I selected this book based on an ad on a popular blog. The ad contained a close-up of the cover and the mock warning that the book is not for prudes and to read responsibly. The book description mentions the hero as a sex addict and implies this is the main issue to be dealt with as the couple forge a relationship. I rather thought from all of this that there would be a fair amount of AHEM and that the hero would learn to marry emotional intimacy with sex. Did I mention the expectation of a lot of AHEM?
This is the book I felt I was buying, particularly since the description also implied the heroine, Justine, might be more open or worldly for a woman of that time. Instead, the book was very much geared toward his abstinence even in marriage unless he restrained his desires - which seems counterintuitive since he wasn't allowed to, um, be alone either. The heroine came across as more of a dominatrix than a wife, but that seems utterly unintentional -- because I could have settled for that. ::grin:: Since they went to the opera, I'm thinking of the aria from Turandot, Nessun Dorma, meaning "none shall sleep" and wondering how you say, "none get laid." (Okay, rarely.)
I'd like to say that the writer made a valid choice to make it truly about sexual addiction as a bad thing with psychological roots, but that's not the way it was marketed and not particularly what I wanted to read at the moment I selected this. That would have been rather interestingly subversive however if it had been marketed that way and even more fully embraced. Instead, it was as if the book were torn between the steamy romance it was marketed as and something new - a breaking away from romance novel expectations. Of course, then the last portion was traditional again.
I was expected it to be more in the vein of romantic fantasy where a high libido is praised, the hero is usually alpha, and rakish behavior is considered good. The story seemed torn between naughtiness and Puritanism and I think that, based on genre expectations and marketing, that the wrong one won. Let's face it: in a romance novel we wanted heroes to be sexually addicted - to the heroine -- and if it's over the top, that's not unexpected.
Anyhow, my goal is not to be too hard on the author, who undoubtedly put her heart and talents into this, but at several points in the novel threads I found interesting were not pursued. The heroine liked when he flirted with her prior to marriage, claimed to miss those days, but seemed to resent any effort to lighten the mood. She seemed to neither like nor respect the hero, even though we're told she does. Her only goal seemed to be to punish and change him, and he went along with it willingly and that didn't feel good.
Justine said it was very important to her that they learn to talk and communicate. Good. Except she didn't actually seem that open to it. A lot of the time was spent with a b-plot concerning the hero's brother and his mistress and, until the a-plot is pleasing, other storylines seem an intrusion. That being said, the character of Matilda really grew on me and in some ways was more interesting and vivid than Justine.
What is admirable is that one of the themes of the book is that being gay is as natural as being straight. I appreciated those moments when a couple different characters were allowed to speak their hearts on the issue. These were the moments which were real, true, and moving, and stood in sharp contrast to the relationship between Justine and Radcliff. For me, this showed a glimpse of the author's genuine talent.
Now, for someone who prefers a sugary romance where relations are behind closed doors, this would still seem scandalous. I'm not in any way saying this becomes Christian fiction, just that the expectation of steaminess and actual steaminess don't match and that the heat often is treated as a bad thing in the book. I wanted a book in which the heroine matches the hero's libido, but demands from him fidelity and honesty, and that this would lead to both sexy and moving scenes. Instead wondered why these people were together. It seems to me that the book as if would be too shocking for one faction of romance readers and too tame for another faction.
The thing is that I can love all different kinds of heat levels, but there were just too many mixed signals and the balance seemed off, not just sexually but emotionally and thematically.
They did sort out most of their issues and the heat was at last there, but scenes that are welcome at 20% (Kindle) seem long overdue at 80%. A character refers to them shortly after as being happy and it confused me for a moment, because I wasn't feeling that. Still, I genuinely liked most of the last 23%
There were moments of genuine wit and charm and I wouldn't have been nearly as disappointed if that wasn't the case, if there weren't moments I adored. Every time I try to convince myself to at least bump this up to 3 stars it doesn't feel right or honest. Just too much standing in the way -- the marketing which felt (unintentionally) misleading, the thwarted expectations, the moments of possibility feeling like they reached a dead end, the feeling that the couple was mismatched until close to the end... I'd love to try this author again some day after carefully checking out other reviews to make sure it really is my cup of tea.
2 Stars.
