Jude Deveraux continues her beloved Montgomery saga in America with this dramatic, passion-filled tale of rebellion and love — a breathtaking adventure to be savored all over again — or discovered for the first time The Raider In colonial New England, the British are hunting a fearless, masked patriot whose daring foils them at every turn. He’s known simply as the Raider. Jessica Taggert, a … Raider.
Jessica Taggert, a proud-tempered beauty, thrills to the Raider’s scorching midnight embrace, but despises Alexander Montgomery, the drunken town buffoon.
In truth, the cleverly disguised Montgomery lives two lives…and only his triumph over the hated Redcoats will free him, at last, to know the full pleasure of Jessica’s love.
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Humor: Yes
Basic plot
Alex Montgomery returns to America and sees the oppression that Americans face from the British soldiers. He disguises himself as the Raider and causes mayhem to the British. He ends up getting shot and again disguises his regular person in a ‘fat’ suit and wig while he recovers from his injuries. From here he lives a dual life as Alex and the Raider. Jessica is fighting against injustice as well and they end up working together.
Give this a try if you want:
– 1766 time period in east coast American
– Revolutionary War plot – British soldiers conflicting with colonists
– You’re okay with content warnings including rape on page
– Lower steam – there are 3 open door scenes but none are long or explicit.
– You like a secret identity plot – this one goes through almost the entire book
My thoughts:
This book has been out for over 30 years so I’m just going to get into specifics here. Turn away if you don’t want spoiler warnings!
Well, this book was rough for me! The biggest part was the fatfobia culture here. I’ve noticed in a few other other books it’s there a bit but in this one it was a major plot point and just kept going almost all the way to the end of the book. Alex disguises himself in a ‘fat’ suit and wig and there’s a lot of comments about him being a fat whale, being fat, being large, that she is sure she can’t get enough food to feed him. Compounded with that is her impression that he’s cowardly and lazy (though he does culture his behavior to reflect this). I did like at least that Jessica, our heroine, fell in love with him as he was and he didn’t need to pretend to change his body, or worse show her his ‘true’ self before she fell in love with him. So I do appreciate that.
Alex poses as the Raider and the Raider and Jessica have many run ins together where they work together to fight back against the British. He ends up using his Raider persona to seduce her and get physical with her every chance he gets. (Though the first scene is rape – he admits he will rape her, and then she kind of accepts it and ‘wants it’ (in the classic 80s I CANNOT have sex with you because my own sexuality is frowned upon so you must take it by force or I am a loose woman theme) afterwards so I guess at that point in could be construed as dubious consent but I’ll call it what it is. The sex afterwards is as consensual as it can be with him pretending to be someone else and lying to her any chance he gets.
It was a bit weird as he seemed to really be jealous of….himself. As Jessica would talk about the Raider, he would lose his temper and I get that he wanted her to love him for him (you know….the ‘fat whale’) but it just seemed strange as he was both people.
I have struggled with most of Deveraux’s books for a number of reasons. She is very focused on the plot and the action, which definitely works for some people. But I never really get any feels or sexual tension from her books because the sex usually seems to come out of nowhere and happens way before any real ‘wanting’ can take place. It’s been a theme in almost all of her books I’ve tried so far. But that’s just me, and why I rate those parts lower.
As for the whole plot…there were parts I enjoyed. Some of it was funny. But the whole thing was just a bit (or a lot) cringe-y at the same time.
Content Warnings:
– Brief mention of animal cruelty
– Fatfobia
– Domestic violence – heroine slaps hero in her anger, heroine punches hero in the jaw
– Rape
-Infidelity – hero kisses other women
-Brief use of the word gypsy
I love the classic Jude Deveraux.
The Raider has hilarious characters, you will die laughing. I read this book in one day, it was so good. The English take over this small town, cause a lot of trouble. A sister writes to all her brothers for help, only one answers. He ends of dressed all in black to help the towns people. The raider keeps getting into trouble, and Jessica has to help him. The brother can’t let anyone know he’s back, so he dresses like a really fat person. You have to read this book.
One the most funniest books. Love Jude Deveraux books. Everyone of them