I really enjoyed this read. Catherine, an heiress has married Harry - a womanizer and selfish man. He goes to war and is killed. His letters home had made her fall more in love with him, but she doesn’t know they were written by his commander- Moncrief, Duke of Lymond. A series of events bring them together and lead to marriage- although Catherine is not in love. Someone tries to kill Catherine and do there is mystery and suspects. I loved reading the letters and liked the strength of Moncrief. The only thing that bothered me was how much Moncrief kept saying how perfect her body was and the description of was perfection. that’s nice but I do like when an author throws in a bit of imperfection like most women are or have. But all in all it delightful read, a nice escape.

Christ, this was a fucking bore.
Even the first love scene—so long while still managing to be an utter snooze fest.

I really thought I was going to enjoy this, because the description seemed reminiscent of Love in the Afternoon by Lisa Kleypas - only a bit in reverse. In Love in the Afternoon, Beatrice writes a letter to a soldier and signs her friends name. In Till Next We Meet, Moncrief writes to another soldier's wife. After the death of her wastrel husband, Moncrief goes to meet her.

There were just a bunch of elements of this book that didn't add up right for me. For one, there was a "whodunnit" kind of mystery where it appears someone is trying to take the heroine Catherine's life. There's Moncrief's brother's widow, now a dowager duchess, who's so thrifty the ducal estate is wasting away and she may have ties to Jacobites. There's a maid turned housekeeper with a secret. And of course, there's the lying between Moncrief and Catherine in that he was the one who wrote the letters.

I just couldn't get into this book, despite the fact that the writing was great. I think it was something between the pacing and the plot that didn't work for me.

Spoiler

Catherine finds out herself that Moncrief wrote the letters towards the end of the book - they don't even acknowledge it to each other until the LAST PAGE! And the whole drama with the attempts on Catherine's life and the vicar and Gwyneth... it was too much. I wasn't sympathetic to Gwyneth AT ALL (I kind of hate her) and I didn't like that after all her scheming, Catherine just gave her son her family home.

By the end I was just so frustrated and done with the book.

Till Next We Meet
3.5 Stars

Catherine Dunnan is devasted by the death of her beloved husband, Harry, and her only solace lies in the letters they exchanged. Little does she know, however, that the true author of the intense and emotional missives is Colonel Adam Moncrief, Harry's commanding officer. Upon his return to Scotland, Moncrief is drawn to the widow who captured his heart and will do anything to win her love. But will she accept him once she learns the truth?

The letters between Catherine and Moncrief are heartfelt and heartwarming and contribute significantly to the tone of their romance. Unfortunately, the actual relationship does not live up to the promise of the letters.

To begin with, most of the first half of the book is dedicated to descriptions of Catherine's excessive grief and mourning for her callous and self-serving spouse while Moncrief pines for a woman he believes will always be in love with her cad of a husband.

Furthermore, Moncrief's actions during his initial visits to Catherine require a tremendous amount of suspension of disbelief. It is very difficult to believe that a man with his sense of honor would simply

Spoiler

marry a woman who is virtually comatose and definitely unable to consent or speak the marriage vows

.

In addition, the eventual revelation of the truth is rather anti-climactic as by that time

Spoiler

Catherine is well-aware of Harry's perfidiousness and has realized on her own that Moncrief is the true author of the letters

.

The second half improves significantly with the minor suspense plot and Catherine's realization that she has fallen in love with her new husband. While the mystery isn't all that difficult to figure out, there are some intense and gripping moments. Moncrief and Catherine also have excellent chemistry and the conclusion is lovely although an epilogue would have made it even better.

4.5 stars rounded up

pomysł i początek genialne. szkoda, że pod koniec zrobił się typowy romans historyczny