Sweet Betrayal
Teacher heroine hates that she's attracted to new owner of the estate, who her family works for & who she had a crush on as a kid. She's been mad at him since age 13 when he walked out on her older sister, who he was engaged to be married to, when she informed him that she was pregnant. Heroine becomes more upset with hero b/c he appears to make changes in the estate, which affects her & her family's livelihood. But, as she spends more time with him, she feels confused as she sees that she's not as bad she thought he was.Brooks' writing is fine. I just didn't care for the main characters. Heroine was rude, judgmental, quick to speak, & doesn't take time to listen to hero. When hero tries to correct her assumptions, she doesn't give him the respect to do so b/c she's CONSTANTLY interrupting him. I don't know how many times she said "I hate you" to hero & not let him explain himself. So, I don't see why hero would be attracted to someone who interrupts him a lot, judges him harshly, & insults him constantly....Oh yeah, his daddy used to do the same thing to him. Needless to say, their romance has a dysfunctional bent. Their slapping each other (albeit at different times) just spices up their "romance". Interestingly enough, heroine takes on the typical role of bad-romance-novel hero (judgmental & verbally abusive) & hero the typical bad-romance-novel heroine (doormat, emotionally passive, & stops eating b/c so distraught).
Read if you're in the mood for some dysfunction.
