The main reason I could not enjoy this book more is that I spent most of the time furious at the hero. He acts callously and selfishly, but above all foolishly, because his "reason" to act like that is stupid in the extreme.
Imagine this, Nicholas is crazy about Regina, but would not consider marriying her, even after taking her virginity. The fact that she could well be carrying his child doesn't even enter his mind (...)And his reason for resisting marriage is that he is illegitimate and does not want to pass the stigma of his birth to his wife, if this fact comes to be known, as his supossed mother threatens to do. He has to be forced by Regina's uncles to marry her, which he longs to do, but resistes with all his might for the reason I mentioned above.
Now, this could explain why he rejects the idea of marrying, but does not explain why, once he gives in and marries her he abandons her for almost a year instead of enjoying his wife and even trusting her with his secret. He should have known that she would not reject him after knowing he is illegitimate, since her favorite cousin (who, by the way, is his best friend) is also illegitimate and she loves and accepts him.
But this is not all, when he finally returns to his wife, he doubts he is the father of her child. Oh, at this point I was boiling with fury and anticipating the part when he would grovel for his wife forgiveness. But guess what? It never came. He never apologizes for his despicable behavior, and his only thoughts are how to get his wife into bed again. And even more infuriating, she forgets about all he has done and wants him back in her bed too! This unrealistic behavior pretty much ruined the book for me.
And what about all the mistakes with the forms of address? All the males in her family are called "Lord Malory", when the proper form of addres would be for Jason "Lord Haverston" since he is the Marquess of Haverston and for the other brothers "Lord Edward Malory", "Lord James Malory" and "Lord Anthony Malory". Derek could not be the heir to his father's title, since he is illegitimate. And how did the title fo Viscount of Ryding came to be held by James when he is the third son and everybody knows that all the titles are held by the firstborn? And why is Anthony called "Sir Anthony"? Does he have a knighthood? And how did Edward come to be an Earl? It is not a common occurrence for second, third and fourth sons to hold titles, so I think this deserves some kind of explanation.
All the books in the series are full of these kind of mistakes and this makes me lose respect for the writer. I think that a good writer should know the details about the society she is writting about, to avoid making these silly errors that only cheapen her work and prevent the readers from taking her seriously.
Other books of the series are amusing, in a light sort of way, but they are enternainning nonetheless. My favorites are "Tender Rebel", "Gentle Rogue" and "Say you love me".
