When I started this project a month or so ago, Jenny Haddon said this 1980 Sara Craven book was the first Harlequin to include "full docking procedures" (Haddon's term, which I adore). However, Possession, the 1979 Violet Winspear Harlequin Presents I reviewed two weeks ago, included married sex. Possession may have been published after this book, Flame of Diablo
, by Mills & Boon (I can't figure that out) but as a Harlequin it was published a bit later--Possession is #321 and Flame of Diablo is #331. I'm not sure I care precisely which was first though. I'm more interested in the evolution of sexual contact in categories than I am in the "first" everything. Though it's possible that Flame of Diablo is actually the first Harlequin to include premarital sex because it, well, does. Because the hero and heroine aren't married at the time of sexual contact, nor do they have any plans to be. It's also fully consensual on the heroine's part. Revolutionary! But we'll get to that.The premise of Flame of Diablo is that Rachel Crichton, a blonde, beautiful London actress, has been sent to Colombia by her sick grandfather to retrieve her brother Mark, who has gone to seek his fortune in defiance of the grandfather's wishes. When Rachel shows up in Bogota, a friend of Mark's tells her that he might be heading to Diablo to seek out a precious, but cursed emerald. Rachel attempts to hire Vitas de Mendoza to guide her into the wilderness, but of course she is afraid of her "powerful reaction to him" and sets off with a different local guide, who turns out to be not a nice guy.
Trigger warning for rape after the jump (brief, but violent).
