Julia James

The first half of this book was so saccharine that it made my teeth hurt. It was full of phrases like this:

Never before in her life had she been so grateful to be beautiful--because her beauty was for the man she loved. For Markos. Without it, after all, he would not have looked twice at her--but with it, oh, with it, she could lay it at his feet as her gift to him.

and

The last thing Markos needed was criticism from her for working so hard. One of the few things she could do for him, after

show more

all,was to make the hours he did not work as easy for him as she could. How could she possibly mind sitting here, waiting for him at ten o'clock?

Most of it is from his POV talking about how she's so pretty and so devoted to him and the best mistress he's ever had. From the tidbits we get of her POV she thinks she's his partner. I suppose it's realistic in that woman can convince themselves that any user/loser loves her and is surely going to marry her. But it made me roll my eyes when I wasn't gagging.

In the second half things improved marginally after she leaves him. Still mostly in his POV he eventually discovers he loves her. And there is an extensive grovel scene which is how this book ended up with two stars instead of one. show less

Secret baby, tortured alphahole, martyr heroine, one Big Misunderstanding one after another...typical HP in other words, and exactly what I was in the mood for.

Bonus points for the heroine actually recognizing that she's beautiful and that men like her for it, because what usually happens is that we get a pages long description of a goddess and then are told that the heroine is completely unaware of how gorgeous she is. I also really liked that she knows how to hold a grudge when it comes show more to the Alexis, and she regularly tells him off for his behavior and assumptions about her. She's a martyr is many ways--she becomes destitute because of choices she makes to help the father who abandoned her when she was a child, FFS--but her spine makes its presence known when the hero oversteps.

This book would have been 3-4 stars but the misunderstandings were too much. There was enough drama without them, and they made both characters look stupid. show less

An interesting premise powerfully rendered in the end, but getting to that point was a little too melodramatic and filled with repetitive, urgent phrasing for me to properly enjoy.

I had to wait until I was in the right mood to read this. It sure was a different sort of book. Steam kept coming out of my ears because she was so helpless against him. He just used his money and power to steamroller right over her. In both the past and the present she was trying so hard to better herself and he had totally no respect for her.

There was quite a bit of angst at the end and he did a major bit of grovelling but I do have to say that he needed to be even sorrier for destroying show more her life and I would have liked to see him do even more begging for her to take him back.

So upshot? I liked it in a totally over the top asshatty hero, downtrodden but plucky heroine with heaping helpings of melodrama kind of way. show less