Jodi McCalister's PhD thesis (Virgins in Romance) prompted me to come back to A LITTLE BIT WILD. One of my favorite aspects of this novel is Marissa's absolute lack of "purity" in the romantic sense. She can be hard to stomach at first, with her unfashionable views on men and her dismissal of Jude (who is so obviously fantastic from page one), but Marissa's mix of period social attitudes mixed with very un-period sexual attitudes balances out to one of my favorite heroines ever. Of course, Marissa is nothing without Jude's prodding, though both hero and heroine learn something new about themselves by book's end. Dahl deserves double thumbs up kudos for such a tender balance of power. (less) This book is absolutely the best historical romance novel I've read in a long time! I like her work so much that now I'm going to have to go out and get everything she's ever written. The author has creatively drawn the two lead characters like none I've ever seen. The heroine thinks she enjoys 'pretty men" and gets a kick out of flirting with them, but when a hasty action causes her life to change, she's forced to pay attention to Jude, her brother's best friend - and he's the total opposite of ...more This book is absolutely the best historical romance novel I've read in a long time! I like her work so much that now I'm going to have to go out and get everything she's ever written.