Battle Prize, by Jayne Ann Krentz

Those old Silhouette Desires Jayne Ann Krentz wrote as Stephanie James include some wonderful books, but they also include horrible ones like this one, Battle Prize.

WARRING DESIRES…

It started so innocently, when rugged, sensual Gage Fletcher challenged Rani Cameron to a war game. But Rani soon felt his desire to dominate her, to make her leave the charm of New Mexico, and to take her back to Dallas to confront a difficult relationship from her past. And Gage's demands didn't stop with business, he wanted Rani to fall in love with him, too.

Rani tried to win their battle of wills. But she longed to feel that fire of excitement in his arms. Would her desire for victory succumb to the delicious thrill of surrender?

I suppose this wasn't badly written, but it made me so horribly angry that it deserves a bad grade. A D+.

The main plot, which isn't really well described by the blurb I quoted above, is the following: Rani Cameron has quit her job, angry at the sexism she had to face in her company, and has moved to a nearby town. She has decided not to go back to the corporate world and purchase her sister's store from her (The Miniature World, selling miniatures for battle reenactments and so on).

After she left, things pretty much went to hell in the company, with at least one big potential account refusing to sign if Rani wasn't the one to handle things, so the company owner wants Rani back, and sends Gage Fletcher, owner of a security company to get her.

So things start there, when Gage appears and pretty much tells Rani that he will take her back, come hell or high water. Rani refuses, and thus the battle starts.

And that's it, most of the book was a battle, and I just hated that Gage always won. From a revolting forced seduction scene (rape, as far as I'm concerned), to the way he got her to travel to Dallas, including the fact that he'd always choose the winning side on those battle re-enactment thingies. All the while bleating how he was doing all this "for her own good", to protect her from her silly pride, etc., etc.

And the worse was that Rani was supposed to be a feminist. I mean, her whole attitude towards work, and the reason she quit, was perfectly justified and yes, feminist. But she'd give in every single time to that arrogant bastard Gage. Her first reaction would be one I liked. She'd put her foot down and tell him to go to hell, that he couldn't order her around. But he'd press on, and she'd cave in, and I wanted to throttle her.

I spent the entire book clenching my teeth and fantasizing about alternate outcomes of most scenes... you know, instead of Rani telling Gage "Oh, Gage, I want you, please take me", she'd tell him that if she didn't let her go, she'd go to the police and accuse him of rape the following morning. Stuff like that. It didn't make for a pleasant time reading it.