Night Angel by Renee Reeves

Something has gone terribly wrong with this book. It took me a little while to figure out what it was. And then suddenly I realised. The gratuitously salacious descriptions of Richard’s abuse of Morgan. (Who. By the way. Is a complete off the chart head-case.) Why does anyone put up with that kind of treatment if they don’t like it? And as far as I could tell from the fantasies, Nick wanted to do pretty much the same to Morgan as Richard had, but this time with her consent. Why would she give it??

I just didn’t get Morgan all round. She didn’t escape Richard. He conveniently got killed one day by a drunk-driver. If not. Morgan would still be in the marriage with him. And it struck me that what Morgan was looking for with Nick, was another abusive relationship. Well. She certainly chose a likely candidate. Actually. Morgan is like Zsadist. She doesn’t need a lover. She is in desperate need of some serious, serious therapy. Six years of an horrendous abusive marriage and she’s going to commit to another guy after just months of being single. Jeez. She’s like an addict looking for her next hit, so to speak.

One big reason Morgan needs a therapist is to teach her how to say no through her mouth not just in her head. There is one scene where Nick wants to make love in the morning but Morgan doesn’t. But she doesn’t tell him. She leaves it to Nick to guess from her expression that she’s too sore for the act. Sorry. That’s just too much self-martyrdom for me to understand. Why should Nick have to guess what she wants?? That constitutes unreasonable behaviour imo. Let’s not even go there about why she stayed with the husband for six years of hell. The week after the honeymoon is when she should have left him.

So the big question is. Why was Nick attracted to Morgan? Is it because she’s been scarred and abused like his rescue horses? And that’s where his particular talent lies…giving self-respect back to victimized beings? (I sure hope it’s not because having relations with abused horses is not acceptable unlike it’s very worthy to fall in love with an abused human being….I mean let’s not forget that Nick has done serious time inside…hur hur.)

I think what the author was trying to say is that Richard’s actions were only wrong because he did not gain consent from Morgan. And those same actions could give pleasure to Morgan if she gave the consent she withheld from Richard, her abusive husband. But that is plainly rubbish imo. Come to think of it, this story reminds me too too much of Ben’s Wildflower!!! And that is not a good thing at all!!!

I used to know a woman who told me up front she divorced her husband because he wanted too much from her in the bedroom. Even though he had a good job she was happy to walk out with nothing more than she brought in.

In the end I can’t recommend this novel. It’s just too gross-out weird. Yes. There’s a happy ending but there was too in Ben’s Wildflower. Plus. This is one of those erotics where they guy does all the ‘work’ so to speak…like he was a servant or something. He’s supposed to be happy that he gets his girl to scream. That’s hokum.

I would also like to say a word about abused animal sanctuaries and animal charities. Where was Nick’s funding coming from? Looking after groups of animals just eats up cash. And who is the biggest destroyer of unwanted animals…animal charities of course. Just be very aware of what’s going on. Good luck to Nick though. I sure hope his love for Morgan doesn’t conflict with his love of horses. She’s a very very needy person as far as I can tell.