So this is a reread for me. I originally gave this title one star. This was almost the first book I rated after joining GRs in 2009. I didn't write a review. So I will give this book 2 to 3 stars today. What is the difference? Well I'm going to blame Goodreads. I used to read Harlequin Presents back in the 1970s and very early 80s but hadn't read them for years. But when I joined GRs I started connecting with a bunch of super ladies who read and enjoy the crazy of the HP. Suddenly I thought I'd give them a try again. I was slowly but surely sucked in. What's not to love? You got your jealous alpha heros, your OTT melodrama, your Bugatis and your Italian villas right? Pure escapism.

So now here I am 4 years on. I'm a total authority (according to my own self!) on the HP. So I'm grading this one on that learned but, let's face it, crazy crooked scale.

I love me an asshat hero. This guy was that. She makes a mistake and he tosses her out without letting her exculpate herself. She's got a secret baby and believe me I don't think I'd have told that asshat about the baby either. Then there is a forced marriage. All of this is stuff I generally love in an HP. But here are my problems with the book. First off, boring sex. And pages too much of it. Some authors can really ramp up the tension in a paragraph or two and some authors can't get there in 4 or 5 pages. So two uninteresting long sex scenes. Plus, and you might gasp here, the hero was not enough of an asshat. Seemed a little like he was going through the motions. Maybe there was too much POV from him. Which generally I love so go figure. He did do a fairly nice grovel at the end so that helped.

And finally here's a funny thing. She is of the super melty at his touch type. He kisses her and her legs give way. He touches her and she melts in his arms. He glances at her and her panties catch fire. Get a backbone! He dumped you just about as hard as any girl has been dump in romancelandia. Smack the SOB's face why don't ya? So what's funny about that? Seems pretty typical in HPs right? Remember that made up PhD I have in Harlequins? Well it causes me to realize that in vintage HPs there is a lot of forced seduction. Not so much nowadays. Authors have got around it by making the heroine so hot for the hero that his attentions are NEVER unwelcome. Frankly it gives the books a sour note at times. I would prefer a much more honest committed struggle from the heroine to avoid the hero's attentions. Then if the hero persisted, well all the better for my salacious reading pleasure. I do want to point out here in my own defense that I don't approve of guys doing this in real life and really not in a main stream contemporary either.

But seriously this is HP land. I want you to go right on over the top. Please.

So why only 3 stars? Basically what it boiled down to was writing style issues and less conflict than I would really have liked.

( )