This just really wasn’t a good book. It had me in the first third. I was thinking ooOo historical romance, funny character names, a little mystery and intrigue, but then it shit the bed.

Spoiler

Three kidnappings is just entirely too many. The first gets the plot going and heightens the stakes, sure. The second one being the motivating factor for Trevillion to take Phoebe the hell out of dodge. But the third was just frivolous and stupid, beating a dead horse at its finest.

I found the writing to be over simplistic and more in line with fan-fanfic of some kind than a published novel, the dialogue was too simple and the characters felt like they were being forced by the writing to seem more complex than they actually were.

This book does have smut in it, though it’s pretty tame overall. I’m sorry but the names Phoebe and Trevillion are just not sexy and reading them in the context of smut scenes just gave me the ick.

I did like the that Phoebe was blind, which sounds weird, but I thought it was a unique plot motivator and I did enjoy the way it forced the character to interact on a different level than more traditional romances. If nothing else, if you like virgin or one-bed-at-the-inn tropes, you may like this, or at least not hate it. Lesson learned, those books with the sexy covers older women read on the beach are not for me.