Beauty Like The Night

Beauty Like the Night written by Liz Carlyle was published in 2000. I feel like this book could have come from the 80s!

Backblurb from Amazon.com

The daughter of London's wickedest widow, Helene de Severs has struggled to overcome her heritage. Renowned within Europe's emerging psychiatric field, Helene has a gift for healing children. When fate sends her back to England, the country she left in disgrace, Helene is confident she has learned to govern her own reckless emotions.
Ruthlessly, Treyhern has dragged his notorious family from the brink of ruin. But a disastrous marriage has left him with a traumatized child, and his rebellious brother is just one step ahead of the bailiffs. When his dissolute father drops dead while debauching the governess, Treyhern's infamous temper is truly tested.
But the forceful earl means to straighten everyone out -- as soon as he has hired a reputable governess. Yet the moment she steps from his carriage, Treyhern's cold reserve is melted by a rush of desire he had long thought dead. With her elegant clothing and mountain of luggage, the woman is not who he expected. Or is she? Sometimes the workings of the mind are as dangerous as those of the heart. And soon, danger is truly everywhere...

You may recall that my first problem with the book was that there was a child in it. Well, the child is in it so very little that she was no longer the problem.

Helene and Cam were torn apart 10 years before the story when Helene's mother, Cam's father's paramour, discovers them in an unfortunate position. Helen's mother knew pressing for marriage would not work so she had Cam's father pay for an education for Helene. Cam, apparently had no knowledge of this.

So 10 years later, Helene is hired as a governess for a girl who will not speak and who most people fear is simple. Helene has garnered a reputation over the years as a healer of children and thus, she comes back into Cam's life as the young girl is his daughter.

Any reader who has read romances as long as I have will know every trick this book pulls out. I have read this story one too many times and the problems that plague these characters are all well trod. It may have been a fun little escape into a well known area except for a disturbing thought pattern by the hero.

It was at the half way point in this story that I realized there was something well off about the so called hero in this book. These two people had been allowed to run wild with each other and when they were teenagers everything changed. The problem was that Cam, as well as Helene, blamed Helene's passionate nature for turning Cam into a raving sex pervert. Helene at many points tells herself that Cam could not be blamed for losing control with her because she pushed him beyond his limits. Cam also notes how Helene's passionate nature can drive any man to believe that she should be his.

WTF!?

I began to feel like I was reading the thoughts of a rapist. A man who would look outside himself for the reasons that he could not 'maintain control' of his actions. For a man who was supposed to be responsible in every way, it was disconcerting to see him blame all of his failures on Helene. That Helene decides she pushes his buttons makes the reader feel like they are in the head of a co-dependent. Someone who needs to explain why their mate is so hateful.

Not that anything truly hateful happens or for that matter that a rape happens. It was just disconcerting to be inside these people's heads.

So here is my problem and I'll use spoiler tricks which means if you want to know you will have to highlight the area to see the words.

I *knew* that Helene had to be a virgin. She had to be. Why? Because there was no way Cam would have been able to deal with it if she hadn't been. He thinks about how she had to have been with other men, that her passionate way would have led her astray. I knew this device was coming because I could see no other way around it. Not only that, after the deed is done Cam asks her why she didn't tell him. She is perceptive enough to say 'Would you have believed me?' He answers 'yes' while internally hoping that he would have. I wished in that instance that I could physically harm this guy. Dude, you would never, ever, ever have believed her and God forbid she had actually met anyone and had a discreet affair because you would have lorded it over her for the rest of your Happily Ever After lives!! Not only that, Cam tells her how he never stopped loving her and she mentions how he had obviously found other women to bed. Cam says yes, but it left him wanting. Oh, well then, that don't count. You can screw whoever, whenever you want and not have to worry that your heroine will be a jealous pig. Blech!!

So this book didn't make me gag out loud or anything but it has made me gun shy of reading more Carlyle. I think I will read a more recent story but with a title of One Little Sin I am worried that there may be more instances of heroines blaming themselves and heroes who are too happy to flay them with their faults. Yetch.

The only character that I felt curious about was Cam's brother Bentham (because he was a bigger mess than Cam) and even then, I'm not sure I want to read his story if there was ever one printed.

I'm going with a C- for this book. I kept reading because I was waiting for the club to come down on the hero's head. Carlyle is a good writer but if I read another one of her books that is so stereotypically an 80's romance I won't be reading another!