Do you remember the 90s, when images of Fabio Lanzoni graced the walls of every Walden Books store? I do. The original pressing of Fires of Winter didn't have Fabio on the cover, but the repressing did. I like that. For my month of Romance-focused reading, I needed a Fabio book.
Fires of Winter takes place in the 9th century. It tells the story of a Gaelic duchess (or young woman of nobility, are they the same?) named Brenna, who hates doing women's work. Her family gets enslaved by vikings. None of them mind this or even the rapes they endure. None of them mind except for Brenna, who finds that, when first raped, sex isn't as bad as she was taught.
Garrick, our love interest and most present rapist, hates women. He doesn't trust them, and will only deign to use them for sex when he has no choice. So there are a lot of romance novel tropes going on with Fires of Winter. I suppose some tropes are necessary for readers to get a grip on the story, and I think I get it. The spunky woman and her captor are roles in the sexual fantasy of this story. I only wish the story hadn't been otherwise so stupid.
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