WTAF is this book?? Am I supposed to root for an emotionally abusive, manipulative cheat??? And Emma herself is quite bratty.

DnF ( )

Tall, indelicate and not possessing any beauty in the true sense, the heroine has always been horribly insecure with her body. So it's really no surprise that she falls prey to a fortune hunter. A few kind words, a soft touch and the promise of love is enough to cause the heroine to become truly enraptured with the idea of someone wanting her. Sad as it is, she even admits to herself that he is the only man who could ever want her. Though she knows he wants her money, she's convinced that she is in love with him and he with her. So when he breaks off all contact, she is devised, heart broken. She doesn't know who frightened him off but she can only assume it was her powerful and threatening father. This causes her to fly off the handle and their relationship becomes strained and distant. But though he disapproved of her involvement with the gentleman, it was actually the Russian prince who was the real culprit. Related to her stepmother and possessing a coldly charming and arrogant demeanor, the hero doesn't know how to feel emotions towards those around but he does know that he's wanted the heroine since she was 13 years old. And nothing will stop him from getting her. He begins a slow courtship, showering her with pretty things but nothing in the way of true feeling. When she discovers her old love has married, the pain drives her into his arms and they sleep together. The next morning he proposes and though she doesn't love him or like him all that much- he is rich and says she can maintain her freedom. And she does desire him. They marry against her families protest and though it's a marriage of sex and companionship, she is happy enough for a time. That is until she begins to show affection towards her husband. The idea of allowing himself to admit his growing feelings for her or worse, allowing her to grow to love him, terrifies him. It's what starts the divide between them and void grows larger every day. Made worse by the arrival of his bastard son, it gets to the point where they can barely spend time in the same room before reputing into an argument. Then the strangest thing happens. Viewing the portrait of his ancestor, the hero is thrust back into time and into the man's body. Strained in the past and forced to experience the life this man had lead, it's only then that the hero is able to open himself up emotionally. In the body of another man- the hero can forget the horrors of his childhood. He can forget that he is a cold merciless man. He can forget the fear of opening himself up to heartbreak or the terror that he could treat his son the way his father treated him. And he can learn to love his wife the way he should have from the start. Then he wakes up in the present and knows there's nothing he won't do to save his marriage and his relationship with his only son. The heroine is dumbstruck by the hero's 180 change is personality but she can't trust this change and fears it's a little too late to repair all the damage he's wrought. Loved this story. I couldn't put it down. It had such feeling and such a raw and true telling of how our past experiences mold us into who we are. You both hate and feel for the hero and he really can't help how his terror of a childhood and the loss of his brother has turned him into a cold and emotionally closed of man. At the same time, the things he does and the way he treats his wife and son are despicable. Not evil, and not violent but rather a slow severing of any idea they had to him loving them. In turn, I loved the heroine who is so honest and protective of the small boy yet horribly insecure and craving attention and love in any form she can get it. Be it her animals or her new step son. But I also disliked her because I found her to be selfish and childish most of time- shame on her for the way she treated her father. But regardless of the roller-coaster of the characters positive and negatives I was enraptured by the story. I think what I liked best was the hero's torment over trying to deny himself his wife's love. He showed his feelings the tiniest of ways but as the reader you can so tell. Great book by a great author. ( )

so i read the first stokehurst and it was ok. it hinted at the romance in this book. this book was very different form that one and even with the weird time travel sequence i was bored. also the main hero was as interesting or scary as he was n the previous novel. and the whole rushed wedding was weird as well. i didn't understand why she would agree to it. i know in romance they falling love in a day but it was weird cuz she had known him for a VERY long time and she didn't have a crush on him. so the whole "i lust for youso much i'll marry you just so can have sex and you have lots of money" seemed not to mesh with the character. so i will put lisa kleypas in my no pile for romance. ( )

so i read the first stokehurst and it was ok. it hinted at the romance in this book. this book was very different form that one and even with the weird time travel sequence i was bored. also the main hero was as interesting or scary as he was n the previous novel. and the whole rushed wedding was weird as well. i didn't understand why she would agree to it. i know in romance they falling love in a day but it was weird cuz she had known him for a VERY long time and she didn't have a crush on him. so the whole "i lust for youso much i'll marry you just so can have sex and you have lots of money" seemed not to mesh with the character. so i will put lisa kleypas in my no pile for romance. ( )

so i read the first stokehurst and it was ok. it hinted at the romance in this book. this book was very different form that one and even with the weird time travel sequence i was bored. also the main hero was as interesting or scary as he was n the previous novel. and the whole rushed wedding was weird as well. i didn't understand why she would agree to it. i know in romance they falling love in a day but it was weird cuz she had known him for a VERY long time and she didn't have a crush on him. so the whole "i lust for youso much i'll marry you just so can have sex and you have lots of money" seemed not to mesh with the character. so i will put lisa kleypas in my no pile for romance. ( )