Some interesting ideas but really spoiled by the old-school mindset. The heroine suffered childhood trauma and has reacted by becoming super tough, but the size and expression of the chip on her shoulder just seems... unrealistic. The hero is very much an alpha hero and that doesn't really work with this heroine, I think. The book is very heroine-focused - she needs to learn to let go and fall in love - but the way that's expressed is often very uncomfortable, e.g. she has to dress "sexy" and get her hair and nails done. It's explicitly requested/demanded by the hero, and the overall impression one is left with is that D.J. would like to be a girly girl sometimes but is prevented by Her Trauma and that will be Healed By True Love. There are a billion and one other characters around - clearly this is part of an ongoing series - and all of them have very, very traditional relationships. The heroine's best friend used to run an orphanage but now only does it part-time because after all she has her own babies to take care of now; D.J. spends a lot of time being jealous of this friend and her femininity. It's all very discomfiting, because while D.J. is allowed by the narrative to be tough (and the hero explicitly likes her toughness), her toughness is a direct response to earlier trauma and, similarly, her clothes, her way of life, her everything, is ascribed to this trauma and needs to be "healed." I feel like this might have been exciting fifteen years ago - finally a Harlequin category heroine who is genuinely tough as nails! - but the stereotypes D.J. embodies are really uncomfortable in this day and age. Part of it, I think, is that she's coded aggressively tomboy (tough, aggressive, stern with men but secretly terrified of them, dresses mannishly) but is healed from all that by the love of a good man, which is bonkers and pretty insulting. Yes, she keeps being tough and has all her black belts, but deep down she wants to wear pretty dresses and learn to submit to a man who is strong enough to make her... but none of this is explicitly written in, the way it would be nowadays.