Winter Fire

by Susannah Leigh

ONE MAN TAUGHT KATE THE POWER OF LUST
Phillipe, the handsome, charming, totally amoral French-born gambler, who changed the ravishing Kate Devlin from a flirtatious young innocent into a woman aware of the overwhelming hungers that now would never be quenched within her...

ONE MAN TAUGHT KATE THE POWER OF LOVE
Jason, wealthy, powerful, iron-willed, to whom Kate came as a mail-order bride, and in whose arms she learned what heaven love could create and what a living hell a man's obsessive jealousy could cause...

MANY MEN TAUGHT KATE THE POWER HER OWN BODY POSSESSED
The men with whom Kate moved through a labyrinth of daring and danger, violence and violation, from the stately halls of England, over an untamed continent, to a magnificent mansion where she was both mistress and slave... fleeing the furious forces pursuing her... searching for the ultimate gift of love and her final fulfillment as a woman...

Genres: Historical Romance

508 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published April 1, 1978

About the author

Susannah Leigh was born in Minneapolis and raised in St. Paul, Minnesota. After graduating from the University of Minnesota she moved on to New York City, where she worked at a variety of jobs and appeared in many off-Broadway productions. She stayed in New York for twelve years and then left for a year of traveling to such spots as Morocco, Nepal, and Afghanistan.

Ms. Leigh is currently living in West Los Angeles, where she spends her non-writing time indulging her interests in reading, travel, history, and lying in the sun.

Reviews

[Joshua · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked up this gem for free at my local library, a well loved copy with a worn out spine and plenty of doggy eared pages. I almost threw it out, but it kinda jumped out at me. 500 pages later and here I am.

Winter Fire is the epitome of an epic bodice ripper.
The virginal innocent heroine at page one, who is dragged through absolute hell until the last paragraph.
The handsome douchebag brute with the tragic backstory.
Brothels, cowboys, scalping, soap opera dialouge, big misunderstandings that go on for 200 + pages, etc..

Don't expect a sweet love story or a functional relationship.

Despite how terrible this was at times,
I was fairly surprised by how quickly I devoured this thick book with very tiny font.

4 Stars for bodice ripping fun.

[ANGELIA · Rating 1 out of 5]

Talk about ridiculous! A poor excuse for a H, who doesn't believe the h only made love once, with the man she had loved and was to marry. Instead, he keeps insisting she's a whore, and wants her for his mistress, not his wife. Then, he changes his mind, they get married, but he's perpetually suspicious, doubts her fidelity, keeps calling her names, blames her when she's raped and then vows to kill her! For her part, she wants his love and respect, (though why, I don't know) despairs of ever getting it, fears he'll carry out his threat to kill her, runs away, and ends up being...

You guessed it, a whore! I mean literally, as she becomes one of the bordello favorites, introduces a shy young lad to the pleasures of the flesh, and gives a lot of BJs, all the while pining for love and respectability, and pining away for her psychotic husband.

Enough said.

[Heart DeCoupeville · Rating 5 out of 5]

First read this when it was published, 1978. Still have that copy. An excellent book, much more in the style of the historical romances published before Woodiwiss, with strong, complex, sometimes flawed characters who really have to earn their happy ending.

[Julie · Rating 2 out of 5]

it was ok