Jane Stewart's Reviews > Caine's Reckoning

2 ½ stars. Intriguing characters. Good first sex scene. Excellent plot, but weak execution - needed more events and action.

STORY BRIEF:
Desi and her twin sister Ari were kidnapped by Indians and raped. Some “respectable” white men paid the Indians for Desi. They kept her naked and chained to a bed as their private sex slave. Somehow a gang of men kidnapped Desi and three ladies. Caine and two of his partners were traveling nearby and heard screams. They saw two men trying to rape Desi. They killed the men and took the women back to town. Caine learns that the territories’ crookedest judge gave Desi to James (a gambler) as her guardian. Caine decides to take her to his ranch for safety, but the local priest says Caine can’t take her from her legal guardian unless he marries her. So Caine marries her on the spot. Caine and his seven partners own the ranch called Hell’s Eight. They are also Texas Rangers, giving them license to kill bad guys. The white men are unhappy at losing Desi. They put out a reward for anyone returning her. Bad guys come to the ranch to try and take her. Meanwhile there are many long sex scenes between Caine and Desi. They are mostly about Caine bringing pleasure to Desi, and Desi being reluctant due to her year of being repeatedly raped. The sex scenes include spanking, rear door activity, torture, and rape.

REVIEWER’S OPINION:
There was a lot of potential. Intriguing characters – good and bad. Good first sex scene. Excellent overall plot, but weak execution. Not enough happened. It needed more events and action. At the end, there was an unfinished feel. Some readers will be uncomfortable due to torture, rape and other sexual acts.

The first sex scene between Caine and Desi was intoxicating and memorable. He was giving her a bath, washing her hair and then slowly, methodically massaging her body. Some of the other sex scenes were less interesting and too long. Many of them felt cutoff, leaving you wondering. A couple of times I was tired of Desi’s nervousness and reluctance. I didn’t like her logic on page 315. As she started liking Caine, she decided she was not going to experience sexual pleasure with him because “if she let go she’d lose herself in him and nothing would be the same again” – whatever that means. Several days later she just changes her mind and decides “she wanted to give herself the way he needed her to, but for her pleasure, not his” (page 368). Why did she change her mind? I don’t know. The author didn’t do a good job justifying this conflict or resolution.

I did not like the heroine doing something stupid for the sake of the plot. She knows bad guys are coming to the ranch to try and take her. Sam is her current guard. When he goes to the outhouse for a few minutes, he tells her to stay inside the house. She doesn’t. She decides she wants to gather some eggs to bake a cake. She sneaks out of the house, and of course something bad happens.

My main problem with the book was too much sex and not enough story. I wanted more details about Caine and his partners getting revenge on the white men. There was one scene with Caine and his partners going after some of Desi’s rapists that was unsatisfying. I was expecting cunning, skills, suffering, and revenge but got none of that. It’s like the author couldn’t think of anything interesting to say, so she used a convenient, easy and boring end to the bad guys. At the end of the book, the “worst rapist” (who offered the reward) was still out there. I wanted something to happen to him and learn about his motive, but nothing happened. That part of the story was unfinished. The epilogue conveniently provided some information about him which was told rather than shown.

There wasn’t enough story about bounty hunters coming to the ranch for Desi. I would have liked seeing more of them or groups of them coming to the ranch and fighting Caine and his buddies.

One of Caine’s partners told Desi he would find and free her sister Ari from the Indians. I was expecting something to happen but was disappointed to learn that a sequel will have to do that story. However, to date there have been two sequels and neither one of them is the Ari story. “Sam’s Creed” has Isabella as the heroine. “Tucker’s Claim” has Sallie Mae. Will we ever have closure regarding Ari or the “worst rapist”?

DATA:
Story length: 465 pages. Swearing language: strong, including religious words. Sexual language: strong/erotic. Number of sex scenes: 12. Total number of sex scene pages: around 102. Setting: 1858 Texas Territory near Los Santos. Copyright: 2007. Genre: erotic western historical romance.