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Falconer #1
Passion's Child
She was willful, wanton, and very beautiful...
What can you expect, people said. She was her mother's daughter.
Sweeping from 19th-century New Orleans to glamorous San Francisco to the California gold fields and Virginia during the Civil war, here is the spellbinding story of Carmella Hastings, whose passions always seemed to cause trouble.
Cavorting recklessly, marrying foolishly, obsessively trying to understand her mother's bawdy life, Carmella's hidden innocence attracts Miles Falconer, who's willing to protect her in spite of herself...
Spicy passion and grand excitement as a brazen young girl becomes a confident woman...
What can you expect, people said. She was her mother's daughter.
Sweeping from 19th-century New Orleans to glamorous San Francisco to the California gold fields and Virginia during the Civil war, here is the spellbinding story of Carmella Hastings, whose passions always seemed to cause trouble.
Cavorting recklessly, marrying foolishly, obsessively trying to understand her mother's bawdy life, Carmella's hidden innocence attracts Miles Falconer, who's willing to protect her in spite of herself...
Spicy passion and grand excitement as a brazen young girl becomes a confident woman...
411 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published February 12, 1983
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111 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
December 14, 2023
Sixteen year-old Southern Belle Carmella Hastings goes to a New Orleans bordello circa 1860 hoping to find her long-lost prostitute mother. We are not even four pages into the book when the Sweet Innocent gets some Peeping Tom action watching a threesome between a prostitute and her two Johns. Toot! Toot! All aboard the Crazy Train!
On page 48, we are regaled with a...ahem...rather uncomfortable wedding night consummation scene, after Carmella elopes with a closeted New Orleans heir she has known for about five minutes.
"Not there! Not there!" I wanted to scream, instinctively feeling it was the wrong place."
Carmella decides she is okay with all the backdoor action though she feels like there is just something missing. Before she can figure out what it is, her husband's jealous, gay, lover shoots him dead.
Widow Carmella gets saddled with the hero, Miles Falconer, a friend of her father's, who asked him to take her away to San Francisco, away from the Big Escandalo of her New Orleans marriage. Since rushing headlong into a relationship worked so well for her the first time, Carmella decides, after another five minutes of meeting a flirtatious dandy on the trip, Derry Wakefield, that she is in luuuuuurrrrvvvee. After all, he tells her:
"I feel you are already my wife" he had said. What better proof of a man's intentions could a woman have?
Carmella obviously has lived too sheltered a life to learn about this old adage:
Her father gently tries to hint at the fact that she is actinga wee bit reckless like a Giant Jezebel, but Carmella is outraged:
"I did not encourage him. I swear it. He fell in love with me. Can I help it if I am attractive, if men seem to notice me?"
Yaddi, yaddi, yadda...We get about 300 pages of her having her affair and pining with Derry the OM while her marriage-of-convenience husband, Miles, either ignores her or rises to her bait for some fantastic bodice-ripping scenes, and finally it's time for some U.S. civil war.
Carmella is VERY concerned that her country is about to shatter in a bloody conflict that will pit brothers against brothers, fathers versus sons, and change the fabric of society as she has known it, ushering the United States into a new era:
What has that to do with us in California? We don't have slavery, and we are thousands of miles from the people who are for or against it.
Yaddi, yaddi, yadda, war is over and now, husband Miles is m.i.a. and presumed dead, Carmella can finally be with Derry the OM, the only man she has pined for and loved throughout, oh let's see, 369 pages out of 411. And this is what the love of her life has to say about it:
"Can't you see it's impossible for me to marry the daughter of a whore?"
Which paves the way for her ultimate realization, five minutes after THAT nice wake-up call:
This came with a sudden astonishing illumination-I wanted to be loved by Miles.
We are now on page 388 out of 411 and this is what Carmella has to say when he finds out she is pregnant:
-"Do you feel up to finishing the trip?"
-"Why not?"
-"You might lose [the baby]."
-"Then that would solve everything, wouldn't it?"
I gotta hand it to Carmella, Everytime I thought she could NOT be a bigger bitch, she still managed to up herself.
On page 48, we are regaled with a...ahem...rather uncomfortable wedding night consummation scene, after Carmella elopes with a closeted New Orleans heir she has known for about five minutes.
"Not there! Not there!" I wanted to scream, instinctively feeling it was the wrong place."
Carmella decides she is okay with all the backdoor action though she feels like there is just something missing. Before she can figure out what it is, her husband's jealous, gay, lover shoots him dead.
Widow Carmella gets saddled with the hero, Miles Falconer, a friend of her father's, who asked him to take her away to San Francisco, away from the Big Escandalo of her New Orleans marriage. Since rushing headlong into a relationship worked so well for her the first time, Carmella decides, after another five minutes of meeting a flirtatious dandy on the trip, Derry Wakefield, that she is in luuuuuurrrrvvvee. After all, he tells her:
"I feel you are already my wife" he had said. What better proof of a man's intentions could a woman have?
Carmella obviously has lived too sheltered a life to learn about this old adage:
Her father gently tries to hint at the fact that she is acting
"I did not encourage him. I swear it. He fell in love with me. Can I help it if I am attractive, if men seem to notice me?"
Yaddi, yaddi, yadda...We get about 300 pages of her having her affair and pining with Derry the OM while her marriage-of-convenience husband, Miles, either ignores her or rises to her bait for some fantastic bodice-ripping scenes, and finally it's time for some U.S. civil war.
Carmella is VERY concerned that her country is about to shatter in a bloody conflict that will pit brothers against brothers, fathers versus sons, and change the fabric of society as she has known it, ushering the United States into a new era:
What has that to do with us in California? We don't have slavery, and we are thousands of miles from the people who are for or against it.
Yaddi, yaddi, yadda, war is over and now, husband Miles is m.i.a. and presumed dead, Carmella can finally be with Derry the OM, the only man she has pined for and loved throughout, oh let's see, 369 pages out of 411. And this is what the love of her life has to say about it:
"Can't you see it's impossible for me to marry the daughter of a whore?"
Which paves the way for her ultimate realization, five minutes after THAT nice wake-up call:
This came with a sudden astonishing illumination-I wanted to be loved by Miles.
We are now on page 388 out of 411 and this is what Carmella has to say when he finds out she is pregnant:
-"Do you feel up to finishing the trip?"
-"Why not?"
-"You might lose [the baby]."
-"Then that would solve everything, wouldn't it?"
I gotta hand it to Carmella, Everytime I thought she could NOT be a bigger bitch, she still managed to up herself.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 26, 2021
Very attractive title and engaging plot but mood-ruining story. I have read reviews stating that there is love-triangle in this book, I think there are two lovers and the other person hanging onto one of them. The cover describes of h and her lover while the hero pines after her secrectly. This book is ruined for the long long separation between the H and h with very little romance.
***Spoilers***
For a spoiled heroine Carmella Hastings is tolerable. She keeps us interested and curious to see how she does what she wants that eventually leads her to trouble. The story's perspective is of Carmella's view and I thought this book felt like she was noting a diary.
Carmella is a daughter of a perfect rich man. She was sent away to live with a perfectionist Aunt Maude by her father to teach her to be a lady. Aunt Maude is a bitch who is a miser and braying donkey. Carmella's mum was a taboo subject which was avoided her whole life until her friend Victoria revealed her that her mum is a whore and alive. Carmella sets out to find the whereabouts of her mum taking her to places where proper ladies don't visit. There she meets Miles Falconer who was her fathers trusted man coming to meet her.
Starting with her lifes mishaps and worse decision - she walks into a whorehouse, walks into dangerous dark streets and then runs away with Victoria's brother and marries him so that she can free herself from the clutches of Aunt Maude. A couple of weeks after their marriage Carmella's husband is killed by his male-lover in a jealousy fit. After a fake false trial Carmella is said to be brought back to her father and Miles is to accompany her. Miles and Carmella have very uneasy, poke-each-other-until-the-other-loses-temper moments where Carmella instantly dislikes him. She riles him up so much that Miles loses his temper and rapes her. On their voyage Carmella meets Derry Wakefield, a friend of Miles. Carmella and Derry are instantly attracted to each other. They fall in love and Carmella is ready to marry him but Derry holds back saying he wants to earn more money and give a rich future to Carmella. Carmella easily smitten awaits for Derry every time he is off for a job opportunity. Miles warns Carmella to stay away from Derry who is looking for easy women but Carmella is already charmed and in love. Carmella and her Dad's relationship is wonderful considering how he kept her away from him. When a sudden tragedy struck Carmella's father is fatally wounded and before he dies he wants Carmella to be looked after. Carmella and Miles marry to fulfil her fathers deathbed wish.
(the story is interesting now)
Miles and Carmella come to an understanding to annul/divorce their marriage. Carmella thinks Miles is rude and Miles thinks Carmella is in love with Miles and she doesn't disloge that thought. The war starts, Miles before he leaves for the fight tells Carmella to stay with his older brother. Carmella shows a great maturity in understanding her surroundings. She faces poverty, rashlessly/selflessly takes decisions and talks/retorts to few idiots that makes the readers satisfied. I liked her personality towards the last part of the book. Her understanding of Derry's 'love' and mushy monologues wasn't irritating, but if you understand the perspective of a 16-year-old girl it is understandably reasonable. At the end after pining away for Derry in almost the whole book in the last few pages she realises she does not love Derry anymore. I wished this happened much earlier of the book.
Triggers: rape, adultry, anal sex.
***Spoilers***
For a spoiled heroine Carmella Hastings is tolerable. She keeps us interested and curious to see how she does what she wants that eventually leads her to trouble. The story's perspective is of Carmella's view and I thought this book felt like she was noting a diary.
Carmella is a daughter of a perfect rich man. She was sent away to live with a perfectionist Aunt Maude by her father to teach her to be a lady. Aunt Maude is a bitch who is a miser and braying donkey. Carmella's mum was a taboo subject which was avoided her whole life until her friend Victoria revealed her that her mum is a whore and alive. Carmella sets out to find the whereabouts of her mum taking her to places where proper ladies don't visit. There she meets Miles Falconer who was her fathers trusted man coming to meet her.
Starting with her lifes mishaps and worse decision - she walks into a whorehouse, walks into dangerous dark streets and then runs away with Victoria's brother and marries him so that she can free herself from the clutches of Aunt Maude. A couple of weeks after their marriage Carmella's husband is killed by his male-lover in a jealousy fit. After a fake false trial Carmella is said to be brought back to her father and Miles is to accompany her. Miles and Carmella have very uneasy, poke-each-other-until-the-other-loses-temper moments where Carmella instantly dislikes him. She riles him up so much that Miles loses his temper and rapes her. On their voyage Carmella meets Derry Wakefield, a friend of Miles. Carmella and Derry are instantly attracted to each other. They fall in love and Carmella is ready to marry him but Derry holds back saying he wants to earn more money and give a rich future to Carmella. Carmella easily smitten awaits for Derry every time he is off for a job opportunity. Miles warns Carmella to stay away from Derry who is looking for easy women but Carmella is already charmed and in love. Carmella and her Dad's relationship is wonderful considering how he kept her away from him. When a sudden tragedy struck Carmella's father is fatally wounded and before he dies he wants Carmella to be looked after. Carmella and Miles marry to fulfil her fathers deathbed wish.
(the story is interesting now)
Miles and Carmella come to an understanding to annul/divorce their marriage. Carmella thinks Miles is rude and Miles thinks Carmella is in love with Miles and she doesn't disloge that thought. The war starts, Miles before he leaves for the fight tells Carmella to stay with his older brother. Carmella shows a great maturity in understanding her surroundings. She faces poverty, rashlessly/selflessly takes decisions and talks/retorts to few idiots that makes the readers satisfied. I liked her personality towards the last part of the book. Her understanding of Derry's 'love' and mushy monologues wasn't irritating, but if you understand the perspective of a 16-year-old girl it is understandably reasonable. At the end after pining away for Derry in almost the whole book in the last few pages she realises she does not love Derry anymore. I wished this happened much earlier of the book.
Triggers: rape, adultry, anal sex.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 10, 2024
Рядко се среща толкова антипатична и противна главна героиня. Разглезена, безчувствена, прибързана егоистка. Вероятно единственото и оправдание е, че е на 16 г. и по днешните критерии е просто тинейджърка (макар не всички да се държат така). Прави глупост след глупост и направо ми идваше да я опердаша, противна малка глупачка. Никаква преценка за хората, а представата и за “голямата любов” е от детските фантазии.
Но… Гражданската война в САЩ наближава, единственият и близък - баща и - умира и я връчва като брачен пакет на най-добрия си приятел, докато “голямата любов” си бие пас отвсякъде, залъгвайки я с празни приказки, на които тя с инат вярва. Идва войната и куп лишения и жертви с нея, като на малката глупачка започват да и просветват бавно някои истини. Естествено, заради романтичнив и инат, порастването става много бавно. Но накрая тя все пак съзрява и най-сетне оценява какво има, макар и почти късно. Но нали си е късметлийка, а и това е романтика! Така че хепи ендът искрено ме зарадва. Е, можеше и по-рано, но то е като в живота - стискаме си самозаблудите до последно.
3,5⭐️
Но… Гражданската война в САЩ наближава, единственият и близък - баща и - умира и я връчва като брачен пакет на най-добрия си приятел, докато “голямата любов” си бие пас отвсякъде, залъгвайки я с празни приказки, на които тя с инат вярва. Идва войната и куп лишения и жертви с нея, като на малката глупачка започват да и просветват бавно някои истини. Естествено, заради романтичнив и инат, порастването става много бавно. Но накрая тя все пак съзрява и най-сетне оценява какво има, макар и почти късно. Но нали си е късметлийка, а и това е романтика! Така че хепи ендът искрено ме зарадва. Е, можеше и по-рано, но то е като в живота - стискаме си самозаблудите до последно.
3,5⭐️
Want to read
June 24, 2017This sounds so awful that I kind of want to read it just to rage review it.
November 13, 2015
Too many typos, a TSTL heroine who can't stay put, a first person narrative by someone who spends a whole lot of time on a plantation when there's a war on (lots of telling) all kind of add up to a lower rating.
March 13, 2017
Fiona Harrowe is shaping up to be one of my favorite authors. I haven't been disappointed in any of her books to date. This is the story of an impetuous young girl Carmella, who makes fool hardly decisions. She finds out her mother was a prostitute by going off to brothels alone to track her down. This is where she meets the dark broodingly handsome Miles Falconer. There is a love hate type of antagonism between those two that follows throughout the book. There are hasty marriages and debacle after debacle. Carmella becomes fixated upon the sunny Derry and chases him like a shameless hussy. However, she ends up marrying another to please her father on his deathbed. This book starts in New Orleans, then moves to the Gold Rush of California and San Francisco then back east to Virginia during the Civil War. There are plenty of bodice ripping moments through out the story as well as many wtf moments. As with Harrowe's other books, the characters are well fleshed out and come alive on the pages. I recommend this to anyone who liked GWTW. I kept having GWTW flashbacks, yet this story is original in it's own way. Carmella is definitely a Scarlett type girl. Her strength and character grow over time as she is faced with many obstacles, such as shortage of food, the horror of war, and invading Yankees. Warning: There are many typos and scenes containing rape. I give this a big five stars despite the editing problems. My book was a scan off of Openlibrary so I'm sure some of the editing could be attributed to the scan. For the most part, I overlooked the editing problems and just enjoyed the story.
July 5, 2017
Carmella reminded me so much of Scarlett, in a good way. I think Scarlett would approve of her. lol
There are a lot of parallels between this book and Gone with the Wind:
-Civil War
-Southern perspective
-The H/h constantly bickering at each other, leading to a lot of hate!sex and angry!sex (and the first time is rape btw). While Gone with the Wind didn't go that extreme but the point still remains.
-The heroine is in love with another man for most of the book
There are a lot of differences as well, but it was a nice homage imo.
There is a HEA. :D
Trigger Warnings:
-Slavery
-Kidnapping
-Rape
There are a lot of parallels between this book and Gone with the Wind:
-Civil War
-Southern perspective
-The H/h constantly bickering at each other, leading to a lot of hate!sex and angry!sex (and the first time is rape btw). While Gone with the Wind didn't go that extreme but the point still remains.
-The heroine is in love with another man for most of the book
There are a lot of differences as well, but it was a nice homage imo.
There is a HEA. :D
Trigger Warnings:
-Slavery
-Kidnapping
-Rape
Read
May 10, 2022I gave up on page 254. It was just too boring to continue.
October 27, 2018
This was something of a disappointment to me after having read Fiona Harrowe's LOVE'S SCARLET BANNER, which I did enjoy and gave 3.5 stars to. But PASSION'S CHILD failed to deliver and I found myself skipping large sections of the story just to get it through. I didn't care for either the hero or heroine.
December 1, 2015
I love her writing. Dread her lame theatrical endings, whats more she seemed to copy this last chapter right out of one of her other books. (Dark Obsession?)
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews