The Book Gourmet

DNF @ 55%

Mrs. Kathryn Darrell is finally free. Her bastard of a husband is dead and she's free to come to London and finally live. She also cannot wait to experience true passion so she sets her sights on the most unattainable of bachelors, Ryder Blake, Duke of Darkwell.


Put that way, the story sounds interesting, right? Humorous, intriguing, passionate, romantic.

It could've been all that if it weren't for the hero. The man was an ass. An ass who had no idea what he really wanted. An ass that, if you ask me, didn't really love his first wife (it sounded more like gratitude for her sticking with him when his parents died), yet he truly mourned her and blamed himself...And then turned it into an art form. If he didn't let go of her, he didn't have to make an effort and everybody saw him as some sort of tortured figure.

While in truth, he was just an obnoxious asshole who had no idea what he truly wanted and once he discovered it, he chickened out and turned into an even bigger asshole.

You don't want her, fine. Keep clear, not make jealous scenes all over town. Pick a lane and stick to it.

The heroine, mind you, was no better. She also refused to fall in love, because she's been an idiot before and believed her first husband actually loved her, while he loved only her money. But she ended up falling for the aforementioned jerk anyway. She knew what he was like, he repeatedly rebuffed her, yet she kept at it. What the hell? If the guy is an ass, you steer clear, but I guess she just wanted to be the one who won him in the end, the one who changed him in the end.

I didn't feel the love between these two. He was a project for her, she was a fascination for him. End of story. This wasn't a romance, this was a forced-angst-filled slightly sexy story that focused too much on the hero's issues, making him come across as a petulant teenager.

I persevered over the half mark because I kept hoping it would get better. Half-way through, the guy was still a petulant ass, the heroine suddenly developed tender feelings for him (inexplicable and out of the blue, if you ask me), so I threw in the towel.
...And then I took a peek at the end and wanted to slap the woman until her head fell off. No, thank you.