Night Fire (Night Fire Trilogy)

I've always enjoyed reading Catherine Coulter so when I saw that she had a trilogy out I bought the first one and planned to settle down for a great read. Really, Ms Coulter? What a disappointment! This is nothing more than a cheezy, predictable romance. With that said, I think I'll skip the other two. My recommendation is to get a sample first.

It is a historical romantic writing. My reason for rating is due to reading several of her later writings which are more suspense filled and not so romantic; therefore, if romance if your kind of reading the rating may be higher. In the future I will check the copyright date prior to ordering her work.

**SPOILERS**This is a regency era story where a teen girl is forced into a marriage
with a much older man who humiliates and sexually abuses her. The husband
dies and then (once she is "free"),she is afraid of men and VERY distrustful of
their' motives. In steps a rich (and titled) man who knew her before she was
married and not only is he VERY attracted to her,he does love her (in his own fashion).
The story becomes NICELY convoluted when...rich man kidnaps her,she gets very
sick(almost dies),HE marries her and tries to get to know and understand her....and
there is a killer on the loose in the household !.....
Great writing,kept my interest but ****does contain EXPLICIT sexual scenes**** I did like
all the characters and this DOES remind of a 1970 s bodice ripper even though it was
written in 1989. What I liked best was the slow relationship and trust that was created
between the characters,slowly over time, and throw in several,tantalizing sexual scenes in
there and this is a winner. Slow but sure. He will have her !!!

This is the first book in the Night Fire Trilogy, which takes place during the 1800's in England. Arielle Leslie the heroine, was 15 years old at the time, when she had come upon a man sitting at her favorite spot by the water. He was handsome and charming, and Arielle found herself quickly becoming infatuated with him. He introduced himself as Burke Drummond, the new Earl of Ravensworth. But Arielle's romantic fantasies of this man would be short lived, because her half-brother had other plans for her. He would soon force her to marry an old and abusive man, Paisley Cochrane.

Paisley Cochrane suffered from impotence. And he thought, that by marrying a teenage girl he would be cured of his embarrassing affliction. But when his impotence did not fade away, he became angry and frustrated and blamed his new bride for her incompetence. Arielle suffered severe and repeated beatings from him because of it. Distraught and exasperated, Paisley finally passed Arielle over to his illegitimate son, Etienne. He told Etienne to bed Arielle until she became pregnant. When she was with child, Paisley would then claim the child as his own. But the old man choked and died before Etienne had his chance to fully enjoy his Father's gift to him. Arielle took advantage of the unexpected opportunity, and used her power as the mistress, to banish Etienne from her home. Feeling cheated out of his prize, Etienne promised himself that he would come back and take what was his. And if Arielle thought that he would just stay away from her, well then she was sorely mistaken. Etienne fully intended on collecting his gift and enjoying every benefit that came with it.

Burke Hammond couldn't wait to get home. He had been fighting in France for two long years. His constant thoughts of Arielle though, had kept him from losing hope. Somehow that sweet and pretty carefree girl had wiggled her way into his heart, and he was convinced now, that she would be the one that he would marry. But when Burke finally found her, she was different. Something had happened. She was afraid of him. What was that all about? Arielle of course had changed, Paisley had done that to her. She feared and distrusted all men. In fact, she didn't ever want to have anything to do with them again; even the handsome Burke Drummond. Burke on the other hand could not believe that Arielle was actually rejecting him. And the more she rejected him, the more obsessed he became about having her. He even contemplated taking her against her will.

In the end, Burke and Arielle would suffer fierce battles with one another before peace took hold and a strong unbreakable bond form between them.

Catherine Coulter exposes the awful truth about how women were once treated and unfortunately in some cultures still are. It amazes me how men could even think that by marrying a woman, and claiming her as his property with little to no rights, was okay.

Catherine Coulter writes a fascinating story. I found myself not wanting to put the book down until the very last page. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys reading historical romance without the sugarcoating.

Loved this book. Not your typical romance story. She is made to do things no one should have to endure. Her husband is mean to her so she doesn't trust anyone. When he dies she is happy about it now she has to deal with the man whom she loved before she was married. He doesn't know the things that happened to her and he doesn't care all he knows is that he has loved her for a long time and now that he is home he wants her but he has to get her to trust him and that is not an easy thing to accomplish. She is weary and distrustful of any man but there is something abut him she wants to trust she is just not sure she can. Great Read

This book embraces everything WRONG in a relationship. Ashamed that women are still writing this misleading garbage. And people wonder why abused women stay. I feel like throwing this book against the wall but it is on my Kindle. For only a few mote minutes. Shame on you Catherine Coulter!!!

Shocked that a HarperCollins published book needed a better edit.
Coulter's writing would be 5 star quality with a decent story. Sold herself out to erotic violent romance for sales, I thing. First and last book by this author I will read.
I read to 74% it and shut the trash book for good at this writing by Ms Coulter: "He tried to ignore the very real fact that he was inside her and wanted her again." And that line was from the hero. I do not read love in those mords just a desire to domitae an alpeady traumatised abuse victim.

The book was an endless sexual assault and it concerned me that the opening rape might have been written in a style to titillate the reader as it was highly developed and described in detail, as were all the assaults. I read somewhere that the author said that if you don't want to read sexual assault do not read historical fiction. No, I do not think that is the case. This book should be in the adult only violent sex dungeon and not in romance. What's romantic about violent abuse?

Now to clean my reader's eyes on some good literature.

My other criticism is to the publisher, HarperCollins, for failure te edit. In the middle of a love scene, the reader is thrown out of the story by the heroine's dialogue, and dialogue tag, being followed by a sentence of action by the hero—all in the same paragraph. That scene went beyond head hopping to a total failure to correctly give each character their own paragraph.
Had this been an indi author at a lover price, I would have ignored the poor sentence structure. When big name publishing houses attach their names to books and earn a reasonable part of the book's price then the reader expects to see they did something (I expect faultless editing) to earn their cut and the higher price reader's pay for a traditionally published book.

Pretty much what everybody else said, this book is...twisted. The beginning was such a turn-off, I actually felt nauseous, and had to put the book down for a long while. When I came back to read a little more, it was boring...It had this cold, unfeeling aura to it. As I attempted to go on, I immediately started seeing what another reviewer mentioned. Burke was pretty much using some warped psychological method of healing Arielle, as if manipulating her to believe him and only him and...I gave up right on the spot. I didn't even try to continue, I already knew it was going to be awful.

Burke was so incredibly romantic and good. What he did to pull Arielle out of the horror of her past was very heroic and loving. Loved every page of this book and can't wait to read book 2 of thus trilogy.

In "Night Fire", you find a touching and intense love story between Arielle Leslie, and the man she had an interest in as a teen, Burke Drummond. You will ride along with them as they conquer Arielle's troubled, and painful, past marriage. You can get involved in the Drummond family, and come to love them as I did. It is a great example of how abuse was dealt with in the past, and a better example of how to deal with it after the fact. So, sit back and enjoy!

In the begin I liked coulter, but after reading night fire, and then remembering to plot of warrior's song... I'm starting to think she has this weird thing about abused women, and women getting abused, is that a good thing? While warrior's song was flat out rape and then the guy becomes a hero...at least this abuser died. Coulter is really starting to scare me with her writing. Also the dialog is always sooo boring.

First chapter has some shocking description of spousal abuse. After that the book is great and yes the chapter is needed to explain her reactions later in the book. A great read, but be careful of letting young girls read it.

I have read all three books in the Night Trilogy. I like it when Catherine goes back and cleans up a book or even adds to it. I personally like the orginials. This book is no exception to her skills. It was kind of hard for me to read through the abuse part but at least she had some one to love her completely.Its not for those who like your typical girl meets boy amd fall in love. I felt sorry for the nanny who lost her mind and became a murdering psycho who turns on her charge.Then there's the sister who keeps her husband with sex. Talk about a screwly family. Its a must read.

Hurray to an author who can caringly deal with difficult issues even for suave and savvy readers of modern times. This book gave me hope for all abused women and men. Hope, that curelities can be put where they belong, in the past and left there. Granted not everyone will have a Burke Drummond to help them through difficult times but Night Fire did help me understand that we each have the power within ourselves to heal and live happy productive lives.

Hurray to an author who can caringly deal with difficult issues even for suave and savvy readers of modern times. This book gave me hope for all abused women and men. Hope, that curelities can be put where they belong, in the past and left there. Granted not everyone will have a Burke Drummond to help them through difficult times but Night Fire did help me understand that we each have the power within ourselves to heal and live happy productive lives.