Reading Wild Orchids by Karen Robards for the 3rd time doesn’t seem to have diminished my enjoyment factor of the novel by even one iota. Call me crazy but even with the massive amount of books I have on my review pile, I just had to pick this one up and read it in one sitting yet again because the magic that is Max and Lora is an unbeatable one for me.37 year old John Roberts Maxwell (Max) is a man hardened by the reality of war that had been his way of life when he had been enlisted in the Vietnam war. Leaving a piece of his soul behind due to the decisions he had been forced to make, Max comes home a changed man, a man incapable of giving what his innocent wife had demanded of him. A cynic to the core, Max doesn’t realize that life as he knows it would cease to exist the moment he kidnaps the prim and proper Lora in his attempt to evade the authorities of Mexico.27 year old Lora Susan Harding is finally a free woman with the right to while away her time as she pleases. Having spent most of her life trying to put others needs first, Lora is ecstatic with the thought of exploring the exotic Mexico, the first vacation she has ever taken in her life. However, from the very start, her vacation refuses to proceed along as she envisoned it and being kidnapped at gun point by a disreputable looking man with an American accent just seems to be the icing on the cake.At first, Lora is scared out of her wits at the thought of the less than savory acts her captor might try and force on her. A lady through and through, Lora hardly accepts herself to find her captor ridiculously sexy to the extent of ogling him and eating him up with her eyes every chance she gets. No stranger to the world of intimacy, Lora however has no clue that the uninhibited creature that emerges from deep within her that just wants to lick her delectable and broody captor from head to toe is a side of her that exists.After Lora’s multiple attempts to escape which falls flat on her face every single time, Lora comes to the disturbing conclusion that she has a bad case of the Stockholme’s syndrome if judging the way all her emotions go haywire around Max is anything to judge herself by. Through a chain of events, Lora finds herself stranded in the midst of a Mexican jungle, depending on Max for her very survival. As the proximity heightens the already taut live wire of sexual tension between them, both Max and Lora find themselves to be no match for its heady power.Wild Orchids would always remain by far my most favorite novel by Karen Robards. For some, Max might not be the stuff dreams are made out of. But when push comes to shove, Max is a man who delivers and Lord does he deliver! A man who is leery of commitment and relationships, Max cannot believe himself when he starts lusting after the prim schoolteacher who lands in his life. The harder he tries to shove her thoughts and presence out of his mind, the more tenacious her hold on him becomes and its a match that Max loses, rather ungraciously at first. Vital, sexy and the ultimate dangerous hero is how I would describe Max.Lora’s character is an endearing mix of innocence and practicality all laced into one with a body that practically drives Max to the brink of insanity. It is the way she reaches far deeper than just his baser emotions that has Max struggling to shove her away with all his might, a man reluctant to share his demons with a woman Max thinks would be just as incapable of handling reality as his ex-wife had seemed to be.Though towards the end, I definitely want a bit more grovelling from Max every time I read this one, I think the ending itself might be growing on me as I didn’t find it that sorely lacking the third time around. It seemed a fitting ending based on both Max and Lora’s characters and my bet is Lora loves Max too much to even give him enough leeway to do much grovelling even if it were to come to that.The best thing about this book, hands down is the raw, explosive and primitive passion between two people that just serves as one whole session of sensory overload from start to finish.Highly recommended! Rating=5/5 My quotes included below the review. Reviewer's Note : From time to time, I get a hankering to re-read my favorite novels and sometimes I find myself with the urge revise the review that I had written down previously. Since I feel that revising a review that had been published a long time back is not something that ought to be done, I have resorted to start a new reviewing process aka the Re-Read Review. Books that rate a Re-Read Review would mostly be books that I am quite gushy about and cannot recommend highly enough!
2 stars. The whole story line is really unrealistic, but even getting past that I didn't like the characters. Except Tunafish :)Lora is just....dumb? Falls in love with her kidnapper, who is running from the law and for his life, within nine days. He threatens to kill her (and later a family with small children), rape her, he humiliates and terrorizes her. He steals all of her money and eventually leaves her stranded. Such an awesome guy, right? Of course her reasoning is that a "bad" man would do much worse and would have actually raped her. Even while she fears he might rape her, she is attracted to him. Anyway, throughout their adventure he is mean to her and speaks harshly to her at the best of times. He places her in a situation where she is nearly killed several times and is at one point arrested. But nevertheless, she loves him and if only he would love her he wouldn't have so many problems.Anyone thinking Stockholm Syndrome? Lora sure is, and considers it over and over and over. Does that stop her from caring for him? No.Max is obviously not the greatest guy. He is arrogant, rude, cruel, etc. He has a lot of problems that are later "explained" to originate from his time serving in the Vietnam War. Not really sure how Lora sees any of it as an excuse. Won't give away spoilers, but his "tragic" time there leaves me liking him less. (view spoiler)[Eventually he loves her too, so he ditches her in Guatemala and sends her home, later sending her money.....so that she will get pissy and come find him. Refused to swallow his pride and find her, as he says. Great guy. (hide spoiler)]
What do You think about Wild Orchids (1986)?
The H kidnaps the h and treats her badly, abusing her, humiliating her by stripping and tying her etc, all the while she doesn't stop trying to escape. He leaves her, she goes to the police who don't believe her, he rescues her, their plane goes down and they are stranded with an injured guy and two bad guys. The h has been engaged to a fellow teacher for 4 years, the H gives her adventure & she likes having hot sex with him. He is a complicated guy, Nam war messed him up & he is divorce
—Saly
I really like Karen Robards so when I picked up this book, I thought I would really enjoy it. I didn't realize this was an older works. You can tell because it is not up to her standards. The characters are likable, but the story was forced. The journey to the end was not smooth. A lot of scenes did not really tie into the story. Sometimes it seemed they had sex just because there was a need for "filler" pages. The twist and turns just didn't make sense most of the time. If you are a fan, go ahead and read. If you are new to Karen, try another of her books so you aren't disappointed.
—Donna
First off I feel it's only fair to say that the rating came from the mostly action oriented plot line. I mean there was a lot of action. There was a plan crash, car crash, gun fights, and much more. Too much action for me. The book starts with Lora on her vacation in Mexico when a frightening man jumps into the cars passenger side and orders her at gun point to drive the car. So she does. Very badly, trying to draw attention to herself and the situation going on and he doesn't like that. So he tells her if she doesn't drive right then he'll kill her. So she does what any person would have done. She wrecks the car and makes a break for it, not succeeding in getting away. She tries three times to escape during this part and all the attempts fail. So for the moment it looks like she was stuck with him. He fixes the car up and they head to a farmhouse where they can spend the night and she tries to tell he couple that she needs them to call the police but doesn't get the chance and her stunt has some embarrassing consequences for her. The next morning they both wake and continue driving until they reach a friend of his Ortega or something like that. And crash at his place. Once well rested they hit the road again and eventually Max leaves Lora and tells her to take the road and she'll pop out on a major interstate that will take her anywhere she wants to go, and to not go to the police. So what does she do? She goes to the police. And they lock her up, thinking that she is an accomplice of his. So when Max gets word of what happened he does a jailbreak and busts her out. And they continue on a journey where they fall in love with each other. I did not particularly care for this story. After everything that Max did to her she fell for him. She must have been seriously messed up in the head. 2.5/5 stars.
—Chelsea
