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The Flame and the Flower The Birmingham Family Kathleen E Woodiwiss 9780380005253 Books

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The Flame and the Flower The Birmingham Family Kathleen E Woodiwiss 9780380005253 Books

I knew the hero raped the heroine before purchasing the book, but not that he raped her multiple times and wanted to keep her prisoner to continue raping her even after knowing she'd been her virgin and not a prostitute. Couldn't get passed that and the amount of story that is focused on this. The hero is a jerk most of the time in this story. In addition, the historical happenings are just not realistic for the time period and place in so many instances.


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The Flame and the Flower The Birmingham Family Kathleen E Woodiwiss 9780380005253 Books Reviews

Amazing book! I swear I was on the edge of my seat the entire read. I didn't think I would ever find an author I loved as much as Julie Garwood but I think I just did. There aren't any words to describe the emotions I felt while reading this book. I was angry, then crying, then laughing, then royally pissed, scared, overwhelmed with happiness, an so on...etc. NEVER has any book ever pulled so many different emotions from me. I will say that I was sure I would truly HATE the H after the cap he pulled. I didn't think I could be brought back around from to even slightly liking him. I almost put the book down but just couldn't do it. So glad I didn't! Truly wonderful book.
This book got off to a slow start, as we meet the orphaned Heather, living in servitude to her horrible aunt and meek, brow beaten uncle. She is literally a slave, wearing her aunt's cast off dresses that are like twenty-three sizes too large, working from sunup to sundown, with no hope of any kind of future.

Then her aunt's brother comes along, and whisks her off to London, where he's claimed he can get her a job at a nice school. Of course his real intentions are completely unhonorable, and when Heather stabs him with a fruit knife in a desperate attempt to get him off her, she sets herself on a new path, fleeing his home and terrified of being caught and hung for murder.

Then she finds herself aboard Brandon Birmingham's ship, and I won't go into how she ends up there. But this part of the book was discussed a bit in a Facebook group I'm part of, due to our hero devirginizing our heroine by brute force. It's not romanticized - it's rape and it's never called anything else. In fact, much later, after they've professed their love for each other and are having a wonderful life together, Heather reminds Brandon that he once raped her. Laughingly, because she's gotten over it. But at least neither of them pretend it didn't happen.

And regarding the rape...the whole situation of how she came to be in his cabin on the ship was a little ridiculous. I know she was in shock and she's young and innocent of the ways of the world, but still. Rape, in and of itself, does not always bother me in a book. In the world of romance novels, rape can even be a little subjective at times. Brandon didn't intentionally rape her out of malice. The first time, anyway. It was due to a Big Misunderstanding. Bit having realized he'd just deflowered the girl, taking her again, and again against her will, was a bit much. At this point in the book I was disgusted with him, and thought he was going to have to really work hard and grovel to redeem himself. It would've all been a little more palatable if, say, he'd had too much to drink and wasn't in total control of his faculties. Still wrong, still disgusting, but easier for him to come back from and convince Heather that he's not a monster.

So now their lives are intertwined, and I'm not completely taken by the story, or the characters, just yet. Fortunately Brandon vows to himself that he will never take her by force again, and he keeps that vow. And Heather vows that she will never submit to him, and then in the same breath tells herself that since he's now her husband she will have no choice but to submit to him if he so demands. And from this point on for many months (the length of a pregnancy and then some) they both run hot and cold, lusting after each other, yet both believing the other has no desire to share a bed, having little tender moments amid exasperated all out yelling at each other moments. All very will they or won't they.

And at some point during all this, I became very engrossed. Knowing that deep down inside Brandon was head over heels about his “young wife” as she was often referred to, I could realize that a lot of his cruel jibes and frosty behavior was a defense mechanism. He wanted her, he would not rape her again, and he'd be damned if he begged her, or for that matter even asked her politely, to make love with him, so all that frustration was poured out on her in mean words and slammed doors. Heather, being only seventeen and having lived a sheltered life, is too young and naive to realize the power she holds over him.

An interesting aspect to the story that I really liked was Louisa, who was engaged to Brandon before he sailed off to London and debauched Heather. Her first meeting with Heather set the tone for that relationship – Louisa was rude, condescending and cruel to Heather, and shamelessly tried to win Brandon's favors back to herself. I was looking forward to more meetings between the two women, expecting some outrageous scenes to occur, and while they did have a few run ins, Louisa was not around nearly as much as I had hoped.

In the end of course love conquers all. I teetered between giving this book three or four stars. It took awhile for me to get past the slow, undignified beginning, yet towards the end I was eager to crawl into bed at night and lose myself in the pages, not wanting to set the book down and go to sleep. Brandon managed to charm Heather and make her fall in love with him, and I fell right along with her.
My all time favorite book. First read this book in 1977 or 78 can’t remember for sure but it changed my life. Before that I Hated to read and only read what I had to for school. I was not a good reader and struggled in school. A friend of mine said to me one day, you can’t read well because you don’t like what your reading, here read this. This book completely changed my life, I loved it so much I began to read every romance book I could get my hands on. In time I began reading all kinds of literature and now completely love reading.
I love the way this author writes, but am a little disturbed by the male lead character. He was an absolute bullying, bipolar brute. When he was in a good mood, he was your ideal hero. But, when things weren't going his way, he became abusive. I don't think rape should ever be taken so lightly, or so easily forgiven, even in marriage.
This book was recommended to me by my mother who read it in 1972 when it was originally published. When I also read that Kathleen Woodiwiss is considered the godmother of the modern historical romance, I couldn’t resist. The verdict? A lot has changed since 1972! This book is extremely dated, and was clearly inspired by a love of Margaret Mitchell’s Gone With the Wind (1936). While the language is much more rich than most contemporary romance writing, the pacing is very slow, and the politics are straight out of the dark ages. As you’ll notice from other reviews, this book opens with the heroine escaping attempted rape by one villain, only to fall victim to another rape at the hands of the alleged hero. This would never fly if this book was written today, and I can’t blame any modern reader who finds it difficult to get past this element of the plot. I also struggled with the naïveté of the heroine, who is literally referred to as a child throughout the entire book, and is given few opportunities to display any kind of agency. Finally, for those who are drawn to the romance genre for the sexy bits, there is very little sex in this book and when there is, it takes little interest in the idea of female pleasure. While I can’t say I would recommend this book to anyone, I am glad that I read it as a student of the romance genre.
I knew the hero raped the heroine before purchasing the book, but not that he raped her multiple times and wanted to keep her prisoner to continue raping her even after knowing she'd been her virgin and not a prostitute. Couldn't get passed that and the amount of story that is focused on this. The hero is a jerk most of the time in this story. In addition, the historical happenings are just not realistic for the time period and place in so many instances.