My ovaries made me read this.

Ok, I get it.

I'm pretty new to Anne Stuart. Her writing is great and her command of romance is flawless. But her leading men are, frankly, jerks. They lock women in rooms; they blackmail them. They undress them when they're asleep, push them down into chairs, back them into corners literally and figuratively. Men in romances usually take control - but this kind of control is a little uncomfortable. It borders on abusive.

These men are pretty much irredeemable. But here's the catch: the female protagonists are up to the task. They are willful and proud and they surrender nothing - they just happen to love big. They don't give in to the men; they give in to love. This subtle difference makes these books work.

Women don't want to admit they could love someone this freaking cruel. But to love someone this cruel, stay true to yourself, and have him come to love you back? That's what romance is all about. I give Stuart a lot of credit for running straight to where other authors only tiptoe.

That said, this particular book wraps up poorly. Lucien is particularly cruel - orchestrating the heroine's torture - and I don't see his redemption as strongly as I'd like. This could have been so much richer - he could have been made sympathetic, for example, by exploring his relationship with his now-dead sister - but instead the book just ended. Strong beginning, weak ending.

3.5 stars

I know the exact moment this went from 3 to 2 stars.
I really liked the heroines and the double narrative was a fun conceit. The development between Miranda and Lucien was well paced, particularly given the revenge fantasy Lucien had to get over.
Unfortunately, although the relationship is set up like a slow burn, it's not executed as such. In the last third of the book, Miranda forgives Lucien for a number of awful things

Spoiler

including paying to have her raped

without any of the courage or sense she displays at the beginning. It's like the author got tired of writing and just needed to end the story. Which is really too bad, as I would have liked to see their relationship develop.

4 stars

DNF-ing this because the heroine is just tstl and the guy who feels like a very poor actor attempting to play the Phantom of the Opera. It's all very bizzaee and a little laughable. And this author is just not right for me.

Ugh honestly, this would've been a strong 4 if it wasn't for the problematic hero.

He basically hires someone to kidnap the heroine, which is fine. BUT then the kidnapper rapes her. I don't think he expected the one he hired to rape her, but the hero was still responsible for what happened to her. The way this was handled had multiple issues:
1. The heroine brushed off this traumatic experience and said 'oh it wasn't technically rape because she she didn't struggle' ... ???
2. The hero was not REGRETFUL of what he put the heroine through
3. There was absolutely 0 groveling on the hero's part.

I usually love these revenge plots/captive stories, so I'm sad to give this 3 stars.