Rating: 
Summary: What a waste of time
Review: I truly wonder how this book ever made it through the editing process. From the first page to the last, two otherwise intelligent people spend an inordinate amount of time obsessing about a stupid marriage contract. The title suggests that the suitor may be reluctant, but as far as I can tell, that was really not the case. And why in the world would the author throw in a dangerous murderer?? Maybe to liven up this dull story.
Also, use of words such as "portal" and "winsome" began to irritate me about the second chapter. Felicity had such a "winsome" smile, nose, manner, face, backside, ....find another word!!
If you still plan to buy and read this book, I would suggest buying it from the used section of Amazon.com or checking it out from the library so you don't waste [$$] on the hardback like I did.
Rating:
Summary: Not her finest work...
Review: I've been reading Woodiwiss novels for years and was eager to read her latest offering. So eager that I didn't even wait for it to come out in paperback. I wish I had. The story was slow and a chore to get through. As another reviewer so eloquently put it, what a dud.
Rating: 
Summary: Definitely Not Her Best!
Review: Ms. Woodiwiss, please re-read The Flame and The Flower so you can remember what truly entertaining writing is about. The last one-third of this book was quite entertaining as all the stories FINALLY entertwined, but the first two-thirds were dull and slow. Both the main characters seemed stupid, particularly Adriana, who was dull and spoiled, with little but her beauty to recommend her. Ms. Woodiwiss also seems to have a fascination with the word "orbs" as she must use it at least a hundred times in the book, to describe the characters' eyes and breasts. Not her worst, but absolutely not her best. That honor, in my opinion, still belongs to The Flame and The Flower.
Rating: 
Summary: Below Woodiwiss Standard
Review: Kathleen Woodiwiss took too long to develop her plot in her latest novel. It is not up to the standard of The Flame and The Flower, The Wolf and the Dove or Shanna. Numerous times Ms. Woodiwiss repeated herself and the book seemed to drag. I always wait for her latest edition, but I was really disappointed with this one.
Rating:
Summary: Waiting
Review: I have waited a long time for Kathleen next book. This one is pretty good, except that Adienne is kind of self-fish and stuck in the past. It takes most of the book to get past that, nearly everyother page has her whinning about her heartbreaking. They refered the Lady has being stronger., yet gentle. But her living in the Past and they way she kind of treats Roger like a lap dog in the Begining. and then the usually chip on his shoulder. I just felt the chartakers were a little flat. If this is your first book with her I would read this one first, then work my way to her 2 best "The flower and the flame" or "Ashes in the Wind." I think the editer she let Kathleen Woodiwiss write the stories we have come to love no matter whither short or long
Rating:
Summary: I am the BIGGEST fan of Woodiwiss, BUT-
Review: I was alittle disappointed. I'm still waiting for her to turn out something as good as Shanna, but it hasn't happened yet.
This book seems to drag a bit, and some issues are debated over and over again. Still, I eagerly gobble up her books because she seems to be the only author today that actually knows the difference between romance and porn. If you want sex, get a Kleypas book. If you want romance, buy Woodiwiss or Jane Austen.
I would still recommend this book, but it's not her best work.Keep writing, KW, and I'll still read!!
Rating: 
Summary: An elegant period piece
Review: If you want to read a 19th century story with edgy dialog from 2003, this is not your best choice. However, if you want to immerse yourself in another time and enjoy a great love story, you will love this book. Like all Woodiwiss books, this one actually transports you there, with thorough research and attention to detail. Sure, the sentences are cumbersome at times, but a lot of old period literature is like that. Unlike many of today's fakey historicals that have 5-word sentences, an elementary school vocabulary, and dialog that could be on "Friends," this one has an authentic feel and no, it doesn't resolve within a few sound bites. You have to participate a little, but it's a rich experience and well worth every page. I loved it.
Rating:
Summary: When did KW lose all respect for her readers' intelligence?
Review: I have read this author since the 70's (THE FLAME AND THE FLOWER and THE WOLF AND THE DOVE). I was crushingly disappointed in this new offering. Does she not have an editor to tell her that she has had so many of characters musing over the SAME THINGS ad naseum? Does she think her readers cannot hold onto those thoughts for more than a few pages? The story plods along with our characters standing around talking. I kept thinking, something will happen soon, nope, they're just going talk some more and muse again on the same ideas that were introduced in Chapter 1. I have always picked her new books up faithfully on the strength of her early works. Well, from now on, maybe I'll just read THE WOLF AND THE DOVE again.
Rating:
Summary: What Happened!
Review: Boy, was this a dud! The characters lacked the fire so evident in many of her previous books. Chapter by chapter, I was hoping it to get better- to define a plot, build depth characters, etc. Even the sex sparks were lacking. This story could have easily been told in 50 pages! KEW's heroine, Adrianna, was rather impetious and immature- she was jilted (sort of) at the age of six. She overheard her betrothed refusing to marry her. From then, she professes to hate him. Actually, it was rather hard to discern her feelings through most of the novel and she seemed confused at all the male attention she recieved. A paragon of modesty...dull. The hero, Colton, was shallow. He wasn't the normal socially defiant man that you'd see in KEW's other novels. He claimed to refuse to want to marry her, but broke down easy enough. His reaction to his father's dead and subsequent cause was not how previous male charaters would have reacted. And the mistress thing- what a lame by-line! Couldn't she think of something better as the detterent to the main couple's coming together? The only one I read it for was Riordan, a Duke competing for the affections of Adrianna. KEW had to spoil him, too, pairing him off to the spoiled Felicity. Why not save a great novel for him? I would have read a book where he met his match- not a rude, haughty little brat! What can I say- the days of the great KEW reads are over.
Rating:
Summary: THE RELUCTANT READER
Review: I adore most of her books, and have been a fan for years, but this was grim. The basics first: the print is SOOOO tiny, and the margins so small with little white space that for a 40+ like myself it was really painful reading. So was the prose. Long winded descriptions of the decor when she is supposed to be giving us info on the hero, and even longer passages from the point of view of Roger the villain right at the start of the book make it exceptionally hard to get into. Basic rule of romance: the hero and heroine fall in love! They also usually need to be in the same room for this to happen, yet they all go haring off all over the place. I never get convinced about Colton really wanting to marry her and it takes until about page 375 of anything to hot up in the book. Fron them on it is all plot-driven and confusing as she tried to give us some 'surprising twists' and turns which quite frankly were not (even given the directionless mess of the narrative), and may offend some readers. Not just because of the gruesome subject matter, but because they are handled in such a gratuitous way. (miscarriage, rape, abuse, assault) The second strand of the plot with Felicity and the third with the identity of the baby all get in the way of was watching the couple as they supposedly fall in love. It is more like an exercise in willfulness than love, or even lust. Endless reams of detail on the wolfhounds also seriously detracts. The continual introduction of pets and babies into romances shold definitely be banned! As for the love scenes, by the time we get any we really could not care less. But they are so badly written, with the world's most unromantic dialogue that one wonders why they ever bothered to marry. And he is constantly grabbing her buttocks for the rest of the book-not the world's best idea of sweeping a girl off her feet except on the mundanely practical level. Really juvenile. Very disappointing. Above all, it could really have used a good editor who would have stopped all the maundering and repetitive sections that went around and around, supposedly adding to suspense or depth of character, but really just irking the reader. I will look forward to her next book, which hopefully will be as brief, but not be so rushed.
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