Rating:
Published: 1980
Illustrator: David Craig
Imprint or Line: Harlequin Presents #428
Published by: Harlequin, Mills & Boon
Genres: Category Romance, Contemporary Romance, Forced Seduction
Pages: 189
Format: Paperback
Buy on: Amazon, AbeBooks
Reviewed by: Introvert Reader
The Book
Charlotte Lamb‘s Seduction features a ridiculously sheltered and innocent heroine and a hero so crazy and obsessed that they can only be found in old-school Harlequin Presents or bodice rippers, “mated-pair” paranormal romances, or perhaps self-published New Adult books.
The Plot
Clea is an orphaned English girl living in Greece with her Greek stepfather and stepsister.
Her step-sister is a caricature of a slut, pursuing the hero with inexplicably misplaced confidence.
Worse, Clea has a creepy stepdad with unhealthy designs on her, as he wants Clea to remain untouched by any man (except himself).
Ben is an Englishman visiting Greece, and he becomes obsessed with Clea from the start. He will do anything to get her.
He has a female accomplice named Natalie, who befriends Clea and helps Ben abduct her. I wondered what this guy had on Natalie to make her do such a thing, but we never found out.
Although, just like Kramer from the show, Seinfeld has the power of the “Kavorka,” the “lure of the animal,” which attracts lust and devotion, Ben wields a strange control over women.
Ben’s obviously off his rocker, but Clea is not all there either. He demands, but she refuses. He is forceful, but Clea is resilient, giving as good as she gets. Finally, she escapes, but not before Ben can put his mark on her soul.
She falls in love with him.
Final Analysis of Seduction
Seduction was not the first Harlequin Presents I read, but it was the one that got me addicted to the Presents line.
Charlotte Lamb didn’t write like any other ordinary Harlequin author. Her plots were wildly fantastic, forcing you to turn the page to see what insanity she included next.
Lamb was able to psychoanalyze by delving into navel-gazing. She was very aware of the nature of her works—that they were just fantasies. Nevertheless, she treated her subject matter seriously with exquisite attention to character, dialogue, and tone.
Seduction is very chauvinistic and very politically incorrect. But this is a book, an illusion, not reality.
Charlotte Lamb’s writing was at its best in this one. I love this romance, as crazy as it was.
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| Overall: | 4.9 |
Synopsis
Clea felt insulted — by both men!
Clea’s stepfather, Kerasteri, had followed Greek custom in choosing a man for her to marry. Defying him meant arousing his violent temper.
Ben Winter was the man who desired her and was determined to have her. I know what you want more than you do, he kept insisting. But he saw only the betraying signs of her body; he didn’t listen to her reasons for refusal.
Clea had little choice. But she was sure of one thing: she would not be owned or used by anyone. She was her own person!
SEDUCTION by CHARLOTTE LAMB