368 pages
English language
Published Jan. 3, 2006 by Berkley.
I was really into this for maybe the first 50% and then I fell asleep on it at every turn. I know I missed some plot points at the end, but I couldn't keep rewinding or I'd never finish.
This is such a crowded, mixed up book.
Okay to start with there are at least three different instances where the heroine eavesdrops on a conversation, overhears someone saying something (that is some sort of falsehood or manipulation), believes it, then runs away feeling betrayed. No, seriously, exactly this sequence of events happens over and over and over.
Then there's this super weird and contrived early subplot where the hero thinks that the heroine is much younger than she is so he's in gales of self-loathing for being attracted to her. But nothing significant ever comes of it! After a bit he finds out her real age and it's never brought up again?? Nor did it appear to have any real effect on the progression of their courtship. There was a whole thread about how much the heroine hated being treated like a child, so I guess Chase was attempting …
This is such a crowded, mixed up book.
Okay to start with there are at least three different instances where the heroine eavesdrops on a conversation, overhears someone saying something (that is some sort of falsehood or manipulation), believes it, then runs away feeling betrayed. No, seriously, exactly this sequence of events happens over and over and over.
Then there's this super weird and contrived early subplot where the hero thinks that the heroine is much younger than she is so he's in gales of self-loathing for being attracted to her. But nothing significant ever comes of it! After a bit he finds out her real age and it's never brought up again?? Nor did it appear to have any real effect on the progression of their courtship. There was a whole thread about how much the heroine hated being treated like a child, so I guess Chase was attempting to tie that in, but really that thread worked fine without the useless age confusion and seemed mostly unaffected by it anyway.
And THEN there are also multiple confusing plotlines about smuggling and many years old betrayals and revolutions whose not being immediately resolved hinge on the protagonists (particularly a 12 year old boy) bizarrely keeping unnecessary secrets.
The most frustrating thing about what a clusterfuck this all is plot-wise is that the very basic plot (Albanian-raised half-English girl and dissolute bankrupt rake have a tempestuous relationship and he attempts to restore his finances/etc and be responsible because he feels like he doesn't deserve her whilst she is overwhelmed by insecurities due to how "wild" and not "properly feminine" she is) is fine! And most of the actual relationship between the hero and heroine is engaging, funny, and emotional.
There's just a whole bunch of other utterly unnecessary crap (sometimes amusing, often less so) crowding the book that you have to dig through. Also, though it features a few different queer characters, it has some really side-eye worthy stuff happening there narratively.
