When Shemaine comes up on deck, Gage notices her shining beauty. In reality he would have noticed her stench and filth. I just can't buy it anymore. Woodiwiss doesn't seem to achieve a happy medium with her characters. Her novels are not populated with average, normal people.
Petals is no different.
At one point as he tries to get to Shemaine, Gage moves people aside by lifting them by the scruff of the neck. Not only is that overdone hyperbole, but it perpetuates the image of the inviolate, omnipotent hero. Charles Dickens was paid a penny a word, thus the reason for his length. If Woodiwiss were being paid a penny for every syllable, she'd be a rich woman. Her writing is noticeably grandiose, pretentious and flowery, using ridiculous metaphors and hyperbole that in the old days would have made me sigh with pleasure.