Danielle's Reading Adventures

This is a really intense older series romance by Sandra Brown that she released as Erin St. Clair. The hero is Lucas, a Navajo activist who was indirectly involved in a violent demonstration and incarcerated. He breaks out to see his grandfather who is dying. He breaks into sheltered White Aislin's condo and kidnaps her on his run from the authorites, taking her to the Navajo reservation with him. They end up making love and he ends up getting recaptured to serve out the rest of his sentence.When Lucas gets out to look up Aislinn to thank her for not telling the authorities that he kidnapped her, it turns out that she has his baby. He finds out when he gets out of prison and pretty much forces her to marry him. They have a blistering sexual attraction that turns into love.At first I wasn't sure I liked this book enough to keep it. I actually read it and than gave it away to my friend. Lucas was so bitter and not that nice to Aislinn. He really held her being Anglo against her. I understood his anger at the system that had disenfranchised his people, but Aislinn didn't deserve to be his punching bag. But somehow, I ended up feeling compelled to get another copy. On reread, Lucas was easier to take, and I could see past his anger to the good man he was inside, as Aislinn does. This book has some great sexual chemistry, because of the fire that burns between Lucas and Aislinn. But they have to build a marriage on more than that, learning to love each other and to accept each other's differences. Aislinn comes from money and privilege, and Lucas lost his when he went to prison (he was a famous civil rights lawyer). He is very old world and wants to support his wife and for them to live on the Navajo reservation, even though their standard of living is really poor on what he can afford. Although the whole kidnapping part is not as real-life, the second half of the book is, because these two very different people who made a baby together have to learn to live together and get past their differences to form a family. This is a very good, oldie romance with some valuable life lessons and a great romance.