Customer Reviews

Wilder Shore by Clair, Daphne

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Heroine finally consents to marrying persistent Hero a few months after her 1st husband died. She & Hero had a very strong attraction 6 years earlier when she was engaged to be married. But heroine got scared of the intensity of their attraction & didn't want to rock the boat of her proper upbringing so she proceeded to marry her fiancé much earlier than planned. Being married to Hero now gives her the passion she never had before, the freedom to be what she wants to be, & the wealthy lifestyle she's accustomed to. But as much as Hero gives her the things she wants heroine feels that Hero is holding himself back from her. Hero isn't sure what heroine's real motives are in marrying him but he's going to do his best to provide the lifestyle he thinks she wants.

I liked this Claire book b/c it had a strong emotional tone & the characters were dynamically written. Hero was aggressive, clear about his attraction to heroine to the point of rudeness, & very persistent in pursuing her. But he wasn't an open book by any means. He was mocking in his pursuit & hid his vulnerability. I liked his obsession & possessiveness with heroine in combination with the freedom he gave her to do what she wanted to do & to choose him freely. Heroine wasn't as likeable to me. She teetered between following social rules & giving into her impulses. She was duty-bound, immature, & feared losing control at 19, which made her impulsively marry her fiancé right away instead of taking a chance with Hero. She ends up doing some passive-aggressive acts as a result. She became wiser & matured more 6 years later. But she was still having trouble trying to please people &, hence, suppressing her innermost thoughts & feelings up to a point. That was her redemption. Heroine wasn't a complete doormat b/c she held some boundary lines. Heroine engaged in emotional cheating with Hero & some physical too (kissing & some touching). Hero was also guilty for relentlessly pursuing her, knowing she was engaged to be married.

Recommended.

From the back cover: She gave five years away to the wrong man. At eighteen Elise had eagerly accepted Peter Westwood's engagement ring. He was handsome and ambitious and her parents approved. Then she met Shard Cortland - a construction man whose effect on her she found hard to resist. But she opted for the "good" life and hastily married Peter. Now, after Peter's death and five years later, Shard had reappeared wanting to marry her. Their mutual attraction remained unchanged, but marriage with Shard would be risky: she doubted his integrity and knew he had no use for love!

MY THOUGHTS: Wow, what can I say, this book was kinda angsty 0_0 My Mom lent me this book only cause I did her a favor and found the HP novels she was desperately searching for. AKA this is one of my Mom's favorite HP novels. Initially when my Mom told me the synopsis, I was semi turned off/not interested. She said something about the hero becoming poor later and giving the heroine whatever she wants to make her happy and I'm like: what??? you mean the hero is gonna be in poverty? why??? (I know I'm such a greedy person 0_0, but I figured it was fiction, so I want my usual mega rich heroes =P ) and why does the heroine sound like a "b" Mom??? I don't wanna read it! Mom's like, No, its good, its good. Needless to say I did read it, and yes, its good. But oh man!!! Just like the other novel I read, sometimes, its painful to me to read so much angst. SPOILERS ALERT Since my Mom basically spoiled the story for me, I already knew what to expect. The back cover already tells you most of the plot. Bottomline is, this is the story of a man who REALLY loves the heroine and does whatever he can to have her and keep her and make her happy 0_0 even though he knows (or should i say thinks =P) the heroine married him for his wealth. Now isn't that sweet!!! His love is one of those -> I only want her happiness even if I can't have her heart - awww......! As usual with angsty HP novels, it'll take me a few months to re-read coz <sniff> I feel bad. It's not really a super angsty book its just that with my knowing that the hero loves the heroine more than she does him (or so he thinks) I kinda feel bad for the hero. But the heroine is not a bad cookie. In the beginning she ran away from her feelings and married someone else but after, she does make some sort of amends. Also usually I don't like those novels where the heroine was married before and if they were, I'd prefer their exhusband/dead husband was a bastard so I would love the hero more 0_0 But in this particular book, he seemed like a nice guy and I wasn't disappointed/mad or felt it retracted from that story. Yeah, poor dead husband, but at least he never knew that the heroine had deeper feelings for someone else. But yeah, I definitely still feel bad for the hero coz he really did love the heroine and she married someone else... awww... anyway, I'm repeating myself. This book is really good. I wish I could say I'm gonna keep this book in my shelf but I can't - coz my Mom said I have to return it back to her!! Grrrr....!