Captive Bride

Christina Wakefield grew up in the English countryside and was given unusual freedom for a girl, riding, wearing trousers, spending her time with a neighbourhood boy and so on. After her parents' death, her older brother John, an officer in the British army, becomes her guardian. While on leave, he takes her to London where she doesn't feel comfortable at all since she doesn't fit in. She decides to go with him wherever he is stationed next so she won't be so alone. Philip Caxton, the son of an Arab sheik and the Englishwoman he kidnapped over 30 years ago, grew up with his mother in England and has an estate there. But he spent the last 11 years in the desert with his father's tribe, who make a living robbing caravans. When he visits his brother in England, the fact that he can't just take / steal who or what he wants gets on his nerves. Politeness isn't his thing either. When he first sees Christina he falls in lust and wants her at once. When she vehemently and rudely refuses his marriage proposal, he has her brother transferred to Egypt and kidnaps here when she accompanies him. He takes her to his tribe, where he makes her his unwilling slave and mistress. In the following months, the two have to survive intrigues, abductions, murder attempts, and are finally separated. But they meet again in England, where another man wants to have Christina for himself, no matter how... The plot of this story is actually quite good and I liked the settings (English countryside, the desert, Cairo). The culture clash and Christina's difficult situation after her return from the desert are interesting, but are dealt with only superficially. What ruined the book for me was how stupid, childish and aggressive both Christina and Phillip behaved. He forced himself on her on a regular basis, she enjoyed it but fought him nevertheless, both are verbally and physically abusive towards each other and pretty much constantly dishonest. All this made for awful leading characters and a bad atmosphere. All in all I'd say that you can already see what a good romance writer Lindsey would become, but she isn't there yet with this book.