Review: Where did the fun go?
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 12 2, 2013
The beginning of this story was wonderful -- the heroine, Rowena, is patiently waiting to reach her birthday so she can escape her guardian.  The man thinks he can force her into marriage with him.  He tells her he will force himself on her and she will have no choice.Rowena runs out of the house and to a deep pond just down the hill.  She makes it sound as though she has jumped in to her death before the villain is close enough to know better.I found her to be clever and rather witty, and I thought I was in for a rollicking, good tale.  Then the hero shows up and I fell into a melodrama.Marcus has returned home from the war.  He had been seriously injured and was still in need of care.  Rowena still hides out in the castle with the help of the caretakers.  She wants him gone so she can have a bit of freedom again.Marcus takes extremely ill when the caretakers are gone.  Rowena takes care of him and begins to fall in love with him. He thinks she is a figment of his imagination.For me this is where the fun fell apart.  There were tears and confessions of love on her part -- dreams of death and fallen comrades on his.  But she pulls him through and goes back into hiding -- more or less.He brings the villain back to force him to confess he tormented her into drowning herself.  She plays the part of a ghost and is finally revealed as a living woman to Marcus.The first half of the story was good in my opinion, but the second half lost a lot of my interest.Still, I can't fault the author for offering a fairly good story.  I just wish she had kept it light and fun.