Rapture

by Rosamond Royal

A legion of men knew her as the Wild Rose. But only one knew her secret... The Wild Rose was the title she had taken and the legend she had created — the beautiful blond aristocrat who roved the highroads at the side of England's most notorious highwayman — and matched him, valor for valor, reckless deed by reckless deed... But the Wild Rose was more than a legend. She was a woman, with a woman's needs, a woman's hungers, a woman's weaknesses... And now, the one man who possessed the truth about her had turned the flood tide of her power into a current of all-consuming passion pulling her ever closer to the abyss...

Rosamond Royal is the pen name of Valerie Sherwood.

Genres: Historical Romance, Romance

640 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1979

About the author

Jeanne Hines was born on 1922 in West Virginia, USA. She grew up in a very traditional atmosphere, but she wanted more. "My family thought I'd be just like everybody else, get married and stop," says she. "I'm a real character. I'm not really like anybody I know.".

Jeanne worked as a reporter and fashion magazine illustrator, later she started to wrote gothic novels from 1973 to 1977, until, like other gothic author had to change to the emerging popular romance genre under the pseudonym Valerie Sherwood, and also as Rosamond Royal. She became a popular romance author of five chunky bestselling historicals, including Bold Breathless Love, Her Shining Splendor and This Loving Torment (six weeks on the New York Times paperback best-seller list).

"I write in great creative bursts-not every day," she trills "inspiration strikes in short bursts of ten or twenty pages or through the night till the dawn comes up-with such formidable force that she is forever wearing through her typewriter keys". Furthermore, she doesn't believe writers who boast in public that they toil daily in disciplined routines, she says: "I think it has something to do with their taxes." She won the Romantic Times 1987-1988 Career Achievement Award in the category of "historical adventure".

When the today published author Chris Marie Green (aka Crystal Green), was 19, she wrote a fan letter to Jeanne, who answered her gushing missive and inspired Chris to write her first romance.

Married, she and her husband bounce among their five East Coast homes but spend most of their time in a fusty Charlotte. N.C., ranch-style house, surrounded by 11,000 research volumes (among them a sizable collection on witchcraft), "oodles" of never-worn dress-up clothes and six cats, who have a suite all to themselves.

Reviews

[Jena · Rating 5 out of 5]

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[Tiffany · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the old school bodice ripper keepers. It's a shame they don't make these novels like this anymore. The heros and heroines nowadays just don't have the character depth and non-superficial plot schemes that the novels of the 70's and 80's did. This is the only novel written under the pen name Rosamond Royal, as her real name is Jeanne Hines, in which she wrote gothics and the even more famous pen name of Valerie Sherwood, in which she wrote most of her historical romances under. I have read all of her Sherwood novels save 2, which I am working on finishing now. She is one of my all-time favorite historical romance writers (and yes, in a class with Woodiwiss) and I have been reading these for over 20 years now, as I cut my teeth on them as a teen. Read this book and you won't be disappointed. If you like this one, you'll love my absolute favorite under Valerie Sherwood - Lisbon. They just don't make them like this anymore...

[Anna Bowling · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another vintage treasure from one of my top tier historical romance authors. This is epic adventure on the grand scale, sweeping from grand English estates, both running and run-down, to the rough life of highwaymen, the high seas, Spain, the Netherlands, and beyond. Rosamunde and Harry don't mean to fall in love, but when they do, it is *fire,* but as life would have it, snuffed out too soon...or is it?

Fair warning, there is a long separation between the two lovers, as they take different paths due to forces beyond their control, though their devotion never wavers. I would have given this five stars had there been a second book following Rose and Harry's life post-reunion, getting to know each other again and even, as Sherwood (another pseudonym of Jeanne Hines) has done since, intertwining the hero and heroine's continuing story into their daughter's own romantic adventures.

While I am always up for Sherwood/Hines/Royal, in any form, I would not recommend reading this too close to her final outing as Sherwood, Lisbon, as there are plot similarities -- young lovers tragically separated, thinking one's beloved dead, an ill advised marriage to a gentleman from the Iberian peninsula and events transpiring because of such, before a grand and passionate reuinion in a bustling foreign city. Both of these novels are on my top tier list, and given that they are written twenty years apart and under different names, I'm not bothered by it and highly recommend both.

[Lori V. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book in junior high. It was quite risque. I'm not sure how I would feel about it if I read it today, but I LOVED it when I read it. Best book ever at that point.

[Redd Cami · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book shaped my childhood. my first bodice-ripper romance that made me obsessed with historical romance, and romance in general for YEARS!!!

[Mariannj]

What a roller coaster ride of a story this was. I enjoyed reading both the hero's and heroine's adventures. But this was a heartbreaking read because the hero and heroine were separated for sixteen years -- both of them thinking the other was dead. It was just so unfair. So much time wasted for their HEA. I also thought that the ending was too abrupt. The author should have at least written an epilogue. All those years of separation (half of the book) only for them to know both have lived all along, and reunite at the VERY end. I hate abrupt endings. It feels like you're cheated on. It was not a satisfying ending aside from it being so abrupt.

The other man whom the heroine married for fifteen years was the villain of this story in that he kept the truth away from her. She thought and believed that the hero was dead so she had no choice but to move on with her life as she had their child to raise. Her story with the other man did not even start well. I hated him. He was so selfish. It was not love he felt for the heroine, as he always claimed, to justify his selfish actions. It was obsession! It's unfair that he did not personally ask for forgiveness for what she did to the heroine and the hero, who suffered for 16 years! He just atoned for it in his own way. The heck.

I gave this four stars only because I thought the hero and heroine were separated for most of the story, and the ending was just too rushed. Their reunion could have been fleshed out more (and better). An epilogue was badly needed. Also, their daughter deserved her own story. How I wish the author wrote a separate story/book about the daughter. Sad. Anyway, the hero of this book was swoon-worthy. Loved him!

[Lorelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't think I was going to enjoy this book as much as I did. What I didn't like was that the H/h lived 16-17 years of their lives without each other thinking that the other was dead. They meet up at the very end. Although this book is a chunkster, the book ends too quickly. The hero, Harry, hadn't been told that he did indeed have a daughter. The book begins and ends with the 16 year old daughter about to be married to a sadistic and cruel man, but the book is really about the Mothers life from when she was 16. I almost feel there should have been a sequel to continue with the daughters life. Anyway, I liked Harry the Highwayman and I thought it was a 4 star book.