review 1: I have to admit, I bought this book because of the title. Yeah, I know, Harlequin has a random title generator and the title isn't the author's doing or anything, but it was misleading. The warrior doesn't bed her until over halfway through the book after many fits and starts! But that's not my main beef with this story. The plot wasn't cohesive. The author kept having the h/h resolve plot problems only to lay another set of problems in their path. It got so that I had the impression the author was simply filling out a page count and couldn't come up with one cohesive plot that would do that for her (and IMO she could have with the what she had). This wouldn't be so much of an issue for me if the h/h had actually evolved in their relationship. They were forced to marry and... more were in a position not to trust each other in the beginning. The problem was they never learned to trust each other until almost the last page of the book. They both recognize they have trust issues; they have good reason not to trust each other; they simply never do anything about it until almost out of the blue the hero decides to take a leap of faith and make a very flowery love declaration to the heroine on the final page of the last chapter. It struck me as ridiculous seeing where they were in their relationship. Then the epilogue fast-forwards to years later and everything is fine and dandy. IMO the book would have been much better if we'd actually seen the h/h working out their issues rather than pushing each other's buttons all the time (and don't get me wrong, button-pushing is good, too; it just shouldn't be the entire premise of the relationship). review 2: I was a bit disappointed by this book. It was good, but not great. It never quite grabbed me. Let's put it this way, I decided I'd rather sleep on the planes than read it. I think it had great potential with a tortured hero and heroine, a heroine who was misunderstood and had a bad reputation, and was forced to wed a brutish, scary warrior. That could have been a great book. I tired of the back and forth, hormonal imbalances of the hero and heroine. The couldn't decide if they loved each other or hated each other. I really didn't feel there were great obstacles between them, so their bickering was mildly annoying. Maybe if the love scenes had been more passionate I would have accepted this better. I don't think love scenes have to be explicit, but the ones in this book was unnaturally lukewarm. I didn't really find the action scenes very exciting. Normally that is a part of medievals I really enjoy. Not necessarily a lot of blood and gore, but more showing and less telling. And since the hero was known to be a formidable warrior, I was expecting to be wowed by his prowess in the fight scenes. Also the cameos by King Henry and Queen Eleanor didn't really seem that vivid. Okay, I am quite the Medieval Romance Nerd, so my standards are a bit high, but I enjoy having the requisite, yet well-done cameo by a regal figure of the time. Although this is not the worst book I've read, but I have read much better medievals in the Harlequin Historical line, and one by this author. I think for the disgraced by their allegiance to the King/Queen, you should reach for The King's Mistress by Terri Brisbin before this one. less
