I adored the prologue of this story. The scene shows Arabella with her 2 sisters having their fortune told by a gypsy. It gives a bit of background about their life, shows some of each of their personalities, and adds a bit of whimsy for the story. Can the prediction come true? One of the young sisters is convinced.

The story then jumps ahead some years. Arabella, the heroine, is on her way to a new job across the channel. She misses her ship and she finagles passage upon Luc's ship.

There's a lot to love about this story. It has some unexpected twists and turns that make it a little more unpredictable. This is my second Katherine Ashe book and her characters so far seem unique and usually have a past or personality traits that are not your normal run of the mill.

I really enjoyed Luc. He was a good hero. He was ever so respectful of Arabella even though she drove me nuts. She was way too prideful. The author even called it out, which placated me somewhat, but still I found it extremely hard to enjoy her at all, or in fact not be angry that the hero was left with this as his heroine. She just never let up with the arguing and the defensiveness. Luc really seemed to understand though and help pull her through those emotional issues. I think it really would be a great story for most people. I tend to be rather harsh to my heroines and way more forgiving of my heroes, so that is totally my own fault. She does pull through at the end but it wasn't enough for me to love this story.

I think there was something about this story, or perhaps the writing, that just didn't pull me into the story as much as I could have. Again this is totally a personal feeling/flaw of mine. I felt like I was watching these characters through a glass ceiling, looking down as I read. Something was blunting their effect. I didn't FEEL like I wanted to. I didn't get attached like I wanted to. I felt similarly in her other novel I tried. I will try more from her, I'm just curious now if she won't be for me.