Oh, Catherine Coulter.  I have a complicated relationship with this author, in that while she was one of the first romance novelists I’d ever read, I’ve come to realize something’s lacking in her prose.  Now, as I look at what were once DIKs… I’m sorry, sixteen year old me, but it’s time to let Night Storm go.

This is the third book in the Night trilogy, and focuses on Genny Paxton, a shipbuilder who dresses up as a boy and conducts business as “Eugene” in the name of her sick father.  Society has rejected her for dressing up as a man and Genny couldn’t care less – until the appearance of Alec Carrick, whose beloved wife has conveniently died in childbirth since Night Fire leaving him a widower with an annoying daughter named Haley.  Alec wants to buy Genny’s father’s shipyard, and Genny wants nothing more than to scare him off.  Naturally, Alec sees through her disguise and tries to finesse his way into marrying her so he can have the property.

Alec goes about this in an ass-y way, trying to get Genny to quit pretending she’s a guy by exposing her to brothels and cigars, which sicken her.  His goal may be to force Genny to embrace her ‘feminine’ nature (and dear God is that an ugly concept), but the trouble with Alec is that he also mocks Genny for not instinctively knowing the way to do that when she tries to make the effort of going to balls and wearing dresses.  Alec may indeed be the first man on record to ever use negging to get what he wants.  Oh, and all the sex is entirely of the forced seduction variety. Why WOULDN’T she want to marry this joker?!!!.  But she does and has her dreams squashed, because the orgasms are that good.  Someone get this girl a dildo and a copy of The Joy of Sex.

At the very least, Alec could give us a good grovel, but Coulter ruins even this opportunity by having Genny and Alec fall in love thanks to Alec becoming amnesiac.  He gets his memory back, forcibly seduces her, and then manages to declare his love for Genny with an “And I you.”

The girl deserves better.  Like a shipyard of her own, a pair of comfortable trousers and a nice big gun to ward away alphaholes like Alec.