Sweet Savage Love

Female lead is kidnapped and raped by her captor repeatedly. She idolizes him anyways. Can’t understand the high ratings here.

This book was written almost 30 years ago?!! I was astonished when I read that, because this book reads like a modern day book, a VERY well written modern day novel. I must admit, I hate romance novels with bad hero/heroines and after reading the reviews here, I almost passed on it. Well let me tell you, I am glad I tried it. Up most, what you gotta keep in mind is, this can NOT be considered a "romance" book.. you'll HATE it if you start this book thinking that. You must have an open mind, know that in this book you'll see the heroine abused horrible again, and again... raped, kidnap, horrible hero who cheats EVERY other day ( I swear ), and the heroine puts up with it. This makes it worst, where was the heroine's pride? Yep, your typical 70s book. I remember one scene, SPOILER HERE : After the hero kidnaps the heroine, he takes her to a whore house to hide her, he then goes to another room to shower and to have sex with one of the girls and the heroine is right next door, he then comes in the room see's she's been crying, asleep... he thinks about having sex with her too, right after having sex with a whore... that pissed me off! LOL, yes, horrible hero, and there were many, many scenes like this here, he was a male slut! END SPOILER: There are so many reviews here so read those for plots I wont go into that... You will enjoy this dark "fiction" novel with a dark hero and a beautiful heroine who will do anything and put up with anything for her love for this undeserving hero ( imho ). That part drove me nuts... Nevertheless, this book deserves 5 stars because I was thoroughly entertained, i seriously could NOT put this hateful, woman degrading novel down, I became addicted to this epic novel mid way. There are so many twists, so many awful things the hero does and the heroine goes through that will make you grind your teeth and yet, YOU will sit there losing sleep because you just gotta read another page.... IT WAS THAT GOOD.. Yes, I hated this book as a female reader but damn, what a novel.

It was over 20 years ago that I first read this book - now I am an avid historical romance reader. And nothing compares to this series. You hate this couple, you love this couple, you want to scream into the book and shake them for the way they treat each other - You can certainly not feel indifferent to them. At first it is Ginny that grates on my nerves the most. It is probably her immaturity - she is young and so completely clueless to real life and she angers Steve unnessecarily, taunts him and teases him to think her totally different than she really is. Steve on the other hand is totally the way he appears, tough, hardened and completely without any moral compass. Only his grandfather seems to give him any conscence so he marries Ginny after totally compromising her. This is when the book takes you into the darkest of depths - what happens to both Steve and Ginny should not even happen to anyone, even in a novel!! But perhaps some of this was necessary for Ginny to grow up and become a real person. It was during this horrible point in Ginny's life when she thought Steve dead, worse him thinking that she had betrayed him, that she realizes how very much she always loved him. Steve's tortures were as bad if not worse, and he becomes even more of a dark sole. When Ginny finally finds out he is alive and manages to get to the hacienda where he will eventually return - it will take every skill in her power to convince Steve that she had not betrayed him and that she wants their marriage and him. Right now I wish there were not these other books in this series - which I know i have to read - but I cannot even stand to know that this couple will probably go through all the anguish all over again for many years to come. The saga of Steve & Ginny is a timeless, heartfelt smoldering love story that causes the reader to be overwhelmed with its intesity!!

I have read all the of Rosemary Rogers books based on the Steve and Ginny saga. I think that I must have been 15 at the time that I read these books and I am now 35. Even by today's standard, these books are one of the best in historical romance. I loved the relationship with Steve and Ginny. It was not your average Princess meets Prince and falls in love and lives happily ever after. Steve and Ginny had their ups and downs, they loved each other to distraction and when they were hating each other you could actually feel the dept of their hatred. The best thing I like about this series was that Rosemary Rogers made you feel and care about Steve and Ginny and even when they were apart, I was alway rooting for them to stop wasting time and get back together. If you like historical romances, this book will be the place to start. If by the end of the series you do not have any feeling for Steve and Ginny then I would suggest you start all over again because you must have missed something.

I originally read this book when I was 15 years old and enjoyed it then, however, my mother loved this book and became a dedicated follower of the author. After reading 'Sweet Savage Love' years later, 1997, I discovered why she fell in love with the book, then. The novelist broke all the rules in the 1970s. The novelist made groundbreaking steps for new writers to emerge and shamelessly pen steamy, sensual and very graphic sexual or lovemaking scenes. Rosemary Rogers was one of the first to walk that untrodden path of penning explicit sex, however, Rosemary Rogers has a passion for sexual assault, as found in many of her books. The genre that every woman wants to be raped by her lover is ridiculous, especially if you've ever been forced to submit against your will (which obviously Rogers has not had to experience). But in Ginny and Steve's case, I believe that Ginny submitted because she wanted to. She allowed Steve to 'assault' her because she was just as enthralled with Steve Morgan as he with she. Lust ruled their relationship. They both were strong willed stubborn people whom were first attracted through lust. Love, if it did, came much later, after their children were grown in 'Bound By Desire'. But I enjoyed 'Sweet Savage Love' and enjoyed the characters. But I am not a fan of Rosemary Rogers. One negative fault with Rogers is the permiscuous nature of Ginny. Taboo. Not accepted by many romance readers. Romance readers can deal with the male's permiscuous activities, however, if he doesn't get his act together and loves the heroine with total devotion towards the end of the novel, then he is considered a candidate for penicillin and obviously lacks understanding on the definition of love. But 'Sweet Savage Love' still remains an all-time favorite of mine. What kept 'Sweet Savage Love' a favorite of mine was the excitement and adventure of capturing the gold, being on the run from the law, toppling governments and thwarting armies, etc. Steve Morgan was in essence an 1860s 'James Bond'. Yes, he is a 'secret service' agent for the United States government. A profession you don't find in many historical American romance novels. So if you enjoy excitement, adventure, intrique, and some 'I Spy', combined with passion, spunk, and plain old 'lust', you'll enjoy the timeless classic 'Sweet Savage Love'. But reader beware, this is not your typical romance novel and if you're a devoted fan of Johanna Lindsay, stay away from 'Sweet Savage Love'.