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Enchanted Ecstasy
Maleaha Deveraux was all the woman any man could desire. She was an Indian princess, a refined lady, a warrior, an enchantress. Fearless, independent, hauntingly beautiful, she was the most sought-after woman in the New Mexico territory. But no man had ever claimed her supple body or tamed her proud heart. Certainly not the handsome, arrogant, new Army officer who undressed her with his insolent silver gaze!From the moment he saw her, Major Kanen Benedict knew she would be his. No woman had ever refused him, certainly not this green-eyed, black-haired, buckskin clad temptress! He would use her, then forget her. But when at last he caressed her trembling flesh and molded her soft, yielding curves to his lean, hard strength, he knew he could never let her go. He would win her love and carry her with him to the enchanted wonderland of enchanted ecstasy.
461 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 1, 1984
26 people are currently reading
118 people want to read
About the author
Constance O'Banyon
54 books199 followersEvelyn Gee was born on 1939 in Texas, USA. She makes her home in San Antonio with her husband, Jim and their son, Jason.
She signed her novels as Constance O'Banyon. She also wrote as Micah Leigh with Texan writer Emma Merritt. Her books range from historical to contemporary and include several novellas. Many of her books have been published in trade paperback.Among her many awards, she is the recipient of the 1996 Romantic Times Career Achievement Award. There are eight million copies of her books in print.
She says: "I have always loved history, and I loved storytelling — it was only natural that I would one day put them both together. I must have lived in another life and time, because when I write, I can almost feel I was there. My favorite part of writing is the research. Whenever possible, I will go to the place I am writing about to walk the land and smell the air."
https://www.facebook.com/Constanceobanyon/
She signed her novels as Constance O'Banyon. She also wrote as Micah Leigh with Texan writer Emma Merritt. Her books range from historical to contemporary and include several novellas. Many of her books have been published in trade paperback.Among her many awards, she is the recipient of the 1996 Romantic Times Career Achievement Award. There are eight million copies of her books in print.
She says: "I have always loved history, and I loved storytelling — it was only natural that I would one day put them both together. I must have lived in another life and time, because when I write, I can almost feel I was there. My favorite part of writing is the research. Whenever possible, I will go to the place I am writing about to walk the land and smell the air."
https://www.facebook.com/Constanceobanyon/
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
May 20, 2014
Not O'Banyon's Best by Far.
Reading "Enchanted Ecstasy" by Constance O'Banyon, a song came into my mind. That song is "Hurting Each Other" by The Carpenters. Unlike the song, however, where the couple is unintentionally hurting each other, the "hero" in this book knows he's hurting the heroine and is too stupid, to arrogant and too much of a bastard to care until the end of the book.
The Story: The book takes place in New Mexico Territory, 1867. The first person we meet is the "hero" of the book, Kanen "Kane" Benedict, a Major in the U.S. Army. He comes from a well-off family, but he and his father, Eli, are at odds with each other. The Army is having issues with Indian tribes attacking white settlers, and they believe-erroneously-that the Jojoba Indians are the ones doing the attacking. They try to get local rancher Jonas Deveraux to help them, but Devereaux won't because he was married to a Jojoba Indian princess and he strongly dislikes how the Army treats Indians. One person who will help, however, is Deveraux's daughter, Maleaha. When she and Kane meet, they are attracted to each other, especially she to him.
Kane is given advice when Deveraux meets him. He is told to abandon any prejudice he has. Unfortunately, when Kane meets Maleaha, he is immediately prejudiced toward her, thinking she's promiscuous and an ignorant savage because she's half-Indian, neither of which is anywhere close to the truth about her. As Maleaha is leading Kane to the Jojoba Indians and their chief, Mangas, Kane insults and demeans her multiple times. After the Jojoba agree to help the Army find the real perpetrators-it's actually the Jojobas' enemy, the Arapaho, who are the real culprits-Kane offers to make Maleaha his mistress, which she naturally rejects. Later, as Maleaha leads Kane back to the Jojoba village, she has to make Mangas believe that she and Kane are involved, otherwise, Mangas has the right, as Jojoba chief, to take her, whether she wants it or not. This leads to Maleaha and Kane being married by Mangas, and afterward, they make love for the first time; since Maleaha was a virgin, that disproves yet another of Kane's ignorant beliefs about her. He insults her afterward by telling her he doesn't consider their marriage legal, hurting her even more.
Their marriage is not a happy one. After Kane is shot and seriously wounded in an attack against the Arapaho, Kane believes that Maleaha didn't care enough to come and see him. She did, but she overheard Eli criticizing her and left. Maleaha later discovers that she is pregnant and goes back to the Jojoba to have her baby, a daughter named Cimeron, after Maleaha's mother. When Kane finds out, he tells Maleaha that he will take Cimeron from her if she doesn't come back with him. Maleaha reluctantly goes with Kane.
Things continue to go downhill, as Kane goes from being a bigoted, racist arrogant bastard to just an arrogant bastard. Big whoop. Kane accuses Maleaha of being unfaithful to him when he sees her with a male friend; she's not, but Kane rapes her in his anger. When her aunt dies and she goes to see her family, Kane accuses her of going off to see one of her lovers. When Eli shows up with one of Kane's ex-lovers, Lucinda Blake, and tries to force the breakup of Kane's marriage to Maleaha, Kane takes Lucinda's side in a disagreement instead of Maleaha's. Eventually, Kane realizes-only after hearing the truth from others-that he has been wrong about Maleaha in just about every way. It would have been nice had Kane trusted Maleaha, but he's incapable of those types of actions. He apologizes to her in the end and she forgives him, stupidly in my opinion, and they have their happily ever after.
Kane is an example of the worst type of 80's romance novel "hero"; this book was published back in June, 1984. He is so arrogant and uncaring about Maleaha that he intentionally hurts her time and again, and then expects her to forgive him his cruel words and actions afterward, and she's willing to do so. Despite Maleaha's strength, that comes across to me as being very stupid. I don't think I could be as forgiving as Maleaha is, and despite Ms. O'Banyon's efforts to try to have Kane explain/justify his behavior, his apology and promises not to do the same things again ring hollow to me.
Sex: a few mild sex scenes. If one is looking for really hot sex, look elsewhere. In most of the Constance O'Banyon books I've read, her love scenes are at best somewhere between lukewarm and barely warm.
Violence: As mentioned, Kane is shot and wounded in a fight with an Arapaho Indian tribe. The violence is not described in terribly graphic detail.
One last thing. Normally, I don't comment on others' grades for books, as all of us see things through the prism of our own eyes, but I really don't understand how this book got two five star reviews. Nothing about this book is five star quality to me. The only reason I'm not giving the book one star is because of Maleaha. Oh well, que sera sera.
Reading "Enchanted Ecstasy" by Constance O'Banyon, a song came into my mind. That song is "Hurting Each Other" by The Carpenters. Unlike the song, however, where the couple is unintentionally hurting each other, the "hero" in this book knows he's hurting the heroine and is too stupid, to arrogant and too much of a bastard to care until the end of the book.
The Story: The book takes place in New Mexico Territory, 1867. The first person we meet is the "hero" of the book, Kanen "Kane" Benedict, a Major in the U.S. Army. He comes from a well-off family, but he and his father, Eli, are at odds with each other. The Army is having issues with Indian tribes attacking white settlers, and they believe-erroneously-that the Jojoba Indians are the ones doing the attacking. They try to get local rancher Jonas Deveraux to help them, but Devereaux won't because he was married to a Jojoba Indian princess and he strongly dislikes how the Army treats Indians. One person who will help, however, is Deveraux's daughter, Maleaha. When she and Kane meet, they are attracted to each other, especially she to him.
Kane is given advice when Deveraux meets him. He is told to abandon any prejudice he has. Unfortunately, when Kane meets Maleaha, he is immediately prejudiced toward her, thinking she's promiscuous and an ignorant savage because she's half-Indian, neither of which is anywhere close to the truth about her. As Maleaha is leading Kane to the Jojoba Indians and their chief, Mangas, Kane insults and demeans her multiple times. After the Jojoba agree to help the Army find the real perpetrators-it's actually the Jojobas' enemy, the Arapaho, who are the real culprits-Kane offers to make Maleaha his mistress, which she naturally rejects. Later, as Maleaha leads Kane back to the Jojoba village, she has to make Mangas believe that she and Kane are involved, otherwise, Mangas has the right, as Jojoba chief, to take her, whether she wants it or not. This leads to Maleaha and Kane being married by Mangas, and afterward, they make love for the first time; since Maleaha was a virgin, that disproves yet another of Kane's ignorant beliefs about her. He insults her afterward by telling her he doesn't consider their marriage legal, hurting her even more.
Their marriage is not a happy one. After Kane is shot and seriously wounded in an attack against the Arapaho, Kane believes that Maleaha didn't care enough to come and see him. She did, but she overheard Eli criticizing her and left. Maleaha later discovers that she is pregnant and goes back to the Jojoba to have her baby, a daughter named Cimeron, after Maleaha's mother. When Kane finds out, he tells Maleaha that he will take Cimeron from her if she doesn't come back with him. Maleaha reluctantly goes with Kane.
Things continue to go downhill, as Kane goes from being a bigoted, racist arrogant bastard to just an arrogant bastard. Big whoop. Kane accuses Maleaha of being unfaithful to him when he sees her with a male friend; she's not, but Kane rapes her in his anger. When her aunt dies and she goes to see her family, Kane accuses her of going off to see one of her lovers. When Eli shows up with one of Kane's ex-lovers, Lucinda Blake, and tries to force the breakup of Kane's marriage to Maleaha, Kane takes Lucinda's side in a disagreement instead of Maleaha's. Eventually, Kane realizes-only after hearing the truth from others-that he has been wrong about Maleaha in just about every way. It would have been nice had Kane trusted Maleaha, but he's incapable of those types of actions. He apologizes to her in the end and she forgives him, stupidly in my opinion, and they have their happily ever after.
Kane is an example of the worst type of 80's romance novel "hero"; this book was published back in June, 1984. He is so arrogant and uncaring about Maleaha that he intentionally hurts her time and again, and then expects her to forgive him his cruel words and actions afterward, and she's willing to do so. Despite Maleaha's strength, that comes across to me as being very stupid. I don't think I could be as forgiving as Maleaha is, and despite Ms. O'Banyon's efforts to try to have Kane explain/justify his behavior, his apology and promises not to do the same things again ring hollow to me.
Sex: a few mild sex scenes. If one is looking for really hot sex, look elsewhere. In most of the Constance O'Banyon books I've read, her love scenes are at best somewhere between lukewarm and barely warm.
Violence: As mentioned, Kane is shot and wounded in a fight with an Arapaho Indian tribe. The violence is not described in terribly graphic detail.
One last thing. Normally, I don't comment on others' grades for books, as all of us see things through the prism of our own eyes, but I really don't understand how this book got two five star reviews. Nothing about this book is five star quality to me. The only reason I'm not giving the book one star is because of Maleaha. Oh well, que sera sera.
January 2, 2015
This book brings back sweet memories!!
I can even remember fragrance of rain that sweet sweet night I first read this book:)
It's a very romantic tale of a very strong male character and a gurl I have since kept dreaming about,her name is Maleha and she is soo dreamy!Strong willed,super exotic and a real Indian princess!
One name I would like to give her is exotic flame,coz that's who she is in the story!
A big book,461 pages long but all it took for me to read it all at once was 10 hours!!It was that captivating,THAT good!
She's a proud daughter,as stubborn as her dad who is a powerful Indian chief,the story is set in 1870's Mexico and it is a very picturesque story!
Our hero comes into her life and wins her over as he helps her like a real man(You gotta read the book,I dont want to spoil it!) and they get married,it is such a luv story!So picturesque,so vivid,so romantic that it really melted my heart!
I also remember Maleha as my gurl crush ever since I met her:)
I also re-rad the book in my school!I loved it so much at that time!
She is incredibly exotic and yet a very strong willed character,I love their lives together,they're perfect for each other:)
I am a lesbian but I still absolutely madly loved this romance between a man and his woman!
I absolutely insist:Plz read this book:)
5 star!And a place in my books hall of fame!
:)
I can even remember fragrance of rain that sweet sweet night I first read this book:)
It's a very romantic tale of a very strong male character and a gurl I have since kept dreaming about,her name is Maleha and she is soo dreamy!Strong willed,super exotic and a real Indian princess!
One name I would like to give her is exotic flame,coz that's who she is in the story!
A big book,461 pages long but all it took for me to read it all at once was 10 hours!!It was that captivating,THAT good!
She's a proud daughter,as stubborn as her dad who is a powerful Indian chief,the story is set in 1870's Mexico and it is a very picturesque story!
Our hero comes into her life and wins her over as he helps her like a real man(You gotta read the book,I dont want to spoil it!) and they get married,it is such a luv story!So picturesque,so vivid,so romantic that it really melted my heart!
I also remember Maleha as my gurl crush ever since I met her:)
I also re-rad the book in my school!I loved it so much at that time!
She is incredibly exotic and yet a very strong willed character,I love their lives together,they're perfect for each other:)
I am a lesbian but I still absolutely madly loved this romance between a man and his woman!
I absolutely insist:Plz read this book:)
5 star!And a place in my books hall of fame!
:)
dnf-try-again-later
July 8, 2021Pet peeve: fake native Indian heroine.
I wanted to read a story with a wild native Indian princess, but this girl is a schooled lady, although her mom - who passed away- is a full native Indian, who didn’t walk and lady like a lady.
DNF
I wanted to read a story with a wild native Indian princess, but this girl is a schooled lady, although her mom - who passed away- is a full native Indian, who didn’t walk and lady like a lady.
DNF
March 13, 2013
The story is not bad. I really like the way the characters are led to tolerance and got rid of their prejudice. But the hero and heroine are at times childish and irritating. Near the end their behaviours became boring.
Read
April 23, 2014WAS A AWESOME BOOK. IT WAS OME OF MY FAVORITE BOOKS I EVER READ. I LOOK FORWARD TO READING OTHER BOOKS BY THIS AUTHOR.
September 5, 2025
Wow such a good book,I have one problem though that Kane should have suffer more and grovel for like atleast one page.
September 7, 2013
SUPERB BOOK!DONT JUDGE THIS BOOK BY ITS COVER!!ITS A ROMANTIC NOVEL WITH ADVENTURE!!THIS IS ALSO THE FIRST EVER ENGLISH BOOK I READ!500 OUT OF 5 STARS!
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews