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The Kiss Flower
No man had ever kissed Susannah this way before. The Marquis de Silva towered over her, his manly strength making her feel as helpless as a magnolia petal caught in the swirling waters of the Mississippi. And as this irresistibly handsome man pressed his lips to her willing mouth, the rush of hot desire was so sure and swift that Susannah forgot she was promised to one another...Susannah shivered in his embrace. Fate had brought this royal rogue into her life, and now a passion she could no longer deny threatened to carry her away from her beloved South. She feared this seductive stranger, yet craved his burning touch. And as his masculine power reached out to claim her, she was ready to surrender herself to wild raging ecstasy....
- GenresHistorical Romance
463 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published August 6, 1985
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
March 29, 2023
Read: 3/28/23
3 stars
I have mixed feelings about this book. I loved learning about new history but disliked some of the love story.
What I liked:
1. I loved learning new historical facts! I had no idea 10,000 Confederates refused to sign the allegiance pledge and instead went to Brazil. I think this was my first book that's setting was set in Brazil. It was great exploring a different culture. I learned even more by Googling different parts in the book. I'm strange, but I enjoy fact-checking. I even explored some of Portugal's history about their own Civil War.
2. This author was not PC.! The first half takes place in Memphis near the end of the Civil War. Some of the h's attitude towards black people is very ignorant but authentic to the time period. She loves her now free houseslave (Aunt Caroline), who raised her and whom she respects. The author doesn't touch too much on her view, except that she was taught that black people aren't equal. Not an uncommon, view on a plantation in the South. Many women were ignorant about the treatment of non- household things. Later in the book, she does a 180° in Brazil when she sees how horrid one evil man treats them. She even helps many escape in her own underground railroad.
The H also has his own views. He believes and is trying to get slavery banished in Brazil, like the Brazilian Emperor. While he does have many liberal views, he also believes women should not be involved in men's business. The wealthy/aristocratic women in Rio aren't even allowed out of their carriages while shopping. Everything is brought out to them. They were way more sheltered than other countries.
While I don't like these views (obviously), I appreciate that the author was honest about it but also didn't dwell on it either. Modern authors today tend to give their MC very modern views that they just wouldn't have had in their time.
3. I did like the sexy Marquis (I forgot how it's spelled in Portuguese). He was handsome, passionate in his views, and a good human being.
4. Excellent villain! The Joker would be wary of him.
Didn't like:
1. The h was hard to like. She couldn't decide what man she wanted and tended to to lead them on. She used this kind Union captain. The man gets court marshaled, and then she accidentally shoots him. She doesn't feel bad about most of her treatment, except shooting him. It's justified because he's an evil Yankee.
I also don't think that the author could make up her mind about the character. Sometimes, I thought her practical, and then she'd do something so stupid and frustrating. Though this type of h is not unusual in a Bodice-ripper, the author just wasn't talented enough to pull it off.
2. The h's sister was so annoying sometimes. I'm glad she grew up and matured. I do love that she ended up with the man I wanted her to from the beginning.
3. The romance 😟. These two were only agreeable in the bedroom. The h is so stubborn. I could tell the H loved her but was wary of showing it and giving her that power. I might be harsh, I just wish the author had given them more tender moments. There were too many other people trying to tear them apart. Her ex-fiancee, the h's sister, another woman in love with the H and a villian who wanted to destroy our H.
In conclusion, this author needed to balance the history and romance better. Still, I was hard-pressed to put this book down no matter how frustrating it got. The second half was much better than the first. Though I dont see myself ever rereading this book, I would still recommend others to give it a try. You never know with Bodice-rippers.
3 stars
I have mixed feelings about this book. I loved learning about new history but disliked some of the love story.
What I liked:
1. I loved learning new historical facts! I had no idea 10,000 Confederates refused to sign the allegiance pledge and instead went to Brazil. I think this was my first book that's setting was set in Brazil. It was great exploring a different culture. I learned even more by Googling different parts in the book. I'm strange, but I enjoy fact-checking. I even explored some of Portugal's history about their own Civil War.
2. This author was not PC.! The first half takes place in Memphis near the end of the Civil War. Some of the h's attitude towards black people is very ignorant but authentic to the time period. She loves her now free houseslave (Aunt Caroline), who raised her and whom she respects. The author doesn't touch too much on her view, except that she was taught that black people aren't equal. Not an uncommon, view on a plantation in the South. Many women were ignorant about the treatment of non- household things. Later in the book, she does a 180° in Brazil when she sees how horrid one evil man treats them. She even helps many escape in her own underground railroad.
The H also has his own views. He believes and is trying to get slavery banished in Brazil, like the Brazilian Emperor. While he does have many liberal views, he also believes women should not be involved in men's business. The wealthy/aristocratic women in Rio aren't even allowed out of their carriages while shopping. Everything is brought out to them. They were way more sheltered than other countries.
While I don't like these views (obviously), I appreciate that the author was honest about it but also didn't dwell on it either. Modern authors today tend to give their MC very modern views that they just wouldn't have had in their time.
3. I did like the sexy Marquis (I forgot how it's spelled in Portuguese). He was handsome, passionate in his views, and a good human being.
4. Excellent villain! The Joker would be wary of him.
Didn't like:
1. The h was hard to like. She couldn't decide what man she wanted and tended to to lead them on. She used this kind Union captain. The man gets court marshaled, and then she accidentally shoots him. She doesn't feel bad about most of her treatment, except shooting him. It's justified because he's an evil Yankee.
I also don't think that the author could make up her mind about the character. Sometimes, I thought her practical, and then she'd do something so stupid and frustrating. Though this type of h is not unusual in a Bodice-ripper, the author just wasn't talented enough to pull it off.
2. The h's sister was so annoying sometimes. I'm glad she grew up and matured. I do love that she ended up with the man I wanted her to from the beginning.
3. The romance 😟. These two were only agreeable in the bedroom. The h is so stubborn. I could tell the H loved her but was wary of showing it and giving her that power. I might be harsh, I just wish the author had given them more tender moments. There were too many other people trying to tear them apart. Her ex-fiancee, the h's sister, another woman in love with the H and a villian who wanted to destroy our H.
In conclusion, this author needed to balance the history and romance better. Still, I was hard-pressed to put this book down no matter how frustrating it got. The second half was much better than the first. Though I dont see myself ever rereading this book, I would still recommend others to give it a try. You never know with Bodice-rippers.
February 11, 2022
I was afraid this book would be another one of those "I HATE those damned Yankees" spoiled brat southern belle stories, I'm glad I was wrong, though the h, Susannah, does have a few of those traits, as she uses her feminine southern charms to wheedle the things she needs from Yankee Sam Spangler, who mistakes flirtation for real interest, and later proposes. This is the first step in events that will change her life for good.
The novel goes from the end of the Civil War and the start of Reconstruction and ends with the Philadelphia Exposition of 1876. In between, Susannah loses the family plantation, Rose Hill, to Sam, who bought it to help her and her younger sister, Rachel, (who was in prison for trying to smuggle a uniform to Court St. John, Susannah's fiance, who Rachel secretly loves) but whose interior motive was to get Susannah to marry him. (Court decided to start a new life in Brazil, with the encouragement of Antonio Andrada, the Marquis de Salvo, who has a plantation of his own, The Kiss Flower. Antonio and Susannah have had several encounters, and it's apparent there's something between them, though she won't acknowledge it. Meanwhile. Court wanted Susannah to come to Brazil with him, but she couldn't give him an answer yet.)
When Sam realizes Susannah's attentions to him were all an act, he lets his lust overpower his anger and makes advances, resulting in Susannah accidentally shooting him and thinking he was dead. She ends up hiding out on Antonio's ship, one thing leads to another, and they end up in bed. Since she was a virgin, Antonio decides to do the right thing and marry her and because she fears the authorities, she agrees. And so her new life begins!
The book is a lot more than just the marriage of these two strong willed people who were bound to clash, it's also a lesson in history and a glimpse of what life was like in a time of transition. You see the effects of Reconstruction on people whose pride wouldn't let them admit defeat until there was no choice, and on the former slaves who have to adjust to their newfound freedom, which wasn't all that easy. This contrasts with the situation in Brazil, where slavery is still legal, and people are still sold at auctions, and where rebellions have started. Antonio is part of a group of reformers, who want to start a new social order where people are equal, and a system of share cropping can gradually replace slavery, as men work to buy their freedom. Court, on the other hand, starts his own plantation and wants it to be a replica of life in the old south, that he can't let go of.
Other people figure in the story. There's Caroline, the freed slave who's been like a mother to Susannah and Rachel, and accompanies Rachel to Brazil, where they too want to start new lives. (Rachel hopes hers will be with Court.) There's Jacquina, a young woman who's engaged to Count Bernardo Marchado, though it's Antonio she really wants, and the Count himself, an unscrupulous man who keeps people indebted to him and makes many lives miserable, especially his female slaves, one of whom Savannah helps to escape, as she becomes involved in the Brazilian underground railroad, against Antonio's wishes. (He's aspiring to a political career to help bring about changes and has to placate plantation slave owners in the process.)
Reading this, you also learn something about how plantations were run, in this case, the processing of sugar cane and the making of rum, and also the many things that can go wrong, such as a horrible infestation of fire ants that can't be escaped from.
The novel weakens when it prolongs the troubles between Susannah and Antonio and has them separated for a long period of time, even though by now they have two children. Politics, as well as marital discord, keep him traveling, and Susannah does some traveling of her own, as she accompanies the Emperor and Empress, who had become good friends, on a tour of the U.S., which stretched out way too long, and became like a travel log. It was all unnecessary and a time waster, especially as it came toward the end of the book, and it should have been focused on Susannah and Antonio. Instead, their HEA is rushed and rather silly.
I guess I've said enough, but I'll just add that in one of the final chapters, Susannah gets quite a shock when she discovers who's to be her new brother-in-law!
Read this book and learn some interesting facts and history, but be prepared for a flawed HR.
The novel goes from the end of the Civil War and the start of Reconstruction and ends with the Philadelphia Exposition of 1876. In between, Susannah loses the family plantation, Rose Hill, to Sam, who bought it to help her and her younger sister, Rachel, (who was in prison for trying to smuggle a uniform to Court St. John, Susannah's fiance, who Rachel secretly loves) but whose interior motive was to get Susannah to marry him. (Court decided to start a new life in Brazil, with the encouragement of Antonio Andrada, the Marquis de Salvo, who has a plantation of his own, The Kiss Flower. Antonio and Susannah have had several encounters, and it's apparent there's something between them, though she won't acknowledge it. Meanwhile. Court wanted Susannah to come to Brazil with him, but she couldn't give him an answer yet.)
When Sam realizes Susannah's attentions to him were all an act, he lets his lust overpower his anger and makes advances, resulting in Susannah accidentally shooting him and thinking he was dead. She ends up hiding out on Antonio's ship, one thing leads to another, and they end up in bed. Since she was a virgin, Antonio decides to do the right thing and marry her and because she fears the authorities, she agrees. And so her new life begins!
The book is a lot more than just the marriage of these two strong willed people who were bound to clash, it's also a lesson in history and a glimpse of what life was like in a time of transition. You see the effects of Reconstruction on people whose pride wouldn't let them admit defeat until there was no choice, and on the former slaves who have to adjust to their newfound freedom, which wasn't all that easy. This contrasts with the situation in Brazil, where slavery is still legal, and people are still sold at auctions, and where rebellions have started. Antonio is part of a group of reformers, who want to start a new social order where people are equal, and a system of share cropping can gradually replace slavery, as men work to buy their freedom. Court, on the other hand, starts his own plantation and wants it to be a replica of life in the old south, that he can't let go of.
Other people figure in the story. There's Caroline, the freed slave who's been like a mother to Susannah and Rachel, and accompanies Rachel to Brazil, where they too want to start new lives. (Rachel hopes hers will be with Court.) There's Jacquina, a young woman who's engaged to Count Bernardo Marchado, though it's Antonio she really wants, and the Count himself, an unscrupulous man who keeps people indebted to him and makes many lives miserable, especially his female slaves, one of whom Savannah helps to escape, as she becomes involved in the Brazilian underground railroad, against Antonio's wishes. (He's aspiring to a political career to help bring about changes and has to placate plantation slave owners in the process.)
Reading this, you also learn something about how plantations were run, in this case, the processing of sugar cane and the making of rum, and also the many things that can go wrong, such as a horrible infestation of fire ants that can't be escaped from.
The novel weakens when it prolongs the troubles between Susannah and Antonio and has them separated for a long period of time, even though by now they have two children. Politics, as well as marital discord, keep him traveling, and Susannah does some traveling of her own, as she accompanies the Emperor and Empress, who had become good friends, on a tour of the U.S., which stretched out way too long, and became like a travel log. It was all unnecessary and a time waster, especially as it came toward the end of the book, and it should have been focused on Susannah and Antonio. Instead, their HEA is rushed and rather silly.
I guess I've said enough, but I'll just add that in one of the final chapters, Susannah gets quite a shock when she discovers who's to be her new brother-in-law!
Read this book and learn some interesting facts and history, but be prepared for a flawed HR.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews