Review: Paxton Pride

Paxton Pride by Kerry Newcomb
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

1.5 stars

I just want to say, even if I don't end up liking/enjoying the books you all recommend to me, I always get something out of them. I greatly appreciate the time and effort you all take to think of me.
Thank you to Belinda for the recommendation.

Part 1 comments

Part 2 comments

Part 3 was were I kicked my skim reading into gear. I just couldn't, y'all. The almost raped yet once again heroine scene after scene had me exhausted. To say this story is problematic would be sugar coating it. The third part the hero and heroine hardly spend any time together as hero has run away to get over his blaming of the heroine for losing their child. Heroine miraculously sheds her city persona and becomes Annie Oakley and takes to running the ranch. Men love her for it and of course, women are jealous of her. The men loving, women hating is so extreme in this, bleh.

Heroine ends up getting kidnapped by villain, lives under constant threat of rape from him, another glorious scene where villains sexual aggressiveness starts to turn her on, a very woman's no can easily be turned into a I really want it yes. An almost gang rape scene, heroine gets tossed and stripped in a circle of men before they are interrupted.
I just don't know how I could stand the romance of it all!!!!

These older, longer saga romance reads typically would do a great job with incorporating historical detail and creating a very clear setting, this one is no exception; I enjoyed the western setting. The sexism and racism just ended up ruining it for me.

She was much woman, this one. There was much spirit in her---a real woman's spirit. Not like the temperamental Marcelina. The little one knew how to please a man, knew instinctively and exquisitely where and how to touch him, how to move. But such a girl was for a moment and no longer. There were many more like her. The woman at the fire was one of strength, of character as strong as the hills and rocks themselves. A man who was blessed with the love of such a senorita would need no other woman except occasionally, for the sake of diversion.

Because of course, the Latina SIXTEEN year old girl is just a natural sexual being, while the white woman only encapsulates the highest virtues. Which, I have to say, home girl only started to lose her spoiled ass attitude only about three chapters back, so singing her virtues seems a bit premature. Also, because I simply can't keep the horror to myself, the sixteen year old and villain end up being brother and sister. Which turns out the villain knew. He knew he was banging his sister. Yep, this was a two for one, dad and brother incest!!!!
The bonus line of men being blessed with a good woman so they only have to sleep with other women occasionally for sake of diversion, had me feeling spoiled.

So, I won't be continuing on with the series.

A huge thank-you to previous generations of women who worked and work to clear this type of grossness from my younger generation eyes. I only hope to do the same for the next.



View all my reviews

60%

I've made it to part 3.

While part 1 was dominated by the father lusting scene, part 2 was all about the rape. You see, the male authors have decided that the only way our heroine can or wants to exert her power is by flirting and coyly seduce men. No friends with women because they are all just jealous of her beauty. There's a great scene where heroine is friendly with a a guy and he misinterprets or over interprets her friendliness into meaning she wants to have sex with him. He almost rapes but the hero ends up shooting him first. Hero blames her for guys death. You see he was a really great guy who was driven crazy by heroine's friendliness.

The hero's mom is good, because of course men put them in a different category than other women but the rest of the characters don't fair so well. There is a sixteen year old Latina character who lusts after the hero and throws herself at him, he gets hard for her but manfully pushes her away. She then of course betrays everyone when she lets in the villain into the ranch. The villain who raped her, until she passed out but the third time he rapes her, she decides she likes his strength and wants to be his woman. 

So anyway, there was a lot to choose from for a quote from this 2nd part but I'll give you this:

"I know what happened. For three nights and days I've been here fighting your fever with cold cloths and listening to you repeat the story over and over again. You had a gun. You could have stopped him." He placed the lantern on the table, leaned over and gripped her by the shoulders, his fingers bruising the flesh of her arms, his voice quaking. "Karen. He killed Maruja. You let him. You ran. You...killed our son."

When the villains broke into the ranch, our city gal heroine panicked (I don't think the hero ever taught her to fire a gun) and froze, not firing her weapon to defend. She ended up falling and losing her baby. "Hero" blames her for the miscarriage. 

I can't wait to see what part 3 brings

(There was some good Alamo history) 

Trying not to be a glass half empty person :/

Reading Update: 30%

Look, I'm an old hat with reading romance books, bodice rippers? I cut my teeth on them. Modern books tend not to follow the beaten path those took, some have the same tropes just coated in "alpha" and "dark" semantics. Really though, pretty close to tomato, tomato. This one, oooh this one sneaked up on me, but you can't fool a permanent resident of Romancelandia.

Take at glance at that innocent cover.

LIES.

This is the original cover:

TOO BEAUTIFUL! RARE POWER!

Time to gird your f-ing loins, people.

This was originally published in 1976. Also, notice how two dudes took a woman's name to publish under. The breast talk/worshiping had me wondering at 10%, suddenly things make more sense. 

I'm going to guess they did not revise the new 2015 republished version. Why do I say that you wonder? 

For a moment the two stared at each other, the mere sight of their naked bodies arousing them. No touch was needed between these two. Angie felt the throbbing ache awaken in her loins as the animal before her hardened, rose tumescent and pulsing to its full height. Her hand went down to sweep the remaining piece of silk from across her thighs, revealing the soft, moist lips so eager to be stroked, parted, entered and ravaged. Eyes burning and lips parted, she threw wide her arms to greet the carnal god as he approached. There would be no more waiting.

No mere coitus for Angie, she's waiting to be RAVAGED.

Did I mention Angie is not the heroine? Angie is not the heroine. Hero is banging another woman 10% in.

Now, nothing I could say could prepare you this, so just, I don't know, have puppy gifs keyed up.

Barrett is her FATHER,

Barrett glared at her, panting with fury. “Slut!”

“Slut!?” Karen spit back. Her voice was low, barely audible in the heavy silence. “Is that how you see your daughter? As a slut?” The two faced each other in timeless attitudes of belligerence until Karen straightened herself, stood regally, boldly before him, her gown falling away to her sides to reveal her naked body, the perfect breasts rising and falling slowly, the thick light brown patch of pubic hair exposed between finely sculpted thighs. “Do I look like a slut to you?”

It had been a long time since Barrett had seen his daughter naked. Not since she was a little sandy-haired tomboy swimming in a New Hampshire stream. But this was no little girl. His eyes raked over her and he was unable to stop them. Karen watched her father’s line of vision and made no attempt to cover herself. Contemptuously aware of the power her body could wield over a man, any man, even her father, she stood still as a statue blatantly displayed to he who should not look. Barrett, his momentum shattered, suddenly aware of his licentious reaction, staggered back, shocked by his obvious and less than fatherly interest in his daughter’s body.

Because of course, even though it is his daughter, what do women's bodies do? They evilly tempt men.

I'm 30% in. 

As with these older written stories, they are longer and more sagas. This first part took place in Washington D.C. The heroine broke off her engagement and is set to leave with the hero back to his home in Texas. 

I'm going to continue to read, partly because of morbid curiosity, and partly because this older books actually incorporate the scenery and setting; I do enjoy the epic adventure feel. I just hope the less desirable components disappear.