If you are one of the many people who will be shocked to see this grade attached to a Connie Brockway novel, all I can say is that you are no more disappointed than I. At this book’s conclusion, I was actually depressed to see the hero and heroine together. This, in the end, explains the grade.

In 1757, Ash Merrick, the titular hero, is a broken and exhausted man desperate to free his brother, Raine, from the same French prison where he himself was once held captive. To free Raine, Ash hustles gamblers and works for his wicked father, the Earl of Carr.

As the story opens, Ash arrives to fetch the Earl’s eighteen year old ward, Rhiannon Russell, from her home in England. Ash presumes that his father wishes to marry Rhiannon and may well murder her as he has his other wives. He is delighted to discover that Rhiannon is preparing to marry a local cad, an action that will permanently remove her from Carr’s power.

A submissive and romantic girl, Rhiannon becomes attracted by Ash’s dangerous charm. The sexual tension builds. Up until this point McClairen’s Isle is an absorbing novel. The hero is so tortured you want to put your arms around him. Rhiannon seems secure in herself, despite a difficult past. I felt that she would eventually help Ash to heal his terrible wounds.

Then, about halfway through, things begin to fall apart.

On Beltaine Eve, when “nothing counts,” lovers dally in the forest. Ash, who is not in love with Rhiannon, finds her drunk and, in response to her pleas, takes her virginity on the eve of her wedding. Soon afterwards, he brutally kidnaps her, rationalizing that someone is trying to kill her. I say rationalize, because Ash is kidnapping Rhiannon in order to deliver her into the hands of his lecherous and murdering father! During the abduction, Ash treats Rhiannon cruelly, driving her to such exhaustion that she faints. He rebuffs her pathetic entreaties for the simplest affection implying that sex with Rhiannon was nothing more than physical release. Rhiannon is terrified. She is being taken to the place where, at the age of six, she watched her father murdered.

Poor Rhiannon. Is this not the humiliating nightmare every woman dreads, that a gentle lover is really a cruel child out for mechanical satisfaction? Rhiannon brokenheartedly tells Ash that if he touches her she will kill him. His bloodless response to this is, “Whenever and wherever I want.”* Later it is revealed that his feelings were hurt.

The rest of the story takes place at “Wanton’s Blush,” the Earl of Carr’s castle on McClairen’s Isle, where sinful activities are the rule. Though Ash stays at the castle to protect Rhiannon, his behavior toward her is so cold that I found the book painful to read. By bringing her to this place, Ash puts Rhiannon in danger, but he is too weak a man to do anything about it. His behavior becomes so brutish that, at one point, he begins to rape her. Even when the gentle Rhiannon tries to nurse Ash when he is gravely injured, he threatens that she will not leave until “I have had you on your back,”* This is a romance? All I could think of was that the last thing this couple needed was more sex. They needed to talk. They never did.

This book was a heartbreaking read for me. There were many times when McClairen’s Isle could have recovered but it would have required a long conversation in which Ash explains not only that he loves Rhiannon but also tells her the reasons for his past cruelty and pledges never to hurt her so again. Instead what we get is Rhiannon deciding that she “understands” Ash’s reprehensible behavior.

Ash’s weaknesses compound and continue through the epilogue, destroying any hope that he is at all a heroic character. The back cover of McClairen’s Isle indicates that this book is the first of a trilogy. I can only hope that the heroes of those two books are more heroic than the Passionate One.

* Quotes are taken from the advanced uncorrected proof of this book.