Book 39, 2019
Apr. 17th, 2019 07:49 pm
My rating: 1 of 5 stars
At work today, I finished the book I'd taken in to read on breaks. It was Raintree: Inferno by Linda Howard. The book is part of Silhouette's "Nocturne" line, and I believe it's the first installment in the "Raintree" trilogy, written by 3 separate authors. Beyond this, I have nothing good to say about it.
We have Dante Raintree, young scion of a family of gifted individuals. He owns and operates a casino, and he's become angry that lovely Lorna Clay keeps winning at his casino. He's convinced she's cheating, but he has no proof. In an effort to find out what's going on, Dante has his head of security bring Lorna to his office.
Lorna has always been good with numbers, and she uses the talent sparingly. She wins just enough to keep herself solvent, then moves on to another casino. Once in Dante Raintree's office, she is terrified at the currents of dangerous energy she can feel. The terror becomes all too real when the casino catches on fire, and Lorna must descend from the 19th floor with an angry man who won't let her out of his sight.
Things utterly fell to hell at this point.
Dante refuses to allow Lorna to escape with the others. As he directs everyone else to safety, he muscles her into the heart of the casino, and the fire, with him. Since fire is an element that Dante can control, he intends to quell the flames, then resume his interrogation of Lorna. The fire, however, refuses to bend to his will, and Dante ends up tapping Lorna's own, innate pool of power for the energy he needs. It's an act that leaves her in blinding pain and confusion.
Once they escape the building, Dante uses mind control (I shit you not) to command Lorna not to leave. She slowly regains her wits, and when she discovers what he's done, she is furious. Dante speaks to the police and firefighters, then hauls Lorna into his car and takes her to his home, where he continues to control her like a marionette. Convinced she may be one of the Ansara (another group of talented people, who are at war with the Raintree group), Dante orders Lorna to strip. When she refuses, he literally tears her clothing off, in search of a birthmark that will indicate she's Ansara. Of course, he doesn't find one. Lorna is left terrified, furious, and sobbing.
Dante leaves her alone for the rest of the night, but he won't let her leave.
The following day, he leaves the house, but orders her (still using mind control, here) to stay at his house. Once alone in the house, it apparently never occurred to Lorna to GET ON A GODDAMNED PHONE AND CALL THE POLICE. The author alluded to her having no love for the police, but to that extent? Now, I don't know about the rest of you, but if I was essentially being held hostage in someone's house, but still had free rein of said house, I would trash the shit out of it! There wouldn't be one piece of glass left unbroken. What did Lorna do? She switched his sugar and salt, and poured salt on his bed.
That night, when Lorna has gone to bed, Dante comes in and gets in bed with her, since his bed had salt in it. Um, are there not several other guest rooms? Yes, but sleeping with her was a power play. Did she attempt to leave? No, because she trusted him not to try anything. OMG, CAN YOU SAY STOCKHOLM SYNDROME?!
48 hours into this hot mess, she is wanting to have sex with him, and he wants her to have his babies. I am surprised I refrained from throwing this book against a wall. When they are on the verge of bumping uglies, then and only then does Lorna insist that Dante stop with the mind control. He wants the nookie enough to agree, but he's all surly about it. Like, wtf? Do you want a partner, or a puppet?
Going back to the beginning, because I can't let it go, Dante was pissed that this woman was winning about 5k here and there from him. He makes millions, and he begrudges her a few thousand?! Yet, this was his sole reason for dragging her INTO the fire; because he had yet to figure out how she was cheating him. Was it worth almost getting her killed?
Finally, to add insult to injury, the stupid effing book ended on a cliffhanger!
Favorite line (and I had to work to find one): Warning! McMuffin ahead!
I don't think I have the words to describe my loathing for this book. Classic abusive relationship, coupled with an insipid female lead with a clear-cut case of Stockholm Syndrome, twu wuv in two days, and I am wanting to gag all over again just thinking about it. There was nothing redeeming about this shit-show of a book.
One star, given with the utmost reluctance.