The Desert Virgin

Leanna DeMarcos is kidnapped by sex slavers and sold to an evil despot, who in turns gives her to Cameron Knight. Cameron and Leanna escape and fall in love, yadda yadda yadda.

I had high hopes for this story after seeing it's 5 star rating on Amazon. It was awful, awful, awful. Completely ludicrous. Leanna should be traumatised. She is held in captivity for weeks, sold and stripped naked and mauled in front of a group of male strangers. When Cameron meets her, he tears off her bra (in front of the previously mentioned group of strangers), takes her to his room and ties her to his bed. Then we get one of the biggest cliches in romance novels - he thinks she's a slut, but discovers she's a virgin when they have sex. I really don't like this plot device. It always makes me wonder what would happen if she wasn't a virgin, of if he didn't realise. I would much rather the hero realises the heroine isn't a slut, without having to actually have sex with her first. Anyway, upon discovering her "innocence", Cameron withdraws, to which Leanna responds by seducing him. At the end of the book, Cameron is furious with Leanna because he thinks she doesn't love him (after he has totally rejected her and told her he doesn't love her), sneaks into her room in the dark and holds her against the wall by the throat while he (once again) strips her and feels her up. She of course responds by being ecstatically happy to see him. Ugh. Characters like this are why romance novels have a bad reputation. Ludicrous, absolutely ludicrous.