I don't know what it was, but it had to have happened between when Burrowes wrote the execrable novel The Duke's Disaster, copyright 2015, and when she began the wonderful Rogues to Riches series, the first of which was published in 2018.
I've posted here about how much I love the Rogues to Riches series -- enough to have gone back and reread many of the books in the series. Individually (mostly anyway) and as a series this is great storytelling with great characters who have their weaknesses and foibles but who you cannot help but root for from the moment you meet them.
Enough gushing, because now I must sadly turn to some of Burrowes' earlier works.
I had avoided Burrowes after reading Darius, published in 2013, a kink-negative book about a guy down on his luck who works as a gigolo for women who like to spank him. This is presented throughout the book as shameful for him and evil, evil, evil for the women who hire him. Darius has not a submissive bone in his body and he hates the work. His heroes' journey is getting out of it. Keeping in mind that I write about naked sex slaves who do not want to be naked sex slaves, Burrowes' kink-shaming was too much even for me.
Having nevertheless managed to discover the Rogues to Riches series at random, I decided to delve into Burrowes' back catalog and picked up The Duke's Disaster. It is hard to find the words to express how loathsome this book is. SPOILERS AHEAD FOR THE DUKE'S DISASTER AND JANE EYRE
Noah, the Duke of the title, makes a random decision to offer to marry Thea, the companion (meaning, paid friend and chaperone) of the woman who turned him down. He knows her slightly, makes no attempt to have a real conversation with her, and marries her after three days. He rapes her on their wedding night. He learns that she's not a virgin. Even though she says enough to make it obvious that she had been raped in the past and tells him she could not be pregnant, he assumes that she is a possibly pregnant slut and refuses to sleep with her again until she gets her period. (For some reason she wants to have sex with him.) In the meantime, he constantly masturbates in front of her without her consent. He lies to her about two girls living in the house who he had first hidden from her, like Rochester hiding his wife in the attic in Jane Eyre, and then allows her to believe they are his daughters when they are not. She finally gets her period and they start to have sex, but he continues to assume that she is a slut. The man (the first man, not the Duke) who had raped her kidnaps her (notice how I don't bat an eye at the kidnapping because it is so far from the worst plot point in this book). The Duke finds them and he pretends he is going to let the other man rape Thea again. Then he almost castrates the other man, stopped only by Thea getting hysterical. (The man is allowed to flee to France, because apparently sending rapists to other countries is fine.)
I can't conceive of how the Grace Burrowes who went on to write the Rogues to Riches series could have possibly written this book.
