Rating: 
Summary: Imagine that...
Review: I have just ordered this book (and 8 other Woodiwiss books) and am amused by the reviews thusfar. It seems to be an "I love it" or an "I hate it" book. Which brings to mind other books that have had the same effect on people. Whether you love it or hate it, apparently the book is good enough to cause 113 reviews, which is more than most of the romance novels I've seen at Amazon. Once I've read it, I fully intend to come back and write a REAL review.
Rating: 
Summary: The Fire Will Never Die
Review: I have read the Flame and The Flower four times and I know it is a book I could read 400 hundred times. This book has been a family tradition. My grandma read it and pasted it on to my mother, my mother pasted it on to my sister, and then I was the last to read it. I read it for the first time when I was in college. That was four years ago and have read it every year since then. It brings all the romance back in my life that I need. I find this book so intriguing. I think Heather was a courage women and Brandon such a stallion. The love that these two people have for each other is wonderful. This book brings such warmth to my heart that I can't help but expressive my feelings for everyone. Sometimes when I need a relaxer I go and reread parts from the book. I incourage people to read this book. I LOVE IT!!!!
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Summary: Woodiwiss is one of the best
Review: The Flame and the Flower was the first historical romance that I read as a teenager. I am now 42 and still love it. I read all the books about the Birminghams and loved them all. I read all of the bad and good reviews and all the things about the rapes.The only thing I can say is that this book is fiction. I read a book for enjoyment not to analyze it. Yes Brandon raped Heather but they fell in love and lived happily ever after. If we take everything as true then I feel sorry for the children reading Cinderella & other childrens clasics.This is a fictional story and for the time frame the 1800's that's the way things were. Right or wrong marriages were arranged and the young girls married older men, there were slaves and that was how it was. I think the book would have been very boring if Brandon had met Heather at a party and was a complete gentleman, courted her, married her and then got her pregnant. I think if you read this book you won't be disappointed. In fact I think I'll read it again after I finish The Reluctant Suitor.
Rating: 
Summary: Rape and Racism are not Romantic
Review: Synopsis of this book: A sea captain wants to have sex with a whore one day (a regular occurrence for this man), so he sends out his underlings to go find him one. They find a girl out on the docks at night, and thinking this clearly means she is a prostitute, abduct her and bring her to the "hero". She, of course, is an innocent virgin in the wrong place at the wrong time. Despite her obvious distress and attempts to stop the man, the captain rapes this girl thinking she is just playing "hard to get" (because obviously whores can't really say no to a man). Later, after discovering his "mistake", the captain is so taken by the lovely girl he decides to make her his unwilling sex slave (because after he rapes her enough, she'll grow to love it). To demonstrate how much she'll like it if she doesn't struggle, he rapes the terrified, unmoving girl again. If you are thinking at this point that my use of the word "rape" has to be a bit strong, and that the circumstances in the book must make the hero's actions less offensive, please keep in mind that the author herself uses this word to describe the first meeting of her characters. So then the traumatized girl manages to escape and run back to her family. But since this is a romance novel, the two must meet again so they can fall in love. When the 18-year-old girl turns up pregnant, she is forced by her family/guardians to marry her rapist in order to save her from a life of difficulty and shame. The people who arrange this know the girl was raped by the 35-year-old man and are actively fearful that he will beat his new wife for forcing him to marry her. So then the married couple make their way to the captain's southern plantation, where we are introduced to stereotypes of happy dumb slaves and their benevolent owners. (See, the captain really is a good guy, he treats his slaves so well!) And then for some reason these two fall in love and live happily ever after. Yes, this book was written in the 70s, but that is no excuse for the continued publication and popularity of this highly offensive book.
Rating:
Summary: Really Bad
Review: This book was, in a word, horrible. I had heard really great things about it--that it was a classic, one of the best romances ever written. It's not. This book is really about abuse of a woman by a man. I could buy that as a premise for a romance, maybe, if something changes by the end. Maybe if there was some character development. But the only thing that happens is that the heroine and hero somehow discover that they love each other. He still treats her badly and apparently she is able to overlook that. He never feels the least bit remorseful or ever realizes that his poor and abusive treatment of his wife is wrong. And for the life of me, I can't figure out why he loves her either, because she's so boring and blah. Stay away from this book. It's worse than just bad. I came away from it with the negative, vaguely queasy feeling that I had somehow contributed to the degradation of women just by reading it.
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Summary: A great historical romance
Review: True love finally prevails in this marvelous book by Kathleen Woodiwiss - one of her best works and earliest. Also, other earlier works "Shanna" and the "Wolf and the Dove" reflect the same prose and language of poetry used by this author and the same passionate lovemaking. I could not put this book down until I had read it in its entirety. If you like romance novels set in earlier times, this is one of the best! Teanie Schmucky
Tampa, Florida
Rating:
Summary: The Ultimate Romance novel
Review: While I can repect some of the negative reviews, I would have to explain that....
Yes, some people may find the "purple prose" funny, and some people might abhor the fact that they think Brandon was a rapist.
The thing is, this book was written in the 70's and perhaps things were different then (Luke and Laura anyone?). If you will just remember it's an older book, and that really Brandon is no rapist, just confused (and don't forget, if things have changed this much in 30 years, how much different were things over a hundred years ago?) and so was Heather. However, once you put that aside (especially younger readers), you can realize that it is a story about 2 people who were so in love, but,like most relationships, are either stubborn or scared and do things that aren't exactly perfect examples of fitting behavior. I read this as a teenager years ago, and still re-read it from time to time. I find it rather nostalgic now, and a reminder of how innocent i was in my youth and how it made me feel then. Now it is like a welcome friend. The bottom line is, when you finally find real love, you WILL go through trying times, and you WILL have to overcome...but if you are in love...you CAN overcome. I loved the way Brandon put Heather on a pedestal and wasn't afraid for anyone to know how much he loved and admired her. yes, he was alot older than her, but really, age doesn't matter.
I would highly recommend this book to everyone. It does give both the man's thoughts and woman's thoughts so that you can see where they are coming from in their attitudes and actions.
I have also read the sequels and am delighted that Heather and Brandon are still alive and very much in love. I was really worried the story of Beau would pick up in his 30's and have one or both parents dead. Luckily, Ms. Woodiwiss didn't let us down.
I have gotten several family members and friends to read this book over the years, and everyone of them loved it.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
Rating:
Summary: What a romance novel isn't.
Review: I was quite infatuated with this book when I first read it. In time, I later began to question my affection for this book and everything it represents. THIS IS NOT A ROMANCE NOVEL!!! Anyone who associates rape with romance is not all there. The heroine is no more than a child and knows nothing about the world and men. What a surprise. Enter the hero, who is nothing more than a misogynist, rapist, and mentally and emotionally abusive to his helpless victim. This book is vile and goes against everything a romance novel is supposed to represent. Does anyone remember Heather being 3 months pregnant and Brandon grabbing her by the arms and making her cry? He might as well as shoved her out of the carriage. His temper and lack of remorse for what he did is appalling and nothing a true hero would ever consciously do. I have read a fair amount of romance novels in my day and this preoccupation with rape and romance is inexusable. When will romance writers and readers wake up and realize that violence against women whether fiction or otherwise is not to be tolerated? This book and others made me ashamed of even touching one. Needless to say, I don't read them anymore and have switched to "kinder, gentler" novels. You want romance? Read Anne of Green Gables and all those in the series. They are truly a gift to young and old alike and respect everything that makes a woman who she is.
Rating:
Summary: Completely Outdated
Review: Maybe people liked this stodgy kind of writing in the early 70's, but it doesn't age well at all. Woodiwiss' prose is a perversion of the English language. This book is shallow, but the main characters are even more shallow. I couldn't see what redeeming qualities the characters had that would merit them a happy ending. Don't believe the hype. This is romance from an era, not literature for the ages.
Rating:
Summary: So dissapointed
Review: Usually, I am not a picky reader, but this book was unbearable. The forced dialogue, the language, and the imagery made it impossible to connect with the characters. Woodwiss, instead of using "naught" to mean nothing, decided to use it to mean "not". This, among other things, made me put down the book without finishing it. I could not bring myself to waste anymore time reading its useless, shallow text.
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