To be clear: I read the paperback version of "Warrior Bride" which contains full sex scenes and is apparently 50 pages longer.
When she is 14 and on her way to marry, Lizzie Balmaine's camp is attacked, her brother is nearly killed and she is very nearly raped...and she will never forget the features of the man who gave her nightmares for years. So when she sees those exact features on Ranulf Wardieu, she kidnaps and imprisons him. He does not take very kindly to this and upon his escape after she fails to kill him in hand-to-hand combat, he comes back to take her prisoner and force her to become his leman. Lizanne does not make his holding on to her very easy, and she sorely tries his patience in waiting for her to be ready for a sexual relationship. And even once she is and their chemistry and passion together is unforgettable, she cannot trust him or forget that he was the man who tried to rape her, despite his claims of innocence. Her heart battles her head. When King Henry orders their marriage, Lizanne knows she must try harder to trust her husband and believe him. And when the villain steps in and shows his true colors, and hints at someone who resembles Ranulf, she starts to really believe.
Overall good, relatively innoffensive historical from the 1990s...plenty of rapeyness happening in this story, but none of it coming from the hero. He's still pretty bad ass and tough and he certainly manhandles the heroine to within an inch of her life, but in fairness, she does try his patience rather spectacularly. She's calm one minute, escaping the next, seducing in the next moment and shivering in fear of him the very next minute. Her personality is mercurial...and a bit childish (as this is what she needed to do to overcome her ordeal). His focus is on maturing her up a bit and preparing her for a sexual relationship. It definitely bothered me that his only thought of revenge was to force her into losing status and becoming his leman (granted he had good reason for being vengeful as he was held in a dungeon for 3 days). But his treatment of her as lesser and constantly insisting she was not a lady caused her pain...and it was a pretty douchebag move to admit that he'd declined to marry her when the king offered her up (but I guess it was forgiven because he changed his mind after he found out someone he didn't like was going to get her?). Also the fact that neither of them really apologize for that...her for kidnapping him in the first place (though really...how could she possibly know he was an identical twin?) and him for hurting her with his denial of her status. Especially after she heard someone calling her a "whore" and she cried - he should have known. None of that was ever addressed really. The big focus was on how her heart believed one thing about Ranulf (that he was good and honorable) and her head believed another (that he was clearly the guy that tried to rape her) and how she had to reconcile that in order to love him.
Thankfully the heroine is kinda bad ass herself in this story and takes responsibility for her actions, for her thoughts and feelings and for rescuing herself and the hero. This girl is not a doormat. The epilogue felt a bit awkward as it jumps from the defeat of the villain and "i love yous" to her having just given birth to a daughter and introducing the set up for the next book. It didn't feel like a very seamless transition and would have appreciated more couple time instead of being introduced to new characters in the last chapter.