Review: I kept reading, hoping the heroine would mature...
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 12 24, 2011
This is a gothic romance, with a huge, dark castle, towers, cliffs, villains, secrets, and a resident ghost. Catherine is a 20 year old girl who, because of a family misunderstanding, was reared as a servant by her aunt and uncle in the United States. Her father sends his ward to retrieve her when he realizes that he is dying.The story is in 1st person, told from Catherine's point of view. The "dark lord," Jonathan, is her father's ward who is sent to bring her home. Her feelings about him gave me whiplash more than once. She seemed taken with him upon meeting him, sharing all sorts of information about her life, but then she becomes intractable and uncooperative even though she's willing to return to her father's house, simply to annoy him. Why she, as a 20 year old who has been cooped up in her relatives' attic, believes that she knows more about traveling the world than a viscount who has traveled around the world.Simply put, Catherine is stupid. She is told repeatedly to trust certain people and yet puts her trust in those who she has the fewest reasons to trust. She never asks questions, never has anything explained to her, and completely ignores the obvious. By the time she stops being oblivious and gets some gumption the novel is nearly over. It is a gentle novel suitable for the young, but it is slow, and Catherine is an annoying heroine.