GENRE: Romance / Historical
PUBLISHED: Avon, 2007
WHY THIS NOVEL: virgin hero (I can be shallow like that)
Beautiful Grace Paget has no reason not to believe these words. After all, she was kidnapped, spirited away to a remote country manor, and told she is to grant this man his every desire . . . or lose her life. But Grace is no common trollop. So she risks everything to save her virtue by planning a daring escape, even though she finds herself tempted by this handsome man. There is something in his eyes that makes her wonder if he is as dangerous as he would have her believe.
Sheene knew nothing of the plan to bring him this woman. Locked up as a prisoner, called “mad” by all of the world, he will do anything to reclaim his life, and Grace’s sensuous beauty has distracted him from his goals. And although he finds her irresistible, he is horrified to hold her against her will. Now, together, they must both revolt against the strange set of circumstances that have forced them together–for only then will Grace truly surrender to him . . . forever.
I’m lazy…
Impressions:
- The plot premise – two strangers forced into close proximity, then upping the stakes by giving them both good reasons to not trust the other, then upping them even more by presenting them with a lose-lose situation – reminded me of movies where a psycho tortures people while having the upper hand at all times (think Saw, for example).
- The villain in this novel, Matthew’s uncle, is over-the-top in his evilness. I didn’t completely understand what motivated him to play games with Matthew. He held him captive and held all the cards. Why bother with more?
- Everything in this novel seems to be a bit “more.”
- Just when I got a bit impatient with Grace and Matthew for going from trust, to mistrust, to trust, to…, they finally settled on trust.
- I go back and forth about Grace’s move at the end. Magnanimousness or martyrdom?
- I loved all the high drama the plot premise forced on the characters.
- Though I had my doubts about Matthew coming through all his past torture as sane (haha), unscathed, and mature as he did, I thought him a great hero. He’s very honorable. It makes him even more swoon-worthy than he is already, and I very rarely and not easily say such things about fictional characters (I feel weird doing that).
- I thought the way their first time together was written very realistic. Matthew was totally caught up in the experience while Grace got lost. (Of course, Matthew found the magic touch the second time around, and from there, they go on to passionate and galaxy shattering orgasms.)
- Loved that Grace is the one rescuing Matthew.
- As outlandish as the situation of Matthew and Grace seems to be, it made for a very compelling conflict and interesting character development.
- Loved the character development (so that I even bought into Grace falling in love with Matthew that fast and under these circumstances).
Final thought:
- Because of the heroine’s name, I was reminded of Linda Howard’s Son of the Morning.
Verdict: A story with a larger-than-life feel to the romance – I really liked that. (4,5/5)
Wheeeee … you really liked this one! 😀 I’ve got it in the TBR so I’ll be reading it soon. 😀
Hey, have you turned on the “comment moderation”? I don’t see my previous comment showing.
Jace – Sorry! I don’t know why your comments didn’t go through. I didn’t change any settings. Good thing I decided to look at my new spam comments right away this morning! I was very surprised when I saw it was you. 😉
Yes, my first Anna Campbell and I liked it. Let me know what you think when you’ve read it. I hope you’ll like it, too! 😀
LOL, laziness works out in your case 🙂 I liked your review 🙂
LOL, okay, tell me, this is Ms Campbell second book right? Not the highly controversial one, right?
Hmmm, I had written her off, but now I think I’ll have to reconsider 😛
I agree with everything you said. I reread my review of this book, and basically my conclusion was that reality is overrated because the characters were so enjoyable despite the wild plot.
Have you read Tempt the Devil? I think it’s the best of Campbell’s books so far.
Nath – LOL, thanks! Yes, it’s the second book, the first one is the controversial one. If you reconsider, let me know. 🙂
Kat – yes, that’s it exactly. With this novel, I didn’t care that it’s not very realistic. Oh, and I love the expression “wild plot.”
Untouched was my first novel by Campbell but I liked her writing so I thought about reading Tempt the Devil (which I now probably will, thanks).
Off to read your review of Untouched.
I’ve wanted to read this book for a long time… I think since it first came out! It sounds really dramatic… which I love! Thanks for the review. 😀
Christine – Go and read it. I think you’ll like it. 🙂