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Golden Torment
Searching the Alaskan wilderness for signs of her missing father, Kathryn Hammond falls in love with Landis Jurrell, a Yukon lumberjack.
The instant Kathryn saw Landis Jurrell, she didn't know what to fear more: the fierce lumberjack or the torrid emotions he ignited in her. The independent beauty had traveled to the Alaskan wilderness to search for her father. Instead she was consumed by an inferno of rapture that she savored until the first lights of dawn streaked across the open sky. This arrogant man could heat her body with flames of passion, and she knew that never again could she resist his fevered touch and sensual kiss of desire!
The instant Kathryn saw Landis Jurrell, she didn't know what to fear more: the fierce lumberjack or the torrid emotions he ignited in her. The independent beauty had traveled to the Alaskan wilderness to search for her father. Instead she was consumed by an inferno of rapture that she savored until the first lights of dawn streaked across the open sky. This arrogant man could heat her body with flames of passion, and she knew that never again could she resist his fevered touch and sensual kiss of desire!
606 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1984
8 people are currently reading
115 people want to read
About the author
Janelle Taylor
101 books244 followersThe legendary Janelle Taylor was born on June 28, 1944 in Athens, GA. In 1965, she married Michael Taylor with whom she had two children, Angela Taylor-MacIntyre and Alisha Taylor Thurmond. Ms. Taylor attended the Medical College of Georgia from 1977 to 1979 and Augusta State University from 1980-1981. She withdrew from the latter after she sold her first two novels. Today, she is the author of thirty-nine novels, three novellas, and many contributions to other collections. There are thirty-nine million copies of her works in print worldwide and she has made The New York Times Bestseller List eight times. Ms. Taylor's works have also been featured ten times on the "1 million +" bestseller's list at Publisher's Weekly.
Some of Ms. Taylor's most recent books include By Candlelight, Someday Soon, Lakota Dawn, and Lakota Winds (due out in paperback in May 1999). She has also made contributions to other books including The Leukemia Society Cookbook, Christmas Rendezvous, and Summer Love. In addition, readers can see her as co-host of the QVC/TV Romance Book Club Show.
Ms. Taylor's interests include collecting spoons, coins from around the world, ship models, dolls, and old books. She loves to fish, ride horses, play chess, target-shoot, travel (especially in her motorhome and out West), hunt for Indian relics, and take long walks with her husband. Reading, in particular books set before 1900 and current Biographies, Thrillers, Horror, or Fantasy novels, is also one of Ms. Taylor's favorite activities. She is also extremely active with charity work and was even featured on the cover of Diabetes Forecast in February of 1998.
She lives in the country on seventy-nine acres of woods and pasture with a lake and a catfish pond. She writes her novels in a Spanish cottage which overlooks a five-acre lake, a working water mill, gazebo, and covered bridge.
Some of Ms. Taylor's most recent books include By Candlelight, Someday Soon, Lakota Dawn, and Lakota Winds (due out in paperback in May 1999). She has also made contributions to other books including The Leukemia Society Cookbook, Christmas Rendezvous, and Summer Love. In addition, readers can see her as co-host of the QVC/TV Romance Book Club Show.
Ms. Taylor's interests include collecting spoons, coins from around the world, ship models, dolls, and old books. She loves to fish, ride horses, play chess, target-shoot, travel (especially in her motorhome and out West), hunt for Indian relics, and take long walks with her husband. Reading, in particular books set before 1900 and current Biographies, Thrillers, Horror, or Fantasy novels, is also one of Ms. Taylor's favorite activities. She is also extremely active with charity work and was even featured on the cover of Diabetes Forecast in February of 1998.
She lives in the country on seventy-nine acres of woods and pasture with a lake and a catfish pond. She writes her novels in a Spanish cottage which overlooks a five-acre lake, a working water mill, gazebo, and covered bridge.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
September 6, 2014
Oh dear. Now I've come down to reviewing this book, the last on my to-do list I'll deal with today.
1897, Alaska and Yukon Territory.
The girl:Dumb-as-a-post Kathryn Hammond and another female friend have taken ship to Skagway, Alaska - Kathryn's mother is now dead and she's in search of her father. Not sure why, since he was supposed to be dead, but there you go. The girls get a job in a cookshop and start saving up money. Those lumberjacks leave big tips, all those gold nuggets all over the place (sarcasm font on).
"When I read about the gold rush and how much money could be made here with hard work and a cunning mind, we packed up and here we are. We don’t have enough money to buy passage back to America."
America??
The guy: Landis Jurrell. We really don't know who he is at first (he's got secrets), but he sorta lands in Kathryn's sphere and he's hot to trot because she's the most awesomely gorgeous blonde that ever walked the face of the earth (I am really trying to keep the dumb blonde jokes out of this review). For some reason I can't even remember now, they have to have a *pretend* wedding for her protection, but it's a real one (kind of) so of course it needs to be consummated with lots of really embarrassingly purple prose.
"His appreciative gaze went back to her striking and stormy eyes. They were like liquid topaz surrounded by igneous blue sapphire. Her thin brows arched nicely over provocative lids."
I could quote a lot worse than this, but you'll find more in my status updates.
Anyhoo, the rest of the story involves our pair traipsing back and forth between Skagway and the Yukon territory like it's a walk in the 'burbs to get from here to there (do read up on what's involved getting from one spot to the other and how long it takes). Our heroine is so super special, she can not only float a boat downstream in the middle of a northern winter, she can take the same river and go the other way and not run into a bit of difficulty going against the current. She can cross those mountain passes in the winter in a couple of days with just a couple of local Eskimos (!!) to help her.
I'm a believer. Not.
Is there still a market for a book like this? I can see why it would have appealed to a young teen in the late 70s or 80s, but today's teens? I also know there's a healthy market and interest in these older romances, but these historical and geographical howlers are just too much for an adult to swallow, and the storyline and characterizations are just not realistic, let alone interesting for today's readers. This is just an unlikeable, emotionally immature hero and heroine that no one is going to give a damn about what happens to them.
And boo hiss on the typos. Don't know if they're conversion errors or were in the original edition, but there's one that deserves a special mention: bearly. *dies*
Dead tree copy purchased, Kindle copy obtained via Kindle Unlimited loan.
1897, Alaska and Yukon Territory.
The girl:Dumb-as-a-post Kathryn Hammond and another female friend have taken ship to Skagway, Alaska - Kathryn's mother is now dead and she's in search of her father. Not sure why, since he was supposed to be dead, but there you go. The girls get a job in a cookshop and start saving up money. Those lumberjacks leave big tips, all those gold nuggets all over the place (sarcasm font on).
"When I read about the gold rush and how much money could be made here with hard work and a cunning mind, we packed up and here we are. We don’t have enough money to buy passage back to America."
America??
The guy: Landis Jurrell. We really don't know who he is at first (he's got secrets), but he sorta lands in Kathryn's sphere and he's hot to trot because she's the most awesomely gorgeous blonde that ever walked the face of the earth (I am really trying to keep the dumb blonde jokes out of this review). For some reason I can't even remember now, they have to have a *pretend* wedding for her protection, but it's a real one (kind of) so of course it needs to be consummated with lots of really embarrassingly purple prose.
"His appreciative gaze went back to her striking and stormy eyes. They were like liquid topaz surrounded by igneous blue sapphire. Her thin brows arched nicely over provocative lids."
I could quote a lot worse than this, but you'll find more in my status updates.
Anyhoo, the rest of the story involves our pair traipsing back and forth between Skagway and the Yukon territory like it's a walk in the 'burbs to get from here to there (do read up on what's involved getting from one spot to the other and how long it takes). Our heroine is so super special, she can not only float a boat downstream in the middle of a northern winter, she can take the same river and go the other way and not run into a bit of difficulty going against the current. She can cross those mountain passes in the winter in a couple of days with just a couple of local Eskimos (!!) to help her.
I'm a believer. Not.
Is there still a market for a book like this? I can see why it would have appealed to a young teen in the late 70s or 80s, but today's teens? I also know there's a healthy market and interest in these older romances, but these historical and geographical howlers are just too much for an adult to swallow, and the storyline and characterizations are just not realistic, let alone interesting for today's readers. This is just an unlikeable, emotionally immature hero and heroine that no one is going to give a damn about what happens to them.
And boo hiss on the typos. Don't know if they're conversion errors or were in the original edition, but there's one that deserves a special mention: bearly. *dies*
Dead tree copy purchased, Kindle copy obtained via Kindle Unlimited loan.
October 2, 2021
Sexism, attempted rape, and I tried. But this book annoyed me all in just the first chapter. No thanks. Not for me.
September 30, 2018
This review is of “Golden Torment” by Janelle Taylor.
The book begins with the heroine of the book, Kathryn, hereafter known as Kathy, Hammond, heading to Alaska to find her father, Jake, after her mother, Dorothy, passes. The passage is fraught with peril, as Kathryn becomes the target of several rape attempts, one of which she is saved from by Landis Jurrell, the hero of the book. Kathryn and Landis are attracted to each other, become lovers and marry. There is, however, a lot Kathryn doesn’t know about her husband, primarily because Landis doesn’t tell her.
The reason? Landis claims to be involved in some super-secret agent mission, which he can’t tell Kathy about. He does allow Kathy to travel with him across Alaska, where the following things happen:
They face perils.
They argue.
They make love. Lather, rinse, repeat.
After one of their many arguments, Kathy and her friend Jack London-yes, “The Call of the Wild” Jack London-head further inland to the town of Dawson. Here, Kathy gets a job as an entertainer for notorious “businessman” Randolph “Soapy” Smith, who is involved with many things, among them a house of ill repute. Kathy goes undercover, working in Soapy’s brothel to investigate him, as Landis believes Soapy is involved in illegal activities. She finds the evidence to nail Soapy, as well as the truth about Landis and her father. Soapy joins forces with Marc Slavin, a “man” who tried to rape Kathy three times earlier in the book, to try to keep the evidence of his criminal activities away from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
Kathy is kidnapped by Slavin, who dies in a fall, but not before shooting Kathy, who survives the shooting. In the end, the truth about Landis and Jake is revealed, and Landis and Kathy have their Happily Ever After.
Upside: Mrs. Taylor does a nice job blending real-life historical figures-in addition to Jack London, Soapy Smith and Harriet Pullen, a woman who befriends Kathy early in the book and remains friends with her throughout-are real-life people whose stories blend with Mrs. Taylor’s fictional characters. Mrs. Taylor also describes Alaska and its territory is great detail.
Downside: Sadly, Mrs. Taylor doesn’t spend as much time developing her primary characters, as neither Landis-not his real name-or Kathryn are developed at all. There are so many lies, half-truths and deceptions Landis tells Kathryn that after a while, I stopped caring to figure them out, not a good thing. I’m also not fond of the fact that Kathryn has to endure several attempted rapes; rarely does an 80’s historical romance go by without the heroine having to escape a sexual assault attempt.
Sex: Like all of Mrs. Taylor’s books, the love scenes in “Golden Torment” are less about the physical acts taking place and more about the feelings, with lots of expansive prose to go with it.
Violence: In addition to the many rape attempts against Kathryn, there is a scene where Kathryn and Jack are attacked by a pack of wolves in a snowstorm; the wolves kill their horse in a very graphic way. As mentioned above, Slavin is killed-he is also beaten badly by Landis before that happens-and Kathryn is shot.
Bottom Line: “Golden Torment” is in the bottom tier of Janelle Taylor books for me.
The book begins with the heroine of the book, Kathryn, hereafter known as Kathy, Hammond, heading to Alaska to find her father, Jake, after her mother, Dorothy, passes. The passage is fraught with peril, as Kathryn becomes the target of several rape attempts, one of which she is saved from by Landis Jurrell, the hero of the book. Kathryn and Landis are attracted to each other, become lovers and marry. There is, however, a lot Kathryn doesn’t know about her husband, primarily because Landis doesn’t tell her.
The reason? Landis claims to be involved in some super-secret agent mission, which he can’t tell Kathy about. He does allow Kathy to travel with him across Alaska, where the following things happen:
They face perils.
They argue.
They make love. Lather, rinse, repeat.
After one of their many arguments, Kathy and her friend Jack London-yes, “The Call of the Wild” Jack London-head further inland to the town of Dawson. Here, Kathy gets a job as an entertainer for notorious “businessman” Randolph “Soapy” Smith, who is involved with many things, among them a house of ill repute. Kathy goes undercover, working in Soapy’s brothel to investigate him, as Landis believes Soapy is involved in illegal activities. She finds the evidence to nail Soapy, as well as the truth about Landis and her father. Soapy joins forces with Marc Slavin, a “man” who tried to rape Kathy three times earlier in the book, to try to keep the evidence of his criminal activities away from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
Kathy is kidnapped by Slavin, who dies in a fall, but not before shooting Kathy, who survives the shooting. In the end, the truth about Landis and Jake is revealed, and Landis and Kathy have their Happily Ever After.
Upside: Mrs. Taylor does a nice job blending real-life historical figures-in addition to Jack London, Soapy Smith and Harriet Pullen, a woman who befriends Kathy early in the book and remains friends with her throughout-are real-life people whose stories blend with Mrs. Taylor’s fictional characters. Mrs. Taylor also describes Alaska and its territory is great detail.
Downside: Sadly, Mrs. Taylor doesn’t spend as much time developing her primary characters, as neither Landis-not his real name-or Kathryn are developed at all. There are so many lies, half-truths and deceptions Landis tells Kathryn that after a while, I stopped caring to figure them out, not a good thing. I’m also not fond of the fact that Kathryn has to endure several attempted rapes; rarely does an 80’s historical romance go by without the heroine having to escape a sexual assault attempt.
Sex: Like all of Mrs. Taylor’s books, the love scenes in “Golden Torment” are less about the physical acts taking place and more about the feelings, with lots of expansive prose to go with it.
Violence: In addition to the many rape attempts against Kathryn, there is a scene where Kathryn and Jack are attacked by a pack of wolves in a snowstorm; the wolves kill their horse in a very graphic way. As mentioned above, Slavin is killed-he is also beaten badly by Landis before that happens-and Kathryn is shot.
Bottom Line: “Golden Torment” is in the bottom tier of Janelle Taylor books for me.
May 24, 2025
Golden Torment by Janelle Taylor has held a special place in my heart for years, and no matter how many times I read it, I always find myself falling in love all over again. There’s just something timeless about this story that keeps pulling me back.
The male lead is so vividly written.. he’s not just a character, he’s a presence. Taylor’s ability to bring him to life with such rich detail made it incredibly easy to imagine him, to feel like I knew him. Every emotion, every interaction, every look he gave felt real, like I was watching a movie unfold in my mind.
What truly amazed me was the setting. The backdrop wasn’t just a location.. it was a living, breathing part of the story. Normally, I might have skimmed over pages of setting description, but Janelle Taylor made every detail come alive. I could see the snowy landscapes, feel the isolation, and hear the wind howling through the wilderness. She made it all so immersive that I never felt bored for a second, even though it’s a long read.
Honestly, I didn’t want the story to end. It’s one of those rare books that grips you from the first page and lingers with you long after you’ve finished. Beautifully written, deeply romantic, and utterly unforgettable.
The male lead is so vividly written.. he’s not just a character, he’s a presence. Taylor’s ability to bring him to life with such rich detail made it incredibly easy to imagine him, to feel like I knew him. Every emotion, every interaction, every look he gave felt real, like I was watching a movie unfold in my mind.
What truly amazed me was the setting. The backdrop wasn’t just a location.. it was a living, breathing part of the story. Normally, I might have skimmed over pages of setting description, but Janelle Taylor made every detail come alive. I could see the snowy landscapes, feel the isolation, and hear the wind howling through the wilderness. She made it all so immersive that I never felt bored for a second, even though it’s a long read.
Honestly, I didn’t want the story to end. It’s one of those rare books that grips you from the first page and lingers with you long after you’ve finished. Beautifully written, deeply romantic, and utterly unforgettable.
March 4, 2023
If you’re looking for a book set in Alaska or the Yukon Territory try this one, tho I will warn you it’s 603 pages long.
The heroine, Kathryn has traveled to the Alaska wilderness looking for her father who has been missing since she was two. In Scagway she meets Landis a man of mystery who offers to help her. Instant attraction, a false marriage early on, deceit, Canadian Mounties, harrowing treks thru blizzards and raging rivers to Dawson and other remote places, villains, lumberjacks, the gold rush all add up to an epic adventure through the frozen north.
For most of the book the MCs mistrust each other while they also fall passionately into each other’s arms. Both blow hot and cold, repeatedly as they are not honest with each other, until the end when all the story threads are untangled. The author’s historical notes give interesting details to the late 1800s in this part of North America. An escapist read.
The heroine, Kathryn has traveled to the Alaska wilderness looking for her father who has been missing since she was two. In Scagway she meets Landis a man of mystery who offers to help her. Instant attraction, a false marriage early on, deceit, Canadian Mounties, harrowing treks thru blizzards and raging rivers to Dawson and other remote places, villains, lumberjacks, the gold rush all add up to an epic adventure through the frozen north.
For most of the book the MCs mistrust each other while they also fall passionately into each other’s arms. Both blow hot and cold, repeatedly as they are not honest with each other, until the end when all the story threads are untangled. The author’s historical notes give interesting details to the late 1800s in this part of North America. An escapist read.
June 1, 2024
The secrets of the plot twists were revealed to the reader a little too easily not really holding any mystery other than how it was all going to wrap up at the end. There were a few plot lines that were unclear what they meant or where they were implying they’d go that were frustrating. The back and forth of loving each other then instantly hating each other was so frequent it was obnoxious. I could really do without chest hair being described as a furry pelt and the one mention of “grinding their forests together.” The title of the book was also said so many times throughout. Pet peeves aside it wasn’t bad, the writing was clear for the most part.
October 23, 2019
Loved it
I have read and reread many of Ms. Taylor's books. This one along with her Ecstasy series are my favorites.
I have read and reread many of Ms. Taylor's books. This one along with her Ecstasy series are my favorites.
June 26, 2010
This is one of my favorites by Janelle Taylor. This novel is exciting, heartbreaking, special and touching. I enjoyed the novel very much and has had a great time getting to know the characters. Katherine and Landis would thaw any ice. Very hot! ;)
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews