Review: Trendy premise, creepy solution
Rating: 1 out of 5
Date: 12 14, 2012
The heroine suffered a traumatic attack that left her scarred, physically and emotionally. Can she find love and a normal relationship? Throw in an abusive, wife-beating father determined to prevent his daughter from ever marrying, and you have an overwrought but potentially compelling premise. Enter the handsome, powerful hero, who falls in love instantly and manages to override the father's objections and marry the heroine in record time. Here's where the creepy part starts. The hero exhibits herculean restraint in not consummating the marriage until his bride has overcome her understandable reservations. But when she finally succumbs to his masculine charms, he promptly embarks on a full-on campaign of sexual dominance - sort of like "The Story of O" in period garb. The heroine is required to strip naked whenever and wherever Himself decides he must have her, and forswear underwear for easy access in semi-public places; he also prefers positions in which she is helpless and submissive. Ick ick ick. And speaking of period garb, what period is this, exactly? The descriptions of clothing don't fit any 19th-century styles I'm aware of, although references to the adoption of the waltz seem to place it in the early Regency. Sloppy research! And the author needs a serious re-education on the use of personal pronouns. The subjective case is constantly used where the objective case is indicated, along the lines of "they'll send word to he and I." The biggest howler of all was this inventive possessive pronoun, which doesn't actually exist: when asked whose carriage would provide transportation, the heroine's brother says "ours - Charlotte and I's." Enough said.