Laura Landon

This is NOT a good book, although Ms. Landon can spin an exciting, if somewhat melodramatic tale. However, our heroine, Josie, just jumps from one mistaken, emotional conclusion to another, making dangerous and irrational moves based on them. Not a rational thought in her head. Lots of anger, but no brains.

But what really got me, is that the suspense plot involves poor Josie having gotten involved with smugglers to be able to provide funds to an orphanage. She thinks it's just a bit of duty show more free booze and cloth, but OH NO! she's being used as a cover for the smuggling of illegal drugs! Opium! (Not a spoiler. This is revealed very early.)

This book is set in Victorian England, immediately after the Crimean war. So that puts it in the 1850s or thereabouts. I could be wrong, but I don't believe the opium trade was illegal in Britain at that time. The only smuggling going on was the British bringing cheap Indian opium into China, sparking the Opium Wars earlier in the century. The opium trade in England itself may have been disreputable, but it wasn't illegal. And Queen V would not have been setting up a task force to rid England of the drug trade. Yikes. show less

Finally, a chubby heroine! I was certain I had read them all. And girl is self-sacrificing and INSECURE, just how I like ‘em. The dialog is a bit flowery and tells more than shows, but the main thrust of the plot is the heroine feeling guilty that the hero was trapped into marriage with her, because she knows she is (considered) unattractive. His change in feelings was pretty abrupt - he basically goes from not kissing her and getting drunk in order to bed her, to enjoying her company and show more declaring his love kinda randomly. And her change is a bit abrupt too, at the end of one chapter, she is lamenting her husband’s disgust of her, but by the middle of the next, she is responding to his (not particularly sexual) teasing with

She slowly turned and looked at him from beneath her hooded eyelids. “If a mere blush brings…energetic thoughts to mind, then perhaps I shall make a habit of it.”

What happened to being sad that he had to be drunk to bed you? And while I loved the angst, there wasn’t enough (any?) grovel for me. The hero is just like, “hey, so I love you” and she’s like “no, you can’t love me” and he’s like “yes I do” and kisses her and then she just accepts it.

There is a Regency Regina George, which is a trope I adore, but that piece of drama was a bit overwrought. Blanche’s weird blackmail plan didn’t really make sense, though I of course enjoyed the angst it generated. I was really hoping the Misunderstanding that came to light would be that the hero’s aunt forced him into marriage by threatening to disown him, but that thread just kinda disappeared. Missed opportunity IMO. Overall, having a plain, chubby, insecure heroine and angst and misunderstandings made me more than happy to overlook the quibbles I have, and I can forgive a bit of the rushed romance because it is to be expected in such a short book. I’ll be revisiting this one for sure. (3.5 stars) show less

Not terribly angsty (possibly because it's fairly short), but this was right up my alley. Hero insults plain spinster heroine, they strike a bargain, and of course fall in love. It's a formula I adore and I liked this version quite a bit. I wish it had been longer, though, to give more time for the romance to develop - Hugh's feelings towards Nellie seemed to change rather abruptly. A longer novel might have made the transition feel more realistic. (3.5 stars)

I thought this would be a candidate for the abused/traumatized heroine shelf, but the attempted rape seems to have had zero impact on the heroine and is treated as less of a betrayal than Stephan’s affair with her mother. While I enjoyed the mystery aspects, the supposed romance just was not plausible to me. The heroine is constantly lying to the hero and making stupid, short-sighted decisions, even when it is far past time to put all the cards on the table. And the hero is an asshole who show more kidnaps and threatens and extorts the heroine and is hostile and cruel to her when she refuses to have sex with him because apparently getting blue balls makes him the real victim. It felt random and somewhat bewildering when the hero and heroine decide they love one another. There has been nothing but lies and threats between them and suddenly over the course of a couple weeks they are in love? I just couldn’t buy it. This had a lot of promise, but in the end I felt like it was an unbelievable “romance” between an almost TSTL Mary Sue type and a cruel hero a la 80s bodice-rippers. I was surprised to dislike this as I’ve really enjoyed Landon’s other books. show less