Review: Too Much Sex....Hypocritical Heroine. ***SPOILER***
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 10 5, 2013
I'm usually all for sex in a romance novel, but there are times when it's not called for, or where less is better.  This book is one of those times.  There was just too much sex!  I pretty much hated the book, but gave it two stars because it is well written and the premise of the plot is pretty good.  The execution, however, was completely ruined by the heroine!  The hero, Spence, is a wounded soul seeking revenge for the murders of his father and two older brothers at the hands of the Kansas jayhawkers (a band of men who are supposedly fighting for the union cause, but really they just wreak havoc on innocent citizens). Spence has been on this quest of revenge for eight years.  Over the years he has become more and more embittered and obsessed with his thirst for revenge.  The heroine, Mercy, is written as a feisty, independent, strong female.  After her father was killed by the Missouri bushwhackers (they are the Missiouri equivalent to the Kansas jayhawkers, except they are on the side of the confederates, but are just as despicable as the jayhawkers) the previous year, Mercy has singlehandedly continued to run the family farm and take care of her mother and two younger siblings.  When Spence and Mercy first meet sparks fly.  Mercy distrusts Spence, but he renders assistance to her and her sister, and out of gratitude for his help, she invites him and his brother, Dewey, to dinner with her family.  A week later, Spence and Dewey, are back, this time in the company of the bushwhackers who take over Mercy's farm.  Spence was an ok character.  There were quite a few times when he acted like a complete a** and I really didn't like him, but overall he was ok.  On the other hand, I absolutely could not stand Mercy!  She was such a hypocrite!  ***SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER***. Mercy has sex with Spence way too quickly, especially when you consider that she's supposed to be a God fearing Christian and she thinks Spence is the devil incarnate.  It made me sick how she could so easily and eagerly fall into bed with him at the drop of a hat....all the while she's spouting Christian values.  She justified fornicating with Spence to herself by thinking that "this pure untainted love" could not be sinful and that "love was the exception to every rule.  Even the rules of heaven" and that is a direct quote!  Really?!  But, what made this book even worse is the way the hero spoke to the heroine at times.  To be honest, the things he said to Mercy and the way he acted at times didn't really bother me, but rather it was Mercy's spineless acceptance of Spence's behavior that annoyed the crap out of me!  You can tell that Spence cares for Mercy, more than he wants to, more than he thinks he can afford to, and oftentimes he says mean, disrespectful things to her just to keep her at arms length.  But, the fact of the matter is that although we the readers can tell that Spence is fighting against his growing feelings for her, Mercy is not aware of this fact.  Consequently, her failure to stand up for herself to Spence and her continued sexual relationship with him, just makes her look weak and stupid.  On more than one occasion he pretty much calls her a whore, but she continues to sleep with him.....and my thought was doesn't she have ANY pride?  When Spence finds out Mercy is pregnant, he is angry and thinks she is ruining his plans and that the last thing he needs is to be "saddled" with a family of his own.  Of course he still has sex with her, all the while damning her because he can't keep his hand off her.  He decides to marry her, but he doesn't ask.  Instead, he ANNOUNCES that the preacher would be coming to marry them the next day.  Mercy tells Spence that she feels shame at having to marry a man who doesn't love her and he tells her to "get over it."  But, my thought was, where was all this shame when you were sleeping with him, a man who you think doesn't love you?  Isn't that more shameful?  I mean this book is set in the 1800's for chrissake not in the 21st century!  Pre-marital sex was a big no no back then.  When Mercy first tells Spence that she loves him, he tells her that what is between them is lust, not love.  But, not to worry because she is "probably the best f" he's ever had!  And what was her reaction to that?!.....she thinks to herself that she wanted to hate him, but her love for him was too far gone!  I hate when authors use love and great sex as an excuse for turning a so called strong women into a spineless twit.  I think it is insulting and demeaning to women.  This is a pet peeve of mine.  As far as I was concerned, when it came to Spence, Mercy had no self respect and I had absolutely no respect for her either!  As for Spence, I understand he was a tortured soul, and I really liked him in the beginning.  But the more I read, the less I liked him, and by the end of the book my overall impression is that he was just ok.  I would have liked him a whole lot better had Mercy been more of a match for him.  Her gesture of finally leaving him at the end of the book was pathetic in the extreme and lasted all of an hour, if that.  Like I said earlier, I pretty much hated this book.  I certainly won't be reading the next one in the series, "Fire on the Plains."