work than the quality of this book, which is probably closer to 4 stars.
Displaying 1 of 1 review