FOUR STARS
I liked this book, but I didn’t love it. I was able to sink my teeth into the beginning and then about a quarter of the way through the book, it went an entirely different direction. It had its up and down moments, but at the end of the day, I disliked Ram Montbryce. That wasn’t supposed to happen. I thought he was too mean to Mabelle and I didn’t appreciate the way he spoke to her and how he treated her. It did improve as the book progressed, but all he wanted was to do the wild thing with her.
Mabelle and her father were banished from their home by her half-brother when she was nine years old. Her father dragged her from place to place, making her work with the servants and basically earning their keep, while he sat around and moaned and groaned about the injustice of it all, yet did nothing to rectify it. She was tired of it all. I get it. But Ram didn’t do her much good, either and he was supposed to be her salvation.
The story takes place over a span of years, is loaded with history. and was more of a love story than a romance. Some will disagree. I didn’t feel Ram and Mabelle falling in love, but I did feel Rhodari and Rhonwen falling in love, almost to the point where it upstaged Ram and Mabelle. That wasn’t supposed to happen, either. Honestly, I cared more about how they were going to end up than Ram and Mabelle.
There are some great action scenes, a fair amount of rated PG-13+ steam, and a degree of mystery that kept me reading. This would’ve been a five-star read for me, but I couldn’t warm up to Ram.
Purchase at Amazon: https://amzn.to/3ckBju1
Hanging out with Kristi 