Fanning the Flame
After watching beautiful heroine at the park for some time, Hero finally gets himself introduced to her regardless of her scandalous reputation as an elderly earl's much-younger mistress. Soon after they meet, Hero hides heroine in his house from authorities who suspect her to have murdered her lover. Hero has doubts about her culpability & helps investigate the murder. Their proximity & time together brings on an affair. But the lack of other suspects & Hero's jaded view about women become major obstacles to their r/s. This was not as exciting as other Martin books. The pace was slow & story predictable. Romance was only ok. The main characters lacked zest &, therefore, the romance did too. Heroine was dependent, too amenable, & weak-willed. She wasn't over the top but the elements were there. Hero didn't trust himself with his love choices & this theme gets repeated A LOT during the book. What made it worse was his frequent regrets for succumbing to sexual intimacy with heroine. It made him look weak & insecure about himself. Sexual chemistry & sex scenes were fine. Emotional pull was on the flat side.
A mediocre recommendation.
