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Me Not #2
Love Me Not
A LADY IN DANGER
As a child, Lady Kathleen was grateful that a sacred vow had been made that protected her from the malevolent grasp of the earl who called himself her father. But the exiled earl has returned, to ruin her dreams of independence by forcing her into an arranged marriage ...
A DUKE TO THE RESCUE
Now it is the handsome hot-blooded Damien, Duke of Westbrook, who boldly comes forward to honor his father's promise --- snatching the ravishing flame-haired beauty from that dreadful marriage by wedding her himself. Furious that independence still eludes her, Kathy vows that the arrogant duke who rescued her will never possess her. Yet even as her mind recoils, her heart cries out to the pleasure he sparks deep within her. For theirs is a passion fired by love denied ... and destined to unconditional surrender.
As a child, Lady Kathleen was grateful that a sacred vow had been made that protected her from the malevolent grasp of the earl who called himself her father. But the exiled earl has returned, to ruin her dreams of independence by forcing her into an arranged marriage ...
A DUKE TO THE RESCUE
Now it is the handsome hot-blooded Damien, Duke of Westbrook, who boldly comes forward to honor his father's promise --- snatching the ravishing flame-haired beauty from that dreadful marriage by wedding her himself. Furious that independence still eludes her, Kathy vows that the arrogant duke who rescued her will never possess her. Yet even as her mind recoils, her heart cries out to the pleasure he sparks deep within her. For theirs is a passion fired by love denied ... and destined to unconditional surrender.
372 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 1996
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February 12, 2020
3.5 stars.
Hostile acquaintances have no option but to cooperate, when a delusional, obsessed stalker and ( functional) psychotic OM, works with the heroine's evil estranged stepfather to force her into an unwanted marriage.
Laziness and the flu, worked in tandem to postpone the writing of this extremely overdue book review.
The second in the trilogy that started with Tempt Me Not, this novel tells the story of Damien and Kathleen.
Damien's the hunky Duke of Westbrook. He's also the older brother of Jillian ( the heroine from Tempt Me Not ) and best friend of her husband, Max.
Damien's less intense and unyielding than Max, because his demeanour is softened by the influence of his sister and aunt. But it doesn't mean that he's lacking in the alpha male stakes. In fact, at this point in his life, Damien's happy and fancy free because his baby sister is happily married with a toddler son, so his responsibilities are greatly lessened.
This is the H, Damien, the Duke of Westbrook:
Kathleen, the heroine, was brought into Damien's inner circle due to certain shocking revelations in Tempt Me Not.
This is the heroine, Lady Kathleen:
Important Backstory:
In book 1, Tempt Me Not, Lady Kathleen discovered that Max ( the H from Tempt Me Not ) is her half brother, because she and her older brother Bruce were fathered by the late Duke of Bassett.
The late Duke of Bassett had already been married ( to a bride chosen by his late parents ) when he met a beautiful young debutante and fell into obsessive insta-lust. That young woman was so in love with him that she didn't care that he had a wife.
Their affair resulted in an unplanned pregnancy and the late Duke of Bassett paid the bankrupt Earl of Blackwood to marry his young lover and legitimize the baby. As a result, the heroine's older brother Bruce ( who's the H in book 3, Deceive Me Not ) ends up becoming Viscount Channing, the heir ( but NOT the biological son of the Earl of Blackwood ).
This trainwreck of family skeletons was revealed in book 1 after the old dukes of Bassett and Westbrook died while at sea. The heroine's mother, who had spent her entire life living as the Duke of Bassett's mistress, went into a decline and died from heartbreak.
She was so in love with the old duke that she couldn't be bothered to live for the sake of her two adult children - especially her 18 year old daughter who'd yet to be brought out into society.
The heroine's mother was the kind of woman, who obsessively dedicated her life to her man. She had never even had sex with her husband ( the Earl of Blackwood ) or any other man, because he'd been paid to keep his hands off of her for as long as they remained married. Her schedule revolved around the times when her ducal lover would visit her.
This type of emotionally unhealthy relationship meant that this woman lived, breathed, cried and died for her lover...
The heroine's mother was so caught up in her love life with the married duke, that she didn't even notice that her resentful husband mercilessly bullied her two kids. The Earl was especially bitter that his title would be passed onto the Duke of Bassett's son. His bitterness soon festered into full blown evil.
It's only when her son almost died from a brutal beating, that the heroine's mother complained to her lover. He, with help from Damien's ( the H's ) father, banished the Earl to America. This happens at the very start of the novel.
And that's when the old Duke of Westbrook promised Kathleen ( who'd been a little scared child, at the time ) that if the evil Earl of Blackwood ever turned up to torment her again, he'd protect her. Furthermore, he consoled the traumatized heroine by telling her that if he wasn't alive in the event of the Earl's return, then his heir ( the H ) would save her.
Moving on from the backstory...
The real story begins after the heroine's mother has died, from grief. Kathleen is now a rich heiress and she's determined never to fall in love and marry, because she's afraid of ending up like her mother. She's planning to wait until she reaches her majority ( 21 ) so that she can claim her inheritance and buy a house of her own.
Her relationship with the H is very cold and relatively hostile, because she hasn't forgiven him for getting into a brutal fist fight with her brother in the first novel. Damien, meanwhile, thinks she's an uptight, bitchy and unfriendly young woman, who goes out of her way to be mean and rude to all her suitors. He doesn't understand that she's uninterested in suitors, but thinks that it merely amuses her to be standoffish and cold.
He thinks she's the weirdest unmarried young lady in the Ton...
At the same time, however, Damien's unable to stop lusting after her. But he never acts on it because both of her brothers are his best friends and he doesn't want that unnecessary drama in his happy-go-lucky life.
The trouble starts when the heroine refuses to go on vacation with her brothers and her sister in law. Shit hits the fan when Kathleen informs them that she's started searching for her own house and is never going to marry any man.
Her sister in law, Jillian, tries to convince her that true love does exist...
But Kathleen is so cynical that she doesn't believe that she can ever achieve the type of romantic bliss that her half brother Max has found with Damien's sister, Jillian...
The MC's are thrown together when the heroine's brothers allow her to stay in England, only if Damien promises to look in on her regularly and ensure that she, her bodyguard and her companion are okay.
The H's totally pissed off at this arrangement, because he doesn't want to be responsible for the sourpuss heroine...
And the prickly, independent Kathleen pretends to be fine with this arrangement, while scheming to minimize her interaction with the H...
Everything would've worked out well, since Kathleen had her family's trusty manservant Smithy to protect her. But nobody could've predicted the craziness that would develop when the heroine's obsessed spurned suitor, Tony Edgewater, declined to accept her refusal of his umpteenth marriage proposal.
Tony was such an obsessive-compulsive psycho that he actually believed that the heroine loved him, but had refused to marry him because her brother disliked him. He was so hellbent on getting her down the altar, that he asked the evil Earl of Blackwood to return to England...
The unhinged OM didn't know that the Earl wasn't Kathleen's biological father. But even if he'd known, it wouldn't have mattered since the law recognized that villainous old man as the heroine's main guardian.
The evil Earl saw this as his opportunity to get his revenge against his dead wife and her offspring. The OM had sweetened the deal by offering to let the Earl keep the heroine's vast inheritance. The heroine is threatened, slapped etc and dragged to a small chapel where the Earl tries to bully her into marrying Tony Edgewater.
Her manservant Smithy saved her by sending a message to the H and the MC's end up rushing off to Gretna Green because Damien realizes that only a marriage to another man ( him ) would protect Kathleen from the machinations of her stepfather and the OM.
At this point in the story, I started to lose my patience with the heroine big time !
The H had sacrificed so much to save her ungrateful ass and yet she continued to be mean, rude and snarky to him. Kathleen's bad behaviour was due entirely to her massive unwanted attraction to the H.
The H himself didn't want to remain married to such a pain in the ass female, so they agreed not to consummate their marriage in the hope that they'd be able to get an annulment after her brothers had returned to help sort out the Earl and the OM.
Eventually, however, sexual chemistry overcame all of these obstacles and the MC's marriage was no longer one of mere convenience. Just when they're finally close to confessing their love for each other, the delusional OM interferes once more when he accosts them and shoots the H.
Help arrived from the most unexpected individual - the Earl of Blackwood. He, who'd been warned that the heroine's brothers would kill him if anything bad happened to either or both of the MC's, turned up just in time to kill Tony Edgewater before he could shoot the H again.
I would've given this a higher rating if Kathleen hadn't been such an exasperating heroine at times. I loved Damien, though. He was such a handsome, charming, chivalrous and witty H. I also wished that the romantic storyline had started to develop a little earlier. But, in spite of this, the novel was very enjoyable due to the intense level of angst and the craptastic trainwrecky backstory.
Safety: A wannabe OM but no cheating. There is mention made of the H's mistress, Vicky, but he only interacts with her on one occasion, during which he gives her her congé, ending their arrangement. The MC's are separated for a few weeks but they're both celibate during that time.
I'll probably get around to writing the review of the final book, in the trilogy, sometime tomorrow. That novel focuses on Kathleen's rogue, rakish brother Viscount Channing.
Hostile acquaintances have no option but to cooperate, when a delusional, obsessed stalker and ( functional) psychotic OM, works with the heroine's evil estranged stepfather to force her into an unwanted marriage.
Laziness and the flu, worked in tandem to postpone the writing of this extremely overdue book review.
The second in the trilogy that started with Tempt Me Not, this novel tells the story of Damien and Kathleen.
Damien's the hunky Duke of Westbrook. He's also the older brother of Jillian ( the heroine from Tempt Me Not ) and best friend of her husband, Max.
Damien's less intense and unyielding than Max, because his demeanour is softened by the influence of his sister and aunt. But it doesn't mean that he's lacking in the alpha male stakes. In fact, at this point in his life, Damien's happy and fancy free because his baby sister is happily married with a toddler son, so his responsibilities are greatly lessened.
This is the H, Damien, the Duke of Westbrook:
Kathleen, the heroine, was brought into Damien's inner circle due to certain shocking revelations in Tempt Me Not.
This is the heroine, Lady Kathleen:
Important Backstory:
In book 1, Tempt Me Not, Lady Kathleen discovered that Max ( the H from Tempt Me Not ) is her half brother, because she and her older brother Bruce were fathered by the late Duke of Bassett.
The late Duke of Bassett had already been married ( to a bride chosen by his late parents ) when he met a beautiful young debutante and fell into obsessive insta-lust. That young woman was so in love with him that she didn't care that he had a wife.
Their affair resulted in an unplanned pregnancy and the late Duke of Bassett paid the bankrupt Earl of Blackwood to marry his young lover and legitimize the baby. As a result, the heroine's older brother Bruce ( who's the H in book 3, Deceive Me Not ) ends up becoming Viscount Channing, the heir ( but NOT the biological son of the Earl of Blackwood ).
This trainwreck of family skeletons was revealed in book 1 after the old dukes of Bassett and Westbrook died while at sea. The heroine's mother, who had spent her entire life living as the Duke of Bassett's mistress, went into a decline and died from heartbreak.
She was so in love with the old duke that she couldn't be bothered to live for the sake of her two adult children - especially her 18 year old daughter who'd yet to be brought out into society.
The heroine's mother was the kind of woman, who obsessively dedicated her life to her man. She had never even had sex with her husband ( the Earl of Blackwood ) or any other man, because he'd been paid to keep his hands off of her for as long as they remained married. Her schedule revolved around the times when her ducal lover would visit her.
This type of emotionally unhealthy relationship meant that this woman lived, breathed, cried and died for her lover...
The heroine's mother was so caught up in her love life with the married duke, that she didn't even notice that her resentful husband mercilessly bullied her two kids. The Earl was especially bitter that his title would be passed onto the Duke of Bassett's son. His bitterness soon festered into full blown evil.
It's only when her son almost died from a brutal beating, that the heroine's mother complained to her lover. He, with help from Damien's ( the H's ) father, banished the Earl to America. This happens at the very start of the novel.
And that's when the old Duke of Westbrook promised Kathleen ( who'd been a little scared child, at the time ) that if the evil Earl of Blackwood ever turned up to torment her again, he'd protect her. Furthermore, he consoled the traumatized heroine by telling her that if he wasn't alive in the event of the Earl's return, then his heir ( the H ) would save her.
Moving on from the backstory...
The real story begins after the heroine's mother has died, from grief. Kathleen is now a rich heiress and she's determined never to fall in love and marry, because she's afraid of ending up like her mother. She's planning to wait until she reaches her majority ( 21 ) so that she can claim her inheritance and buy a house of her own.
Her relationship with the H is very cold and relatively hostile, because she hasn't forgiven him for getting into a brutal fist fight with her brother in the first novel. Damien, meanwhile, thinks she's an uptight, bitchy and unfriendly young woman, who goes out of her way to be mean and rude to all her suitors. He doesn't understand that she's uninterested in suitors, but thinks that it merely amuses her to be standoffish and cold.
He thinks she's the weirdest unmarried young lady in the Ton...
At the same time, however, Damien's unable to stop lusting after her. But he never acts on it because both of her brothers are his best friends and he doesn't want that unnecessary drama in his happy-go-lucky life.
The trouble starts when the heroine refuses to go on vacation with her brothers and her sister in law. Shit hits the fan when Kathleen informs them that she's started searching for her own house and is never going to marry any man.
Her sister in law, Jillian, tries to convince her that true love does exist...
But Kathleen is so cynical that she doesn't believe that she can ever achieve the type of romantic bliss that her half brother Max has found with Damien's sister, Jillian...
The MC's are thrown together when the heroine's brothers allow her to stay in England, only if Damien promises to look in on her regularly and ensure that she, her bodyguard and her companion are okay.
The H's totally pissed off at this arrangement, because he doesn't want to be responsible for the sourpuss heroine...
And the prickly, independent Kathleen pretends to be fine with this arrangement, while scheming to minimize her interaction with the H...
Everything would've worked out well, since Kathleen had her family's trusty manservant Smithy to protect her. But nobody could've predicted the craziness that would develop when the heroine's obsessed spurned suitor, Tony Edgewater, declined to accept her refusal of his umpteenth marriage proposal.
Tony was such an obsessive-compulsive psycho that he actually believed that the heroine loved him, but had refused to marry him because her brother disliked him. He was so hellbent on getting her down the altar, that he asked the evil Earl of Blackwood to return to England...
The unhinged OM didn't know that the Earl wasn't Kathleen's biological father. But even if he'd known, it wouldn't have mattered since the law recognized that villainous old man as the heroine's main guardian.
The evil Earl saw this as his opportunity to get his revenge against his dead wife and her offspring. The OM had sweetened the deal by offering to let the Earl keep the heroine's vast inheritance. The heroine is threatened, slapped etc and dragged to a small chapel where the Earl tries to bully her into marrying Tony Edgewater.
Her manservant Smithy saved her by sending a message to the H and the MC's end up rushing off to Gretna Green because Damien realizes that only a marriage to another man ( him ) would protect Kathleen from the machinations of her stepfather and the OM.
At this point in the story, I started to lose my patience with the heroine big time !
The H had sacrificed so much to save her ungrateful ass and yet she continued to be mean, rude and snarky to him. Kathleen's bad behaviour was due entirely to her massive unwanted attraction to the H.
The H himself didn't want to remain married to such a pain in the ass female, so they agreed not to consummate their marriage in the hope that they'd be able to get an annulment after her brothers had returned to help sort out the Earl and the OM.
Eventually, however, sexual chemistry overcame all of these obstacles and the MC's marriage was no longer one of mere convenience. Just when they're finally close to confessing their love for each other, the delusional OM interferes once more when he accosts them and shoots the H.
Help arrived from the most unexpected individual - the Earl of Blackwood. He, who'd been warned that the heroine's brothers would kill him if anything bad happened to either or both of the MC's, turned up just in time to kill Tony Edgewater before he could shoot the H again.
I would've given this a higher rating if Kathleen hadn't been such an exasperating heroine at times. I loved Damien, though. He was such a handsome, charming, chivalrous and witty H. I also wished that the romantic storyline had started to develop a little earlier. But, in spite of this, the novel was very enjoyable due to the intense level of angst and the craptastic trainwrecky backstory.
Safety: A wannabe OM but no cheating. There is mention made of the H's mistress, Vicky, but he only interacts with her on one occasion, during which he gives her her congé, ending their arrangement. The MC's are separated for a few weeks but they're both celibate during that time.
I'll probably get around to writing the review of the final book, in the trilogy, sometime tomorrow. That novel focuses on Kathleen's rogue, rakish brother Viscount Channing.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 15, 2012
Warning: GIFs ahead!
Remember how Historical Romance was in the 90s, fellow readers? The teeth-pulling level tediousness of two characters hating each others' fucking guts until the last ten pages or so? But in the end, you can't even bitch about it because the pacing was done in such a way that there wasn't one moment when you weren't entertained? Love Me Not reminded me of all that! I'm loving the 90s right now from the sheer nostalgia factor. I want to pack the 90s up in a fuzzy little box and carry it with me forever. I want to feed the 90s cookies and margaritas and tell it how "awesome" it is. I want to make sweet little over-dramatic babies with the 90s and unleash them on the unsuspecting and jaded 21st century.
Thank you, Year of 1996, for leaving this little gem of history to be found and reviewed in 2012 by a woman who is SICK TO DEATH of reading about boring dumb people who do nothing. Reading about dumb people who perform a mesmerizing collection of stupid acts is much more preferable.
Did the characters' actions make even a modicum of sense? Not really. If I met them in real life, would I even grudgingly respect main characters Kathleen and Damien?
Of course not! Damien and Kathleen are so mind-bogglingly stupid about the simplest of things (like sex and what feelings feel like) that I sometimes wished a secondary character would traipse into the scene and bonk their heads together like bumper cars battling to the death until one of them grew a brain cell. The story is so unapologetic about the stupidity, though, that I started to develop a modicum of respect for it. "Be not ashamed of wonky narrative devices," the book proclaimed. "Are you not entertained?"
An Illustration of the Plot Stupidity in this Book
And I was entertained, curse me to hell and back. I was.
Despite that, there's always a drawback to the books from the glory days of Love/Hate Relationship meets Mind-Numbing Big Misunderstandings. The headache. And the way I have to admit to myself that the characters, rather than behaving organically, were forced to do ridiculous things to prolong the plot to infinity and beyond.
The Story in a Nutshell:
Girl and brother grow up with abusive dad who isn't really their dad until a group of Big Bad Dukes come in a banish the abusive dad to America. Girl bases her entire outlook on love on her pathetic little mother, who despite being a COUNTESS, spends her life picking up the sex crumbs of a cold, unfeeling duke as his mistress. This guy is the girl's real father. Eventually, girl meets hero but doesn't want to love him because love destroyed her mother and she JUST WANTS TO BE FREE, DAMN IT! Seriously fucked-in-the-head suitor decides to pursue heroine after just a glance and recruits the abusive dad all the way from America to force her into marriage. Hero realizes that the only way to protect heroine from a marriage to Creepy McCreepster and from the loss of her inheritance to daddy dearest is by marrying her FOR THE TIME BEING. Heroine flips shit every other page because SHE JUST WANTS TO BE FREE! Hero does nice things. HEROINE HATES HIM BECAUSE SHE ISN'T FREE! At some point, girl proves that she knows nothing about sex. Rachel laughs for a freaking day about it. Eventually, girl falls in love and finally settles the fuck down. But, OH NO! While he's up for bluffin' with her muffin, hero is not down with this LOVE talk. Angst ensues. Oh, and the crazy suitor acts crazy until the end.
Entertaining? Yes. Rational? No. This one gets a solid 3 stars.
Remember how Historical Romance was in the 90s, fellow readers? The teeth-pulling level tediousness of two characters hating each others' fucking guts until the last ten pages or so? But in the end, you can't even bitch about it because the pacing was done in such a way that there wasn't one moment when you weren't entertained? Love Me Not reminded me of all that! I'm loving the 90s right now from the sheer nostalgia factor. I want to pack the 90s up in a fuzzy little box and carry it with me forever. I want to feed the 90s cookies and margaritas and tell it how "awesome" it is. I want to make sweet little over-dramatic babies with the 90s and unleash them on the unsuspecting and jaded 21st century.
Thank you, Year of 1996, for leaving this little gem of history to be found and reviewed in 2012 by a woman who is SICK TO DEATH of reading about boring dumb people who do nothing. Reading about dumb people who perform a mesmerizing collection of stupid acts is much more preferable.
Did the characters' actions make even a modicum of sense? Not really. If I met them in real life, would I even grudgingly respect main characters Kathleen and Damien?
Of course not! Damien and Kathleen are so mind-bogglingly stupid about the simplest of things (like sex and what feelings feel like) that I sometimes wished a secondary character would traipse into the scene and bonk their heads together like bumper cars battling to the death until one of them grew a brain cell. The story is so unapologetic about the stupidity, though, that I started to develop a modicum of respect for it. "Be not ashamed of wonky narrative devices," the book proclaimed. "Are you not entertained?"
An Illustration of the Plot Stupidity in this Book
And I was entertained, curse me to hell and back. I was.
Despite that, there's always a drawback to the books from the glory days of Love/Hate Relationship meets Mind-Numbing Big Misunderstandings. The headache. And the way I have to admit to myself that the characters, rather than behaving organically, were forced to do ridiculous things to prolong the plot to infinity and beyond.
The Story in a Nutshell:
Girl and brother grow up with abusive dad who isn't really their dad until a group of Big Bad Dukes come in a banish the abusive dad to America. Girl bases her entire outlook on love on her pathetic little mother, who despite being a COUNTESS, spends her life picking up the sex crumbs of a cold, unfeeling duke as his mistress. This guy is the girl's real father. Eventually, girl meets hero but doesn't want to love him because love destroyed her mother and she JUST WANTS TO BE FREE, DAMN IT! Seriously fucked-in-the-head suitor decides to pursue heroine after just a glance and recruits the abusive dad all the way from America to force her into marriage. Hero realizes that the only way to protect heroine from a marriage to Creepy McCreepster and from the loss of her inheritance to daddy dearest is by marrying her FOR THE TIME BEING. Heroine flips shit every other page because SHE JUST WANTS TO BE FREE! Hero does nice things. HEROINE HATES HIM BECAUSE SHE ISN'T FREE! At some point, girl proves that she knows nothing about sex. Rachel laughs for a freaking day about it. Eventually, girl falls in love and finally settles the fuck down. But, OH NO! While he's up for bluffin' with her muffin, hero is not down with this LOVE talk. Angst ensues. Oh, and the crazy suitor acts crazy until the end.
Entertaining? Yes. Rational? No. This one gets a solid 3 stars.
January 13, 2026
Read: 1/13/26
Setting: Regency England
Trope: enemies to lovers, forced marriage
paperback 2.5 stars
What a way to ruin a great character! This book was disappointing. 😞
plot: Kathleen and Damien didn't exactly start off on the right foot. The 1st time they met Damien was severely beating up her brother. 😬 After that, Kathleen understandably couldn't stand Damien. She avoids him whenever possible and vice versa.The less contact between them the better!
Kathleen has another problem. She is determined to never marry and spends her seasons discouraging suitors. She's waiting until her birthday to receive her inheritance and buy her own house. Kathleen wants nothing to do with love. Her mother died wasting away pining after Kathleen's biology dad drowned. Kathleen refuses to give a man that kind of power over her! Luckily, her time has come when her brothers have to leave town. They agreed to let her stay in England, but Damien needs to check in on her. She quickly agrees, but before she can enjoy her solitude an unexpected visitor shows up. Kathleen's foster father is back thanks to one of her delusional suitor's letters. The man (Tim, i think) doesn't know he just invited the devil into her life. This "father" tortured her as a child and now he's forcing her to marry Tim.
Damien is not happy playing babysitter. Like Kathleen, Damien wants no more entanglements. While he loved his sister, he was tired of being both father and brother and was happy when she married. He wants to be free of responsibilities and here he is having to watch out for that she witch. Now, he's forced to protect her from her evil father. The only way to do that is give Kathleen his name. So they marry at Gretna Green with a plan to annul the marriage once the threat is over.
So can two people who can't stand one another find love? Will her father give up on his revenge? Don't count on it!
likes:
1. We get two great villains.
* Tim fell in love with Kathleen before he ever met her. When her brother turns him down, Tim decides to write Kathleen's father. Surely the Earl will side with him and agree to allow them to marry. Tim spends the whole book spinning scenarios and coming up with the wrong conclusions. He just knows he has to save poor gentle Kathleen from her cruel husband. TBH, I liked this crazy bugger! He kept things interesting in a naive way.
* The Earl was pretty evil. A long time ago he was in debt, so he agreed to marry the Duke's mistress. He was not allowed to touch his own wife. Well over the years, resentment grew. He use to torture poor Kathleen where nobody was watching. The last straw came when he almost killed her brother. Kathleen's biology father exiled the Earl. Now, he's back thanks to her idiot suitor and he wants revenge. Luckily, Damien saved Kathleen before he could hurt her too much. The Earl made an intriguing character. I just wish the author used him more in the plot.
2. Maybe I'll find more positive things to say about this book after I've had a day to think about it
dislikes:
1. Kathleen was frustrating. Her absurd anger at Damien was annoying. Anytime she began to feel a spark for Damien, she pushed him away. I just found her irritating.
2. Damien was not much better than Kathleen, when it comes to separating his feelings. Anytime they shared a sweet moment, he would cruelly destroy it. I didn't like him and this hurt. I adored him as Jillian's big brother. He was a wonderful character. Then we get to his book and turns out he resented looking after his sister. This change his character's entire personality. He's very selfish. Damien fears intimacy and a loving relationship, but his excuses as to why were pathetic. I still don't understand why the author decided to make him into an a**hole
3. Romance? Not in this book! What we got was two commitment phobic people who become cruel to each other to hide their growing feelings. They blow hot or cold. Then at the end, they suddenly love each other. How or when did that happen? This is a couple that shouldn't be together.
4. Another spoiled brat move by Kathleen was when she didn't show any gratitude to Damien for marrying her and saving her from her father. Instead, she pouts for 4 days.
5. Damien and Kathleen agree to annul their marriage as soon as it's safe. Really? That easy, huh? I can't stress enough how hard it would have been to get an annulment in the Regency era. Still, authors love to put this plot point in their hr books.😡
6. This book could be read as a standalone, but I wouldn't recommend it. There is just too much backstory to cover from the previous book.
7. After spending a beautiful night with his wife, Damien freaks out and goes to his old mistress. He doesn't cheat, but still 🤢
Conclusion: I notice some reviewers loved this book. Did we read the same story? I guess this book just rubbed me the wrong way, especially since I had to get it on paperback. I should have known when all the books in the series were available in eformat, but this book.
Well, I hope Bruce's book is better 🤞
Setting: Regency England
Trope: enemies to lovers, forced marriage
paperback 2.5 stars
What a way to ruin a great character! This book was disappointing. 😞
plot: Kathleen and Damien didn't exactly start off on the right foot. The 1st time they met Damien was severely beating up her brother. 😬 After that, Kathleen understandably couldn't stand Damien. She avoids him whenever possible and vice versa.The less contact between them the better!
Kathleen has another problem. She is determined to never marry and spends her seasons discouraging suitors. She's waiting until her birthday to receive her inheritance and buy her own house. Kathleen wants nothing to do with love. Her mother died wasting away pining after Kathleen's biology dad drowned. Kathleen refuses to give a man that kind of power over her! Luckily, her time has come when her brothers have to leave town. They agreed to let her stay in England, but Damien needs to check in on her. She quickly agrees, but before she can enjoy her solitude an unexpected visitor shows up. Kathleen's foster father is back thanks to one of her delusional suitor's letters. The man (Tim, i think) doesn't know he just invited the devil into her life. This "father" tortured her as a child and now he's forcing her to marry Tim.
Damien is not happy playing babysitter. Like Kathleen, Damien wants no more entanglements. While he loved his sister, he was tired of being both father and brother and was happy when she married. He wants to be free of responsibilities and here he is having to watch out for that she witch. Now, he's forced to protect her from her evil father. The only way to do that is give Kathleen his name. So they marry at Gretna Green with a plan to annul the marriage once the threat is over.
So can two people who can't stand one another find love? Will her father give up on his revenge? Don't count on it!
likes:
1. We get two great villains.
* Tim fell in love with Kathleen before he ever met her. When her brother turns him down, Tim decides to write Kathleen's father. Surely the Earl will side with him and agree to allow them to marry. Tim spends the whole book spinning scenarios and coming up with the wrong conclusions. He just knows he has to save poor gentle Kathleen from her cruel husband. TBH, I liked this crazy bugger! He kept things interesting in a naive way.
* The Earl was pretty evil. A long time ago he was in debt, so he agreed to marry the Duke's mistress. He was not allowed to touch his own wife. Well over the years, resentment grew. He use to torture poor Kathleen where nobody was watching. The last straw came when he almost killed her brother. Kathleen's biology father exiled the Earl. Now, he's back thanks to her idiot suitor and he wants revenge. Luckily, Damien saved Kathleen before he could hurt her too much. The Earl made an intriguing character. I just wish the author used him more in the plot.
2. Maybe I'll find more positive things to say about this book after I've had a day to think about it
dislikes:
1. Kathleen was frustrating. Her absurd anger at Damien was annoying. Anytime she began to feel a spark for Damien, she pushed him away. I just found her irritating.
2. Damien was not much better than Kathleen, when it comes to separating his feelings. Anytime they shared a sweet moment, he would cruelly destroy it. I didn't like him and this hurt. I adored him as Jillian's big brother. He was a wonderful character. Then we get to his book and turns out he resented looking after his sister. This change his character's entire personality. He's very selfish. Damien fears intimacy and a loving relationship, but his excuses as to why were pathetic. I still don't understand why the author decided to make him into an a**hole
3. Romance? Not in this book! What we got was two commitment phobic people who become cruel to each other to hide their growing feelings. They blow hot or cold. Then at the end, they suddenly love each other. How or when did that happen? This is a couple that shouldn't be together.
4. Another spoiled brat move by Kathleen was when she didn't show any gratitude to Damien for marrying her and saving her from her father. Instead, she pouts for 4 days.
5. Damien and Kathleen agree to annul their marriage as soon as it's safe. Really? That easy, huh? I can't stress enough how hard it would have been to get an annulment in the Regency era. Still, authors love to put this plot point in their hr books.😡
6. This book could be read as a standalone, but I wouldn't recommend it. There is just too much backstory to cover from the previous book.
7. After spending a beautiful night with his wife, Damien freaks out and goes to his old mistress. He doesn't cheat, but still 🤢
Conclusion: I notice some reviewers loved this book. Did we read the same story? I guess this book just rubbed me the wrong way, especially since I had to get it on paperback. I should have known when all the books in the series were available in eformat, but this book.
Well, I hope Bruce's book is better 🤞
October 24, 2020
Love Me Not had an interesting beginning but
January 15, 2012
rated 3.5
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