Charlotte Lamb’s 1979 Dark Master is a romance between a bossy, possessive, rich French count and an ordinary English girl. I enjoyed it and found the romance believable despite the different personalities and backgrounds.

Plot Synopsis – Click to Skip Spoilers

Alex, an orphan, works at the front desk of a holiday hotel in England and is engaged to the hotel manager, Hal. She opens the story running along the groine (a wooden structure to reduce beach erosion), loving how the wind feels in her red hair as it flies around her head. Philippe sees her and wants to own all that wildness; he catches her when she falls at the water edge, both slide on the ground and he wets his suit with the salt water, rejects her offer to pay for cleaning.

Later, when Alex is working, Philippe asks her to dinner but she refuses. Hal expects to have time free that evening to spend together and she wants to be available for him; however, Hal ends up busy. When Alex is off work the next day she sees Hal in a clinch with young widowed hotel guest, Deidre. Both are talking “love you but we must not hurt Alex” and neither sees her standing by the stairs. Alex is stunned, Philippe walks by, takes in the situation, grabs Alex and hustles her first to a handy closet, then to his room. Philippe talks her into letting him take over and make it look like she has fallen for him and he sets up a scene for Hal that looks like they have made love.

Alex thinks Hal is in love and is being noble so as to not hurt her, that he will reject the lovely Deidre and Alex isn’t having that. She does not want to marry a man who loves another lady and marries her out of duty and pity.

Philippe spins her a tale that he too suffers from unrequited love, that the lady he loves married someone else and he wants to show her that he doesn’t love her. He carefully diverts Alex from realizing that Hal is a flirt, is not in love with Deidre, is unable to be completely faithful. Had Alex known that she would have dumped Hal without a worry, but thinking he’s in love, Alex gives Hal back his ring and Philippe takes her to London and marries her out of hand. As he says later, he didn’t want to give her time to think.

Two days later they arrive at his large chateau which is connected to the remains of a castle. Alex, coming back to her usual self, wonders why she let Philippe take her away, what she is doing at a castle. Philippe is not sympathetic, tells her she will cope just fine.

Alex meets Philippe’s family at dinner. His brother Gaston is younger, bitter about his marriage but warm and friendly, sister in law Elise is icy cold, nasty and clearly does not respect or love her husband. Alex overhears Elise insulting her to Philippe and assumes that Elise is the woman Philippe wanted to show he doesn’t care.

Alex is angry and hurt and scared. She had somehow not thought past the wedding and hadn’t thought about the marriage, assumed Philippe didn’t intend to sleep with her. Philippe tells her that he doesn’t give a d— why she sleeps with him, but sleep with him she will. He comes to bed and seduces her.

Over the next few weeks Alex learns how to run the chateau and the estate books, learns to ride and gets to know the staff and some of Philippe’s friends, even hosting dinner parties. She and Gaston become good friends, threatening to Philippe who makes Gaston and Elise move to the dower house about a mile away. Alex is fitting into Philippe’s world but she still doesn’t feel comfortable in her marriage; she does not think Philippe loves her although they make passionate love almost every night. She falls in love with Philippe and is not happy about it.

Alex is gobsmacked when Gaston shows that he is in love with her. She thought they loved each other like brother and sister, not romantic or sexual. Philippe says he should have known a man frozen by the iceberg Elise would instantly fall for Alex’s warmth.

Alex realizes she is pregnant while Philippe is away and is ambivalent. She wants this child but now she will never be able to leave and she still does not think Philippe cares for her. She goes up to the old battlements and runs down the stairs, falls. She wakes up in hospital, concussed, somewhat amnesiac and badly injured, miscarried. She does not recognize Philippe when he visits, only knows she doesn’t want to see him, doesn’t like him.

Eventually Alex heals well enough to have other visitors. Gaston’s visit triggers Alex’s memory. Elise left him for another man and Philippe is sending Gaston to London to set up a sales branch for their very expensive dinnerware. She refuses to leave with Gaston and goes home with Philippe but they are not sleeping together and Philippe is distant.

When Alex is more robust Philippe takes her to London, first to the hotel where Hal works, then to visit Gaston. She challenges Philippe that next he will give her away with a set of dinnerware! She feels like a lost kitten someone tries to find a home for and decides to find her own home. She gets a job and room at a hotel, packs and leaves, puts a note under Philippe’s hotel room door. He comes out and drags her into his room, finally tells her that he loves her, that he needs to give her the opportunity to choose since he railroaded her into marriage.

Alex claims she doesn’t want him either but he doesn’t believe it and forces the issue. The next scene is 18 months later when their baby is christened.

Why Romance is Believable

Dark Master is intensely emotional. Author Charlotte Lambshows us Gaston’s feelings, shows Alex’s falling in love with Philippe. She’s a little less obvious with Philippe but he is no enigma.

We readers know Philippe was Lying when he claimed he wanted to marry Alex only to show the girl he supposedly loves that he didn’t care at all. For one thing, this is more a high school girl’s approach than a mature man’s, for another he gives no indication he likes the supposed Other Woman Elise, nor does Elise act as if he does. The OW treats her own husband with scorn and antipathy but never tries to thrust herself at Philippe.

Of course Philippe claims this to Alex to save his pride and it backfires on him when she remains wary and unsure of him, even tries to leave him. Alex is gullible and silly to believe the lie, but since Philippe doesn’t act particularly loving nor cherishes Alex, she has reason to believe. Even though we readers know Philippe doesn’t want to show Elise anything (except the door), author keeps Alex guessing whether he loves her given his dismissive “you’ll cope” attitude.

Philippe wants Alex physically, relishes their sexual relationship and teaches Alex to enjoy making love with him. She comes to love Philippe’s home, to care for his staff and his friends, and eventually to love him despite feeling uncertain of his attitude towards Elise or herself. When she realizes she is pregnant she knows Philippe will never let her go and is frightened, yet she is glad to have something of him to love.

Philippe confuses Alex by how he treats Gaston and Elise. He doesn’t trust Gaston with Alex and he pulls Gaston away when he gets through to Alex in the hospital. Philippe thinks Alex might be in love with Gaston but isn’t sure whether she loves either Gaston or Hal or himself. He challenges Alex about her passionate response to him in bed when she claims she hates him to touch her; he knows he gets through to her physically – calls it their one sure line of communication – but he also knows that Alex hasn’t put it together yet that he loves her.

The part where Alex challenges Philippe as to why he is trying to find her a home – and a man – is funny in a poignant way. By this point Alex is certain Philippe does not love her, isn’t even sure he still wants her physically because they have not made love since the accident. She decides to cut her losses and find herself a new home, make a new life for herself. She tries to sneak away without talking to Philippe because she knows she cannot deny him and doesn’t want the heartbreak of making love without love. Finally Philippe is forced to be blunt and they talk through their beliefs and love. It is heartfelt and we can believe they are in love and will have a happy life together.

The sex scenes are not at all graphic, but intense. Lamb keeps the attention on Alex’s response and feelings, first dismay as she tries to push Philippe away, then physical enjoyment, then fear and finally joyful response. Philippe is intent on seducing Alex and on giving and invoking passion.

Dark Master uses plot to drive and build emotion and follows a classic plot event/Alex action/Alex emotional reaction and build. Author Lamb cycles through the events and builds the emotion to a peak in London. The final epilogue-like chapter adds nothing except a chance to see Alex and Philippe’s happy future and a parallel with her maid’s romance.

Overall

I like romances that feel real – even when the events and characters are way outside my experience – and Dark Master fits the bill. The initial seduction scene is one of the best in the Harlequin universe and I wish more authors realized we do not need technical descriptions nor a master class in arousing a partner. The physical actions can fade into the background as long as the scene creates and builds emotional response.

I keep a few romance novels handy for when I want to read a few pages that I know and enjoy. Dark Master is one of those. I like the London scenes where Alex rejects Hall, Gaston and tries to reject Philippe, only to be pulled up short when he questions whether she would show any man the passion she shows him. I liked how Alex takes charge of her own life, finds a job and a place to live and even more, how she gives into Philippe and stays with him when he finally confesses he loves her. The two bedroom scenes are excellent, clearly show Philippe’s character. The beginning confusion when Philippe pushes Alex into compromising herself and then into marriage is well done.

4 Stars

I got my paperback copy from Thriftbooks. Amazon, eBay and other used book sites likely have used copies. As of July 2023 Dark Master is not available on Archive.org nor in electronic format on Barnes and Noble, Amazon or Harlequin.

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Disturbing Stranger is not a romance. Our H, Randal, semi-forces innocent h Laura to marry him because he wants her body. Randal is obsessed, ridiculously possessive, jealous, completely gobsmacked with lust for Laura. Laura loves and thinks she’s in love with doctor Tom Nichol, her second cousin once removed who is a cross between brother, substitute dad, best friend, a caring, gentle man who intends serve the truly poor via the World Health Organization. (Book written in 1978 before WHO lost credibility.)

Randal knows Laura loves Tom and he’s going crazy thinking she’ll marry Tom and sleep with him. Randal chases Laura for months, kisses her enough for both of them to realize they both are attracted to each other. Eventually Randal catches Laura’s feckless father embezzling from him and blackmails Laura to marry him.

Laura enjoys their honeymoon; it’s passionate and Laura realizes Randal is kind, generous and can be fun. A couple scenes however show a different, fraught side. First scene is in Antoinette Bell’s Venetian palazzo. Antoinette takes Randal’s arm and leads him off, and Randal lets her, leaving Laura trailing behind. Antoinette tells one of the young men to dance with Laura. Randal eventually dances with Laura himself and is very jealous of the young men she met. When she mentions one of them in their hotel room he gets nasty.

The second bothersome honeymoon scene is their last morning when they are lying in bed and Randal is “sensuously engaged in his ceaseless exploration of Laura’s body”. Ugh. Ugh. Ugh. When Laura says they should get up he threatens to “take you again to teach you a lesson you won’t forget.” More ugh.

The first night they are home in England Laura wakes up at 4 am and Randal wakes up too and rapes her, tells her he wants to hurt her. At the story’s end he tells her he wanted to hurt her, wanted to rape her, wanted to make her know she belonged to him and only to him. But it’s ok because he didn’t enjoy it either. What a guy.

In the denouement (I won’t call it a happy ever after) Randal says he fell in love with Laura at sight and was terrified that she would turn to Tom, that he was taking the biggest gamble of his life. He worried she would hate him for forcing her to marry him.

That’s the story in a nutshell. Although we shouldn’t forget that Randal and Laura have the second floor of his folks’ house and that his dad expects them to be prompt at meal times and that his mother tells Laura what to do (masked as suggestions of course). His mother thinks it would help Laura get used to running a house if she lives with them and learns from her, forgetting that Laura had been responsible for her own parents’ home, cooked most meals and took care of her own mother.

I don’t see this as a romance. Yes both characters claim to love the other but it’s a shallow, possessive type of love, a taking not a giving, driven by lust and jealousy. I’d call this more the prequel to murder.

Nonetheless, Charlotte Lamb almost makes this work. She is an excellent writer with a knack for making the most incredible jerk’s into heroes.

I don’t have to necessarily believe the happy ever after or love the characters to like a book, but it sure helps.

3 Stars

I got my paperback copy on eBay and you can usually find copies on Amazon, eBay, Thriftbooks and other used book sites. Mills and Boon reissued Disturbing Stranger, which was published originally in 1978, in 1984 in their “Best Seller Romance Line”.

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