Rating: 
Summary: I don't know whether I liked this book or not....
Review: If you are looking for some explicit sex scenes, you've come to the right place. I don't know whether I liked this book or not. For the most part I look forward to reading Karen Robards book's and this one was no exception. The writing of the story was wonderfully done, with interesting characters and different way of chronologically telling the story. Cathy and Jon's story starts AFTER they have met, been married and had a child. It is only when she is called away to her sick father's bed - an ocean away - that things go wrong. I suppose what bother's me so much about this story is the way Ms. Robards has the hero continually using the heroine - and uses is the right word. [Don't read further in this paragraph if you do not want to know some of the plot.] Being so mad at Cathy (for a misunderstanding he won't even listen to her explain)he rapes her in one scene, and takes her repeatedly without her consent for weeks. Cathy gets angry, and goes into a type of comatose state that rape victoms often do, but then, when they are in danger, forgives him everything - even sleeping with another women in front of her. How can someone love anyone like that - even if he later regrets his actions or realizes he did it because he was SO jealous? No matter what his background is or his distrust of women, how (or why) would anyone put up with that? I hate to sound so wishy-washy but I can't righty suggest or spurn this book. It really depends upon the reader's interest and tolerance level.
Rating: 
Summary: I loved it
Review: It may have been um, a "harder" type of book, bu I am open to most topics in books, so I loved this book. Jon was a jerk sometimes, yes and Cathy too immature, but it is a book, and a story. So, I loved it. Give me more!!
Rating: 
Summary: Not her best effort
Review: Karen Robards has written some of my favorite historical romances, but this is *not* one of them. The characters of Cathy and Jon are too one-dimensional and their emotional growth in the story is just about nil (particularly amazing since this book is the sequel to "Island Flame"--300 plus pages of more of the same.) The two books were written in the early 1980's, so I believe that they are some of Karen Robards's earliest efforts. Near the beginning of "Island Flame", beautiful Lady Catherine is captured by a pirate ship captained by the very handsome Jonathan Hale. Despite the fact that she is half his age and a virgin, Jon rapes her repeatedly (he later denies that it was rape because he has managed to wring a little response out of ther on occasion.) Looked at objectively, his behavior is what you might expect from a pirate captain in the mid-1800's, and I might even have been able to get past it and forgive him for it if he had ever really taken responsibility for his bad behavior and *changed*! But he never changes. He is still the same violent, insanely possessive, thoughtless, serial mis-understander and rapist almost all the way through "Sea Fire". All this *after* he has declared his love to Cathy at the end of "Island Flame" and has lived as her husband for two previous years. Needless to say, Jon is a very troubling "hero". To my mind, he is unsatisfying even as an anti-hero as he lacks any underlying vulnerability and redemption. His misogynistic tendencies are explained away as a result of the trauma of discovering that his stepmother was a whore--but that seems inadequate given the depth of his pathology.
The problem with the hero is compounded by the lack of a compelling heroine. Cathy is constantly described as beautiful and desirable (even immediately post-partum! How is that for romantic fiction!) but she is also a vain, thoughtless, tantrum-throwing twit. She is also plenty verbally and physically abusive in her own right. Although she never does anything to deserve Jon's horrible treatment, she does frequently throw kerosene on the fire of his rage by her reactions and insults. Not smart, in my opinion and she *never* learns. The "I hate you/I love you" thing gets very tiresome before the book is half done.
They are also *terrible* parents (abandoning a 2 year old for a year with the nanny and leaving a one month old baby alone on a beach while they frolic all night at a distant site on the island--shudder!)
Given what has gone on in this and the previous book, the ending of "Sea Fire" is not satisfying. I was waiting for Jon to come crawling back *on his knees* and to prove that he really had changed his ways--and I am still waiting. The comments from Cathy's nanny and her father about what a great guy Jon was and how well he had treated her were *appalling*.
In summary, this book was ultimately unsatisfying and not one of Karen Robards's best efforts. I would recommend instead one of her other, much better, historical romances, such as "Dark of the Moon", "Tiger's Eye", "Loving Julia", "Desire in the Sun" or "Dark Torment". For a much more entertaining take on the "innocent kidnapped by pirates" theme read "Windflower" by Laura London--well worth it if you can get ahold of a copy.
Rating:
Summary: Not her best effort
Review: Karen Robards has written some of my favorite historical romances, but this is *not* one of them. The characters of Cathy and Jon are too one-dimensional and their emotional growth in the story is just about nil (particularly amazing since this book is the sequel to "Island Flame"--300 plus pages of more of the same.) The two books were written in the early 1980's, so I believe that they are some of Karen Robards's earliest efforts. Near the beginning of "Island Flame", beautiful Lady Catherine is captured by a pirate ship captained by the very handsome Jonathan Hale. Despite the fact that she is half his age and a virgin, Jon rapes her repeatedly (he later denies that it was rape because he has managed to wring a little response out of ther on occasion.) Looked at objectively, his behavior is what you might expect from a pirate captain in the mid-1800's, and I might even have been able to get past it and forgive him for it if he had ever really taken responsibility for his bad behavior and *changed*! But he never changes. He is still the same violent, insanely possessive, thoughtless, serial mis-understander and rapist almost all the way through "Sea Fire". All this *after* he has declared his love to Cathy at the end of "Island Flame" and has lived as her husband for two previous years. Needless to say, Jon is a very troubling "hero". To my mind, he is unsatisfying even as an anti-hero as he lacks any underlying vulnerability and redemption. His misogynistic tendencies are explained away as a result of the trauma of discovering that his stepmother was a whore--but that seems inadequate given the depth of his pathology.
The problem with the hero is compounded by the lack of a compelling heroine. Cathy is constantly described as beautiful and desirable (even immediately post-partum! How is that for romantic fiction!) but she is also a vain, thoughtless, tantrum-throwing twit. She is also plenty verbally and physically abusive in her own right. Although she never does anything to deserve Jon's horrible treatment, she does frequently throw kerosene on the fire of his rage by her reactions and insults. Not smart, in my opinion and she *never* learns. The "I hate you/I love you" thing gets very tiresome before the book is half done.
They are also *terrible* parents (abandoning a 2 year old for a year with the nanny and leaving a one month old baby alone on a beach while they frolic all night at a distant site on the island--shudder!)
Given what has gone on in this and the previous book, the ending of "Sea Fire" is not satisfying. I was waiting for Jon to come crawling back *on his knees* and to prove that he really had changed his ways--and I am still waiting. The comments from Cathy's nanny and her father about what a great guy Jon was and how well he had treated her were *appalling*.
In summary, this book was ultimately unsatisfying and not one of Karen Robards's best efforts. I would recommend instead one of her other, much better, historical romances, such as "Dark of the Moon", "Tiger's Eye", "Loving Julia", "Desire in the Sun" or "Dark Torment". For a much more entertaining take on the "innocent kidnapped by pirates" theme read "Windflower" by Laura London--well worth it if you can get ahold of a copy.
Rating:
Summary: A highly erotic romance by sea!
Review: Lady Catherine was happily married to Jon Hale, the pirate who once seized her body, then stole her heart. When she received a letter of her ailing father, she returns to England to see him. There she discovered that her marriage was a sham. Jon and she were never legally wed. When Jon followed her to England he walked in to find her being thoroughly manhandled by Harold, and not fighting him off, he went wild. What really happened is that Harold began to take advantage of her as she dozed on the couch. She was not totally awake when Jon walked in to find Harold touching her. Jon is sent to prison for his history of piracy and sentenced to hang. Harold agreed to save him, but only if Catherine married him and make Jon believe she did so willingly. To save Jon's life, she agreed. But then Jon is out for revenge. He kidnaps her on her honeymoon and begins to treat her as he believed she deserved. ***An erotic fantasy to make for wonderful dreams.***
Rating:
Summary: Very frustrating storyline
Review: One thing I really hate is when an author repeatedly has the heroine taking all manner of abuse from the "hero". When Cathy says "I hate you" An hour later she's back in bed with him. Come on Ms. Robards give her a break!!
Rating: 
Summary: A Story that Inspires Anger
Review: The entire premise of this book is rather offensive. Unless you're a big fan of underdeveloped characters, a weak plot, rape (I lost count of the number of times the heroine Cathy is raped or almost raped) and child abuse, then I do not suggest this book. I was particularly outraged by how our 34-year-old hero, raping a 17-year-old Cathy was justified because she "subconsciously wanted him."
Rating:
Summary: I give it 1 Star Just for Being the sequel to Island Flame
Review: The first book was so horrible that I can't even believe there is a sequel. And from what I hear it is almost identical to the first. He loves her, he hates her, he rapes her , beats her, loves her, etc. Blah, Blah, Blah. If you want a good book read any Judith McNaght Book or Julie Garwood book. You don't have to deal with this kind of stuff.
Rating:
Summary: Karen Robards could have done better!
Review: This book and it's sequal was not to my taste. Very abusive (i.e. rape and threats of bodily harm). Whatever happened to prince charming in romance novels? This hero was more like Marquis De Sade.
Rating:
Summary: dysfunctional and abusive isn't sexy
Review: This book really bothered me. I guess it was aiming for readers with different tastes than I have. I like characters who develop mutual respect and grow to love one another. This book was about a couple that became so abusive to each other that in real life, prison terms and restraining orders would have been issued. They are cruel and selfish for the whole book, making the "happy ending" absurd. I didn't find it romantic or sexy. This book really made me curse my inability to stop reading a book once I start it. It was so opposite of love that when I finished reading the book I tore it in half and threw it away in disgust.
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