In Cassie Edwards’ Silken Rapture, Glenda Galvez leaves her past in Honduras and finds love in New Orleans with Read de Beaulieu. As fans of her historicals, sadly, due to unrealistic elements and shallow characters, we did not enjoy this Cassie Edwards romance.
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Silken Rapture by Cassie Edwards
Rating: 
Published: 1983
Illustrator: Robert Sabin, Don Case
Imprint or Line: Zebra Historical Romance
Published by: Kensington
Genres: Historical Romance, Bodice Ripper, Forced Seduction
Pages: 475
Buy on: Amazon
Reviewed by: Blue Falcon
MILD SPOILER ALERT
The Book: Silken Rapture by Cassie Edwards
This is a review of Silken Rapture by Cassie Edwards, a Zebra historical romance that is not her best work. Quite frankly, the love story is baffling, unbelievably shallow, and not very exciting.
The Plot of Silken Rapture
Silken Rapture begins in Honduras. It is here that the heroine Glenda Galvez, a beautiful blonde Latina Americana, lives with her mother, Rosa; her father, Jose—who isn’t her biological father; and her half-brothers, Carlos and Marcos.
Jose, Carlos, and Marcos are going to work for the American Fruit Company in the fields, harvesting bananas. At the same time, Glenda gets a job as a companion for a company manager’s wife.
One day, while in the house alone, Glenda meets William Read de Beaulieu, who also works for the American Fruit Company. Within what feels like minutes of meeting each other for the first time, Glenda and Read are having sex!
Read leaves Honduras for reasons that are explained later to return to his home in New Orleans. Glenda decides to stow away on a boat with her pet puma, Nena, and follows him there.
Once in New Orleans, Glenda reunites with Read (they parted due to a misunderstanding), finds her biological father, and becomes co-owner of a business.
Meanwhile, Read and his younger sister, Harriet, experience a family tragedy.
As the book ends, Glenda and Read agree to marry, and they return to Honduras to return Nena to the jungle. (Probably not the best idea for an animal that’s been thoroughly domesticated, but that’s neither here nor there.)
They announce their plans to Glenda’s family, and then Glenda and Read have their happily ever after.
Upside
Well, I finished the book—things were a little shaky there for a while.
The sex scenes are good, but Cassie Edwards has written better in other books.
Downside
There are quite a few negatives to discuss in Silken Rapture.
Lack of Logic
Almost immediately after Glenda and Read meet, they have sex and declare undying love for each other! This is, in my view, completely unrealistic.
Attracted to each other? Yes.
Hot for each other? Yes?
Having sex virtually upon meeting? Only happens in adult films. (Don’t ask how I know that!)
Misogyny:
Glenda is nearly raped FOUR times in “Silken Rapture”! None of this was necessary to the story.
Lack of Character Depth:
None of the characters in the book are well-developed, and I didn’t really care for any of them.
More Lack of Logic:
At the beginning of the book, it is stated that Glenda is the product of her mother Rosa’s rape by an American ship’s captain. When Glenda meets her biological father, he tells her that the act between him and Rosa was an act of love. Rosa later hints that she lied about Glenda’s conception.
Several points. In my day job, I work with people in distress, some of whom have experienced sexual traumas such as rape. I feel that Mrs. Edwards trivializes this subject here.
I’m also greatly bothered by the fact that Glenda meets her father and believes his version of events without any evidence whatsoever. (This same scenario occurs in a later book by Ms. Edwards, Savage Paradise.)
Sex
The love scenes are fairly intense at the beginning, but as the book goes on they become milder.
Violence
Glenda suffers from multiple rape attempts by some nasty men. Additionally, there are scenes of physical abuse against her. As well as assault, there is battery.
More violent moments: killings of humans and the puma mother of Nena’s wild cat. Most of the violence is not depicted graphically.
Bottom Line on Silken Rapture
I am a Cassie Edwards fan (more on that later), but I found nothing to like about Silken Rapture.
It’s not the worst book by Mrs. Edwards—Eugenia’s Embrace still holds that ignoble title. But Silken Rapture is not a book I intend to keep in my collection.
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| Overall: | 1.7 |
Synopsis of Cassie Edwards’s Silken Rapture
Golden-haired, green-eyed Glenda Galvez could not forget the sadistic Englishman who raped her mother and marked her as a bastard child. Now, her fiercest desire was to escape the lush Eden of her native Honduras and create a new life for herself. A position as a servant on a wealthy plantation was hardly what Glenda had dreamed of—until a seductive Creole gentleman arrived, arousing a passionate desire deep within her…
Mistaking the blond angel for a pampered gringa, Read deBaulieu was transfixed by Glenda’s sultry charms and longed to give her the world she’d always yearned for. But another man was determined to have Glenda—even if it meant devising the most vicious scheme of all. Now, Read and Glenda must embark on a voyage to untangle the treacherous lies and painful secrets that threaten to tear them apart. From Mayan ruins to the glamour of New Orleans, they will discover a restless desire that knows no boundaries…
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