| Title | : | Gypsy Lady (Louisiana #1) |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0446607975 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780446607971 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 598 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 1977 |
Gypsy Lady (Louisiana #1) Reviews
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It's been way too long since I've picked up an old skool bodice ripper. I've been on a fantasy binge lately, and it's been absolutely swell, but the desire for bodice rippers was eating away at me like an itch that I couldn't resist. GYPSY LADY has been sitting on my bookshelf for two years, ever since my mom bought it for me as a birthday present. I'm one of those people who hoards books they're really looking forward to reading in order to build up the anticipation until the time is right, and when I spied that bright cover, I thought, "It's time."
As you might have guessed from the title, GYPSY LADY is not a book for the PC-set. It's about a girl named Catherine Tremayne who, along with her brother Adam, was kidnapped by gypsies when she was young and then returned to her family as an adolescent. She has been raised as a young lady but still enjoys frolicking in the nearby gypsy camps under the name they gave her, "Tamara."
The hero is named Jason Savage, although you could argue about whether or not he's actually a "hero." The book opens with him as a young man in an Aztec tomb, marveling at the treasure with his three friends, Nolan, Davalos, and Blood Drinker. Blood Drinker and Nolan are skeeved out, but Jason and Davalos decide to take a small piece of treasure, vowing that they'll come back some day for the rest.
Flash forward to the early 1800s, and Jason is now a man of wealth and privilege in his own right, running errands for President Jefferson to facilitate the Louisiana Purchase. He tomcats around and sleeps with Catherine's slutty and stereotypically evol cousin, Elizabeth, but when he sees Catherine at the gypsy camp, he decides that he must have her, and being a noble man, she can't say no. She tricks him by sending a decrepit old gypsy woman to his bed, who he almost has sex with by accident, and the horror and humiliation of this is so great that he decides a bit of rape is in order.
At first, he keeps Catherine as his mistress and rapes her a few more times (which she decides she likes, traitorous bodies and all), but when he finds out that she's actually a lady, he is forced to marry her; an insult to his manly pride, which he uses as an excuse to ill-treat her some more. She runs away to her brother's property in Louisiana, and when Jason chases her there, he assumes that her brother, Adam, is her new lover, and the baby she's carrying is a bastard she's had to taunt him.
When he finds out the baby is actually his, he gets angry all over again (I sense a pattern here) and uses that as yet another excuse to get angry at Catherine and treat her like garbage. At this point, she basically rolls with all the punches and moans about her broken heart and the fact that Jason will never love her. Ew. Since they're both experts at not fucking telling each other critical information, Jason fails to tell Catherine that Davalos, that guy who was his treasure hunting buddy from the beginning, now has it in for him because he thinks that Jason has the key to the treasure cave.
Davalos kidnaps Catherine after she flounces -yet again - from Jason Savage, rapes her a bit, and indirectly causes her to miscarry her child when, beaten and abused, she flees his camp on horseback. Jason finds her in the depths of agony and sends Blood Drinker to find, capture, mutilate, torture, and castrate Davalos, before leaving him in the desert to die. Once the deed is done, Jason informs Catherine, who is still suffering from PTSD, that the best cure for rape is marital rape, and forces himself on her to help rid her of those traumatic memories. She likes it, and the book ends "happily."
Man, what do I even say about this book? It kind of reads like an off-brand
SWEET SAVAGE LOVE. That book also had a POS hero who liked to slut his way around the globe, but the heroine gave as good as she got and didn't spend the whole book crying and whining and basically embracing victimhood like it was the most romantic gesture she'd ever seen (cringe). The surprisingly graphic torture scene at the end was also unwelcome, because most of the story was pretty dull (apart from the rapes, which are basically a given in romances written during this time period). I think the last time I saw something so graphic in a romance novel, it was in Parris Afton Bonds's
DUST DEVIL.
I did not really enjoy GYPSY LADY that much and I don't think I'd recommend it to anyone but the most hardcore readers of the old skool bodice ripper experience. I didn't feel the connection between the hero and heroine and he never groveled or suffered for his actions at all. Torturing one of his fellow rapists as a grand gesture didn't really do it for me. And the heroine lost all of her spirit and pluck as soon as the hero walked onto the scene and started making her body feel traitorous. Nope.
1.5 to 2 stars -
Absorbing Bodice Ripper But With Some Improbable Elements
This was Busbee’s first novel, and was followed by LADY VIXEN (to which I gave 5 stars). Busbee is, in my opinion, a brilliant writer of romance. She weaves intricate, historically accurate and absorbing stories that you do not want to put down. However, in both this one and the related WHILE PASSION SLEEPS, there were some improbable events at critical points that had me tearing out my hair and kept me from giving Busbee the 5 stars she otherwise deserves.
GYPSY LADY is set in an interesting time in history and Busbee integrates the history well, weaving in real historic figures. America is forced to seek an alliance with England to thwart Napoleon’s influence in America, and Napoleon, needing money for his planned war with England, is willing to sell America the Louisiana Territory. And our hero is in the middle of it all.
This story begins in England in the late 1700’s as Catherine Tremayne, who Gypsies kidnapped a young girl along with her half brother Adam, is returned to her father, the Earl of Mount. But she never lost her Gypsy beginnings. Years later, Lady Catherine Tremayne, now an 18-year-old noblewoman, still sometimes dresses as a Gypsy and dances at their camp. It is there American Jason Savage, who is in England on a secret assignment for President Thomas Jefferson, sees her and thinks to make the beautiful Gypsy his mistress.
Here’s where the improbable events come in: First, Jason assumes Catherine is another man’s mistress just because he saw them talking. Then, when he makes a degrading offer to Catherine to buy her favors, she, a British earl’s daughter, takes it lightly allowing Jason to think she is entertaining the idea. Please. Though she speaks like a noblewoman, Jason thinks she’s just a common whore. Don’t think that flies either. When he kidnaps and brutally rapes her, she finds him attractive and even enjoys a dinner with him “smiling at one of his amusing tales.” Right. He brutally rapes her a second time. Still she does not tell him who she is. (I could see him not believing her but not tell him? Can’t quite see that, can you?) Half the time she acts like a zombie (“accepting her fate”), making her look weak and stupid. The other half she is daydreaming he is her suitor (major Stockholm syndrome here). She never tells him who she is. And Jason was just mean and cruel, treating her like a slave and keeping her prisoner. After he forces her to go with him to Paris (still on the mission for President Jefferson), he goes out whoring every night. (At this point I thought he was nonredeemable; I couldn’t even see honor in his political dealings. Know what I mean?) He pretty much remains a bastard for most of the book; and Catherine never does seem to successfully defy him, but of course, in the end they come together. If the improbable elements don’t bother you, you’ll enjoy it.
Here’s the whole list in Busbee’s Louisiana Series (stand alone novels with some overlapping characters):
• Gypsy Lady, 1977
• Lady Vixen, 1980
• While Passion Sleeps, 1983
• Deceive Not My Heart, 1984
• The Tiger Lily, 1985
• Midnight Masquerade, 1988
• Whisper to Me of Love, 1991 (re-released 2012)
• Each Time We Love, 1993 -
2.5 stars
This book was definitely a BR! The book was so different from the author's newer books. Only fans of old fashioned BR would like this book.
Problems:
1. The MC don't even meet till 105pgs. I ended up skipping pages.
2. The H rapes the h and I don't mean the statutory rape , which is found in most old books. He forces her. Then he ties her up and kidnaps her. He even brings her to Paris against her will.
3. The h was immature and was prideful over stupid things. She never tells the H who she is or that her baby is his child.
4. There was never any peace between the MC. They fought over the stupidest things. If the author had more loving moments the book would have been so much better.
I gave the book extra stars bc the book improved near the end.
Though I enjoy a good BR, this one just wasn't for me. -
Loved this one!
It's a long one, almost 600 pages and it does take awhile for the H and h to actually meet but I never found myself bored at any point.
Tamara/ Lady Catherine (h) was kidnapped bands small child by a band of gypsy' s along with her older half brother. The person who set this up wanted them killed and out of the way but the gypsies decided to keep and care for them as their own. Years later when the children are nearly grown they are thrown back into the lives that were stolen from them. Learning to be a lady is suffocating for Catherine and he father makes arrangements with the gypsies and sets aside a plot of land close by for them to live so that Catherine can return to them and the freedom that the gypsy life entails. It is turning one of these times that our hero sees her for the first time, thinking her just a simple but beautiful gypsy wench, he also decides that he will have her.
Jason Savage (H) while in England on political business from Louisiana spies a beautiful gypsy girl and decides that she will be his. He makes plans to make her his next mistress and though she rebukes him time and again he will not be put off. After one of her shenanigans leaves him boiling mad, he forces himself on her. When it is revealed that the little gypsy wench that he has made his mistress (against her will) is actually a Lady , he has no other recourse than to marry her and take her home to America.
This has all of the elements of the old school bodice rippers from the H rapping the h and hitting her hard enough to bruise and split her lip to all of the huge misunderstandings and angst. -
This was my first ever romance novel.
I was ten.
This is the story of my childhood trauma.
I was ten years old. I was practically born with a hunger and passion for reading. Other parents would be trying to get their kid to read. My mother was trying to stop my reading- she suceeded that year too. I got first in class that year, and being in the best class... Well, that was an accomplishment.
But my mother didn't understand that I loved reading so badly, if she took my books away, I would simply just read HER books instead.
And this is how I read my first ever sex scene.
It was rape.
Dear adults, please take care of this novel if you have it. Dot traumatise any of your children. I cried after reading this book. I did.
And this is the tale of how I was thrust into the world of adult novels since young, and I haven't looked back since.
Good thing I was never that innocent. If not, I think I may have been scarred for life. -
When love and Stockholm Syndrome were one and the same!
I'd say it's a guilty pleasure but I felt no guilt. -
Why do I pick up books like this? And then, why do I read them almost halfway through before throwing them down in disgust? I admit that a part of me was fascinated by this story. I didn't enjoy it and it wasn't romantic, I was just fascinated, in much the same way a person might pay attention to a sex scandal while saying how horrible it is that the media is fixated on such things. And at first, Jason didn't seem so bad. A bit oversexed, but what romantic hero isn't? (I could actually name a few, and I appreciate them, but it is a cliche I am resigned to.) And when he mistakes a lady for a gypsy (because she sort of is...she was raised by them, and still spends time with them) and arrogantly demands that she become his mistress, I had all the right responses. But when he rapes her and kidnaps her and blames the whole thing on her....well, I kept reading even after that, even though I know from experience that a rape is and should always be a put-down moment. I read until they are forced into marriage, all the while Jason is still blaming her for being a tease and provoking him. Ugh. Maybe I was hoping he would feel remorse for what he had done? I don't know why, because even if she were the experienced woman he originally thought her to be, his actions were deplorable and beyond forgiveness. Or maybe I was just curious, because there are a fair number of these types of books out there, whether there was something appealing that I missed because I threw it down too soon. Perhaps there is, closer to the end, but I don't really want to find out.
If you like arrogant men who rape and kidnap women, yell at them a lot, and sometimes physically abuse them.... -
A true bodiceripper!!!
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This was Busbee's first book, and I read it after Lady Vixen, which is in my mind as a sort of special book because it was my first adult book, first bodice ripper. I ready it probably like 30 years ago.
I must admit that whilst I did finish it and I love Shirlee Busbee, this was a toughy. I actually thought the hero was quite a bastard, and treated the heroine appallingly. I notice a few years ago I gave it four stars, but I'm kind of not sure I should have as the hero raped the heroine, and it was quite nasty, and he did it numerous times after he kidnapped her. I never liked the hero and by today's standards I certainly wouldn't really call him a hero. She did fall in love with him, but quite honestly I'm not sure why. He was good looking, but since he was a rapist bastard, it's all he had.
I'm writing this review simply because I hadn't done one, and it is a memorable book, but for not nice reasons. I have absolutely loved other Busbee books, but this wasn't one of them. I felt pretty bad whilst I was reading it, and after it. -
This book is such a train wreck. But unlike 50 Shades of Grey it is better written. I enjoyed the historical elements and kept reading because I wanted to see how it ended. I finished the 50 shades trilogy- so I guess I felt I needed to finish this. I need a list entitled "awful books that I think were sprinkled with hallucinogens because I kept reading."
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Good bodiceripper, full of misunderstandings and viciousness on the hero's part. Flawed but highly entertaining. If you don't like bodicerippers don't read it and complain. If you do, ENJOY!
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Хубавото е, че авторката поне има малко по-разнообразен в географско отношение сюжет. Това да намеси Франция си е велико разнообразие на фона на досадните до втръсване английски имения, но добрата стара Бъзби все пак е от ерата преди политкоректността, която идеално се съчетава и с ограниченост, която направо може да разболее човек, и по-конкретно читателката от женски пол.
Същата тази читателка обаче ще и иде да завие при изключително идиотски написаната героиня. Е, няма такава липса на елементарна логика! Дори в зората на 19-ти век не може да е съществувала чак толкова глупава жена! И за по-красиво - инат. Този начин на построяване на сюжет на база изцяло несекващи недоразумения, нелогични заключения, нелепи и опасни постъпки явно е бил доста популярен, сега също се прилага в изчистен вариант в сериали и романчета, но глупостта никога не е била и няма да бъде секси. -
The hero starts out sexy, forceful, good looking and highly sexed and deteriorates into a revengeful philandering rapist and woman batterer who blames her for everything. The problem isnt as much the violation and beating itself, which given the times may have been historically accurate, its the fact that his transformation into love does not include remorse or promise to never do it again - on the contrary, he explains it away blithely as part of his volatile character and if she doesnt continue to drive him to it it will not happen, blah blah, thus not taking any reponsibility for it. He is one sick hero! Despite being distinctly repulsed by him over and over again, there is a lot of action in the plot that kept me from dropping the book altogether. There is also lots of Louisiana history which was brought to life vividly... native americans, creoles, slave markets, etc.
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Typical bodice ripper, heroine is kidnapped and raped by hero, they both have a million misunderstandings about each other and there's a lot of anger between them. I still enjoyed the story though, and the setting which took place during the sale and purchase of Louisiana.
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Ugh. I am so glad that I am finished with this awful book. Everyone is stupid, including myself for wasting my time with this novel.
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THE! COVER!
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One of the first romances I ever read (I think someone lent it to me when I was about 12). Therefore, I haz a soft spot. I don't think it would hold up so well now though!
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Old-fashioned and very enjoyable.
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Este libro estuvo bien en su momento, aunq ya desde entonces no me fascinó, si bien tiene una trama interesante. Catherine no es una niña de sociedad al uso, xq se crió entre gitanos y le cuesta por tanto someterse a las estrictas normas de la sociedad elegante. Jason Savage en un clásico aristócrata de época, y en cuanto a él no hay grandes sorpresas. No recuerdo bien xq "tuvieron" q casarse pero sí recuerdo q la trama es una interminable seguidilla de malentendidos entre ambos protagonistas, demasiado arrogantes, orgullosos y soberbios para ceder ante el otro.
Pasan entre ambos muchas cosas q hoy no serían toleradas o por lo menos, serían sumamente criticadas, pero justo es decirlo, sigue una línea específica q marca esta autora en sus novelas, mucha intensidad de sentimientos, sean éstos positivos y negativos. Podrás no compartir muchas cosas, pero encontrarás mucha intensidad. Para lo q sirva, si alguien se quiere animar. -
To start with I would've given this a three star. The rape and kidnap kind of turned me off but as I got more into the story I really started to enjoy it although more often then not I felt like reaching into the pages and knocking the main characters heads together but for what is and something I don't usually read I did enjoy it
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Ispudinga meiles istorija, veiksmo cia tikrai netruksta!tik gal per daug prievartos ir politikos 🤔
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The first book and my least favorite of the series.
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ооочень противоречивая книга
