Rowena’s review of The Wildest Heart by Rosemary Rogers.
Hero: Lucas Cord
Heroine: Rowena Dangerfield
Passionate, Headstrong Lady Rowena Dangerfield and dark, dangerous outlaw, Lucas Cord….two destinies intertwined under the blazing New Mexico sun. Lady Rowena Dangerfield travels from the exotic palaces of India to the splendor of the Royal Court of London to the savage New Mexico frontier to lay claim to her inheritance and live freely as only she would dare. In the violent, untamed American Southwest, she finally meets a man as strong as she is: Lucas Cord, a dark, dangerously handsome, half-Apache outlaw. Fighting scandal, treachery and murder, Luke is determined to have Rowena for his own, and as their all-consuming passion mounts, no one is going to stop him…
When I first started this book, I didn’t quite know what to expect. The ARC that we received from Sourcebooks was pretty thick and I knew it wasn’t going to be an easy read but that was mainly because of the thickness of the book. I wasn’t fully prepared for what I found instead. Instead of the book being a trial to read because it was so lengthy, it wasn’t the length of the book that was the trial. It was the story itself.
There was so much going on throughout the story and it was sometimes very hard to get through. Ugly things happened in this story and though it’s not my usual cup of tea, I couldn’t stop reading this book. It reminded me of one of those train crashes that you see off the side of the freeway, it’s a very ugly sight and yet you can’t stop looking. It was exactly like that.
This story follows Lady Rowena Dangerfield as she goes from her life in India after her grandfather dies to live with her mother in England and then off to America where she claims her inheritance from her father which was half of the SD Ranch. In order to claim her inheritance, she had to meet all of these demands set forth by her father. While I understood a lot of Rowena’s frustration at having half answers from just about everyone, I still couldn’t bring myself to really care for her because she was so judgmental. Of everyone. Lucas Cord (the hero) summarized my feelings for Rowena splendidly when he said,
“…Ever since the first time we met, you’ve been judging me, judging everyone else. It’s time you did some figuring out for yourself, Ro. An’ while you’re doing that, better take a good look at yourself too. There aint a human being in this world who’s perfect, an’ at least I never asked that or expected it from you. But you set yourself above everybody else, make your own conclusions…what gives you that right?”
Far too many times in this book, I kept saying this about Rowena. What gives her the right to jump to the conclusions she did? Because she was always pissed off at Lucas for something or other and she was always pissed off at him for something that someone else told her. Mark and Todd tells her that he’s bad news so it must be true, Todd hates his guts so he must be this terrible person and yet, her FATHER believed in him. Her father didn’t think he was a bad person and yet she breezed over that bit of news and hated Lucas all the same. I guess in some ways, it was understandable considering what she went through but out of all the guys who did her dirty, Lucas was the only person that didn’t and she hated him. It bugged me.
This book was quite exhausting emotionally because there was so much ugly in it. So many things happen to Rowena and seriously, all of this forced seduction just wasn’t my cup of tea. Did Rowena really need to go through all of that to get to her happy ending? I don’t think so, she was put through the wringer and this book could have been chopped in half (Outlander, anyone?) and I still think the story could have been told to completion.
As far as Lucas goes, when we first meet him, we’re told that he’s a rapist and a really terrible person. It was all heresay so I didn’t put too much stock in it but then I read that he was sleeping with his mother and I’m appalled. But like a train wreck on the side of the road, I couldn’t stop from looking again. I had to keep reading to find out what that whole deal was about and even though it ended up not being as gross as I thought it was (even though it was still pretty gross), I didn’t hate Lucas. He was such an ass and he did things that should have made me hate him but I didn’t. I can’t really explain why I didn’t hate him, I just …didn’t.
The back and forth between Lucas and Rowena at times was frustrating because I wanted them to quit it already. They took biting each others heads off every single time they saw each other to a whole new level of SHUT THE HELL UP ALREADY and there were times in the book that it drove me up the effing wall. And then to top things off, at the end of the book, Rowena and Lucas are finally together and they have a baby together and they named the baby boy, Guy Ramon. Guy for Rowena’s father and Lucas’ mentor and Ramon…for Lucas’ brother? I was really pissed off that they named the baby after Ramon after what he did to Rowena. I just couldn’t fathom it and it bugged me.
This book isn’t a book that I would recommend to all romance readers because of all of the stuff that’s in it. There’s rape, there’s men hitting women, there’s just a whole lot of ugly (I know this is like the third time I said that but it’s true) and though I couldn’t stop reading it, I still wouldn’t think it’s an enjoyable read. After finishing it, my thoughts were along the lines of, “I’m so glad that’s over” and that pretty much sums up my thoughts on the entire book.
Grade: 2.5 out of 5
This book is available from Sourcebooks. You can buy it here or here.
I read this book when it first came out, back in the 70s, and I have to admit, I loved it. I still have it in my garage. While it is annoying that Rowena was so conflicted about Lucas, there was something about the story that I enjoyed, enough that I reread it several times throughout the 80s. I can’t really remember why, since it’s been 20+ years since the last time I read it.
It is definitely old skool, but it has the breadth of story that I often find lacking in today’s books. If I ever get through my huge TBR, this is one I’ll definitely reread again.