Review: An Overwrought Grudge
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 10 22, 2013
A thin and very exaggerated premise sets up the tension between the two main characters that had me rolling my eyes before the end of chapter one.  It's the eve of Lord Marcus Finley's departure for the West Indies.  He's 20, a little drunk and in love with Lady Phoebe.  She's 15 and has a highly romanticized perspective of him.  He makes his declaration of love, albeit a little roughly and clumsily.  She takes high offense, "her innocence shattered" because in his slightly inebriated state he's not the gentleman she envisioned.  After punching  him in the nose, she takes to her bed under the watchful eye of her lady's maid.  EIGHT YEARS PASS and Lord M returns.  Now 28 and 23 respectively, he's looking for a wife with Lady P in his sites, but she's still holding a grudge and having nightmares and the vapors over the prospect of seeing him again.  Even considering the rigidity of Regency Era manners, I felt her reactions to be overwrought to the point of being annoying.The above comments were written after completing chapter 2.  I had hoped that my comments and rating would change for the better.  Unfortunately that is not the case.  Understand that fully 75% of the book has Lady P alternately loathing and lusting after Lord M before she finally agrees to marry him.  I wearied of the infernal questioning of his trustworthiness.  She is supposedly a woman progressive enough to understand and practice weaponry and self-defense and worldly enough to talk Regency Era politics with men and buy her own horses, but she can't accept that Lord M who has rescued her twice, apologized profusely, declared his undying love and asked her to marry him has matured enough for her to trust him.  To be perfectly honest I wasn't so sure what he saw in her.  To put it bluntly, she annoyed the devil out of me.On a positive note, the author has a good understanding of Regency Era manners, mores and language and writes very fluidly.  I enjoyed several of the minor characters and the little intrigue with Lord M's lurking rival and menace, but other  than that I spent most of my reading time being annoyed.