Overall

I don’t even know where to start with this one, y’all. It was so bad. So unbelievably bad. I’ve read it twice before and literally had no memory of the story I was about to read–and I really think my brain was trying to protect me. I can usually polish these books off in one two hour sitting, maybe over two 90 minute sessions–generally it doesn’t take more than a day or two to read this. This one–I’ve been reading since Sunday. That’s FOUR DAYS.

And it’s because I kept putting it down. I kept avoiding reading it. I didn’t want to finish it. This is bad. This is bad in a way that Captain Jack’s Woman was not. That book had George Smeaton and Kit to save it. This…even the bright spot disappears halfway through.

So what’s bad? The so-called hero, Deverell, never ever recovers from the first 100 pages. He is awful, he’s pushy, and he just never listens to the heroine, Phoebe. She makes it clear beyond a doubt for the first half of the book she has no interest in marriage. She’s attracted to him, but she still doesn’t want to marry him. And…we’ll get into it in the spoilers, but she literally gives him no encouragement. Responding to a kiss he starts is not necessarily the same thing.

Second, the plot? I don’t know. I guess it could have been good but it doesn’t even really start until page 247 when we meet the villain. This book was only 351 pages long (in my ebook). I don’t know percentages, but I should know what’s going on long before that. Like A Fine Passion, the romance takes center stage for the first half of the book–but it doesn’t work here because these people are not in love. Phoebe is basically a hostage who succumbs to Stockholm Syndrome. By the time there’s an actual villain, I’m just…pfft. Not interested.

The characters? Phoebe starts off interesting. She’s–at first–not a typical Laurens heroine, and there are aspects to her character that I like. But Deverell is worse than Jack Hendon (Captain Jack). I did not think that was possible because I hate Jack so much I’ve set him on fire in two reviews. He makes me see red so much that his name was mentioned in this book and I got all irritated. But Deverell is worse. Because he’s basically a stalker who thinks he’s charming and he gets away with it.

Skip this book. It doesn’t add to the overall series — Dalziel’s last traitor is not featured here, and Dalziel is probably the one person who shows up that I like.

I don’t really comment on sex scenes because some people like a lot of them, some people don’t. I’ve never really cared much for the steam level–it doesn’t make or break my reading if that makes sense. But the story basically stops for a good 50 pages so Deverell can seduce Phoebe repeatedly. Even in other books when that was happening, stuff was still happening in the story. The middle of this book drags in such a way that you will want to set yourself on fire.

There is nothing interesting about this book, and there’s no point in reading. Run away. As fast and as far as you can.

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