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Gray Eagle #1
Savage Ecstasy
A Native American warrior and a young settler woman find a passion as wild as the frontier in the New York Times bestselling author’s romance series debut. It was like lightning striking, the first time they looked into each other's Gray Eagle, the captured Oglala warrior, and Alisha, the beautiful young settler. To her fellow settlers, Grey Eagle is nothing more than a savage. But to her, he is a proud, strong, handsome man who takes her breath away. Meanwhile, the fair vision of Alisha’s beauty awakens Grey Eagle’s darkest desires. Despite the horrors of captivity, the warrior is consumed with a longing to possess her. But even as Alisha saves his life, Grey Eagle knows that her home is among the enemy. Soon enough, however, the tables turn. And when Alisha is the captive, a fierce passion is unleashed . . .
532 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1982
213 people are currently reading
1549 people want to read
About the author
Janelle Taylor
101 books243 followersThe legendary Janelle Taylor was born on June 28, 1944 in Athens, GA. In 1965, she married Michael Taylor with whom she had two children, Angela Taylor-MacIntyre and Alisha Taylor Thurmond. Ms. Taylor attended the Medical College of Georgia from 1977 to 1979 and Augusta State University from 1980-1981. She withdrew from the latter after she sold her first two novels. Today, she is the author of thirty-nine novels, three novellas, and many contributions to other collections. There are thirty-nine million copies of her works in print worldwide and she has made The New York Times Bestseller List eight times. Ms. Taylor's works have also been featured ten times on the "1 million +" bestseller's list at Publisher's Weekly.
Some of Ms. Taylor's most recent books include By Candlelight, Someday Soon, Lakota Dawn, and Lakota Winds (due out in paperback in May 1999). She has also made contributions to other books including The Leukemia Society Cookbook, Christmas Rendezvous, and Summer Love. In addition, readers can see her as co-host of the QVC/TV Romance Book Club Show.
Ms. Taylor's interests include collecting spoons, coins from around the world, ship models, dolls, and old books. She loves to fish, ride horses, play chess, target-shoot, travel (especially in her motorhome and out West), hunt for Indian relics, and take long walks with her husband. Reading, in particular books set before 1900 and current Biographies, Thrillers, Horror, or Fantasy novels, is also one of Ms. Taylor's favorite activities. She is also extremely active with charity work and was even featured on the cover of Diabetes Forecast in February of 1998.
She lives in the country on seventy-nine acres of woods and pasture with a lake and a catfish pond. She writes her novels in a Spanish cottage which overlooks a five-acre lake, a working water mill, gazebo, and covered bridge.
Some of Ms. Taylor's most recent books include By Candlelight, Someday Soon, Lakota Dawn, and Lakota Winds (due out in paperback in May 1999). She has also made contributions to other books including The Leukemia Society Cookbook, Christmas Rendezvous, and Summer Love. In addition, readers can see her as co-host of the QVC/TV Romance Book Club Show.
Ms. Taylor's interests include collecting spoons, coins from around the world, ship models, dolls, and old books. She loves to fish, ride horses, play chess, target-shoot, travel (especially in her motorhome and out West), hunt for Indian relics, and take long walks with her husband. Reading, in particular books set before 1900 and current Biographies, Thrillers, Horror, or Fantasy novels, is also one of Ms. Taylor's favorite activities. She is also extremely active with charity work and was even featured on the cover of Diabetes Forecast in February of 1998.
She lives in the country on seventy-nine acres of woods and pasture with a lake and a catfish pond. She writes her novels in a Spanish cottage which overlooks a five-acre lake, a working water mill, gazebo, and covered bridge.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 107 reviews
June 1, 2017
DNF - somewhere between 1 and 2 stars. Two words for this book: STOCKHOLM. SYNDROME.
I'm pissed at the author for disregarding consent and having the MC fall in love with her rapist, torturer, and kidnapper. I'm pissed at the book for wasting my time with endless info-dumps and dramatic speeches about love/hate/both. I'm pissed at myself for sticking around for so long and actually almost enjoying it sometimes, who knows why.
Essentially, I'm really pissed. So I'm going to stop reading this.
I'm pissed at the author for disregarding consent and having the MC fall in love with her rapist, torturer, and kidnapper. I'm pissed at the book for wasting my time with endless info-dumps and dramatic speeches about love/hate/both. I'm pissed at myself for sticking around for so long and actually almost enjoying it sometimes, who knows why.
Essentially, I'm really pissed. So I'm going to stop reading this.
June 20, 2024
This was such a strange book. On one hand, you have these graphic descriptions of gory battles, sadistic torture, bloody violence, ruthless rapes etc. between a band of Sioux and a group of settlers in the 18th century wild west.
On the other hand, you have a female protagonist who is straight out of a Disney movie. The more mayhem and violence, the more she is picking wildflowers, smiling at squirrels and birds like an infant on her first adventure at the zoo, and waxing poetic about her Stockholm Syndrome love for her captor.
I was going along for the ride just for the sheer, gloriously-badness, unintentionally comical spectacle of it, until about the halfway mark, when the "anti-hero" concocts this harebrained scheme which even in the OTT, plot-holey, and completely illogical sequence of events in the story so far, was a doozy.
On the other hand, you have a female protagonist who is straight out of a Disney movie. The more mayhem and violence, the more she is picking wildflowers, smiling at squirrels and birds like an infant on her first adventure at the zoo, and waxing poetic about her Stockholm Syndrome love for her captor.
I was going along for the ride just for the sheer, gloriously-badness, unintentionally comical spectacle of it, until about the halfway mark, when the "anti-hero" concocts this harebrained scheme which even in the OTT, plot-holey, and completely illogical sequence of events in the story so far, was a doozy.
April 29, 2023
rereading 2023 from 2 stars to 4⭐️
After reading and dnf’ing about 7 Native American romance in a row that felt like a Disney vanilla version of NA romance- big snooze fest,
this story was a big breath of fresh air.
This story is epic, crazy, and it makes you feel, so it made me appreciate this book way more than I did over 10yrs ago.
Maybe I’m sick of bland books, so anything that makes me emotional will get a big thumbs up from me.
It’s raw and dark, and jam packed with drama!
Not politically correct, so if you’re a sensitive reader, stick with the Disney princess Native American romances.
This trilogy is sure to offend the average reader.
- no cheating. She kissed the om, and in 1 incident the om pretended to rape her (requested by the H to make her hate the om).
- yes, ow drama, but he has no feelings for her. He was engaged to her, and he planned on keeping the h as his mistress after the marriage.
- bodice ripper with rape.
He rapes her constantly, smacks her enough to leave bruises, almost breaks her hand, abuses her emotionally too, but she always remained positive - like Disney princess lol, but the plot sure isn’t Disney. She was a basic doormat but a cheerful one. By the end of tho book, her back and fourth -love him, hate him ranting just got on my nerves….
- there’s violence, killings, tortures, catty bitches, etc in this story.
Then there’s the forced seduction because of his magical penis. So annoying.
Would’ve been a better book if she had left the H for another man at the end.
This is not a love story, there is no love. Any sane woman will not see a love story here, it’s Stockholm syndrome, but it was entertaining if you read it as fiction.
- hfn… cliffhanger ending. Book 1 of the trilogy.
Free on KU
After reading and dnf’ing about 7 Native American romance in a row that felt like a Disney vanilla version of NA romance- big snooze fest,
this story was a big breath of fresh air.
This story is epic, crazy, and it makes you feel, so it made me appreciate this book way more than I did over 10yrs ago.
Maybe I’m sick of bland books, so anything that makes me emotional will get a big thumbs up from me.
It’s raw and dark, and jam packed with drama!
Not politically correct, so if you’re a sensitive reader, stick with the Disney princess Native American romances.
This trilogy is sure to offend the average reader.
- no cheating. She kissed the om, and in 1 incident the om pretended to rape her (requested by the H to make her hate the om).
- yes, ow drama, but he has no feelings for her. He was engaged to her, and he planned on keeping the h as his mistress after the marriage.
- bodice ripper with rape.
He rapes her constantly, smacks her enough to leave bruises, almost breaks her hand, abuses her emotionally too, but she always remained positive - like Disney princess lol, but the plot sure isn’t Disney. She was a basic doormat but a cheerful one. By the end of tho book, her back and fourth -love him, hate him ranting just got on my nerves….
- there’s violence, killings, tortures, catty bitches, etc in this story.
Then there’s the forced seduction because of his magical penis. So annoying.
Would’ve been a better book if she had left the H for another man at the end.
This is not a love story, there is no love. Any sane woman will not see a love story here, it’s Stockholm syndrome, but it was entertaining if you read it as fiction.
- hfn… cliffhanger ending. Book 1 of the trilogy.
Free on KU
August 13, 2016
There is so many things in this book which I disliked.
I cant understand how the characters could claim to love each other when all they did was torment and torture each other (there are somethings love cannot conquer); but what really annoyed me was the way in which the heroine would declare her hatred of the hero in one sentence then go off and speak of her love for him - talk about mood swings.
Similarly many of their problems could have been solved straight away if Grey Eagle just explained why he was punishing her and how she should behave in public. Instead he pretends ignorance of the English language and not even at the end does he reveal his ability to speak her language. But what lost this book another star star was the way in which it ends with no real clear understanding between the couple after all the drama and misunderstandings; the book just ends leaving you with a feeling of disbelief and puzzlement as to why you even bothered to read the end instead of giving up during the numerous moments of love, lust and devotion showered on her by everyone but the hero.
I cant believe I wasted my time reading this book, guess I was waiting for an explanation of events and behavior which never occurred. Maybe Janelle Taylor was as fed up with the silly, naive little girl heroine as I was and decided to just put everyone out of their misery and just end the novel.
I cant understand how the characters could claim to love each other when all they did was torment and torture each other (there are somethings love cannot conquer); but what really annoyed me was the way in which the heroine would declare her hatred of the hero in one sentence then go off and speak of her love for him - talk about mood swings.
Similarly many of their problems could have been solved straight away if Grey Eagle just explained why he was punishing her and how she should behave in public. Instead he pretends ignorance of the English language and not even at the end does he reveal his ability to speak her language. But what lost this book another star star was the way in which it ends with no real clear understanding between the couple after all the drama and misunderstandings; the book just ends leaving you with a feeling of disbelief and puzzlement as to why you even bothered to read the end instead of giving up during the numerous moments of love, lust and devotion showered on her by everyone but the hero.
I cant believe I wasted my time reading this book, guess I was waiting for an explanation of events and behavior which never occurred. Maybe Janelle Taylor was as fed up with the silly, naive little girl heroine as I was and decided to just put everyone out of their misery and just end the novel.
June 13, 2022
Жалко, че няма отрицателни звезди, тук имаме минус пет звезди от раз! Не знам какво се в случвало в мозъците на част от писателките на любовни романи от началото на 80-те, но нуждата от психотерапевтична помощ е повече от очевидна. Казват, че писането помагало - но в този случай освен да доведе клетата читателка до пълна лудост, друго интересно тук няма.
Такава любов към садизма не съм виждала, честно. Не е проблем жестокостта към роби и пленници, това е исторически вярно. Проблем е насладата на авторката да измисля нови и нови поводи, когато реална причина вече няма, и да го представя за романтика! Не виждам как една жена, която е бита и малтретирана продължително време от един и същи извършител може изобщо да вземе да изпитва романтични трепети към изрода, който си действа по програма и целенасочено я пречупва. Наистина не разбирам.
Това го има в момента и в young adult глупостите. Истинската жена по-скоро ще реже гърла, отколкото да позволи такъв произвол. И точно това трябваше да се случи в тази книга, но вместо това се е продала доста добре.
Такава любов към садизма не съм виждала, честно. Не е проблем жестокостта към роби и пленници, това е исторически вярно. Проблем е насладата на авторката да измисля нови и нови поводи, когато реална причина вече няма, и да го представя за романтика! Не виждам как една жена, която е бита и малтретирана продължително време от един и същи извършител може изобщо да вземе да изпитва романтични трепети към изрода, който си действа по програма и целенасочено я пречупва. Наистина не разбирам.
Това го има в момента и в young adult глупостите. Истинската жена по-скоро ще реже гърла, отколкото да позволи такъв произвол. И точно това трябваше да се случи в тази книга, но вместо това се е продала доста добре.
August 8, 2016
DNF 10%
I can't keep going.Stupid and vapid heroine,multiple POVs (i hate them with a passion) that bring nothing to the story and short irritating sentences.No thank you.
I can't keep going.Stupid and vapid heroine,multiple POVs (i hate them with a passion) that bring nothing to the story and short irritating sentences.No thank you.
August 5, 2016
This review was originally posted on Addicted To Romance
Summary
From the moment that Gray Eagle and Alisha met, there was something more between them. Gray Eagle the son of one of the most respected chiefs, and a proud indian brave was captured by white settlers and tortured and would have been worse off if it hadn't been for Alisha who protected him, fed him and gave him water when she could. Alisha doesn't understand the animosity between the whites and the indians, she only sees two groups of people that are the same in many ways. But Alisha is about to be caught up in the middle and changed forever. When Gray Eagle escapes, and vows retribution, his people come back to the fort with a vengeance. Only a few survivors live...and Alisha is one of them. Gray Eagle wants her for his own. He sees something more in Alisha, but as the son of a powerful chief, he is already promised to someone else. He knows he can only keep her as his slave even though he wants so much more from her. But Gray Eagle will have to learn some tough lessons if he wants to keep the woman he loves by his side...
The Hero
Gray Eagle is a powerful and distinguished Oglala warrior. He is handsome and strong and virile, he is the leader for his people and is proud of his heritage and fights to protect his people from those that would destroy them. Gray Eagle is being put in a tough position. After he gets kidnapped and rescued by his best friend, there is only one person he wants to go back for Alisha. Alisha a woman who treated him with kindness and protected him as best she could. He knows that it will be hard on her, but he can't deny the connection he feels with her. Gray Eagle was a character that takes time for you to like. He makes quite a bit of mistakes, and is forced on many occasions to do what is right in the eyes of his people and culture and not what he truly wants. We see how he is split apart in his feelings for Alisha and his duty to his people as the son of the chief. He could take it a bit too strong in many ways and that is where I had issues with his character but in the end he proves to be decent in many ways.
The Heroine
Alisha, lost her parents after moving to the America's from England. They came here for certain freedoms but gave their lives early on. Alisha was raised by her loving uncle. Alisha is not like most of the other settlers. She doesn't see the need for any violence, she sees beauty in the earth and can't even understand the need to destroy the forests. I liked how much she feels in every aspect. She is kind and giving and compassionate. What I truly admired about her is how she handles being captured. She doesn't moan and complain all the time about it. She tries to be accepting of her new life as much as she can anyway. She doesn't understand why Gray Eagle is so cold in some ways and warm in others. Its not until the end of the story that she comes to understand Gray Eagle in ways she never understood before and is willing to stand by him despite how he treats her. I love how loyal and true her character is.
Plot and Story Line
So I picked this book up because one, I have been wanting to pick up this author for a while now and I have been wanting to get back to more native american themed romances. Two, its part of a buddy read in a goodreads group and was very curious about this one. Now I do want to say that this story does have a bit of a cliffhanger at the end, but then this couple have FOUR books, but its not like a crazy one....its more of a "happy for now" feel instead of a happy ever after ending that I would normally prefer. Even though I had some issues with this book, I am definitely curious to see how their story will play out. Now the story sets off when Gray Eagle is captured by the settler. Now their treatment of him is pretty horrible and Alisha she really shows her true colors here. She is the ONLY one that believes he shouldn't be treated the way he is. We see her courage from the beginning and I loved that. We do see the chemistry these two have, but even in the beginning you get a sense its so much deeper than that. But we also get a taste of what harsh feelings there were between the whites and the indians. In fact, its the one aspect of the story I really LOVED!! There is quite a bit of conflict, and its not very easy to read at times but it felt very realistic. Gray Eagle is very torn between his culture and his feelings for Alisha. But I honestly had many issues with how he treated her. I kept with the story, because quite frankly....it was a page turner. But Alisha doesn't treat him very well toward the middle....and its like a bitter fight between these two back and forth. What changes for them though, is when Alisha runs away after gaining respect and trust from not only Gray Eagle but most of his people as well....and when he finds her, he is forced to make a difficult choice in her punishment. Needless to say, what happens in the end here is what truly won me over to make this an okay read for me. Alisha learns the truth of Gray Eagle's position, his culture. I liked seeing how she forgives here, and become more accepting of Gray Eagle in a way she never could have before. So even though I had issues with the angst between the characters for most of the book, I am intrigued by future books.
The Cover
I like the native american theme of the cover, with the beads and the teepee like backdrop. It has the older romance classic feel to it.
Overall View
Savage Ecstasy is a story of finding love and redemption is the worst sort of circumstances...and learning to fight for what is most important!!! An emotional roller coaster of a ride.
Click On Image For Buy Link
[foogallery id="23045"]
Summary
From the moment that Gray Eagle and Alisha met, there was something more between them. Gray Eagle the son of one of the most respected chiefs, and a proud indian brave was captured by white settlers and tortured and would have been worse off if it hadn't been for Alisha who protected him, fed him and gave him water when she could. Alisha doesn't understand the animosity between the whites and the indians, she only sees two groups of people that are the same in many ways. But Alisha is about to be caught up in the middle and changed forever. When Gray Eagle escapes, and vows retribution, his people come back to the fort with a vengeance. Only a few survivors live...and Alisha is one of them. Gray Eagle wants her for his own. He sees something more in Alisha, but as the son of a powerful chief, he is already promised to someone else. He knows he can only keep her as his slave even though he wants so much more from her. But Gray Eagle will have to learn some tough lessons if he wants to keep the woman he loves by his side...
The Hero
Gray Eagle is a powerful and distinguished Oglala warrior. He is handsome and strong and virile, he is the leader for his people and is proud of his heritage and fights to protect his people from those that would destroy them. Gray Eagle is being put in a tough position. After he gets kidnapped and rescued by his best friend, there is only one person he wants to go back for Alisha. Alisha a woman who treated him with kindness and protected him as best she could. He knows that it will be hard on her, but he can't deny the connection he feels with her. Gray Eagle was a character that takes time for you to like. He makes quite a bit of mistakes, and is forced on many occasions to do what is right in the eyes of his people and culture and not what he truly wants. We see how he is split apart in his feelings for Alisha and his duty to his people as the son of the chief. He could take it a bit too strong in many ways and that is where I had issues with his character but in the end he proves to be decent in many ways.
The Heroine
Alisha, lost her parents after moving to the America's from England. They came here for certain freedoms but gave their lives early on. Alisha was raised by her loving uncle. Alisha is not like most of the other settlers. She doesn't see the need for any violence, she sees beauty in the earth and can't even understand the need to destroy the forests. I liked how much she feels in every aspect. She is kind and giving and compassionate. What I truly admired about her is how she handles being captured. She doesn't moan and complain all the time about it. She tries to be accepting of her new life as much as she can anyway. She doesn't understand why Gray Eagle is so cold in some ways and warm in others. Its not until the end of the story that she comes to understand Gray Eagle in ways she never understood before and is willing to stand by him despite how he treats her. I love how loyal and true her character is.
Plot and Story Line
So I picked this book up because one, I have been wanting to pick up this author for a while now and I have been wanting to get back to more native american themed romances. Two, its part of a buddy read in a goodreads group and was very curious about this one. Now I do want to say that this story does have a bit of a cliffhanger at the end, but then this couple have FOUR books, but its not like a crazy one....its more of a "happy for now" feel instead of a happy ever after ending that I would normally prefer. Even though I had some issues with this book, I am definitely curious to see how their story will play out. Now the story sets off when Gray Eagle is captured by the settler. Now their treatment of him is pretty horrible and Alisha she really shows her true colors here. She is the ONLY one that believes he shouldn't be treated the way he is. We see her courage from the beginning and I loved that. We do see the chemistry these two have, but even in the beginning you get a sense its so much deeper than that. But we also get a taste of what harsh feelings there were between the whites and the indians. In fact, its the one aspect of the story I really LOVED!! There is quite a bit of conflict, and its not very easy to read at times but it felt very realistic. Gray Eagle is very torn between his culture and his feelings for Alisha. But I honestly had many issues with how he treated her. I kept with the story, because quite frankly....it was a page turner. But Alisha doesn't treat him very well toward the middle....and its like a bitter fight between these two back and forth. What changes for them though, is when Alisha runs away after gaining respect and trust from not only Gray Eagle but most of his people as well....and when he finds her, he is forced to make a difficult choice in her punishment. Needless to say, what happens in the end here is what truly won me over to make this an okay read for me. Alisha learns the truth of Gray Eagle's position, his culture. I liked seeing how she forgives here, and become more accepting of Gray Eagle in a way she never could have before. So even though I had issues with the angst between the characters for most of the book, I am intrigued by future books.
The Cover
I like the native american theme of the cover, with the beads and the teepee like backdrop. It has the older romance classic feel to it.
Overall View
Savage Ecstasy is a story of finding love and redemption is the worst sort of circumstances...and learning to fight for what is most important!!! An emotional roller coaster of a ride.
Click On Image For Buy Link
[foogallery id="23045"]
July 29, 2022
I liked the bare bones of this story, the writing style just did it a disservice. I don't mind the taboo content, I even found it intriguing...the lower rating is just because of the writing. It was choppy and had little flow. I can look past imperfections if the story is engaging, but I really struggled to get past the writing style here. Paragraphs of descriptions and the heroine reminiscing really wore me down. I love that the author did research on this setting, but she failed to weave the history into the narrative in a fluid manner.
August 29, 2016
This was a BR with the wonderful Unapologetic Romance Readers group https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/...
29/8 - I had so many problems with this book that meant I could only give this one star (despite the fact that I read about 400 pages yesterday, a feat that would usually generate at least four stars from me) - Alisha's incredible naiveté and insistence that 'can't we all just get along'; Gray Eagle's constant introspection that never gets him anywhere or solves anything and victim-blaming towards Alisha when she 'forces him to hurt her' (sexually and emotionally); the endless pages of Alisha reminiscing were dreadfully boring and pointless except as a way to add an extra 30 or 40 pages to a book that really, by the 300 page mark felt like it should be nearly finished. I won't spoil it, but believe me when I say that's the weakest ending I've read in a long time, possibly ever. I'm used to and in my opinion we didn't get that.
Alisha was the most annoying heroine I've read in a while. After the raid on the fort she lived in she cried in every scene she was in, in fact nearly every page had her crying over one thing or another. It got quite tedious and I lost a lot of my sympathy for her truly terrible plight because of that and her penchant for putting herself in dangerous situations. I couldn't understand why, after her first encounter with the lieutenant she kept allowing herself to be alone in his company. I mean, what woman (or man for that matter) in their right mind would willingly accompany a man on a walk in a secluded area after he's attempted to force himself on you? No matter what he says to excuse himself afterwards, why would you put yourself in a position for that to happen again? You wouldn't, unless you're a tragic figure in a bodice ripper who needs to get in desperate situations so that one of the many male characters can rescue you, again.
Gray Eagle was a pretty good hero, to start with. I even admired him during his captivity in the fort, until he bit Alisha to test her willingness to keep him safe from the men who wanted to whip him. It was all downhill from there, very downhill - raping Alisha, abusing her in every way imaginable, and generally being a contrived 'conflicted hero' (not sure where his loyalties should lie, with his people or with Alisha). I knew this was going to feature some rapes of the heroine by the hero, but it actually wasn't as bad as I had feared it would be. I thought we were going to get more than one rape described in full, disturbing detail, so I was relieved that didn't happen. Instead of extra rapes we got some very well described torture of a couple of captured men and the very graphic whipping of the heroine by the hero (can we legitimately continue to call him the 'hero'?).
Like Nenia mentioned in her review https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... my Kindle edition was littered with what I assume were formatting errors. Weird characters that aren't on a normal keyboard invaded the text and sentences had full stops and apostrophes in random places. While I was reading I marked about 50 formatting-only errors in 532 pages. That probably doesn't sound like a lot, but as I said that's only the formatting errors, that doesn't include all the usual typos/spelling/punctuation/grammar errors that most of us are used to. They were there too. This felt pretty packed with errors of one kind or another and considering it was traditionally published 35 years ago, I was surprised and disappointed (more so than I was with the quality of the writing, that can be crap in any decade).
I can't believe this is the first in a series. I would be interested in seeing what the next book is like, did Taylor improve with age and experience, but someone else has to be the guinea pig. I'm not touching it until I know that at least the formatting errors aren't replicated in the next book.
29/8 - I had so many problems with this book that meant I could only give this one star (despite the fact that I read about 400 pages yesterday, a feat that would usually generate at least four stars from me) - Alisha's incredible naiveté and insistence that 'can't we all just get along'; Gray Eagle's constant introspection that never gets him anywhere or solves anything and victim-blaming towards Alisha when she 'forces him to hurt her' (sexually and emotionally); the endless pages of Alisha reminiscing were dreadfully boring and pointless except as a way to add an extra 30 or 40 pages to a book that really, by the 300 page mark felt like it should be nearly finished. I won't spoil it, but believe me when I say that's the weakest ending I've read in a long time, possibly ever. I'm used to and in my opinion we didn't get that.
Alisha was the most annoying heroine I've read in a while. After the raid on the fort she lived in she cried in every scene she was in, in fact nearly every page had her crying over one thing or another. It got quite tedious and I lost a lot of my sympathy for her truly terrible plight because of that and her penchant for putting herself in dangerous situations. I couldn't understand why, after her first encounter with the lieutenant she kept allowing herself to be alone in his company. I mean, what woman (or man for that matter) in their right mind would willingly accompany a man on a walk in a secluded area after he's attempted to force himself on you? No matter what he says to excuse himself afterwards, why would you put yourself in a position for that to happen again? You wouldn't, unless you're a tragic figure in a bodice ripper who needs to get in desperate situations so that one of the many male characters can rescue you, again.
Gray Eagle was a pretty good hero, to start with. I even admired him during his captivity in the fort, until he bit Alisha to test her willingness to keep him safe from the men who wanted to whip him. It was all downhill from there, very downhill - raping Alisha, abusing her in every way imaginable, and generally being a contrived 'conflicted hero' (not sure where his loyalties should lie, with his people or with Alisha). I knew this was going to feature some rapes of the heroine by the hero, but it actually wasn't as bad as I had feared it would be. I thought we were going to get more than one rape described in full, disturbing detail, so I was relieved that didn't happen. Instead of extra rapes we got some very well described torture of a couple of captured men and the very graphic whipping of the heroine by the hero (can we legitimately continue to call him the 'hero'?).
Like Nenia mentioned in her review https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... my Kindle edition was littered with what I assume were formatting errors. Weird characters that aren't on a normal keyboard invaded the text and sentences had full stops and apostrophes in random places. While I was reading I marked about 50 formatting-only errors in 532 pages. That probably doesn't sound like a lot, but as I said that's only the formatting errors, that doesn't include all the usual typos/spelling/punctuation/grammar errors that most of us are used to. They were there too. This felt pretty packed with errors of one kind or another and considering it was traditionally published 35 years ago, I was surprised and disappointed (more so than I was with the quality of the writing, that can be crap in any decade).
I can't believe this is the first in a series. I would be interested in seeing what the next book is like, did Taylor improve with age and experience, but someone else has to be the guinea pig. I'm not touching it until I know that at least the formatting errors aren't replicated in the next book.
March 4, 2017
First off, I admit that I didn't read it fully. I skimmed. Thank God too. If I'd actually wasted hours on this shit, I'd have torn my hair out. I'd heard that this book was awful and worth a laugh or too. I was not laughing much. This story is tragic. It's not a romance, it's a cold-hearted sadist trying to beat (and rape!) the spirit out of a girl he refuses to love and the poor girl who quite rightfully hates him, but loves him in the same breath. He keeps trying to think up punishments that will make her love him and fear him so that she'll submit, but not hate him. Then he gets all pissed off when she screams how much she hates him after he punishes her. Honestly, if I had to go through everything he put her through, I might have just killed myself.
At one point, he's already taken her to the "brothel teepee" to pretend he's going to share her with his (and her) friend. Well she freaks out and goes comatose - yes comatose! Does he learn? No, he continues to threaten her with it because she fears that punishment. I swear, the one time he threatens her with either willing submission to his lust or the brothel teepee and she HONESTLY considers the teepee. At that point I was kind of wishing she would pick the teepee as well. But no, sadly she goes to mush in his arms and she resents him for it. I can't believe there's a second book to this story. I hope I never read it.
At one point, he's already taken her to the "brothel teepee" to pretend he's going to share her with his (and her) friend. Well she freaks out and goes comatose - yes comatose! Does he learn? No, he continues to threaten her with it because she fears that punishment. I swear, the one time he threatens her with either willing submission to his lust or the brothel teepee and she HONESTLY considers the teepee. At that point I was kind of wishing she would pick the teepee as well. But no, sadly she goes to mush in his arms and she resents him for it. I can't believe there's a second book to this story. I hope I never read it.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 27, 2010
This book is clearly politically incorrect, but that is what a good BR is all about. They are not for the faint of heart or anyone who is easily offended. I enjoyed it but understand it's not for everyone.
December 21, 2017
More reviews available at my blog, Beauty and the Bookworm.
Slogging through the remainder of my romance reading challenge categories before the end of the year, I came to this: Savage Ecstasy. This fit into the category of "A Native American romance." This is a particularly bad category for a couple of reasons. First, despite asking around in the romance group, I could not find any #OwnVoices Native American romances. If you know of one, please direct me to it. But what this ultimately meant was that all of the ones I was finding were written by white women. Not ideal. Second, there aren't a lot of ones I could find that were written within the past few decades, which mean that they were pretty much all coming from the era of bodice rippers. I mean, the title should probably tell you all you need to know about this book, and the rest that I saw were very much like it. But I already had this one, because it was a bodice ripper buddy read for the Unapologetic Romance Readers last year that I never got around to actually completing. And so, since I couldn't find anything that looked better, off I went.
This book is just as offensive and downright terrible as the title would suggest. The story follows Alisha, who has moved to the western territories of the American colonies with her uncle following the death of her parents. One day some men living in her settlement capture an Oglala warrior, Gray Eagle, and plan to torture and kill him for kicks, but Alisha intervenes and eventually he's just put into isolation instead--from which he escapes and quickly extracts his revenge, returning with his buddies to kill basically everyone at the fort with the exception of Alisha and a few others--one other woman, who's turned into a whore, and a few men that are tortured and killed at the Oglala camp. He claims Alisha for his own and so begins a brutal tale of repeated rape and abuse on literally every level that's peddled as a romance in which, by the end of the book, the two main characters have never held a conversation. Seriously. Gray Eagle speaks English but he doesn't let Alisha know this and so they just snipe at each other in their respective languages with nothing actually being communicated, and Gray Eagle periodically raping Alisha because apparently this will make her love him and be loyal to him. And Alisha obviously does love him because clearly you fall in love with someone in the thirty seconds it takes you to lay eyes on them, and them killing literally everyone you know, raping you, beating you, torturing you, etc. does nothing to challenge those emotions.
Not only does this book have an awful plot, but it's full of terrible writing and terrible tropes. Yes, there are some editing issues here, but I think in this case that's actually caused by an older book being converted to a Kindle format. But the writing itself is still terrible. It's stilted, jumps between past and present tense, and was so boring that I actually found myself falling asleep while reading it. Why? Because there is no depth. It's all surface level, all tell and no show. And for the terrible tropes? Well, beyond the love at first sight and the rapey-ness of this, all the men want to bang Alisha because she is beautiful and pure! And all of the women who are not Alisha hate her because all of the men want to bang her. Obviously. Additionally, Alisha is repeatedly described as looking like a little girl, which adds a whole new level of creepiness and ickiness to this which was completely unnecessary.
This was a terrible book. I will definitely not be reading the others--yes, this is a series, if you can believe it--and cannot fathom reading anything else by this author in general. There was literally nothing good about this. I hated it.
1 star out of 5.
Slogging through the remainder of my romance reading challenge categories before the end of the year, I came to this: Savage Ecstasy. This fit into the category of "A Native American romance." This is a particularly bad category for a couple of reasons. First, despite asking around in the romance group, I could not find any #OwnVoices Native American romances. If you know of one, please direct me to it. But what this ultimately meant was that all of the ones I was finding were written by white women. Not ideal. Second, there aren't a lot of ones I could find that were written within the past few decades, which mean that they were pretty much all coming from the era of bodice rippers. I mean, the title should probably tell you all you need to know about this book, and the rest that I saw were very much like it. But I already had this one, because it was a bodice ripper buddy read for the Unapologetic Romance Readers last year that I never got around to actually completing. And so, since I couldn't find anything that looked better, off I went.
This book is just as offensive and downright terrible as the title would suggest. The story follows Alisha, who has moved to the western territories of the American colonies with her uncle following the death of her parents. One day some men living in her settlement capture an Oglala warrior, Gray Eagle, and plan to torture and kill him for kicks, but Alisha intervenes and eventually he's just put into isolation instead--from which he escapes and quickly extracts his revenge, returning with his buddies to kill basically everyone at the fort with the exception of Alisha and a few others--one other woman, who's turned into a whore, and a few men that are tortured and killed at the Oglala camp. He claims Alisha for his own and so begins a brutal tale of repeated rape and abuse on literally every level that's peddled as a romance in which, by the end of the book, the two main characters have never held a conversation. Seriously. Gray Eagle speaks English but he doesn't let Alisha know this and so they just snipe at each other in their respective languages with nothing actually being communicated, and Gray Eagle periodically raping Alisha because apparently this will make her love him and be loyal to him. And Alisha obviously does love him because clearly you fall in love with someone in the thirty seconds it takes you to lay eyes on them, and them killing literally everyone you know, raping you, beating you, torturing you, etc. does nothing to challenge those emotions.
Not only does this book have an awful plot, but it's full of terrible writing and terrible tropes. Yes, there are some editing issues here, but I think in this case that's actually caused by an older book being converted to a Kindle format. But the writing itself is still terrible. It's stilted, jumps between past and present tense, and was so boring that I actually found myself falling asleep while reading it. Why? Because there is no depth. It's all surface level, all tell and no show. And for the terrible tropes? Well, beyond the love at first sight and the rapey-ness of this, all the men want to bang Alisha because she is beautiful and pure! And all of the women who are not Alisha hate her because all of the men want to bang her. Obviously. Additionally, Alisha is repeatedly described as looking like a little girl, which adds a whole new level of creepiness and ickiness to this which was completely unnecessary.
This was a terrible book. I will definitely not be reading the others--yes, this is a series, if you can believe it--and cannot fathom reading anything else by this author in general. There was literally nothing good about this. I hated it.
1 star out of 5.
February 3, 2011
Well, to begin I must say that I read it the whole way through. Just as Gray Eagle had some strange hold over Alisha in spite of all of the abuse, so to did this book have over me. There were so many WTF moments I lost count.
The abuse was probably the best part of the book, because it wasn't the sex scenes, which were a little vanilla. I actually liked the predicament that Gray Eagle is in. It seems realistic that there would be these real obstacles of cultural/political/social barriers and I felt that his way of thinking might have been authentic. His biggest flaw was loving (although he never tells her in the entire book ) the TSTL Alisha who must shine and blind people with all of the "innocence" she supposedly radiates. But she is beautiful, and it's not like it's not like he's looking for great conversations with her, considering he NEVER tells her he speaks English, so there you go.
The writing was very awkward for me. It was the quintessential tell and don't show style of writing. Sometimes characters thoughts would be a series of ten questions. The perspectives shifted all over the place and at a drop of a hat. Also, the characters knew things the shouldn't know.
But what really got me was the ending. I really hope there is an immediate sequel. In fact I feel almost sure the Kindle scan I got was incomplete, because I was promised a glorious retaliation of Gray Eagle against the fort, and everything ended right before the big explosion of action. Gray Eagle and Alisha don't even make an official reunion before the end.
Questions I still have:
Will he ever reveal to her he can speak English?
Will he kill everyone at the fort?
Will he also kill Powchutu?
But the fact that it riled me up and I made it to the last (?) page are plusses.
It ain't boring!
The abuse was probably the best part of the book, because it wasn't the sex scenes, which were a little vanilla. I actually liked the predicament that Gray Eagle is in. It seems realistic that there would be these real obstacles of cultural/political/social barriers and I felt that his way of thinking might have been authentic. His biggest flaw was loving (although he never tells her in the entire book ) the TSTL Alisha who must shine and blind people with all of the "innocence" she supposedly radiates. But she is beautiful, and it's not like it's not like he's looking for great conversations with her, considering he NEVER tells her he speaks English, so there you go.
The writing was very awkward for me. It was the quintessential tell and don't show style of writing. Sometimes characters thoughts would be a series of ten questions. The perspectives shifted all over the place and at a drop of a hat. Also, the characters knew things the shouldn't know.
But what really got me was the ending. I really hope there is an immediate sequel. In fact I feel almost sure the Kindle scan I got was incomplete, because I was promised a glorious retaliation of Gray Eagle against the fort, and everything ended right before the big explosion of action. Gray Eagle and Alisha don't even make an official reunion before the end.
Questions I still have:
Will he ever reveal to her he can speak English?
Will he kill everyone at the fort?
Will he also kill Powchutu?
But the fact that it riled me up and I made it to the last (?) page are plusses.
It ain't boring!
June 29, 2015
Oh My! Let's get down to business!!!
This was a very good book. Heart wrenching, yet full of hope and promise. I admit I was so emotional I ended up crying at Wal-Mart. (Embarrassing) . This book is packed full of scenes. There is never a boring moment because there is always something happening.
The parts that annoyed me were Alica’s internal voice with all of her assumptions, but I understood it because Gray Feather never explained anything to her. If he would have swallowed his so Big & Mighty pride and talked to Alicia, much could have been prevented.
That scene where Gray Feather tied Alicia to the post and ......ed her had me so mad, hurt, and emotionally destroyed that I wanted to call myself ‘Silver Bullet’ and bust a cap in his……….
I loved this book, it was angsty and good to the last drop. I cannot wait to read the next book in this series. If it’s true that this was the first book Janelle Taylor had ever written, I can’t believe it. This book was written way to well for a first book.
Also Janelle, if you ever read this, you should seriously consider adding this book to the Dark reads genre, because as my friend Elena (who turned me on to this story) said, you will get many more readers who would love this story. Think about it. You could put it under Dark Erotica, or Domestic Discipline etc.
You guys can have this.
But, I'll have this!
This was a very good book. Heart wrenching, yet full of hope and promise. I admit I was so emotional I ended up crying at Wal-Mart. (Embarrassing) . This book is packed full of scenes. There is never a boring moment because there is always something happening.
The parts that annoyed me were Alica’s internal voice with all of her assumptions, but I understood it because Gray Feather never explained anything to her. If he would have swallowed his so Big & Mighty pride and talked to Alicia, much could have been prevented.
That scene where Gray Feather tied Alicia to the post and ......ed her had me so mad, hurt, and emotionally destroyed that I wanted to call myself ‘Silver Bullet’ and bust a cap in his……….
I loved this book, it was angsty and good to the last drop. I cannot wait to read the next book in this series. If it’s true that this was the first book Janelle Taylor had ever written, I can’t believe it. This book was written way to well for a first book.
Also Janelle, if you ever read this, you should seriously consider adding this book to the Dark reads genre, because as my friend Elena (who turned me on to this story) said, you will get many more readers who would love this story. Think about it. You could put it under Dark Erotica, or Domestic Discipline etc.
You guys can have this.
But, I'll have this!
November 19, 2012
There were two major problems with this book: The characters, and the writing.
The characters were developed horribly. Who wants to read a book in the 'romance' genre, that is in fact about a sadistic man and an overpowered and pathetic woman? Yes, perhaps it is a portrayal of Stockholm Syndrome, but I'm sorry - that kind of book does not belong in this genre. I read romance novels for a bit of an escape, not to get angry at society. BUT - it's not even an intelligent, literary portrayal of Stockholm Syndrome, which made me think that the author really was trying to extract some realistic romance story out of the misogyny.
The plot was actually quite non-existent. As there was no character development, there was nothing driving the plot. I skimmed through most of the book to be honest.
And the writing. It was horrible. Sure it was published in 1983 but the language was terrible (calling every Indian man 'a brave' really got on my nerves, it seemed kind of derogatory or at least ignorant). At least a third of the book should have been left on the editor's desk. There were times when I actually thought I was reading the same line over and over, but on re-reading the para I realised that the paragraph may be five sentences long, but each sentence said the SAME THING. It was like the author was proud of every sentence and allowed her ego to stop her from editing the book.
I am actually angry that I wasted $3.99 on this book, but at least I bought the kindle edition - I love my kindle and would never do it any harm. If i'd owned this book in paperback, I'd probably be tempted to burn it. It was without a doubt the WORST book I have ever read.
The characters were developed horribly. Who wants to read a book in the 'romance' genre, that is in fact about a sadistic man and an overpowered and pathetic woman? Yes, perhaps it is a portrayal of Stockholm Syndrome, but I'm sorry - that kind of book does not belong in this genre. I read romance novels for a bit of an escape, not to get angry at society. BUT - it's not even an intelligent, literary portrayal of Stockholm Syndrome, which made me think that the author really was trying to extract some realistic romance story out of the misogyny.
The plot was actually quite non-existent. As there was no character development, there was nothing driving the plot. I skimmed through most of the book to be honest.
And the writing. It was horrible. Sure it was published in 1983 but the language was terrible (calling every Indian man 'a brave' really got on my nerves, it seemed kind of derogatory or at least ignorant). At least a third of the book should have been left on the editor's desk. There were times when I actually thought I was reading the same line over and over, but on re-reading the para I realised that the paragraph may be five sentences long, but each sentence said the SAME THING. It was like the author was proud of every sentence and allowed her ego to stop her from editing the book.
I am actually angry that I wasted $3.99 on this book, but at least I bought the kindle edition - I love my kindle and would never do it any harm. If i'd owned this book in paperback, I'd probably be tempted to burn it. It was without a doubt the WORST book I have ever read.
February 11, 2011
Excellent story, one I’ll keep to read again.
1st in the Gray Eagle family saga which takes place in the late 1700’s. Events primarily revolve around Gray Eagle (H), a fierce Oglala warrior who is the son of the great chief Running Wolf; Alisha Williams (h), a young English woman who left her home in Liverpool with her parents after taxes and threats of war forced her father to make the decision to journey to the new world at the encouragement of his brother. Within 5 months after arriving in the colonies, her parents were killed in a carriage accident and she was left with her only living relative, her uncle Thad.
Unfortunately, the threat of war and crippling taxation which caused the family to leave England, surfaced in the colony of Pennsylvania, so Uncle Thad and Alisha left with others from their colony to start life anew in the American west with excitement and dreams for the future.
The story quickly pivots once they arrive at their new home.
What I liked so much in this story is the sense of realism and, to me, great representation of vast differences between two cultures. It was so much more than Indian takes captive white woman.
1. Alisha was raised in England, taught the ways of a Lady: needlepoint, painting, reading Shakespeare, etc. An only child, adored especially by her father (a merchant and shipper in Liverpool) and in my imagination, she was likely familiar with different types of people which wouldn’t be unusual due to the type of business her father was in.
Attitudes and harsh behaviors she encountered in the American west were foreign to her sheltered genteel upbringing. What I liked about her was her gift to look beyond a man’s skin color and see a man, her lack of judgmental prejudice (in this story with the native American), and her ability to adapt to a life that was extremely different from her past. Well, maybe she didn’t actually adapt as she was given absolutely no understanding, reasons or explanations of why events happened as they did. I thought it was pretty unfair.
2. Gray Eagle is honored among his people and while his father isn’t present, his father’s position as the Chief of the Oglala carries a heavy weight upon Gray Eagle’s actions, behaviors and determinations. I didn’t like some of the repercussions that entailed. I especially didn’t like it when he shunned his friend, White Arrow’s visions and warnings pertaining to certain actions he was decided upon without any give or take, then later somewhat regretted.
What I did like about him was his pride and strength, and, I thought him fair and just (even in his executions of and eye for and eye). What I didn’t like was his unrelenting stance to stick to culture with his treatment regarding Alisha’s infractions.
3. The soldiers and colonists attitudes and behaviors just did not seem over blown to me. The hatred and prejudice due to absurd assumptions of their superiority…well, it’s all history…
I enjoy reading Romance Fiction and am not a stickler to a typo here or there, which this book did have. Also, I know I’m reading fiction and never think when I’m cracking open one of these books that it will be non-fiction and will toe the line according to actual facts (historical in this instance). Enjoyment is my number 1 priority so if my attention is directed to a statement that isn’t a fact it doesn’t ruin my fun, unless it’s so outrageous I think my intelligence has been insulted.
I’ll read the next in this series, and if I enjoy that one, I plan to pick up the rest of the series. Thanks SmittenKitten for this rec!
1st in the Gray Eagle family saga which takes place in the late 1700’s. Events primarily revolve around Gray Eagle (H), a fierce Oglala warrior who is the son of the great chief Running Wolf; Alisha Williams (h), a young English woman who left her home in Liverpool with her parents after taxes and threats of war forced her father to make the decision to journey to the new world at the encouragement of his brother. Within 5 months after arriving in the colonies, her parents were killed in a carriage accident and she was left with her only living relative, her uncle Thad.
Unfortunately, the threat of war and crippling taxation which caused the family to leave England, surfaced in the colony of Pennsylvania, so Uncle Thad and Alisha left with others from their colony to start life anew in the American west with excitement and dreams for the future.
The story quickly pivots once they arrive at their new home.
What I liked so much in this story is the sense of realism and, to me, great representation of vast differences between two cultures. It was so much more than Indian takes captive white woman.
1. Alisha was raised in England, taught the ways of a Lady: needlepoint, painting, reading Shakespeare, etc. An only child, adored especially by her father (a merchant and shipper in Liverpool) and in my imagination, she was likely familiar with different types of people which wouldn’t be unusual due to the type of business her father was in.
Attitudes and harsh behaviors she encountered in the American west were foreign to her sheltered genteel upbringing. What I liked about her was her gift to look beyond a man’s skin color and see a man, her lack of judgmental prejudice (in this story with the native American), and her ability to adapt to a life that was extremely different from her past. Well, maybe she didn’t actually adapt as she was given absolutely no understanding, reasons or explanations of why events happened as they did. I thought it was pretty unfair.
2. Gray Eagle is honored among his people and while his father isn’t present, his father’s position as the Chief of the Oglala carries a heavy weight upon Gray Eagle’s actions, behaviors and determinations. I didn’t like some of the repercussions that entailed. I especially didn’t like it when he shunned his friend, White Arrow’s visions and warnings pertaining to certain actions he was decided upon without any give or take, then later somewhat regretted.
What I did like about him was his pride and strength, and, I thought him fair and just (even in his executions of and eye for and eye). What I didn’t like was his unrelenting stance to stick to culture with his treatment regarding Alisha’s infractions.
3. The soldiers and colonists attitudes and behaviors just did not seem over blown to me. The hatred and prejudice due to absurd assumptions of their superiority…well, it’s all history…
I enjoy reading Romance Fiction and am not a stickler to a typo here or there, which this book did have. Also, I know I’m reading fiction and never think when I’m cracking open one of these books that it will be non-fiction and will toe the line according to actual facts (historical in this instance). Enjoyment is my number 1 priority so if my attention is directed to a statement that isn’t a fact it doesn’t ruin my fun, unless it’s so outrageous I think my intelligence has been insulted.
I’ll read the next in this series, and if I enjoy that one, I plan to pick up the rest of the series. Thanks SmittenKitten for this rec!
July 21, 2016
First off this is the most historically inaccurate romance I have ever read. It is supposed to take place just before the American Revolution in North Dakota. First off, there were no Brits that far west at this point in time. The American govt didn't even own that land. It was held by the French and the only whites in the area were a scarce few French trappers.
Secondly, this book was basically was only for those who have a sick rape fetish. The "hero" was a brute who would rape the "heroine" repeatedly to make her "love" him. Frankly it was just awful. The whole story was basically a case study in battered women syndrome. There was nothing redeeming about the characters. I felt no pity for the heroine by the end.
Skip this book.
Secondly, this book was basically was only for those who have a sick rape fetish. The "hero" was a brute who would rape the "heroine" repeatedly to make her "love" him. Frankly it was just awful. The whole story was basically a case study in battered women syndrome. There was nothing redeeming about the characters. I felt no pity for the heroine by the end.
Skip this book.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 17, 2022
well that was romantic...
March 12, 2025
Rating: 1.5 (rounded down) / 5
So...was this bad? YES.
But, was it as bad as I expected, or the worst thing I've ever read? Well...NO.
I mean, it's still trash-level, don't get me wrong, with Rosanne Bittner levels of angst, added levels of stupidity and misunderstandings, and all the NOs that I wouldn't tolerate from anything that I'd consider a good romance, including:
- rape
- angst
- torture
- repeated scenes of the bedroom resolving everything
- seeming to not care about each other
- hate/love back and forth relationship
- indecisive/stupid heroine
- stubborn/stupid hero
- dark gray morals
- prejudice galore
- gore galore
- all the men characters wanting to have sex with / rape the heroine
- all the female characters being absolute bitches, either because of jealousy or prejudice or just because they're terrible people and of course only the heroine is good and pure and beautiful, blah blah blah
- no real happy ending (but that's because the other books in this series just go on and on about this couple's struggles, which I WILL read about in the future, but can't stomach just yet, no thank you)
So...yeah.
Amidst all this though, I will give it credit for ONE THING that it did absolutely right:
the portrayal of prejudice on both sides, and how the white settlers could be just as savage and brutal as Native Americans were portrayed to be, and how realistically Alisha, caught in the middle of the two sides but herself not really a part of either, doesn't understand the senselessness of the killing and hatred, over and over again.
THAT, at least, was done well, and so I'll give the author that much credit, at least.
Still, for a trashy read that I expected to be trashy, it did not disappoint!😁
So...was this bad? YES.
But, was it as bad as I expected, or the worst thing I've ever read? Well...NO.
I mean, it's still trash-level, don't get me wrong, with Rosanne Bittner levels of angst, added levels of stupidity and misunderstandings, and all the NOs that I wouldn't tolerate from anything that I'd consider a good romance, including:
- rape
- angst
- torture
- repeated scenes of the bedroom resolving everything
- seeming to not care about each other
- hate/love back and forth relationship
- indecisive/stupid heroine
- stubborn/stupid hero
- dark gray morals
- prejudice galore
- gore galore
- all the men characters wanting to have sex with / rape the heroine
- all the female characters being absolute bitches, either because of jealousy or prejudice or just because they're terrible people and of course only the heroine is good and pure and beautiful, blah blah blah
- no real happy ending (but that's because the other books in this series just go on and on about this couple's struggles, which I WILL read about in the future, but can't stomach just yet, no thank you)
So...yeah.
Amidst all this though, I will give it credit for ONE THING that it did absolutely right:
the portrayal of prejudice on both sides, and how the white settlers could be just as savage and brutal as Native Americans were portrayed to be, and how realistically Alisha, caught in the middle of the two sides but herself not really a part of either, doesn't understand the senselessness of the killing and hatred, over and over again.
THAT, at least, was done well, and so I'll give the author that much credit, at least.
Still, for a trashy read that I expected to be trashy, it did not disappoint!😁
July 31, 2017
What the fuck did I just read(aka skim through not believing shit could be this bad, in the middle of the night)?
Bad. So bad. How is this a book? Did I just get punk'd? Did I just pay amazon $5 to punk me?
The writing was horrifying. The editing even worse. The formatting was even bad.
The story-- WHAT THE EVER LOVING FUCK WAS THAT??!!!
The "hero" practically never stops beating and raping her. This isn't a romance novel. They don't even talk to each other. She's literally his slave that he doesn't have conversations with and he beats the hell out of her and rapes her and threatens her with being raped by others too.
And idk, mentally she's like 9 years old???
Can I give it less than 1 star? I feel like it owes me stars. This book should pay me some fucking stars.
YOU OWE ME STARS. I get five stars. For my wasted $5 and idek how many stars I'm owed for the mental anguish of knowing this exists...
Bad. So bad. How is this a book? Did I just get punk'd? Did I just pay amazon $5 to punk me?
The writing was horrifying. The editing even worse. The formatting was even bad.
The story-- WHAT THE EVER LOVING FUCK WAS THAT??!!!
The "hero" practically never stops beating and raping her. This isn't a romance novel. They don't even talk to each other. She's literally his slave that he doesn't have conversations with and he beats the hell out of her and rapes her and threatens her with being raped by others too.
And idk, mentally she's like 9 years old???
Can I give it less than 1 star? I feel like it owes me stars. This book should pay me some fucking stars.
YOU OWE ME STARS. I get five stars. For my wasted $5 and idek how many stars I'm owed for the mental anguish of knowing this exists...
July 23, 2019
I didn't technically finish this book - got to about the 75% mark. But...the reason I didn't finish has nothing to do with the book, just personal crap around the book (see comments where I look like I'm talkin' to myself, for instance).
Wow - time flies. Yet, I still remember this book as being WOW. The writing is fab, details distinct, storyline original, and characters that pop off the page and stay with me. LOVED it!!!
Someday, I'll reread this and finish it. I know it ends on a cliffy and there were things I didn't lurve about it (hey, Grey Eagle - use your damn words, Alpha-man!), but it's well-worth a reread.
Wow - time flies. Yet, I still remember this book as being WOW. The writing is fab, details distinct, storyline original, and characters that pop off the page and stay with me. LOVED it!!!
Someday, I'll reread this and finish it. I know it ends on a cliffy and there were things I didn't lurve about it (hey, Grey Eagle - use your damn words, Alpha-man!), but it's well-worth a reread.
June 25, 2010
This book started out being horrible for me because of the violent nature and harsh issues that came up. But, then I realized that sometimes life is ugly and painful and that Ms. Taylor was doing a good job of making the story as realistic as possible.
May 11, 2022
Silly and unbelievable.
April 8, 2024
Lord, this book is all over the place. The author would get sidetracked over the most mundane things and go into pages and pages of memories about characters that aren't even about the current story. I found myself skimming A LOT just so I could get back to the original plot. I don't know why someone during the editing process didn't tell her that none of the added fluff was necessary and her random historical facts hurt her story more than making it feel more authentic. Also, I say editing process as if I even think it had one. There were soooooo many mistakes. I mean random character keys inserted in the middle of words. Proper punctuation was omitted. Accent aigues placed over letters in words that did not need them. Names were misspelled here and there. The text was whole hot mess!
Aside from the train wreck amidst the lackluster attempt at purple prose, there's the issue of the MMC. I hated him. I love a good villain getting the girl. But that was not the case here. He was cruel when he didn't want to be cruel. It wasn't a part of just who he was as a person. He was specifically cruel just to her, despite the constant warnings from his best friend. He also could speak English fluently, but chose not to communicate with her using it and didn't really try to teach her his own language. He was fine with just sexually assaulting her whenever he felt like it and punishing her for breaking tribe laws that she knew nothing about and that he purposely chose not to tell her. I don't know where the author's head was at with all that. This author loved intentional miscommunication and it wracked my nerves something fierce.
I also made the mistake of going into this not knowing it was a series and had a cliffhanger. I was stupid enough to buy the next one, as ONLY the first one is available on KU, but got so pissed with the second one, I DNF'ed at 83% and will not make the mistake of purchasing anymore. This story doesn't get any better. Save yourself from the nausea and constant headache that it induces and just don't read it.
Aside from the train wreck amidst the lackluster attempt at purple prose, there's the issue of the MMC. I hated him. I love a good villain getting the girl. But that was not the case here. He was cruel when he didn't want to be cruel. It wasn't a part of just who he was as a person. He was specifically cruel just to her, despite the constant warnings from his best friend. He also could speak English fluently, but chose not to communicate with her using it and didn't really try to teach her his own language. He was fine with just sexually assaulting her whenever he felt like it and punishing her for breaking tribe laws that she knew nothing about and that he purposely chose not to tell her. I don't know where the author's head was at with all that. This author loved intentional miscommunication and it wracked my nerves something fierce.
I also made the mistake of going into this not knowing it was a series and had a cliffhanger. I was stupid enough to buy the next one, as ONLY the first one is available on KU, but got so pissed with the second one, I DNF'ed at 83% and will not make the mistake of purchasing anymore. This story doesn't get any better. Save yourself from the nausea and constant headache that it induces and just don't read it.
January 10, 2022
I wasn't going to review this at first because it seemed to be par for the course as far as bodice rippers are concerned.
However...
I cannot abide the ending. Goddamn you Janelle Taylor! All I wanted was a smidgen of resolution after slogging through the never ending info dumps. JUST A SMIDGE!!!!! But you deny me even this.
First of all, since I am reviewing this, let's start with Alisha. She is the most beautiful woman in existence. She causes every man to fall in love with her, want to rape her and causes every woman to hate her. Literally.
Alisha's personality is that of a mentally challenged child. She is described as being so carefree that she rolls in the grass and chases the wind. This is something my dog would do. Not an adult woman. Her dwindling faculties only serve to inflame more lust and wonder in men somehow.
She is naive and stubborn to the point of irritation. At times I didn't even give a fuck that Gray Eagle slaps her or whatever. Just shut up Alisha! Shutting up is something she is physically incapable of doing. So much so that a good 50% of this book is Alisha talking to herself. Just non stop droning and pontificating over and over about everything. Why? WHY???
Now let's move on to Gray Eagle. Typical bodice ripper "hero". Lots of raping. Beating. Even some whipping for good measure. But he is SO handsome and his muscles are SO big. Gray Eagle's biggest flaw was that he never fucking told Alisha he could speak and understand English. Jesus. I had to endure hundreds of pages of her one sided conversations with him.
I started to get worried around the 75% mark. Alisha is rescued from her captivity and is now healing at some military Fort. The rest of the book is just Alisha suffering from more men who want her and women who hate her. No more Gray Eagle. Just....Alisha and her new suitors. I kept waiting for some kind of resolve. I kept thinking that surely she would be reunited and I would get some kind of reward for slogging through almost 600 pages. Maybe Gray Eagle finally tells her he could understand her unhinged rants all along?
Instead Janelle Taylor said "Fuck you, you get NOTHING!!!!"
There is no resolution. It ends with Alisha going out to meet Gray Eagle. That's it. The end.
Goddamn it! I don't want to read the next one. JANELLE YOU HAVE FORCED MY HAND!!! I always finish what I start so now apparently I have to buy the next book simply to get any kind of answers or ending.
However...
I cannot abide the ending. Goddamn you Janelle Taylor! All I wanted was a smidgen of resolution after slogging through the never ending info dumps. JUST A SMIDGE!!!!! But you deny me even this.
First of all, since I am reviewing this, let's start with Alisha. She is the most beautiful woman in existence. She causes every man to fall in love with her, want to rape her and causes every woman to hate her. Literally.
Alisha's personality is that of a mentally challenged child. She is described as being so carefree that she rolls in the grass and chases the wind. This is something my dog would do. Not an adult woman. Her dwindling faculties only serve to inflame more lust and wonder in men somehow.
She is naive and stubborn to the point of irritation. At times I didn't even give a fuck that Gray Eagle slaps her or whatever. Just shut up Alisha! Shutting up is something she is physically incapable of doing. So much so that a good 50% of this book is Alisha talking to herself. Just non stop droning and pontificating over and over about everything. Why? WHY???
Now let's move on to Gray Eagle. Typical bodice ripper "hero". Lots of raping. Beating. Even some whipping for good measure. But he is SO handsome and his muscles are SO big. Gray Eagle's biggest flaw was that he never fucking told Alisha he could speak and understand English. Jesus. I had to endure hundreds of pages of her one sided conversations with him.
I started to get worried around the 75% mark. Alisha is rescued from her captivity and is now healing at some military Fort. The rest of the book is just Alisha suffering from more men who want her and women who hate her. No more Gray Eagle. Just....Alisha and her new suitors. I kept waiting for some kind of resolve. I kept thinking that surely she would be reunited and I would get some kind of reward for slogging through almost 600 pages. Maybe Gray Eagle finally tells her he could understand her unhinged rants all along?
Instead Janelle Taylor said "Fuck you, you get NOTHING!!!!"
There is no resolution. It ends with Alisha going out to meet Gray Eagle. That's it. The end.
Goddamn it! I don't want to read the next one. JANELLE YOU HAVE FORCED MY HAND!!! I always finish what I start so now apparently I have to buy the next book simply to get any kind of answers or ending.
July 12, 2015
Forbidden love
This book came very highly recommended and I couldn't wait to start reading to the extend where I didn't check the reviews or the rest of the series as I normally do so I was surprised when it ended on a 'to be continued' I knew it was the first in a series but I assumed the series featured different characters but from what I can gather the first four books revolve around Grey Eagle.
Since there's already so many reviews I'll skip my usual summary and get straight to my opinion.
I was captivated as soon as I started reading and settled down to what I expected to be a great sweeping romance, in many ways it reminded me of the 'T'on Ma' trilogy by Magnolia Belle.
While there's no doubt I loved this book and can't wait to continue on with 'Defiant Ecstasy' it's a lot of reading, 'Savage' was 528 pages and 'Defiant' is 472, had I known how many books were involved would I have read 'Savage' Yes of course I would I was completely enthralled by the young lovers and yes it was long, over long in places, at times Alisha's rambling annoyed me, and I know she was young and innocent but the tears and the constant
"I hate you ! One day, I’ll kill you for this!"
"I hate you, I hate you"
"I hate you"
"I hate you" etc, etc, etc there's a lot of hating going on and I wouldn't mind if she didn't change her mind every couple of minutes. This may seem harsh and believe me I wish I could have read this book without this bothering me so much but the more it went on the more it annoyed me.
I have to say I really liked Grey Eagle, I've read several reviews where people didn't but to be honest his behaviour was understandable, he loves her but struggles to save face and not look weak in front of this tribe, he doesn't want to punish her but she puts him in the position where he has no choice and yes it makes difficult reading at times.
Despite it being over long and Alisha getting on my nerves I still enjoyed this book and so it's straight onto 'Defiant' for me.
October 7, 2011
One of the things I loved about this book was that even though Alisha and Grey Eagle come from two different worlds, they both try desperately to understand one another. Sure, Alisha probably spends a great deal of time more trying to understand Grey Eagle, but that doesn't mean he doesn't make an effort because of the unanticipated feelings she stirs within him. Yes, it's true, Grey Eagle is harsh with Alisha on quite a few occasions. He'll be the next chief of the Oglala and so appearances are very important to him, so important that he almost kills Alisha after she tries to run away. He later comes to regret his actions and Alisha strives to understand why he did what he did to her. Before Grey Eagle can make amends, the Oglala camp is attacked by white men and Alisha is taken away. His love for her is so strong though that he throws away appearances and brings his whole force to the gates of the fort where Alisha is and demands her return.
Another thing I liked about this book was the starch contrast between Alisha and Kathy. They come from the same world, but they are completely different people with opposite views of the indians.
If you like cheesy, happy romance where nobody gets their heart or body trampled on too badly, then you won't like this book. Keep in mind the title is "Savage Ecstasy," so don't expect sunshine and roses! And if you do like this book, I highly recommend reading the sequel, "Defiant Ecstasy."
Another thing I liked about this book was the starch contrast between Alisha and Kathy. They come from the same world, but they are completely different people with opposite views of the indians.
If you like cheesy, happy romance where nobody gets their heart or body trampled on too badly, then you won't like this book. Keep in mind the title is "Savage Ecstasy," so don't expect sunshine and roses! And if you do like this book, I highly recommend reading the sequel, "Defiant Ecstasy."
July 27, 2013
I don't know what to say about this book. It is my first by Janelle Taylor, and after reading this I have no plans to pick up another of her books.
To sum up this book it is a classic tale of "HE HITS ME BECAUSE HE LOVES ME". Through the whole book our pathetic heroine aka Alisha aka punching bag, is repeatedly raped, hit, bitten, forced to submit by almost breaking her hand and at one point she is whipped with a bull whip till she is near death! And it is all done by a man she claims to love (our NOT hero, Gray Eagle).
To make matters worse, Alisha feels Gray Eagle did it for her own good! REALLY!!!!
Ms. Taylor introduces us to two other possible Mr. Rights (Powchutu & White Arrow) who would do anything and give anything to be with her. They are both affectionate & caring. But guess who she ends up with....... that's right...Mr. Crazy Sadistic!
One of the worst books I have read in a long time!
To sum up this book it is a classic tale of "HE HITS ME BECAUSE HE LOVES ME". Through the whole book our pathetic heroine aka Alisha aka punching bag, is repeatedly raped, hit, bitten, forced to submit by almost breaking her hand and at one point she is whipped with a bull whip till she is near death! And it is all done by a man she claims to love (our NOT hero, Gray Eagle).
To make matters worse, Alisha feels Gray Eagle did it for her own good! REALLY!!!!
Ms. Taylor introduces us to two other possible Mr. Rights (Powchutu & White Arrow) who would do anything and give anything to be with her. They are both affectionate & caring. But guess who she ends up with....... that's right...Mr. Crazy Sadistic!
One of the worst books I have read in a long time!
May 17, 2009
This is one brutal, realistic book and not for those looking for a typical romance. I read this almost a year ago so details are hazy now. We have torture, murder, rape, prostitution and a love/hate story in the middle. The main characters weren't very likeable at all. Gray Eagle is one tough brute of a guy and Alisha is just frustrating. They seem to hate more than love each other and are constantly pushing and pulling between those emotions. I don't remember any tenderness between the two at all. I think I would've enjoyed this more if their love grew and they evolved as a couple. It was a little frustrating to read about how awful Gray Eagle treats her yet she loves him! Oh wait, now she hates him! No, no she loves him again! As I understand it their story continues throughout the series, I haven't decided whether or not I'll continue on.
November 20, 2014
I know it's not very feminist of me, but I love how vicious the hero (Gray Eagle) is to the heroine (Alisha) in this book. Especially the part where he bites her hand and won't let go. And Alisha takes it like a champ! If I were in that situation, I would have planted my foot in his face. He is grade-A asshole and I got the impression that he was using Alisha as the whipping girl for the entire white race. Poor girl, his tribe hates her and her only friend is Gray Eagle's BFF, White Arrow. After being a white captive, her people, other white folks, treat her like she's now destined to work in a bordello. And speaking of bordellos, the Indian tribe has their own version in their camp. A teepee painted red where unclaimed female captives both pale-skinned and red-skinned are kept in an orgy free-for-all for the braves and warriors.
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