What do you think?
Rate this book
In Passion's Shadow
HE PURCHASED HER BODY, THEN CAPTURED HER HEART
When Lady Catrina Lynleigh first laid eyes on the man who called himself Flint Ashton, her favors were being auctioned off by infamous whoremonger who had kidnapped her as she fled her London home and the prospect of a hateful arranged marriage to a total stranger. Enflamed by Catrina's golden beauty, Flint "purchased" the innocent young girl and carried her off to his ship The Golden Rose, which was setting sail for America.
The attraction between Catrina and the virile, handsome Flint was instantaneous and overwhelming, lighting fires in both that demanded to be quenched.
But only Flint was conscious of the irony of their situation, for though he knew Catrina's true identity, she remained unaware that the man who had awakened her senses to the raptures of love, was actually Ashton St. James, the very man whom she had vowed she would never wed....
When Lady Catrina Lynleigh first laid eyes on the man who called himself Flint Ashton, her favors were being auctioned off by infamous whoremonger who had kidnapped her as she fled her London home and the prospect of a hateful arranged marriage to a total stranger. Enflamed by Catrina's golden beauty, Flint "purchased" the innocent young girl and carried her off to his ship The Golden Rose, which was setting sail for America.
The attraction between Catrina and the virile, handsome Flint was instantaneous and overwhelming, lighting fires in both that demanded to be quenched.
But only Flint was conscious of the irony of their situation, for though he knew Catrina's true identity, she remained unaware that the man who had awakened her senses to the raptures of love, was actually Ashton St. James, the very man whom she had vowed she would never wed....
- GenresHistorical Romance
480 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1984
2 people are currently reading
32 people want to read
About the author
Sandra Dubay
29 books20 followersAlso publishes under the pseudonym Carolyn Chase and J.K.Crane.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
May 28, 2012
This book deserves to be burned to a crisp. This ought to be banished from the earth so that no innocent person should stumble upon this piece of crap and be put through the misery that I went through. This could easily be the worst book I ever read.
And the cover, what is up with the cover? It looks like a cheap, third-rate film in the 70s complete with costume jewelry rather than the historical romance it should have looked like.
I have NEVER been put through so much torture as I have been put through reading this monstrosity of a book, if you can even call it that. This should be used as a form of torture for people that have committed crimes and need to be dealt back with a little of the pain they caused.
There’s usually one good obstacle in a novel for the characters to triumph through, or a couple at most, but every single freakin time I turned around there some new twist and turn in this book that had the story veering off in a different direction. To plot the course of this book just put pencil to paper, like so:
Put your pencil at the bottom of the paper and draw a short line straight up.
Veer off sharply to the left.
Go straight up again in a short line.
Now go off the right.
Go back up.
To the left.
Up.
Right.
Now put the pencil down and look at what you have on the paper.
A jagged, crooked line. This is the course of the plot. I kid you not and I am not exaggerating in the slightest.
It was back and forth and up and down, and twisting and turning and taking my poor heart on a roller coaster I did not want to go on.
To start off with we’ve got this completely unlikeable character that finds herself engaged to a stranger, so she runs out and gets herself captured. She ends up in a brothel or some other sleezy establishment, and Flint comes to rescue her, but by some crazy turn of events I believe he missed her.
Anyways, they end up on a ship together, and she has sex with him even though she doesn’t know who he is. Slut.
So when they land in his homeland they get separated, and her family ends up keeping her held in the house away from him. He comes to the house searching for her, and is so close to finding her, but by another crazy turn of events, doesn’t find her.
She ends up pregnant with his child, and another man finds her attractive and comes onto her. She actually goes along with it, and almost has sex with him if I remember correctly. She’s at his home and everything, he’s saying he’s in love with her, and they have known each for an unbelievably short amount of time as he’s doing this. He actually goes so far as to say he’ll be a father to the baby and wants to marry her and everything, if I’m remembering this part correctly.
She calls it off with him. Flint FINALLY finds out her family is basically holding her hostage, so he rides out from his house to rescue her, as she’s riding to his house, and they miraculously meet in the woods, but that isn’t the end of this insane ride.
They part ways yet again for some silly reason, and they each ride back to their homes I think.
Throw in some more ridiculous drama, and finally, FINALLY, she comes to his house to stay.
But the author’s not done screwing with our minds just yet. No, there’s more in store in here.
His previous mistress comes to the house and sees Flint while Carina is there. Carina gets extremely mad at Flint and has this fit where she’s throwing things at him and breaking things in the house.
Somehow by the end they patch things up, but by that time I’m so thoroughly disgruntled and so severely mad there’s NO WAY them getting together is going to make up for the crap I just had to get through.
Bear in mind that it’s been a while since I’ve read it, and I don’t remember all of the details, but I remember enough about it to know it absolutely sucked.
In short, this was a mess. It was a conglomeration of stupid, unrealistic circumstances that just put me through the ringer. He would come so close to finding her, only to have something so small thwart his efforts, and we would have to go through it all over again as she attempted to her another time. I wonder at the mind of the author that wrote this.
If you value your sanity stay away from this book.
And the cover, what is up with the cover? It looks like a cheap, third-rate film in the 70s complete with costume jewelry rather than the historical romance it should have looked like.
I have NEVER been put through so much torture as I have been put through reading this monstrosity of a book, if you can even call it that. This should be used as a form of torture for people that have committed crimes and need to be dealt back with a little of the pain they caused.
There’s usually one good obstacle in a novel for the characters to triumph through, or a couple at most, but every single freakin time I turned around there some new twist and turn in this book that had the story veering off in a different direction. To plot the course of this book just put pencil to paper, like so:
Put your pencil at the bottom of the paper and draw a short line straight up.
Veer off sharply to the left.
Go straight up again in a short line.
Now go off the right.
Go back up.
To the left.
Up.
Right.
Now put the pencil down and look at what you have on the paper.
A jagged, crooked line. This is the course of the plot. I kid you not and I am not exaggerating in the slightest.
It was back and forth and up and down, and twisting and turning and taking my poor heart on a roller coaster I did not want to go on.
To start off with we’ve got this completely unlikeable character that finds herself engaged to a stranger, so she runs out and gets herself captured. She ends up in a brothel or some other sleezy establishment, and Flint comes to rescue her, but by some crazy turn of events I believe he missed her.
Anyways, they end up on a ship together, and she has sex with him even though she doesn’t know who he is. Slut.
So when they land in his homeland they get separated, and her family ends up keeping her held in the house away from him. He comes to the house searching for her, and is so close to finding her, but by another crazy turn of events, doesn’t find her.
She ends up pregnant with his child, and another man finds her attractive and comes onto her. She actually goes along with it, and almost has sex with him if I remember correctly. She’s at his home and everything, he’s saying he’s in love with her, and they have known each for an unbelievably short amount of time as he’s doing this. He actually goes so far as to say he’ll be a father to the baby and wants to marry her and everything, if I’m remembering this part correctly.
She calls it off with him. Flint FINALLY finds out her family is basically holding her hostage, so he rides out from his house to rescue her, as she’s riding to his house, and they miraculously meet in the woods, but that isn’t the end of this insane ride.
They part ways yet again for some silly reason, and they each ride back to their homes I think.
Throw in some more ridiculous drama, and finally, FINALLY, she comes to his house to stay.
But the author’s not done screwing with our minds just yet. No, there’s more in store in here.
His previous mistress comes to the house and sees Flint while Carina is there. Carina gets extremely mad at Flint and has this fit where she’s throwing things at him and breaking things in the house.
Somehow by the end they patch things up, but by that time I’m so thoroughly disgruntled and so severely mad there’s NO WAY them getting together is going to make up for the crap I just had to get through.
Bear in mind that it’s been a while since I’ve read it, and I don’t remember all of the details, but I remember enough about it to know it absolutely sucked.
In short, this was a mess. It was a conglomeration of stupid, unrealistic circumstances that just put me through the ringer. He would come so close to finding her, only to have something so small thwart his efforts, and we would have to go through it all over again as she attempted to her another time. I wonder at the mind of the author that wrote this.
If you value your sanity stay away from this book.
September 14, 2025
I would have given it another star, as it was an entertaining story, but it got bogged down with too much over the top nonsense.
It started good, with Catrina running away from her London home, to avoid an arranged marriage to a Mr. St. James of New Orleans, as part of an agreement to pay her father's debts. Her parents seem more concerned with keeping up their wealthy lifestyle than with their daughter's happiness, so she has no qualms about leaving. She's saved from rape by a supposedly kindly couple who run a girl's school, but it's really front for prostitution, where the girls are rented out to the highest bidder.
Catrina's saved from this fate by Flint Ashton, captain of the ship that's to take her to New Orleans. Once onboard the ship, she's charmed by his looks, he's charmed by her innocence, they fall in love and they end up in bed, though he tells her she must still go through with her planned marriage and she reluctantly accepts this. (What she doesn't know is that Flint Ashton is really Ashton St. James, her husband to be. He intends to surprise her with this fact when they get to New Orleans. Meantime, she's hurt by his apparent nonchalance about her getting married, as well as by a conversation she overhears, where she mistakenly thinks Flint is married.
Enter the troublemakers: Flint's cousins, Radford and Olympia St. James, whose scheming is rewarded with Catrina thinking Radford is her future husband and going with him to his plantation, and Flint thinking Catrina has been kidnapped and going on a wild goose chase trying to find her. Radford wants Catrina's money (and also her body) and Olympia wants to be Flint's wife (or at least his mistress).
It starts off promising, and in some ways maintains that promise, but in others it gets too silly. Too many trails go hot then cold, with Flint almost finding Catrina, then losing the trail again, while at the same time, Catrina is being told all kinds of stories about Flint and his supposedly womanizing ways, which have her thinking he's married, has a mistress on the side, frequents brothels, and bragged about seducing her, which only happened because she looks like his wife. Hurt and angry, she decides to accept her future with Radford.
Radford is anxious to get Catrina into bed, but she rebuffs his advances, until she's almost raped by the plantation's overseer, and rescued by Radford. Grateful, scared, lonely and wanting to move on from thoughts of Flint, she decides to sleep with him, (though his touch leaves her cold) but before the deed is done, they're interrupted by, of all people, Flint, who's been injured in a fight in a brothel (where he had been looking for Catrina, fearing that was her fate), and only convinces her more fully of his debauchery.
It goes on like this, with Flint recovering slowly (thanks to both Olympia and Radford keeping him drugged so he and Catrina can't speak) and Catrina reaching out to him, ready to forgive all the things she thinks he's done, until Olympia's scheming messes things up again.
Catrina then decides she has to escape, as she can't trust Flint, she can't marry a man who repulses her (forgetting that she didn't feel repulsion when he was caressing her half naked body, just felt nothing at all) and who has a cruel streak, as evidenced by his attitude toward the slaves, so she runs off with her maid, Norah.
Here comes the really hypocritical part. Catrina claims she's sick of men trying to control her life, (her father and Radford) and toying with her feelings (Flint), so she's going to be independent and make a life for herself on her own. This would have been a good story arc, with her having a talent like art or music, maybe designing, and starting a career, which could bring her in the public eye and have the cousins later locate her. At least, that's what I would have done.
Instead, she meets a handsome, sexy Frenchman, Laurent, and ends up living with him. (So much for her independence.) It's platonic (though he wants otherwise). but she still accepts clothes and jewelry from him, flirts with him (wanting to make up for the fun she missed in not having a London season) and eventually considers sleeping with him, since she does find him attractive. After a bit of petting on the sofa, she was about to tell him she'd be his mistress, when she felt a kick....yes. she's pregnant with Flint's baby. (Laurent had said he'd accept the baby as his own, as he hoped she'd agree to marry him.) That cools her ardor for the time being.
Later on, things really derail. Despite kisses here and there, Laurent was being a patient man, then all of a sudden he gets demanding, starts to seduce her, then when she says no he rips off her nightgown, and throws her, face down, on the bed and attempts to rape her, despite her condition. Later, he's full of remorse, but come on, that was way too much to have him change like that! But she still stays with him, can you get anymore stupid than that?
Also silly: Catrina comes to realize that, no matter how many awful things (she thinks) he's done, she'll never love any man but Flint, and she won't settle for lust, like it would have been with Lauren; she'll sleep with Flint and no one else. Yet, when they (finally) find their way back to each other, she once again thinks the worst, and is ready to run off again (not to mention having temper tantrums first). Why Flint wants her so much I could never figure out. Pretty is as pretty does. Personality wise....
The book ends with total ridiculousness, as Catrina finds herself kidnapped, and though she can't see her assailant, she finds herself succumbing to his passionate lovemaking....
Only to discover it was Flint, who set the whole thing up to let her know things between them will never get boring.
Just dumb.
It started good, with Catrina running away from her London home, to avoid an arranged marriage to a Mr. St. James of New Orleans, as part of an agreement to pay her father's debts. Her parents seem more concerned with keeping up their wealthy lifestyle than with their daughter's happiness, so she has no qualms about leaving. She's saved from rape by a supposedly kindly couple who run a girl's school, but it's really front for prostitution, where the girls are rented out to the highest bidder.
Catrina's saved from this fate by Flint Ashton, captain of the ship that's to take her to New Orleans. Once onboard the ship, she's charmed by his looks, he's charmed by her innocence, they fall in love and they end up in bed, though he tells her she must still go through with her planned marriage and she reluctantly accepts this. (What she doesn't know is that Flint Ashton is really Ashton St. James, her husband to be. He intends to surprise her with this fact when they get to New Orleans. Meantime, she's hurt by his apparent nonchalance about her getting married, as well as by a conversation she overhears, where she mistakenly thinks Flint is married.
Enter the troublemakers: Flint's cousins, Radford and Olympia St. James, whose scheming is rewarded with Catrina thinking Radford is her future husband and going with him to his plantation, and Flint thinking Catrina has been kidnapped and going on a wild goose chase trying to find her. Radford wants Catrina's money (and also her body) and Olympia wants to be Flint's wife (or at least his mistress).
It starts off promising, and in some ways maintains that promise, but in others it gets too silly. Too many trails go hot then cold, with Flint almost finding Catrina, then losing the trail again, while at the same time, Catrina is being told all kinds of stories about Flint and his supposedly womanizing ways, which have her thinking he's married, has a mistress on the side, frequents brothels, and bragged about seducing her, which only happened because she looks like his wife. Hurt and angry, she decides to accept her future with Radford.
Radford is anxious to get Catrina into bed, but she rebuffs his advances, until she's almost raped by the plantation's overseer, and rescued by Radford. Grateful, scared, lonely and wanting to move on from thoughts of Flint, she decides to sleep with him, (though his touch leaves her cold) but before the deed is done, they're interrupted by, of all people, Flint, who's been injured in a fight in a brothel (where he had been looking for Catrina, fearing that was her fate), and only convinces her more fully of his debauchery.
It goes on like this, with Flint recovering slowly (thanks to both Olympia and Radford keeping him drugged so he and Catrina can't speak) and Catrina reaching out to him, ready to forgive all the things she thinks he's done, until Olympia's scheming messes things up again.
Catrina then decides she has to escape, as she can't trust Flint, she can't marry a man who repulses her (forgetting that she didn't feel repulsion when he was caressing her half naked body, just felt nothing at all) and who has a cruel streak, as evidenced by his attitude toward the slaves, so she runs off with her maid, Norah.
Here comes the really hypocritical part. Catrina claims she's sick of men trying to control her life, (her father and Radford) and toying with her feelings (Flint), so she's going to be independent and make a life for herself on her own. This would have been a good story arc, with her having a talent like art or music, maybe designing, and starting a career, which could bring her in the public eye and have the cousins later locate her. At least, that's what I would have done.
Instead, she meets a handsome, sexy Frenchman, Laurent, and ends up living with him. (So much for her independence.) It's platonic (though he wants otherwise). but she still accepts clothes and jewelry from him, flirts with him (wanting to make up for the fun she missed in not having a London season) and eventually considers sleeping with him, since she does find him attractive. After a bit of petting on the sofa, she was about to tell him she'd be his mistress, when she felt a kick....yes. she's pregnant with Flint's baby. (Laurent had said he'd accept the baby as his own, as he hoped she'd agree to marry him.) That cools her ardor for the time being.
Later on, things really derail. Despite kisses here and there, Laurent was being a patient man, then all of a sudden he gets demanding, starts to seduce her, then when she says no he rips off her nightgown, and throws her, face down, on the bed and attempts to rape her, despite her condition. Later, he's full of remorse, but come on, that was way too much to have him change like that! But she still stays with him, can you get anymore stupid than that?
Also silly: Catrina comes to realize that, no matter how many awful things (she thinks) he's done, she'll never love any man but Flint, and she won't settle for lust, like it would have been with Lauren; she'll sleep with Flint and no one else. Yet, when they (finally) find their way back to each other, she once again thinks the worst, and is ready to run off again (not to mention having temper tantrums first). Why Flint wants her so much I could never figure out. Pretty is as pretty does. Personality wise....
The book ends with total ridiculousness, as Catrina finds herself kidnapped, and though she can't see her assailant, she finds herself succumbing to his passionate lovemaking....
Only to discover it was Flint, who set the whole thing up to let her know things between them will never get boring.
Just dumb.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 5, 2011
Started out promising, but I ended up doing lots of skimming in order to finish. Skip this one!
August 3, 2022
***trigger warning for this book***
This book contains a lot of sexual assault. It also contains definite pedo vibes. Please don't read this one if that stuff messes you up. It will be a bad time.
Whew boy, this one is a doozy. I expected a slow burn ship romance, lots of tension between the leads and long hours in tight quarters. That's not what this is.
First, I want to say that my copy doesn't contain a publishing date. Very strange. It also has irregular font, and it is poorly edited (get a red pen handy, it could be fun?). But I bought it at a thrift store and it was very well loved, like the front cover falling off kind of loved.
The story is very stressful. There are several lies going on at the same time, and honestly I had to put it down a few times because it was just making me want to pull my hair out.
I also found the descriptions of the female lead to be unsettling. She is always described as looking like a child. It's creepy when he's watching her and noting how her pouty lips make her look like a petulant child and this makes him tremble with the effort of containing his desire to sex her. Massive pedo vibes, and all the men try to assault her. No, really. Almost every man (except doctors and ship's crew) she meets tries, at some point, to assault her, and the ones that don't are in awe of her. Even the man she loves forces himself on her at one point, calls her a bitch and everything.
As for the story, it just consists of people trying to find her or possess her. She's being gaslighted (gaslit?) from the moment she's carried onto the ship, and the reconciliation at the end doesn't really feel like anything.
Oh! And there's a moment where the lead whips another lady across the face with her riding crop (I know, no spoilers, but that's all I'm going to say), and in the next scene there's no mention of a welt or bruise or anything on this lady, when blood was mentioned earlier. Wtf? Plot hole? Whatever.
Would I read this again? No. Not unless I was going to take a red pen to it, and then I'd probably still donate it somewhere afterwards. This book didn't age well as far as, like, basic respect for women. And I get that it's historical, but it is set in the worst part of American history, and even with the background slavery and women as objects concepts it's still the pedo vibes and multiple scenes of sexual assault that turn me off to this book.
This book contains a lot of sexual assault. It also contains definite pedo vibes. Please don't read this one if that stuff messes you up. It will be a bad time.
Whew boy, this one is a doozy. I expected a slow burn ship romance, lots of tension between the leads and long hours in tight quarters. That's not what this is.
First, I want to say that my copy doesn't contain a publishing date. Very strange. It also has irregular font, and it is poorly edited (get a red pen handy, it could be fun?). But I bought it at a thrift store and it was very well loved, like the front cover falling off kind of loved.
The story is very stressful. There are several lies going on at the same time, and honestly I had to put it down a few times because it was just making me want to pull my hair out.
I also found the descriptions of the female lead to be unsettling. She is always described as looking like a child. It's creepy when he's watching her and noting how her pouty lips make her look like a petulant child and this makes him tremble with the effort of containing his desire to sex her. Massive pedo vibes, and all the men try to assault her. No, really. Almost every man (except doctors and ship's crew) she meets tries, at some point, to assault her, and the ones that don't are in awe of her. Even the man she loves forces himself on her at one point, calls her a bitch and everything.
As for the story, it just consists of people trying to find her or possess her. She's being gaslighted (gaslit?) from the moment she's carried onto the ship, and the reconciliation at the end doesn't really feel like anything.
Oh! And there's a moment where the lead whips another lady across the face with her riding crop (I know, no spoilers, but that's all I'm going to say), and in the next scene there's no mention of a welt or bruise or anything on this lady, when blood was mentioned earlier. Wtf? Plot hole? Whatever.
Would I read this again? No. Not unless I was going to take a red pen to it, and then I'd probably still donate it somewhere afterwards. This book didn't age well as far as, like, basic respect for women. And I get that it's historical, but it is set in the worst part of American history, and even with the background slavery and women as objects concepts it's still the pedo vibes and multiple scenes of sexual assault that turn me off to this book.
May 2, 2022
Started out thinking I would like it, until they got to America. Then the real foolishness began, lies of omission led to big misunderstanding; evil cousins stirring the pot; separated for most of the book etc. You knew what would happen at every conflict.
May 1, 2016
Well, it was long and busy book, things were happening, too many things for my liking... Heroine being very stubborn (almost dumb at times) she just keeps running away and getting herself in trouble.. Too many misunderstandings for my liking. In the end I didn't like any of them, well I felt sorry for Laurent, it was almost as if heroine used him, he was 3rd man in her path who fell in love with her, and at some point I thought maybe she will stay with him... Some points in the book were of, I mean why this dead man showed up on the ship and killed Norah... This was absolutely unnecessary.. And meeting Laurent's grandmother, Pirate's lover, who rarely smiles but approves of this English girl without any reason... Really this new character just confused situation. In the end love wins, and heroes finally get married, but we do not get to read that part, I always hate when important wedding is cut out... Very last page when her husband pretends to kidnap her and she starts to respond to his sexual caressing with pleasure rather than fighting attacker confuses me, I wish it was written somehow differently.. Overall some parts of this book very interesting and I read late in to the night not wanting to put book down, that's why its 3 stars, first I wanted to give 2.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews