MINI REVIEW:

"Oh damn men and their superior ways. From now on I'll stand on my own two feet and fight for what I want--anyway I have to, with my body and my wits... Why not? It's a man's world, what other choice do you leave a woman who possesses a mind?"

Those words are from Marisa, the heroine of this amazing, action-packed bodice ripper by the Original Legend, Rosemary Rogers.

If you a high threshold for triggering issues like overbearing alphas, forced seduction, forced marriage of convenience, adultery, rape, branding, highwaymen, harem romance, slavery, racism, kidnapping, murder, a mother having her child taken away from her, divorce, and remarriage, not to mention traveling to almost every continent in the world, an affair with Napoleon, criminals on the run, plus a hefty dose of second-wave feminism from a heroine who goes to hell and back several times over in a romance written in the 1970s, and it sounds like your idea of a thrilling read, Wicked Loving Lies might be a book you'd want to pick up.

As far as I'm concerned, it's Rogers' best work. Some parts of it were so hot, like Chapter 17, other parts heartbreaking or shocking, but it was NEVER boring!

That's what I loved about these older romances, there was always so much stuff going on you never had time to take it all in, you just kept moving. Marisa is a heroine you want to smack or shake or hug or give her a big old high five. She's amazing and she never gave up even though life kept coming at her with no remorse. Except when she thought her beloved Dominic was dead...and even then she was not going out without taking someone else with her.

A great read for bodice ripper aficionados, but not for the faint of heart.

4 1/2 stars rounded up to 5