Let’s play a game.Humor me here.Try to name the book each the following quotes was taken from.1. One is wearing a black side-buttoned notched-collar wool jacket, wool-crepe trousers and a fitted cashmere turtleneck, all by Oscar de la Renta; another is wearing a double-breasted coat of wool, mohair and nylon tweed, matching jeans-style pants and a man's cotton dress shirt, all by Stephen Sprouse; the best looking one is wearing a checked wool jacket and high-waisted wool skirt, both from Barney's, and a silk blouse by Andra Gabrielle.2. His shirt was the purest white silk, his doublet of deep-blue velvet, embroidered discreetly in silver. His hose were striped silver and blue. And he wore a heavy silver chain with a silver and sapphire pendant.3. He smiled to himself. She would never know how close to rape she had come.4. He's wearing a linen suit by Canali Milano, a cotton shirt by Ike Behar, a silk tie by Bill Blass and cap-toed leather lace-ups from Brooks Brothers. The other is wearing a lightweight linen suit with pleated trousers, a cotton shirt, a dotted silk tie, all by Valentino Couture, and perforated cap-toe leather shoes by Allen-Edmonds.5. "Yeah," he says, moving on top of her sliding his dick gracefully into her cunt, kissing her on the mouth hard, pushing into her with long fast strokes, his cock, his hips crazed, moving on their own desirous momentum...6. He places the camel -hair coat back over her head in case she wakes up screaming…with a pair of scissors he starts to cut off her dress and when he gets to her chest he occasionally stabs at her breasts, accidentally (not really) slicing off one of her nipples through the bra.7. Seeing the grim purpose in his silvery eyes, she fell to her knees…pulling her to her feet, ripped the white linen nightgown from her. Catching her in his arms, he kissed her deeply, forcing the narrow lips open. She fought him, clawing at him with surprisingly sharp nails, squirming wildly.8. Excited, he slaps her, then lightly punches her in the mouth, then kisses it, biting her lips.9. Afterward he felt disgusted with himself, and with her as well.10. His breathing quickened and became harsh. He pushed her forward over his arm, and his free hand roamed her bottom. But when he attempted to insert his finger within her she squirmed away from him crying…11. Before she could cry out, his hand clapped over her mouth. He pushed himself into her…He grunted his pleasure while, beneath him, her eyes reflected pain and fright. She tried to lie still, hoping to ease the pain, but she couldn’t.I could keep going, but I’ll stop there. These quotes came from two different books. I altered them only to make them all third person. One has faced strong opposition by some members of the public due to what is claimed to be a misogynistic attitude towards women; the other is much loved by women (and young girls) who have enjoyed it since 1980. One features a narcissistic, sociopathic murderer as a protagonist; the other parades itself around as a romance and focuses on the romantic entanglements of teenage girls and adult men. A little more than half of these quotes were taken from Bertrice Small’s Skye O’Malley, the rest were lifted from the pages of Bret Easton Ellis’s American Psycho. If you have not yet realized that there’s something wrong with this picture, it is time for you to change therapists. Skye O’Malley is the kind of strong female lead who is raped repeatedly. That’s not a spoiler; that’s the plot. She moves from man to man throughout the course of these five hundred or so pages, sometimes breaking hearts, but, more often, leaving a blood trail (and not the kind occasioned by swordplay). Almost all the other women in this book live in this same world, where their bodies are claimed by whatever man, or worse, is passing by.Bertrice Small has done a tremendous disservice to womankind. I’ve read a few romances now and I’d almost come to terms with the fact that these writers seem to suffer from some serious self-loathing. This shit, however, takes the cake and rapes it until there’s frosting everywhere. Let me jump back a few paragraphs to where I suggested that young girls have enjoyed this book for the last thirty years. More than one, if that is subtle enough, Goodreads reviewer claimed to have discovered this book at age fourteen. Right. I know. Big fucking deal. Playboys in Dad’s closet. Whatever. But these girls learned about sex from this shit.I can understand giggling at sex scenes. Who can’t? But who can giggle at the thought of a girl’s first exposure to sexuality being the graphic depiction of rape? What of those girls being exposed to characters who enjoy being raped?If you are okay with that, please stop reading. You’re a fucked up and profoundly disturbed person.But doesn’t Small have the right to write whatever she chooses? Sure. She has the same rights as anyone else. Hitler was allowed to write about his hatred of the Jews, why shouldn’t Small be able to write about her hatred of women? Things can be written, but it is up to us to read them. And read them. And read them. Until they’ve been reprinted more times than the Bible.Before I stalk away from this experience in self-righteous indignation, I’d like to point out one point I found to be interesting. Throughout the story, Skye has two personas: pirate queen and submissive wife. These different roles are marked by costume changes. When Skye wears pants, she is treated with respect. When she wears skirts, she is sometimes sodomized. Is this Small’s attempt to redeem herself through social commentary? I sincerely hope so. Either way, Small has penned a work that can actually be considered to be a detriment to society. As a woman, she wrote a book about vulnerable women being attacked solely to entertain idle females. To her sex, she has committed treason. Smite her mightily, Lord.
Rbrs #3This was supposed to be the "good" romance, the one that has some popular acclaim and merit. Hah!The book itself is a no-star wonder. I hate it, with the same passion all the characters seemed to have for endless and immediate boffing. I skimmed a bit then went back to the beginning with a non-drinking drinking game-type system, of marking certain types of passages with colored tabs:Yellow = dumb, eye-rolling, wtf, you're kidding, now you're making sh-t upPink = well that wasn't too bad because at least she was willingGreen = hold on while I swallow back the vomit...nopeit'scomingout - bucket!Blue = how beautiful is she? sooooooooo purty!Orange = food glorious foodAt about 70 pages I gave up yellow because too much of it was dumb. At about 100 pages I gave up all but orange. At the 1/3rd point I went back to skimming. Here's a visual of the carnage (just 1/3rd of the book, I would've run out of sticky tabs if I'd tried to mark the whole book):This book...rape (of every hole!!!), globular breasts and cupped buttocks, having the heroine act idiotically but then having everyone admire her intelligence, stating something and then having a character repeat with the exact words within the same page, despicable men (every one of them), emphasizing again and again how beautiful she was and how everyone desired her for her beauty and how wonderful her beauty made her and my god she's beautiful...I don't know where to begin...maybe with the words of those who actually read the whole book, the brave, the masochistic, the wild-eyed with anger, the adept at making fairytale analogies, I applaud their determination.The one aspect I want to cover - the ess-ee-ex. Hoooooo boy. The last romance had a cheery leer when it came (heh) to the sex. I mean, there was a sequence that was followed for "start-up" and the "finish line" and for the most part it didn't sound "bad." This one, the descriptions were almost perfunctory. Except for when it was abusive. Which was most of the time. Oh man, the abuse. To quote Elizabeth, ICKICKICKICKICKICKICKICKICKICK! Ick.I wonder, would I have hated this book so much if I'd stumbled upon and read it on my own? How much have I been influenced by the reviews of those whose opinions I respect? I keep mentioning, my reading habits have changed like crazy since I started spending too much time on this site. I used to read casually, a swish and spit; now it's become practice to carefully examine, sniff, masticate thoughfully, absorb and digest. I can't seem to forget I might have an audience, all of whose mental dexterity is like Cirque du Soliel (they're in town right now!) where I can't even touch my toes...the pressure! I try to read more critically now. I'm not very good at it because I still boil down to "like it," "don't like it," "'cause." Does that suck some of the mindless enjoyment I used to have for junk like this? I'm not sure.This enormously long book (not as enormously long as many of the men our heroine encountered) highlighted how slow I read. I'd always thought I was sort of a fast reader. Nope. Slug. Sloth. The formation of stalactites and stalagmites. Governmental reform.The enjoyment, though, came from reading this with other goodreaders who made the experience fun. Fun! It was making me flip-flop on my opinion of this book, just like our heroine switched from loving to hating to loving to forgetting to ignoring to hating to loving the same man. The idea that reading is a solitary act has been pointed out to me before, by a very neat person on this site (you seem to have found offline life because you're rarely on here anymore, yay! but also sad to me). We all think at different speeds and in different ways, so silent reading locks us away in ourselves. But having this group who discusses, comments, mocks, jokes, and tears apart this awful book made this a social event. I was engaged to the point of wanting to read this in order to participate.In the months I've been more active on this site, I've seen waves of activity and read of past waves; much lamentation for the past and it seems not allowing that grieving to fade hinders from allowing the now to be enjoyed. Some waves have been bad; lets focus on the good. I've read of and observed the most touching friendships that had developed through mutual love of books and sense of humor. We get great recommendations, assistance in picking out books that are more likely to appeal from the oceans of titles. I've laughed myself to tears. I've found stimulation that had been melting to nearly nothing since all my peers began coupling up and away to staid conservatism. For all this, I can't quite fully hate this book. I love this site. I love you guys. I'm not drunk.
What do You think about Skye O'Malley (2004)?
Reading for the Bodice Rippers. I've only got to page 12 and already it's heavy-going. Sigh...But on the plus side, I like comedy. I can imagine the Carry On gang doing this dialogue. "Niall an iarain, Niall of the Iron," she said softly. This was a famous man, the secret dream lover of half the maidens in Ireland."I see my reputation precedes me, my lady Skye.""It is an open secret that you are Captain Revenge, and that you conduct those daring raids against the English who live in the Dublin Pale. Of course, no one would dare accuse you of this.""Yet you, my lady, do not fear me," he murmured, holding her fast with his gaze until she blushed.Here's an early description of our hero. Intelligent, Niall was educated first by the priests and then sent to England for polish at Cambridge. In sports, there was no one to touch him, and because he could not be bested in any field, he was called Ironman.He could run faster than any man in Ireland, was unbeaten in wrestling from the time he was twelve, was both an excellent swordsman and an excellent falconer. He swam as though born to water, rode like a centaur, and could follow a stag's trail better than most hounds.Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!!!!!!Of course he's also lusty, a sixteenth century Irish love machine. He's probably also kind to children and dumb animals. And none of this is meant to be ironic!! Smalls means us to take this all very seriously.No thank you, Ms Smalls. I'm finished. In Trinidad we'd say, 'I fire the work!'
—Hazel
Long book. I couldn’t get excited about it. Stories about a series of men in a beautiful woman’s life.REVIEWER’S OPINION:At times I wanted it to be over which is my definition for 2 stars. Skye is so beautiful that almost any man near her will fall in love or be so in lust that he will kidnap, rape, or whatever it takes to have her. She has guts and intelligence, but most of the things that happen are due to her beauty rather than skills. I would have liked more interesting actions on her part. Bad things happen “due to the worst luck” – over and over again. She has a series of men in her life: lovers, husbands, close friends, and rapists – over a ten-year period and in different locations. This book tells the story of each one. I was frustrated because although she truly loved some of these men, I wanted her to be with her first love Niall. Unfortunate circumstances (fate) took her away and kept her away from Niall more than once. It was strangely unsatisfying in that way. I didn’t like the way she hated Niall for a period of time. It wasn’t justified. Most of the men in the story have flaws or do undesirable things which are bothersome, but it makes a good story.The best part was Skye’s conflict with Queen Elizabeth. This was toward the end of the book. The Queen did something terrible to Skye, and Skye wanted revenge. I liked that story, but it was secondary to the stories of the men in Skye’s life. Although Skye is a fictional character, the author tried to be historically accurate regarding the Queen’s actions. The author states “I remain utterly intrigued by the court of Elizabeth, especially by Lord Burghley, who was so very clever and masterful at leading his royal mistress away from her destructive emotions, and by Robert Dudley, who was in my opinion a proper villain with kingly ambitions of his own. Like most historians, I have put my own particular spin on the time period. The places and the people in this book are based upon my own thorough research, and my hope was to breathe life into this fascinating era.”I was frightened to see the Queen’s power over people and her actions based on whims. She could negate a will, force or prevent a marriage, and imprison someone without charges.Some readers may have an issue with the purple prose, but it didn’t bother me. I consider it another style of writing. This book was published in 1980 when it was more common than it is today.SEX SCENES:This book has many sex scenes, all very short. There are several rape scenes. One rape scene has men attempting to force sex between a girl and an animal. There are group sex scenes, prostitution, incest, and sodomy.STORY BRIEF:Skye’s father is the O’Malley, head of a wealthy shipping business in Ireland. He arranges a marriage for Skye against her wishes to an evil man. Skye meets Niall and falls in love at first sight, but her father won’t listen to her and forces the other marriage. Later when the O’Malley dies, Skye must take over running the shipping business until her younger brothers are old enough. She is kidnapped by pirates. Amnesia also comes into play. DATA:Story length: 482 pages. Swearing language: moderate, including religious swear words. Sexual language: strong. Number of sex scenes: 36. Approximate number of sex scene pages: 32. Setting: About a ten year period starting in 1555, mostly Ireland, Algiers, and England. Copyright: 1980. Genre: historical romance.
—Jane Stewart
Know What You're Getting IntoThis book is exactly all that I expected. A wonderful romp into romance novels filled with a number of different tropes that give the reader of that day exactly what they wanted. A strong, forceful, unconventional, bueatiful, firey, intellegent woman who is thrown into a billion situations that she cannot control and has to adapt to. The hero, who you're never sure is half the time, is, by turns, smart, handsome, controlling, angry, in love, in lust, demanding, charming, violent, soft, and (above all) Alpha. These tow are surrounded, most of the time, by loving, loyal, understanding, and entertaining family, servants, and friends. The turns that happen in this novel may seem harsh, but I can't help but feel that it's realistic (to an extent) to the times. Obviously blow out of proportion with it all pertaining to one person, but still believable nontheless. What you really have is a stong, independant woman who comes through amazing events against the odds and, though she grows and changes throught the novel, she is still the same core person you met when she was born. If you can't handle the heat, stay out of the kitchen, but if you're willing to wade though the deep and dark waters to come out shining on the other side, you will enjoy this book.
—Kristiluchi
