Review: Really want to like this but the hero and heroine are just awful
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 06 19, 2013
*Another reviewer informed me I spoiled this book for them and I never want that to happen.  I disliked the misogyny of the hero toward the heroine and what I thought was harmful vulnerability of the heroine to the hero.  My aim in the review is to state why I disliked the way the hero treated the heroine so poorly; I reveal no specifics.*Ugh.  I hate to give a poor review, but this book was just too difficult to like.  The plot was engaging and there were plenty of twists and turns to keep my attention as long as I skimmed over the interactions between the hero and heroine.  The background is given that the hero had an uncaring mother and was later betrayed by a beautiful spy on the battlefield, so we as readers are supposed to realize he has a severe distrust of women; however, this only seemed to apply to the heroine of the story.  Lord Adron Gladrey had good and normal relationships with his grandmother, sister, the woman his grandmother wanted him to marry, his female cousin, and even the female servants, but he still treated the heroine, Lady Laurel Laningham, with distrust, contempt, and even treachery.  The story begins with him wrecking her carriage and kidnapping her son, his ward.  She immediately chases him down, alone and through the rain, and he promptly declares she has no rights, will be her child's nanny if she wishes to see him, is welcome to warm his bed to earn further visitation rights, and then gives her a tiny room on the servant's floor.  The heroine, determined to endure anything for her son, agrees to all but the bedding - initially - but soon (I mean, like within the first day-soon) she is too overcome by desire and sleeps with this jerk.  Laurel is a strong woman to have endured the death of her husband and life with his odious sister (the same lady who is also cousin to the hero), and is fiercely committed to her son.  Laurel watches Lord Gladrey put up with the vapid Melissa and console the truly vile cousin Rhonda, but he treats her with constant disrespect, both vertically and horizontally.  And she can't keep from desiring Lord Gladrey?  I don't care how handsome he is, the man is weak-minded, arrogant, and self-centered, which makes him quite ugly to me.  And would you want this guy anywhere near your son, to raise him in a similar manner?We are privy to the private thoughts of both hero and heroine, and both judge him to be too brutal and ungentlemanly, but still he just can't trust her and she just can't help desiring him.  This is beyond aggravating to me as a reader.  I realize the time period was such that men were in complete control and women had very few rights, but dignity and self-respect were not ones ceded to men.  Within the space of a day the heroine experiences everything I listed above but she is just too weak to withstand his sweet, sweet loving.  Gross!  The hero even makes allowances for the poor behavior of his female cousin Rhonda, the empty-headedness of his possible wife Melissa, and the malice of his cousin's lady's maid, all the while observing and acknowledging nothing but proper behavior from the heroine.  Does this change his opinion of her?  Only to the point that he decides it's okay that he lusts for her, and he might even marry her, but only because he can't fight this feeling any longer.  Even when the heroine is in real trouble he second-guesses the motivations of the villains - surely they could not be this bad! - but of course he never gives the heroine the benefit of similar doubt.I just could not get past the horrible and even degrading behavior of both the hero and heroine.  I guess the writer could be making a case that two such people deserve each other, but I don't want to read about that kind of relationship.  It is a shame because the plot is really original and well written.  The reader can tell the "good" from the "bad" guys but the question of how the turmoil and mysteries will resolve is captivating and makes you want to read the story in one sitting.  A third of the way into the book I had read all I could of the so-called relationship between the hero and heroine; as soon as any thought of one for the other was written, or any mention made of their desires for one another, I began to skim until the action story picked up again.  I was so torn on the number of stars for this book.  On one hand, it is well written with an intriguing plot that makes you want to read cover-to-cover.  On the other hand, the hero is absolutely idiotic (his grandmother and friend, Grant, tell him this quite often, but Lord Gladrey is content to wallow in his ignorance).  And heaven save me from the heroine that knows she shouldn't want the hero but she just can't help herself.  This hero is not a bad boy, or a devil with a heart of gold that needs the love of a good woman to change him: he is a jerk, right up to the last chapter.  No happy ending will cure what ails this lord.I tried - I really tried - but I just can't recommend a book based on the way it could be if only the two main characters were different.  If this does not bother you, there is a good book lurking underneath the blind distrust and maligning of the hero for the heroine.  I could not muster up sympathy, empathy, or warm fuzzies of any kind for two such unlikeable characters.  For the grammar purists - there are also several scattered grammatical errors, problems with using the wrong word in certain contexts, and even jumbling of character names and titles.