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.