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Lucetta
From Mistress To Slave
Ravishing Lucetta Grayton was raised as a child of privilege on the lush Caribbean plantation of Melrose. But with the tragic death of her aristocratic father and adoring mother, all rights of birth were stripped from her.
Now Lucetta was exposed as the illegitimate daughter of a forbidden love affair, on a level with the black slaves. Now her life was owned by a half-brother, and her body was prey to the most notorious rake on the island, Edward Buffington. But it was Peter Christian, the all-powerful governor himself, who commanded her heart and awakened her desires. And so Lucetta's girlhood plantation paradise became the testing ground of her womanhood -- as she was enslaved by the uncontrollable carnal appetites of the men around her, and by the burning lash of her own passion...
Here, set on a lush and licentious Caribbean island, is the scorching novel of the beautiful Lucetta, who fought against her bondage with everything she had -- until she met the one man who made her a willing slave to all-consuming desire....
Ravishing Lucetta Grayton was raised as a child of privilege on the lush Caribbean plantation of Melrose. But with the tragic death of her aristocratic father and adoring mother, all rights of birth were stripped from her.
Now Lucetta was exposed as the illegitimate daughter of a forbidden love affair, on a level with the black slaves. Now her life was owned by a half-brother, and her body was prey to the most notorious rake on the island, Edward Buffington. But it was Peter Christian, the all-powerful governor himself, who commanded her heart and awakened her desires. And so Lucetta's girlhood plantation paradise became the testing ground of her womanhood -- as she was enslaved by the uncontrollable carnal appetites of the men around her, and by the burning lash of her own passion...
Here, set on a lush and licentious Caribbean island, is the scorching novel of the beautiful Lucetta, who fought against her bondage with everything she had -- until she met the one man who made her a willing slave to all-consuming desire....
- GenresHistorical Romance
331 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published June 5, 1979
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
May 21, 2020
DNF, because holy crap. I'm so bored.
Don't be deceived by the blurb! This is NOT a bodice ripper. Point of fact, this is as far from a bodice ripper as you can get. The bit about her body being a plaything? Lies! The guy ogles her boobs for two lines, makes a comment, & she tells him to get lost. That's it. Seriously. The stuff about her half-brother? Lies! She's given her freedom via her father's will, along with a generous income from both parents. She's not owned by anyone. She's completely independent. She could live on the island, in England, in Canada, in Morocco, on the moon for all anyone can dictate. Boooo! That's not the novel I was promised.
...So. Instead of a lusty, harrowing epic, we have an incredibly tedious vehicle for the author's research. There's infodump after infodump, punctuated by plodding no-drama drama & wooden dialogue wherein the MC & her lover Peter stand around infodumping MOAR infodumps, then proclaiming their undying love, which, tho they can't marry due to interracial law, doesn't mean they're not married in their hearts. Wash, rinse, repeat.
I repeat: there's no tension. No drama. No antagonist, no hurdles, no real roadblocks to their happiness. No nothing. Who freakin' cares?? Not me.
Standard 2-star DNF. I considered rounding down, but in fairness the blurb isn't the author's fault. So I'll be generous & not grade according to my lip-curling reaction to this snoozefest.
What a waste of a gorgeous vintage cover.
Don't be deceived by the blurb! This is NOT a bodice ripper. Point of fact, this is as far from a bodice ripper as you can get. The bit about her body being a plaything? Lies! The guy ogles her boobs for two lines, makes a comment, & she tells him to get lost. That's it. Seriously. The stuff about her half-brother? Lies! She's given her freedom via her father's will, along with a generous income from both parents. She's not owned by anyone. She's completely independent. She could live on the island, in England, in Canada, in Morocco, on the moon for all anyone can dictate. Boooo! That's not the novel I was promised.
...So. Instead of a lusty, harrowing epic, we have an incredibly tedious vehicle for the author's research. There's infodump after infodump, punctuated by plodding no-drama drama & wooden dialogue wherein the MC & her lover Peter stand around infodumping MOAR infodumps, then proclaiming their undying love, which, tho they can't marry due to interracial law, doesn't mean they're not married in their hearts. Wash, rinse, repeat.
I repeat: there's no tension. No drama. No antagonist, no hurdles, no real roadblocks to their happiness. No nothing. Who freakin' cares?? Not me.
Standard 2-star DNF. I considered rounding down, but in fairness the blurb isn't the author's fault. So I'll be generous & not grade according to my lip-curling reaction to this snoozefest.
What a waste of a gorgeous vintage cover.
January 26, 2024
Bo-ring!
This read was a waste of time because what? The decription blurb is highly misleading and describes a whole other story since none of what was promised happens! Pacing issues and lukewarm plot that lacks some drama which would make a story like this blossom.
This read was a waste of time because what? The decription blurb is highly misleading and describes a whole other story since none of what was promised happens! Pacing issues and lukewarm plot that lacks some drama which would make a story like this blossom.
April 11, 2026
I was a little hesitant to read LUCETTA because the blurb and summary made this book sound as if it were going to be exploitative and gross, but it actually ended up surprising me in a lot of ways. Set on the fictitious Isle of Monde in the Caribbean, the heroine of this book is Lucetta, a biracial woman who is 1/4 Black. Her father is a plantation owner and his mother was his cherished mistress, and Lucetta was educated and given free rein over her father's property, even as both her parents fretted over her future and the limitations offered to her, despite her relative privilege.
After her parents die in an accident, Lucetta finds out that her father left her his name in his will. However, she cannot own the property, and must wait to see if her estranged half-brother will come to claim her beloved Melrose, or if another man might sweep it-- and her-- into his grasping fist. As Lucetta falls in love with the island's governor, the book takes a rather nuanced and delicate look at island politics, the inherent cruelty of slavery, the power of rebellion, and the inevitable sway of the elements-- hurricanes, volcanic eruptions, malaria!
LUCETTA is also very spicy for the time, featuring oral sex scenes and rather graphic penetrative sex scenes. I liked that a lot of these scenes were focused on the heroine's pleasure. The summary made it sound like she was going to be raped by her evil neighbor, but he only attempts to assault her and is punched in the face by the hero for his efforts. The hero does assault the heroine later on in the book, but he appears to be suffering from either dementia or a brain tumor, and it's clear in the narrative text that his behavior is neither acceptable nor normal. The book also holds back on slurs. The N-word is used at one point, but only quoted from an off-page villain. I believe it only happens once, and everyone reacts with distaste and disgust when they hear what the villain said, which was refreshing.
I would not call this book PC by any means and in some ways it does feel incredibly dated, but it's honestly not **too offensive** for one of these old pulps (by contemporary standards) and I actually really enjoyed the fact that the author didn't reduce the Black characters to props or throwaway plot devices. Everyone had agency, including the heroine, and the microcosm of this Caribbean island in the middle of intense social and political change was quite well done. I'm surprised at some of the negative reviews for this book, but if you go into LUCETTA expecting one of those super rapey bodice-rippers of the 70s, this is definitely not that, if that's what you're looking for.
4 stars
After her parents die in an accident, Lucetta finds out that her father left her his name in his will. However, she cannot own the property, and must wait to see if her estranged half-brother will come to claim her beloved Melrose, or if another man might sweep it-- and her-- into his grasping fist. As Lucetta falls in love with the island's governor, the book takes a rather nuanced and delicate look at island politics, the inherent cruelty of slavery, the power of rebellion, and the inevitable sway of the elements-- hurricanes, volcanic eruptions, malaria!
LUCETTA is also very spicy for the time, featuring oral sex scenes and rather graphic penetrative sex scenes. I liked that a lot of these scenes were focused on the heroine's pleasure. The summary made it sound like she was going to be raped by her evil neighbor, but he only attempts to assault her and is punched in the face by the hero for his efforts. The hero does assault the heroine later on in the book, but he appears to be suffering from either dementia or a brain tumor, and it's clear in the narrative text that his behavior is neither acceptable nor normal. The book also holds back on slurs. The N-word is used at one point, but only quoted from an off-page villain. I believe it only happens once, and everyone reacts with distaste and disgust when they hear what the villain said, which was refreshing.
I would not call this book PC by any means and in some ways it does feel incredibly dated, but it's honestly not **too offensive** for one of these old pulps (by contemporary standards) and I actually really enjoyed the fact that the author didn't reduce the Black characters to props or throwaway plot devices. Everyone had agency, including the heroine, and the microcosm of this Caribbean island in the middle of intense social and political change was quite well done. I'm surprised at some of the negative reviews for this book, but if you go into LUCETTA expecting one of those super rapey bodice-rippers of the 70s, this is definitely not that, if that's what you're looking for.
4 stars
October 18, 2021
Don't waste your time with this one, like I did.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews