Elizabeth Stuart (1)

Without Honor is so well written, I just had to give it five stars, despite the hero's close relationship with the other woman, which is generally something I can't stand. He spends a night making love to his lady-friend, after he has met and kissed the heroine on several occasions and admits he cares for her. Ugh! Later in the book, the heroine catches the two of them in bed, but the hero does not bed the OW, because of the interruption or because of his feelings for the heroine, it's not show more quite clear which. show less

Not the kind of thing to read for escapism.

But this is a sweeping romance, the kind publishers don’t have the patience for (or maybe it’s readers?) anymore. There's almost too much of a story underneath. Yet there was time to build the foundation for an actual enemies-to lovers, but still very much reconciling two sides of the same war.

For some reason, Elizabeth Stuart is not released in e-book form. Still, if you can find this used for a reasonable price, I’d grab it. I love reading show more these to see how far we’ve come in romance and how different the modern sensibilities are reflected even 30 years ago, but also, they don’t make ‘em like this anymore. A slow build of trust, a sudden crack in it and back again. But lovely overall. Cruel, cruel hardships by both men and time.

3.5 / rounded up.

I would, however, skip the first 2 novels by Stuart.

tw/cw: lots of discussions of violence, torture, rape of a secondary character, wedding night is dubcon. show less

An author can use extended pages count for character development and/or plot. In this case, I think it was all plot. And while the plot was crazy as a 31 year old book often is, it did work.

In fact, compared to the first attempt I made with this author, this felt more mature, relaxed, and better paced.

It was going so well until I wanted to quit.

I know the much maligned cure-by-sex thing bothers many, and honestly, me less so

But here it's atrocious enough that a solid 4* read fell to 3. Cause show more y-i-k-e-s.

Both characters were far more palatable than Reckless Angel, with a very tender hero.

Content warnings (cause don't buy this book if)
(view spoiler)
15 likes show less

Very good read, with a few niggly things that kept it from a five star rating for me. I didn't like how the rape(by Campbell) was treated, with the hero (Francis) thinking that he could get the heroine (Anne) over it by giving her his lovin' (the very next day), and of course, it worked! I would have liked more detail of her brother's confrontation with Campbell and more detail of the resolution at the end. I also thought some of the love scenes were superfluous. 4/5 stars