Lucetta by Linda Jones

I was a little hesitant to read LUCETTA because the blurb and summary made this book sound as if it were going to be exploitative plantation porn in the vein of MANDINGO, but it actually ended up surprising me in a lot of ways. Set on the fictitious Isle of Monde in the Caribbean, the heroine of this book is Lucetta, a biracial woman who is 1/4 Black. Her father is a plantation owner and his mother was his cherished mistress, and Lucetta was educated and given free rein over her father's property, even as both her parents fretted over her future and the limitations offered to her, despite her relative privilege.

After her parents die in an accident, Lucetta finds out that her father left her his name in his will. However, she cannot own the property, and must wait to see if her estranged half-brother will come to claim her beloved Melrose, or if another man might sweep it-- and her-- into his grasping fist. As Lucetta falls in love with the island's governor, the book takes a rather nuanced and delicate look at island politics, the inherent cruelty of slavery, the power of rebellion, and the inevitable sway of the elements-- hurricanes, volcanic eruptions, malaria!

LUCETTA is also very spicy for the time, featuring oral sex scenes and rather graphic penetrative sex scenes. I liked that a lot of these scenes were focused on the heroine's pleasure. The summary made it sound like she was going to be raped by her evil neighbor, but he only attempts to assault her and is punched in the face by the hero for his efforts. The hero does assault the heroine later on in the book, but he appears to be suffering from either dementia or a brain tumor, and it's clear in the narrative text that his behavior is neither acceptable nor normal. The book also holds back on slurs. The N-word is used at one point, but only quoted from an off-page villain. I believe it only happens once, and everyone reacts with distaste and disgust when they hear what the villain said, which was refreshing.

I would not call this book PC by any means and in some ways it does feel dated, but it's honestly not too offensive for one of these old pulps and I actually really enjoyed the fact that the author didn't reduce the Black characters to props or throwaway plot devices. Everyone had agency, including the heroine, and the microcosm of this Caribbean island in the middle of intense social and political change was quite well done. I'm surprised at some of the negative reviews for this book, but if you go into LUCETTA expecting one of those super rapey bodice-rippers of the 70s, this is definitely not that.

4 out of 5 stars