Romance Books Reviews & Treats

Unemployed heroine encounters her ex-lover Hero by accident in London & finds out he still thinks she's a thief & sexually promiscuous especially after seeing her with her baby. The only thing that changed when he realized he was the father of her 7-month-old baby was his demand that she marry him for the sake of their son. Heroine tries to convince him that she's not what he believes she is but her ability to be seduced easily by him doesn't help matters. What will it take to convince Hero that she's innocent of the theft & sexual manipulation?

This Hamilton book started out badly. Hero was not Hero-material in the 1st 2/3 of the book, with his judgmental, hypocritical, unforgiving, domineering, & cheating ways (He didn't tell heroine he had a fiancee he was planning on breaking up with when they had their fling). Heroine was also maddening with her doormat & passive attitude. But the book got better towards the end when Hero began to realize how much he wronged heroine, apologized for it, & tried to make up for it by setting her free their blackmailed marriage arrangement. It wasn't a huge personality change for Hero but he made good-enough attempts to amend for his past mistakes & jerk behaviors. I still think he should've groveled more for deceiving heroine about his engaged status & believing his fiancee over her re: the theft without giving her a good chance to explain herself. Heroine, on the other hand, not only stayed a doormat but got worse & worse about her victim/martyr role as the book progressed. We know that she's thinking what a vile & hypocritical jerk Hero has been to her but she never tells him that. She keeps her assertive & justifiably angry thoughts to herself & instead says appeasing things to Hero & easily gave in to his demands. What was frustrating was that she knew she was a pushover but didn't try to do anything about it. She seemed to like playing the martyr role too much to want to change.

As dysfunctional as the main characters were, this book kept my emotions & interest involved so it was a fast read for me. The passionate sexual chemistry & sex scenes kept the pace going too.

Moderately recommended.